Creating and Managing Transactions and Budgets: Analysis of Marketplace Descriptions and Functionality Review of Budgeting Apps

Abstract While financial practises permeate our lives, the effective management of personal finance is not trivial, as indicated in the increasing number of commercial apps aimed to support budgeting. Such apps however have been limitedly explored, despite the growing HCI interest in financial practises. To address this gap, we present the functionality review of 45 top-rated budgeting apps from Google Play and Apple Store, together with an analysis of their descriptions on marketplaces. Findings indicate the value of richer, multimodal app descriptions, support for budgeting literacy and for stronger theoretical underpinning of these apps. They also highlight main functionalities for supporting different types of transactions and accounts, for entering and managing transactions, securing data, as well as for creating and managing budgets. We conclude with five design implications to better support each of these functionalities.