Account Tracker was launched exactly 3 years ago, on 13th September 2009!

It has certainly come along way, with around 30 feature updates and a smaller number of bug fix updates. And it continues to evolve, with things like iCloud, syncing, new Dropbox APIs, iOS 6 coming soon, and of course the new screen resolutions of the iPhone 5 and the latest iPod to deal with.

In the near future it will appear on Windows Phone (with a LARGE amount of help from external companies), and if I can ever find the time, a Mac version. Sadly I don’t have the resources to do a port to Android, even though this is a very popular request.

As well using the app myself (almost daily), I find it immensely rewarding getting emails from happy customers. Some have turned their lives around completely by getting on top of their finances!

If you haven’t tried it yet, give the free trial version a try. Or simply buy it here. 🙂

Added support for the latest Dropbox APIs (iOS 4.0 or above now required).

Added support for automatic backups (only works with iCloud). If you have made a change to any of your settings or data, a backup will be made automatically when you close the app. Also your list of backups will be automatically managed for you, to keep only the three most recent at all times.

Added a notification to say a remote device has made a new backup. This makes it very easy to synchronise multiple devices, as long as you don’t edit data simultaneously.

Improved the way backup files are managed on Dropbox and iCloud.

Bug fixes.

Added support for the latest Dropbox APIs (iOS 4.0 or above now required).

The red/green bar chart colours will now compare against the previous year’s figures (if available), instead of the average.

As part of the Power User upgrade, added support for automatic backups (only works with iCloud). If you have made a change to any of your settings or data, a backup will be made automatically when you close the app. Also your list of backups will be automatically managed for you, to keep only the three most recent at all times.

Added a notification to say a remote device has made a new backup. This makes it very easy to synchronise multiple devices, as long as you don’t edit data simultaneously.

Improved the way backup files are managed on Dropbox and iCloud.

Updated icons and images to support the retina display on the new iPad.

Added support for the latest Dropbox APIs (iOS 4.0 or above now required).

Minor fixes.

This is a minor upgrade to the free version only.

Improved the getting started tour (now just 3 screens), and added a link to my Top 10 Tips from the Help button.

Added support for iCloud in the free version.

Made the upgrade option and data export to the full version more explicit.

I have just been informed that Dropbox will be deprecating the APIs I am using on 1st December. Nothing serious, they just want people to move to their latest code. I guess I should have moved a while back, but why changing something that isn’t broken? 🙂

Fortunately the changes are fairly minor, and the only one you will notice is the way you link my apps to Dropbox itself.

I am now in the process of making these changes, the first of which I have now done and submitted to Apple for approval (my Man 3 app, version 1.2). My other apps will follow soon …

UPDATE 1: it seems their new API has a couple of bugs, and I am working with one of their engineers to get them fixed. Basically using it causes a crash on older devices that they claim to support.

UPDATE 2: iOS version 3.1.3 is no longer supported by Dropbox. Version 4.0 will be the minimum I can support moving forwards. I suspect this won’t really be an issue, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple drop support for iOS 3 next month.

No, not a new app, just another new feature in Account Tracker …. the ability to look up stock prices and give you an up-to-date valuation for your holdings.

I had intended to add this as an in-app purchase at some stage, however it is not polished enough to do that, and I am sure there will be a few regional issues (e.g. US stocks are priced in USD and UK stocks are priced in pence not GBP). I therefore thought I’d just add it to the app as is.

Here is how it works …

1. Create an account for a stock you want to track, set its name to the stock ticker (e.g. AAPL) and the currency depending on the market it is traded in. Note that for UK stocks you need to put .L at the end (e.g. RBS.L or TSCO.L or VOD.L).

2. In the notes field, add the text

STOCKS:100

replacing the 100 with the number of shares you own.

3. The app will then treat this account like a foreign currency account, and it will periodically look up the share price and adjust the CURRENT balance based on the number of shares you hold. For example if you were lucky enough to have 100 AAPL shares, your current balance would be automatically calculated to be something like $60,000.

4. If you have multiple holdings, you can use the text

STOCKS:100+200+50

5. If you want the current balance set to your profit or loss instead, you can include the price you paid as follows …

STOCKS:100@12.34

That’s it really. Very simple to use and hopefully a useful addition for some of you.

Note: this is no longer supported.

This is a minor update to fix a couple of recently reported issues.

ADDED a per-account setting to let you hide the cheque/check number field.

ADDED an option to delete an occurrence plus all future occurrences of a recurring transaction (i.e. end the series).

ADDED support for weekend adjustment when the recurring interval is on the same date every 2 or more months.

CHANGED the edit transaction screen to require you to save changes (or cancel). This is in response to a number of requests I’ve had to implement some kind of undo functionality. This change also makes it easier to track changes for syncing (coming VERY soon).

CHANGED the group totals to always convert to the default currency if you only have a single foreign account in the group.

CHANGED the red “zero” line on the balance graph for a single account to show your alert limit instead.

FIXED bugs to do with the tap and hold message appearing multiple times, transactions shown in black instead of grey while reconciling, plus a performance issue introduced in the last update.

Minor bug fixes.

If you have more than 12 months of readings, the delta row now compares against the same period last year instead of the average.

Minor bug fixes.