In current times, where the word crisis is almost continually on everyone’s lips, tracking our expenses, can be used to try to reduce them, if they exceed or come dangerously close to our income.

Tidal Pool has created Receipts , an application for the iPhone that lets you record and save costs that we accumulate every day, on your device. We are exploring the potential of this application, as a tool for cost control, specifically the 1.4.1 version.

Starting

Appearance / Graphics: 3

Obviously, the graphics are not the strong point of this application nor is it to play an important role in its operation. The interface is simple and clear, from the moment you open the first application, it feels like you’ve already used it before. The more complicated graphic that you will find in the application is the graphical summary of expenses:

You can switch to a bar graph or a table of information, by clicking the icon “i” (top right).

Saving receipts ...

Features: 4.5

The application consists of four tabs: Overview, Receipts, Export and Settings.

The application opens by default in the Receipts tab. You can see 16 categories to organize receipts in, and we have one more which includes all. Within each category, the number of receipts kept, is indicated. We can increase or decrease the number of categories in the Settings tab.

The next step is to select the category in which we file our bill. Once selected, you will have to press the “+” icon located on the upper right corner. This action will display the data fields to be stored for your receipt, namely: Date, Business, Description, Category, Total, Notes, Photo and Cash (button to indicate whether you have paid cash or not). Like categories, all these fields can be edited in the Settings tab in the submenu Fields.

As you have seen, you can attach a photo of the receipt, so just press the “Add photo”. A menu with the options of using the camera (I recommend you do the photo of the receipt in a well-lit place, you all know that the camera is not the strong feature of the iPhone), or upload a picture stored on the reel or in a album of the iPhone.

Once the photo has been shot, you see a dashed box that allows you to select the area of the receipt that you want to save. You’ll have to drag each side of the square towards the area you want to crop, then press the square shaped icon located on the lower right corner to see the selected area and if you are satisfied with the result, you can save the photo, if not, you repeat the photography.

NOTE: Some data in the image on the right, have been blurred to avoid reading

Another possibility of Receipts is the integrated option to export receipts, either via email or via Wi-Fi. Within the Export tab you can vary some parameters, e.g. the interval, sorting by date or receipt number, etc. Finally, we have two options Wi-Fi synchronization, through the Bonjour service or IP address.

In the Settings tab, you can also choose the currency (158 available), the numerical style: Phone or Calculator, the option to save the photos in the iPhone’s photo album, make a backup, restore, delete and restore the original values.

Finally, you can have more than one active account. This allows you, for example, to make an account to take the ordinary household expenses, one for your children, another for the car, etc…

Easy, very easy

Usability: 5

The simple design and “user friendly” interface, makes the management of application is extremely easy. Everything is intuitive and logical, if you’re looking for somethig, you find it fast, if you want to add more details, you can do it with two or three taps.

Conclusion

Value: 4.5

Tidal Pool has done a good job. If you’re looking for an application to control the daily expenses at home, Receipts is useful and what is best, very easy to use. After one or two months using the app, the typical and common costs of home (electricity, gas, water, etc.) are added to the database application (business names and descriptions are saved automatically); then, entering data and saving receipts will be fast and fluid. The option to include a picture of the bill is very practical, if you forget a receipt’s detail, open the application, look at the picture and ready ... much faster than having to search a receipt (if you haven’t lost it on the way).

TOTAL: 4.25

DANIEL FERNÁNDEZ

NOTE: Test software provided by Tidal Pool.