Getting Started with Xpenser

Xpenser is an expense tracker that focuses on immediately recording expenses so that you can promptly forget about them. Keeping track of where your money is coming from and where it goes is the first step in making sure you start to keep more of it. It’s a simple concept and can be applied in many other areas, including tracking your diet when trying to lose weight. Keeping track of things is usually boring and tedious, which is why most of us fail at it. Losing track of those basic details ultimately puts us off target for reaching our goals.

Just as your system for being productive and organized needs to be ubiquitous, the same goes for your finances. A ledger is cool and all, but useless if you’re out doing big things and it’s at home on your desk. Xpenser provides a few simple methods for adding entries using natural language like “Airfare $458 San Francisco to Atlanta, Blogalicious” that make it one of the best solutions I’ve seen for keeping an eye on your money.

• Email – Send an email to e@xpenser.com or to r@xpenser.com if you’ve attached a photo of a receipt. Your new expense will be added, along with the image of the receipt.
• Instant Messaging – I’m not a big IM user, but I know many people who are. Simply add Xpenser as a friend on MSN or Google Talk to get started here.
• Twitter – After you have registered your Twitter account, you can submit expenses by sending a direct message to “xpn” describing what you did.
• SMS / Text Messaging – If you’re like me and you don’t have the entire Internet in your pocket at all times, the SMS option is probably for you. Add your phone to your account and you can text your expenses directly to Xpenser.

If you are the type of person that likes to actually talk on your phone, you can link your Xpenser account with Dial2Do or Jott. Then, just call in and say “expenser” followed by a brief description of your expense. For example, “taxi 34.50 from airport to Boston office.”

Xpenser also provides you with a more advanced keywords feature that allows you to do some special processing. Using the keyword “deposit” or putting a plus (+) in front of the amount will treat it as a deposit, starting balance, or some kind of positive value: “consulting +500 for client x.” Attach an expense to a specific report by including the reports unique identifier: “lunch 54.03 w jack rclientx.”

You can also use keywords to track mileage, perform currency conversions, and for time tracking. The time tracking feature is quite powerful in that you can do something like “time 25 mins contract review” if you know how much time you spent, but you can also say “time start client X” and then “time end” when you’re done. Xpenser will even calculate how much you’re owed if you specify your hourly rate.

There are probably thousands of different services and software you can use to track your expenses, but most are entirely too complicated or just don’t cover everything you need. Most are nowhere near as easily accessible as Xpenser. Providing an open API, Xpenser has opened the door for developers to create some cool stuff. Expect to see applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphone devices in the near future.

How do you track your expenses? Is it as easy as Xpenser?