Windows Phone Thoughts: StarFinance 2005 Review

Reports
This is another area where StarFinance is a bit weak, compared to programs like MS Money for Pocket PC, Spb Finance or Pocket Quicken. Reporting basically consists of a Statistics screen which compares Income and Expenses.


Figure 9: StarFinance Statistics screen.

StarFinance 2005 does provide a good selection of export options for your data. The contents of each account can be output to HTML (for viewing on a browser), Excel XML format, or .CSV format.


Figure 10: Export screen.


Figure 11: Account output to HTML.

Documentation
The user interface for StarFinance 2005 is simple and easy to understand, hence I didn’t really need any assistance to perform most of the functions. There isn’t a Help file attached to the application itself, but Xphir Software provides a 30-page User Guide on its web site. The guide is well written and covers all the functions available within StarFinance 2005.

Conclusions
StarFinance is a good starting package for those who are just starting in personal finance management, and the price is certainly reasonable (compared to $19.95 USD for Spb Finance or $34.95 USD for Pocket Quicken). But it’s going to need some upgrades – especially in the areas of reporting and integration with PC-based financial packages – before it can compete with the ‘big boys’ like Pocket Quicken, MS Money, and Spb Finance.