This page last updated
27.05.2020
IK-Geld is a money management application for PCs and Android devices.
It is an easy-to-use bookkeeping program for tracking and planning personal and household finances. Intended for personal, rather than business use, it concentrates on the easy use of features that will normally be required by individuals, and is not overloaded with business-revenant features.
For simplicity, we do not provide explicit support for business operations (billing, etc.) nor do we try to duplicate functions that your bank(s) will provide for on-line access. Direct access to bank data is not supported (in this price class, we cannot handle the security concerns that would arise), but automatic account reconciliation is possible with a downloaded machine-readable bank statement in csv format. The app supports an unlimited number of accounts (subject to available storage capacity). Multiple currencies are supported both as account currencies and as foreign currency bookings.
The app is available for desktop and laptop PCs running Mac OS X and Windows, and for Android devices. The variants are functionally identical, although some non-critical functions may be implemented on the Android variant in later versions than in the PC variants. Using Dropbox, data can be easily - if required, automatically - transferred between multiple installations owed by a single user.
Although not the only way of using the app, we recommend using a desktop installation as the main device and an Android installation as a front-end for (in-shop) data collection.
After product release, the Android variant is available from Google Play. The desktop variants are available from the Kippsnet.de web site. Prior to release, the product is available in all variants to beta testers from the Kippsnet.de web site. The current status is indicated here .
A test version of the app is available for all platforms. This imposes data volume restrictions and is only for test purposes. All production versions of the software must be registered and licenced. Pricing and licensing policy is documented separately, see here .
The app supports any number of accounts (subject to available storage capacity) and any number of transactions. Transactions are presented in a ledger, which usually displays information for one account, but may be configured to display multiple accounts if required.
Accounts may be defined in any currency. The number of currencies supported is unlimited.
In addition to accounts for for cash, bank and credit card accounts, liability and asset accounts are also supported. The main difference lies in procedures for reconciliation with bank data.
The main display window of the app contains the ledger, in which transactions are recorded. This normally displays the transactions of a single account, but can be reconfigured to display multiple accounts if required. Other filter operations are possible (e.g. by date, category, payee), so that particular aspects of your financial situation can be easily reviewed.
New transactions are entered via a special panel in which all relevant data can be collected. Split transactions (one payment divided into multiple components with different categories or transfer destinations) are supported for an indefinite number of splits.
Foreign currency transactions (input of an amount in a currency that is not the defined currency of the account) are supported. Both the original and the converted values are retained.
The display of the ledger can be set either to show all details of each transaction, including full data of all split transactions, or can show a standardised two-line format in which split data, long notes and attributes are hidden.
Transactions are always assigned to a category. The categories are user-defined and are intended to provide information for reporting and analysis. Transfers between accounts are treated as a special case of a category. In split transactions, each split element is assigned its own category or transfer destination.
Categories are defined as a multilevel tree with subcategories to any level required. For reporting, subcategories can be accumulated to any level.
In addition to the categorisation of ledger entries, any data entry may be assigned further user-defined attributes, which can also be used for filtering the ledger and report data.
IK-Geld manages a table of currencies and their exchange rates with respect to a specified base currency. The user can define further currencies as required and can (should) adjust the exchange rates as necessary on the basis of publicly available data. Accounts may be defined in any defined currency. Transactions may be entered in any defined currency. If the account currency and the transaction currency differ, a conversion at the exchange rate that currently applies is performed. The original amount and currency are preserved for reference.
The base currency can be reset at any time. This has no effect on the stored data, but affects certain displays. Reports are produced in the base currency.
Accounts in IK-Geld that correspond to bank or credit card accounts can be easily reconciled with the relevant bank statement. A special operation mode on the ledger is provided to facilitate checking recorded data with a printed bank statement. In addition, if the bank provides a machine-readable statement in csv or qif format, this can be read by IK-Geld and automatically checked against the contents of the ledger. Only entries that do not agree require user intervention.
In the case of automatic reconciliation, a machine-readable file must be downloaded from the bank using the bank's online interface, and is then read from local storage by IK-Geld. IK-Geld never accesses bank interfaces. It is not a bug, but a feature. The security required for direct bank access cannot easily be provided in a product of this price class, and we consider that the security of your bank access and bank data is best left to the bank itself.
Recurring transactions - regular payments or bookings - and single bookings that are planned for the future can be stored in the planning module. These transactions are then entered in the ledger on the date(s) specified. A reminder may be associated with such entries, if a payment has to be initiated or receipt of an in-payment checked.
Recurring items in foreign currencies (i.e. not the currency of the target account) are converted when entered in the ledger at the exchange rate that is set at that time.
Data is held internally in an app-specific format and is not intended to be decoded by third party software. The database can be backed up, restored, and copied to other IK-Geld installations. Synchronisation of data between multiple devices of a single user is provided via that user's Dropbox account.
When setting up IK-Geld, data can be imported from other finance applications in qif or csv format.
Data can be exported at any time in csv format. The data exported is determined by the filter settings, and can be the entire database or any part of it. This feature allows a user to perform more extensive analysis of data using third party software (Excel, Numbers, etc.) and can also be used to recover the entire database if the user decides to change to a different finance program.
Reports can be defined and stored for future use. A report involves the selection and collation of data according to certain criteria. Time criteria can be set to fixed dates or to relative dates such as "this month", which are re-interpreted every time the report is produced. Reports can be displayed on-screen, printed, and written to a pdf file.
In the Android variant, reports can also be shared with any installed app capable of accepting pdf files.
The reporting module for desktop variants uses the Apache pdfBox Library to support output of pdf files. See the relevant licence here.
IK-Geld is provided with user interfaces and help files in German and UK English. The language is specified on installation. Synchronisation between installations using different languages is possible.
Date and number formats and specifica such as "first day of week" are taken from the system specifications of the device. These only effect displayed data. The database is held in a standard configuration and standard character encoding regardless of system settings, thus ensuring transferability between installations.