I find I cannot withhold my comments any longer on this topic of budgeting software. I see too many articles that pretend to be about budgeting software when the author knows nothing about what the word budget actually means. I don’t like it when incorrect information is served up to the public.

Here are some examples of what I find offensive:

A recent article posted on the internet states that “Budgeting software is a computer program that creates a profit or loss plan from data entered into the software. Some of the data to be entered may include earnings and expenditures.” Sorry, but that is NOT budgeting software, that is accounting software.

The correct definition of the word BUDGET is: the amount of money it takes for the organization or household to function, and to attain its goals.

Here’s the good news: living on a budget does not mean you have to cut back on the quality of the things you buy or deny yourself anything fun. What it does mean, is that you have to figure out how to make enough money to afford the things you want, now and in the future, and to keep your spending within the limits of your income.

Therefore, a correct budget is partially a computation of what you have spent in the past and partially a calculation of how much money you will need for specific items in the future to achieve your financial goals. Budgeting is a useless activity unless you use it to do income planning and spending planning. Accounting software does not do that for you. It only records what happened in the past and cannot help you predict the future or plan future actions.

That same article states, “There are many different types of budgeting software…” I challenge the author of that article to name three or four budgeting software products on the market that are not, in fact, accounting software. I can name one; Money Management Solutions, and it is NOT accounting software, it is what its name implies, money management software.

And yet another useless statement pretending to be good information is this one from that article, “Any sort of budgeting software can be used to keep track of a personal budget…” Well, it is a useless activity to keep track of a budget, unless you add the useful steps of using the information to plan your financial future and manage your money in a way that guarantees you will achieve your financial goals. Just keeping track of what you spent is a waste of time, unless you use it as part of the whole money management equation of planning the steps to take to reach those goals.

And finally this statement which has nothing to do with budgeting software, and everything to do with accounting software, and so becomes a misrepresentation of the facts to the reader, “Money management software is some of the most comprehensive software on the market today. Products such as Quicken and Microsoft Money will keep track of individual account information with various types of accounts such as checking, savings, and investments. These programs can also track credit card spending and alert you when you have overspent on your monthly budget.”

In fact, Money Management Software is PLANNING software which is used to plan and execute the actions you can take to reach your financial goals. Therefore, you won’t need an alert that you overspent your budget; you’ll know BEFORE you are going to overspend and make the necessary adjustments so that doesn’t happen. Accounting software, like Quicken and Microsoft Money, is RECORDING software and can only tell you what happened in the past.

Making financial decisions for the future based only on what happened with your money in the past is a dangerous activity. For example, if you read an article in Money Magazine that is raving about some stock that had double digit increases over the past 5 years, and you bought that investment based only on the record of past performance, you could lose your money the next day.

What should you do BEFORE you make that investment decision? You should do your own research into the stock and make an investment decision based on YOUR belief that the future plans of that company will continue to deliver double digit increases.

Bottom line, don’t believe everything you read about budgeting software that is really accounting software. Accounting software serves its purpose to record what happened so we can file our tax returns. I use it myself. If we ever get the FairTax passed and we don’t have to file tax returns any more, I’ll still use my Money Management Software because it is my planning tool to make sure I stay on the road to achieving Financial Freedom.

It is a fact that small business money management has always been an area that has been neglected to some degree by the small business owner, because he is obviously primarily concerned with trying to create his business in the first place.

If you’re like most business owners, you’re frustrated with seemingly working harder every year, just to keep up with paying the bills, and never gaining the security of having a cushion of cash to deal with emergencies, or the freedom to buy the things you want. After all, you probably got into being a business owner for the freedom it provides, but not for the financial instability that unfortunately often comes with it.

One thing that small business owners are not aware of is that it’s not how much you make, it’s what you do with it that determines your financial condition. If the subject of small business financial management is tackled properly, you can leverage the power of your business in a way that your business can really take off. You will find that the most successful business owners are also very intelligent in this area of small business financial management.

It may be surprising to you that small business money management is NOT done with accounting software. Accounting software only looks back into the past, recording what has been made and spent after the fact. Accounting systems cannot tell you how to manage your money to your best advantage. They only tell you, after the fact, if you did well or made mistakes.

This means the agreed-upon financial system that we rely on to help us, only has the ability to tell us what happened in the past – not how to handle our money in the future to fix money management mistakes and get better results. This puts the company or individual in a position of being controlled by the money – always making financial decisions based only on how much money is left in the bank.

Small business money management means looking toward the FUTURE and actually planning out and controlling the flow of money that comes in and goes out of a business to the best advantage of the business.

Ideally, you should be using your money in such a way that it helps you to make even more money. Many common financial management actions tend to keep companies cash poor and in a dangerous financial condition. There is a science to controlling the flow of money to create wealth. Very rich people know this science.

There is only one money management software program on the market that teaches you this science. The revolutionary new Money Management Solutions Money Management Software makes using this science to control your money very simple. It is simple and easy to implement in any business.

Small Business Money Management software should help you increase profits and build wealth. Using this unique small business financial management system, a business owner can pay their bills on time and get out of debt, expand their business without going into debt, make higher profits, put away cash savings, have money for emergencies, and pay themselves more money. Who doesn’t want that, right?

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, Inc. specializes in helping people manage their money to achieve financial freedom. Claim your FREE Debt Reduction Solutions Guide

© 2007 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.