Tesco Personal Finance review

Tesco's Personal Finance program is available from selected Tesco Stores and is soon to be made available to online purchasers.

It's a slightly modified Windows-only version of a program called Moneydance, which when bought under its real name is also available for Linux and Mac computers.

Despite not being the latest version of Moneydance, Tesco Personal Finance is packed with features and like Microsoft Money, enjoys a customisable home page. Much of this is initially taken up by a display of international currency rates, which you are recommended to trim. Accounts are set up in a base currency, but transactions can be entered in any other currency simply by appending an international currency code to the transaction total.

As well as the usual income and expense accounts, used to categorise and analyse transactions, six other account types can be monitored and reconciled: bank; credit card; investment, loan; asset and liability. Up to ten budgets can be devised and named, each monitoring a different group of accounts. Budget limits can be set manually or calculated for you by referring to past spending, but exceeding a budget does not automatically display a warning.

We particularly like the ability to search through every account looking for transactions that meet specified criteria, and the display of calendar and reminders on the home page. Existing data can be imported in all the standard formats and exported in three different formats for use in spreadsheets, web pages and other money managers. The report and graphing tools are comprehensive.

The main weaknesses are the lack of a printed manual, or even a sample file, to help you get to grips with the program, and the use of a non-standard help system that cannot be searched. Neither are you able to automatically update stock prices in the portfolio manager.