Financial management system and method
View Patent ↗A system and method of performing financial management tracking comprising entering, on a mobile control device, data associated with a financial transaction; storing said entered financial transaction data in a database within said mobile control device; periodically synchronizing said mobile control device database with a base station database via a communications link such that budgetary and financial transaction data is update. In one embodiment of the invention, each member of a household utilizes a separate mobile control device, each of the mobile control devices is synchronized with the base device such that all mobile control devices are synchronized with each other.
1. A method, comprising:
storing, in at least one database within a portable first computing device, financial transaction data and budgetary data, wherein said budgetary data comprises a plurality of budgetary data records, each budgetary data record comprising a budgetary item identifier field and at least one of an annual budget field and a periodic budget field, wherein said financial transaction data and budgetary data stored in said at least one database of said portable computing device is periodically synchronized with financial transaction data and budgetary data stored in at least one corresponding database within a second computing device;
evaluating said transaction data using said budgetary data to determine at least whether a transaction value exceeds a budgetary constraint for a transaction, wherein said budgetary constraint is determined from one of the budgetary data records identified via the budgetary item identifier field of the one of the budgetary data records using a budgetary item identifier of the transaction, wherein said budgetary constraint comprises at least one of an annual budget and a periodic budget determined from the respective annual and periodic budget fields of the one of the budgetary data records;
displaying, upon a display device, a message indicative of the results of said evaluation, said displayed message indicative of whether said transaction is appropriate with respect to said budgetary constraint.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, at one of said first and second computing devices operating as a master computing device, a report indicative of transaction patterns associated with at least said first and second computing devices.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, in one of said first computing device and second computing device, accounts data including information pertaining to accessible financial accounts, said accounts database providing available credit or debit amounts to update said budgetary data during said step of synchronizing.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said accounts data comprises a plurality of records, each record comprising at least an account number field, an account type field, an institution field and an available balance field, said account number field identifying a credit or debit account, said account type field identifying the type of account, said institution field identifying the financial institution associated with said account, and said available balance field identifying an available balance or credit limit associated with said account.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transaction data comprises a plurality of records, each record comprising at least an account number field, a transaction amount field and a budgetary item identifier field, said account number field identifying a credit or debit account funding a respective transaction, said transaction amount field identifying the value of said respective transaction, said budgetary item identifier field identifying the type of said respective transaction.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein each transaction data record further comprises a budget indicator field for indicating whether said respective transaction is appropriate with respect to a corresponding budgetary constraint.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein a transacting entity utilizing one of said first and second computing devices inputs transaction data contemporaneous to effecting said transaction, said displayed message indicating to said transacting entity whether said respective transaction should proceed.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the budgetary database further comprises a periodicity field and a fixed/variable payment field.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the case of an evaluation indicative of exceeding a budgetary constraint, said displayed message is indicative of said budgetary constraint being exceeded.