Product development road map and budget implementation?

[ihc]

I don't know if this is really the appropriate place for this but here it is anyway.

Great application - keep it up - PLEASE! I can't say how many "finance" products I've purchased only to have them wane under the burden of unneeded features, lack of support and an unclear development path.

Do you have any sort of "development road map" for iCash? Specifically, when you intend on releasing "major" upgrades with new features (eg. budgeting/forcasting, dynamic report formats, etc.). The smaller updates for "bug fixes" are not as much an issue since you are constantly working on these and, in my opinion, doing a great job at prioritizing them. I've not had a single issue with corrupt files, etc. like other applications.

The one feature I'm really missing is budgeting/forcasting - which you've already indicated should be forthcoming in the next release. Do you anticipate this feature to be reactive or proactive. What I mean is, will the budgeted amount simply be tracked against the category budget amount (reactive - after the fact). Or will amounts be earmarked from "available" funds accounts and then the budgeted category tracked against this amount so one knows when they are trying to commit funds that are already committed as well as knowing how they are doing against the budget (proactive - before you over spend)?

Maybe an area on your site under the iCash section would be a good place to place a dynamic status page with anticipated features, dates and upgrade costs (if applicable).

Thanks again for the great application!

[stanbusk]

iCash v4 is on its way but it sometimes takes time to add complex features like budgeting without making the application chaotic. Each feature is the result of a little study. We take all the user feedbacks together (hundreds of reports) and try to design the feature the best way. The best way means 'without changing how the application already works'. To take an example, it took almost a full year to implement currencies. But, if you don't use them, you can continue to use iCash as usual. They are here just for the people that need them, without bothering the users that have no use of them. We actually redesigned the interface dozens of times in order to come with the current one. We are trying to do the same for everything. There are times the final version doesn't implement a feature as well as it could be, it is a margin we use to finish it with last criticism. That happened with currency support for example. Budgeting is one of the main v4 new features. It is not complex as a concept but it is difficult to implement the right way.

We do have a development road map but it is private. We maintain it private so we can eliminate features from final version if they are not ready. Right now we are working on both v3.3.2 and v4 at the same time. When we find a bug in v4 we automatically apply the fix to v3.3.2. I think v4 will be finished next october. It was originally scheduled for june but we are late.

About the budget feature, we have 30% of it done. Budget is a new tab panel. between 'Reports' and 'Statistics'. You can create as many budgets as you need and calculates them depending on current info. I have placed a screenshot here so you can see how it looks like. I think you are looking for a kind of interaction between budgets and data. Feel free to send any info you have about that with screenshots or whatever.

[ihc]

Thank you for the information regarding the product development and where it stands right now. It helps me to know how much time I should spend with other means of accomplishing the "budgeting" functionality. Currently I do as other do and use a spreadsheet but look forward to your implementation of budgeting so the time necessary to ensure data integrity during the transfer of data could be eliminated.

The screen shot looks like good. Like you and others have indicated it appears like it would allow those that use it to do so but if it isn't used it isn't in the way either. How do you intend on handling different intervals within a group? For instance, Auto:Auto Fuel (interval=weekly), Auto:Auto Service (interval=monthly), what do you anticipate "Auto" to show - a monthly amount (assuming the weekly amount is adjusted appropriately)?

Thanks again for the great application and keeping it consistent as whenever you can. You are quite right that this is very important. Thanks again, I look forward to the future releases and what you have in store for us.

[stanbusk]

The interval is a pull-down menu. You can select 'Weekly', 'Monthly', 'Quarterly' and 'Annually'.