Mint.com – A Free Way to Manage Your Financial Accounts

Online business owners often have so many bank accounts, it can be a hassle to keep track of just how much money you have. You have your PayPal account and your checking account to start. You may have a business account and perhaps a saving account. If you have an IRA or 401K plan, then you have those to keep track of as well.

What’s your net worth at any given moment? How much cash could you get your hands on in a pinch? What’s your current operating capital?

While it’s not hard to compile these numbers, it still takes a good fifteen minutes or so to log into all these different accounts. That adds up in productivity cuts. Fortunately, Mint.com can make this process easy. All you need is one login to check in on all your bank accounts.

==> How Mint.com Works

First, Mint uses your online banking logins to access your financial information. Everything transmitted between you and Mint is encrypted with 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, so your data is always safe. Naturally, Mint’s communication with the banks is also ultra-secure.

Once you have your banks linked with Mint, you can log into Mint and see all your bank accounts at once. Even if you have a 401K with Fidelity, a bank account with Chase and a checking account with PayPal, you can access them all with one login.

Not only will you be able to see your account totals, but you’ll also be able to see your statements online. You’ll be able to check if there were any unauthorized transactions as well as just keep track of what’s being charged to your card.

==> Log In from Anywhere

Mint has a convenient iPhone, Android and iPad app that allows you to access your account from anywhere, anytime. Again, all you need is one login and all your accounts are at your fingertips.

Mint also makes it much safer to access financial information on third party computers. If a public computer has a keylogger installed and you log onto PayPal or your bank account, you risk unauthorized PayPal transactions or wire transfers.

But with Mint, you can log on to see all your financial information, without the risk of having your accounts hijacked. Mint adds a layer of protection.

==> Expense Tracking

Finally, Mint offers a nice array of expense tracking tools. It sorts through your credit card transactions and puts all your expenses into categories (i.e. groceries, gas, mortgage, etc.)

You’ll then be able to see exactly how much you’re spending on what in any given month.

The main shortcoming to the system is that it’s cumbersome to add cash transactions. It’s great for tracking and analyzing your credit card transactions, but has a number of weaknesses that prevent it from being an all-purpose expense tracking tool.

All in all, Mint is an incredible time-saving tool for the small business owner. Take control of your financial information by creating one secure login to all your accounts. Gain even more insight by having Mint gather data from all your accounts and categorize your spending for you.