finances

Not ready to dive into invoicing software that requires hours of fussing to get everything set up correctly? Invoicera seeks to simplify the invoicing task by creating an easy-to-use Web interface for users.

This service offers several pricing plans, ranging from literally $0 to $99.95. You're probably wondering what users on the $0 plan get. Well, it's actually a lot of functionality for the zero cost. You can make unlimited invoices, so that's a huge bonus. There's a limit of three clients, and there's no ability to auto bill clients or add … Read more

Twitter started prioritizing money talk on its site today with the announcement of "cashtags." These are clickable ticker symbols, like $AAPL, $GOOG, and $FB, which take users to search results about the company's finances and stocks.

Twitter made the announcement via a tweet in which it wrote: "Now you can click on ticker symbols like $GE on http://twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies."

According to The Verge, the cashtags come on the heels of other user-created Twitter innovations, such as the @reply and the #hashtag. (The hashtag, for instance, evolved … Read more

Trying to stick within your budget is no easy task when you're guessing at your balance. Mint.com's free personal finance service and companion mobile apps change that.

After giving Mint.com access to your bank, credit card, and investment accounts, the password-protected Mint.com app can monitor your accounts, your budget, and even your cash flow. The app presents your money matters in summary form, with the capability to drill down to the item level of a purchase. Follow the trail to the end to edit an item's transaction details or jot down notes or tags. … Read more

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse for Nokia, Moody's steps in with a downgrade of its debt rating.

Moody's lowered its rating to junk status, citing earnings pressure and cash burn that is larger than the firm previously expected. The move comes after Nokia said yesterday that it would cut 10,000 jobs and warned its second-quarter financial result would again disappoint investors.

The downgrade is just the latest blow for Nokia, which is quickly seeing its prospects dim. A lower rating means it will cost more to issue debt, and the company will have … Read more

Metalogic's Finance Explorer is a simple, free, open-source tool for managing your personal finances. It's compatible with Quicken, Microsoft Money, and other financial programs. It supports OFX, OFC, and QIF formats, so it can import and manage transaction data from most banks, a huge time-saver over entering everything manually. It can manage your checking, saving, credit, investment, loan, and cash accounts, in any number. It can download stock quotes from online sources, display monthly transactions or net worth, and help you set up a personal budget using an intuitive process. We sampled a fully portable version of Finance … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO-- Building a freemium service? You might want to pay attention to this tidbit: The mobile bill-payment service PageOnce is dropping its $4.99 subscription fee and going to an a la carte model.

PageOnce CEO Guy Goldstein told me at the Future of Money conference that the company has been testing different price points for its paid service. While getting financial account data and seeing bills remains free, helping users pay bills is where the company makes money. To date, PageOnce has charged $4.99 a month for this. Starting in early May, the per-month fee will be … Read more

Business Services Co has been providing business freeware and low-cost software since the 1980s. Delta60 Accounting Software 6.0 World Version is the latest iteration of its free business accounting solution. It offers Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Invoicing, Inventory, Payroll, and General Ledger features. Among its improvements are a new integrated graphical user interface and better support for international users in its new World Version.

Delta60 opens with its baseline USA Version and the option to run the new World Version. We chose the World Version. Delta60's Stargate Interface is based around a circular command center feature that resembles … Read more

A Groupon shareholder filed a lawsuit today against the daily deals site, claiming the company misled investors about its financial health.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed four days after the company revealed in a regulatory filing that it had discovered "material weakness" in internal controls over its financial statement and that its fourth-quarter results were worse than previously stated because of higher refunds to merchants. The revisions increased its net loss for the fourth quarter by $22.6 million and reduced revenue for the quarter by $14.3 million to $492.2 million.

"Groupon'… Read more

First there was Personal Capital, the "Mint for rich people" that gives users a clear look at their financial information, and, for those who invest $100,000 or more, access to financial advice and trading.

Then there was Wealthfront, which also gives people a dashboard for their investments and which will manage the money you put in, as long as you put in more than $5,000.

And now there's FutureAdvisor, which uses the same Modern Portfolio Theory that most advisers and algorithms use to pick investment vehicles. You tell it about your accounts, your age, your … Read more