ThorJupiter Releases RunningTotal 1.0

ThorJupiter Software has released RunningTotal for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store, available now. RunningTotal is a flexible, robust and legible tool for keeping track of financial accounts. In active development and testing since May 2008, RunningTotal is one of the most obsessively-crafted apps to appear on the App Store, and in light of the current number of apps on the App Store, will likely be one of the last so obsessed-over.

ThorJupiter Software was unsatisfied with the user-accessibility and clarity of the current personal and small-business account-summary apps on the App Store. The design of RunningTotal was driven by 1) an emphasis on clarity and legibility, modeled on the googly idea of minimizing distractions, and 2) a desire to create the most flexible tool of its kind.

RunningTotal is not a 'budgeting' app. A 'budget' is an abstract idea to many if not most people, in this age of credit, where the money supply expands or shrinks depending on factors we may not be able to control. RunningTotal takes a more direct, concrete approach, by keeping a record of accounts, or "virtual" accounts in the case of credit cards or lines of credit. People can budget all they want, but when that credit card is approaching its credit limit, hooboy you sure do want to know about it.


Similarly, debit cards have created a whole new subconsciousness of paranoia, a disconnect between "run it through" and "what do I actually have," that can damage your brain nerve if you stop to think about.

Rather than taking the quixotic approach of setting a budget and displaying where the user stands with respect to that budget, RunningTotal takes the "boots on the ground" approach of telling the user where they really stand with respect to what they have available to them. All the user has to do is enter expenses as they occur, and payments as they have been made, for each account, and the 'RunningTotal' will be displayed on the app's home screen, along with the limit for that account if the user chooses to display it.

RunningTotal's integrated help system is unusually comprehensive. ThorJupiter Software hasn't seen anything else for iPhone that takes on-demand help for the user as far as RunningTotal does. The guiding principle was "What's supposed to happen?" and the answer had to be there immediately. At the same time, ThorJupiter had to overcome the MEGO effect ("My Eyes Glaze Over.") Additionally, a number of sample accounts are bundled with RunningTotal, that the user can play with to reinforce how the app is used.

A key feature of RunningTotal is its numeric data entry keypad. Design goals included ease of data entry, by which is meant not just "hitting the keys correctly" but having the resulting data entry express the user's intent. The keypad system had to pass the stress test of successful completion of task by test individuals who were highly intoxicated. ThorJupiter Software didn't stop refining the keypad until accuracy of number entry by high users and members of the development team were equalized.


RunningTotal is flexible enough to handle debit card accounts, checking accounts, credit cards, expense accounts, mileage logs, trip expense logs, sales records, or anything that requires the user to keep track of numeric amounts going in or going out, and offers the option to edit the date of any transaction. It also allows the user to email a record of the account.

Pricing and Availability:
RunningTotal 1.0 for iPhone is only $1.99 (USD) and available exclusively through Apple's App Store.


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