Be spontaneous. Enjoy spending the money you have.
What people think
I am delighted and surprised to win the first £500 prize draw. I decided to try Money Dashboard as it was such an appealing and user-friendly interface, seemed easy to use and seems to offer exactly what I need for the management of my personal finances. What a great start to 2011. Thank you!
News
Aug 5th, 2011
We've been listening to our users, and now we've improved the Dashboard screen, introducing an 'income versus spend history graph' as well as some other useful figures, to give you a better instant overview of your finances.
Jul 20th, 2011
Recently, we updated the look of Money Dashboard; this was in preparation for future changes we wanted to make. Well, now we have started! Probably one of the most common requests we receive into Support is: "I want to see what money I have coming in each month as well as what money is going out."
So what we have done here is ato add a new section to the Tracking screen - 'Income'.
Jun 25th, 2011
We’ve said this before and we’ll keep saying it: the great thing about Money Dashboard is that not only can you see where your money is going, you can also compare how you’re spending your money against how you think you should be spending your money.
Follow these simple steps to set yourself a budget and start seeing how much money you’re really spending on driving your car.
Jun 3rd, 2011
Thanks to everyone who gave us feedback on the new changes planned for Money Dashboard, we had a great response and all your feedback really helped us to create the current look for Money Dashboard.
We’ve made these changes to make moving around your Money Dashboard quicker and easier and to make the information clearer, the changes will also improve the performance (speed) of the application.
Secure and safe
Press Pack
About Money Dashboard
Money Dashboard is a free online personal finance service for the UK consumer. It brings a person’s bank accounts, credit cards and store cards together on one screen - giving a clear up to the minute picture of their personal finances.
Consumers can access it from any PC and by spending just ten minutes a month it allows them to track spending, set budgets and helps them save. It will also send email and text alerts of budget overspend, suspicious transactions or important events.
Independent of banks, building societies and lending organisations, Money Dashboard is the consumer’s friend. It puts people in control of their finances and helps them identify suitable products and ways to save.
The history
Money Dashboard is the brainchild of entrepreneur Gavin Littlejohn, whose drive and passion has brought the idea from concept to reality. The company was started in the Scottish Borders and is now based just outside Edinburgh.
Four years ago, with some tough financial decisions to make, Gavin was sitting at his kitchen table buried under an avalanche of paper statements. He knew there had to be a simple way to manage money and that many others must also be suffering from the same headache. The seed of an idea was planted.
Gavin’s first step in 2006 was to research the market landscape in financial access and consumer habits. When the potential market need was established, the next step was to gain technical knowledge and build the relationships and resources needed to create Money Dashboard. Seed funding was gained from respected business angels. Gavin’s next step was to find the people that could make it work.
After completing a development round in 2008 Gavin was able to attract a top quality management team with the experience and business skills needed to drive Money Dashboard.
A board team of some of Scotland’s most successful businesspeople was brought together including financial heavyweights Chairman Stuart Sinclair, former CEO of Tesco Personal Finance and GE Capital and non-executive David Robinson, founder and former CEO of Bright Grey.
In November 2008, Microsoft got behind Money Dashboard, bringing the company onto the “Biz Spark” accelerator programme. This fast tracked the business, giving it access to valuable “know how” and Microsoft’s marketing programmes.
In October 2009, despite challenging economic environment, the company completed a £1m funding round to launch the product in early 2010 following rigorous alpha and beta testing.
The market
Money Dashboard is tipped to be the first online personal finance service to crack the UK market. Despite clear consumer demand, no-one has yet managed to persuade consumers to change behaviours and adopt online personal finance management.
US consumers have been far quicker to engage with the concept of online personal finance and the market reached maturity there in 2009 with the sale of Mint.com for $170m, having signed up 1.5 million users in less than two years.
The readiness of the UK market is evidenced by research by Money Dashboard showing 75% of UK consumers currently use online banking, an increase on 54% in 2005 reported by the British Bankers Association. Additionally analyst data confirms that nearly one in four consumers are seeking a better online personal finance solution that will allow them to view and interact with all of their financial accounts in one place (Javelin Strategy and Research).
The problem
Market research by Money Dashboard has shown that many UK consumers can demonstrate the following behaviours:
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Poor personal financial administration and ill-disciplined behaviour
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Low levels of financial literacy and poor budgeting skills
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No visualisation of the cause and effect of financial circumstances and decisions made in a credit focused culture
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Feelings of insecurity, low decision-making confidence and perceived difficulty of financial decision implementation
This consumer behaviour indicates a need for service that will help UK consumers to take control of their finances.
The technology
Money Dashboard has been developed to be easy to use, quick to set up and very low maintenance. Tests have shown it will take users about 10 to 15 minutes per month to have complete control over their finances.
Money Dashboard is built on ‘cloud’ technology so users can access it from any PC and fluctuations in demand will not affect the service. Developed in Microsoft’s Silverlight for a rich and interactive user experience Money Dashboard uses a conceptual speedometer and fuel gauge dials so users can see their finances clearly, at a glance.
Money Dashboard is powered by Yodlee, a leading provider of personal finance management. Yodlee aggregates user bank data – connecting multiple banks and receiving savings account, current account, credit card and mortgage account details.
Yodlee is the leading provider of secure and personalised online personal finance services in the US, powering 85% of the industry, with more than 20 million consumers at leading bank and portal sites.
Yodlee research clearly indicates that online personal finance services help consumers prevent late fees, protect against fraud, budget more effectively and reduce financial anxiety.
The security
Security and privacy is at the core of Money Dashboard and its users. Robust security practices have been built into Money Dashboard at every stage of the product’s development.
Our internal risk team work with the world's leading provider of managed security services regularly to audit and test the application, infrastructure, policies and procedures of Money Dashboard.
The team work from a default position of being constantly concerned about security and are continually looking for ways to improve security.
Money Dashboard does not store sort codes or bank account numbers. Personal details and transaction data are stored separately and are heavily encrypted. The only place they all come together is on the user’s private desktop.
The service is read only, so in the extremely unlikely event that someone gets on to Money Dashboard, no transactions can be made. Additionally, Money Dashboard has adopted a strong authentication process – password and secure word - used by financial institutions worldwide.
Money Dashboard's security is supported by an Extended Validation VeriSign SSL Certificate. Verisign is the trusted provider of internet infrastructure services for the digital world. If a website is using VeriSign users can have confidence they are linked to the actual website and not a fraudulent imitation.
Money Dashboard is going through the TRUSTe approval process; they are the leading provider of verification services of the appropriateness and fitness for purpose of a privacy policy. Certification by TRUSTe provides a well recognised standard, proving that the Privacy Policy is fair and transparent.