| By Jim Bruene on August 23, 2011 6:34 PM | Comments (1) |
I've always been a bit obsessive about the weather. I blame it on my Iowa roots, where the economy ebbs and flows depending on the rain and sunshine, and where you have just about every type of weather condition, sometimes in the same day.
One of the main reasons I wanted an iPhone back in 2007 (in the days before the App Store and mobile banking), was to get a weather button in my pocket 24/7. But it wasn't until today I realized that weather info is a decent metaphor for where remote banking is headed.
Think about the weather displayed on your mobile or PC. You get some pretty good info about what's going to happen today, plus decent estimates on the next few days, followed by a SWAG on what might happen a week or two out. This is helpful for planning your clothes, weekend activities, and as a last resort, for making conversation (sorry family).
This is exactly what's needed in online banking, a FORECAST of your finances. You need to know exactly where you stand today, plus you need an accurate prediction of your cash flows for the rest of the week based on pre-scheduled payments, followed by reasonable estimates of how things stand for the next month based on historical income and expenses.
Most of the major PFMs are incorporating forward-looking views into their interfaces. It's probably THE most important missing element in today's online banking. A financial forecast should be shown right next to the current balance on the main account page.
Bottom line: It's not a perfect analogy. It's still important to track historical spending to look for waste, fraud, and opportunities to save (note 1). But consumers need help understanding their financial position going forward. So crunch the numbers for them and let your customers get back to their mobile entertainment, even if it's checking the weather in Yakutsk (notes 2, 3).
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Notes:
1. And you can help with that too; see BillGuard post.
2. Yakutsk, Russia, is the coldest city you can track on the iPhone (hat tip to my nephew Marcus).
3. And yes, that's an actual image stored on my iPhone. I don't make these things up.
4. For more on online personal financial management (OFM), see Online Banking Report (published May 2010).
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Having a convenience such as mobile banking does make life that much easier. Adding features that would let the user see a forecast of their finances could allow for a better budgeting system.