A simpler PocketSmith alternative for cash flow forecasting
PocketSmith pioneered calendar-based forecasting and does a great deal besides. If all you want is the forecast - how long your money lasts and what you'll have on a given date - Lastwell gets you there in a few minutes, with no bank connection and no bookkeeping.
| Feature | Lastwell | PocketSmith |
|---|---|---|
| Daily balance forecast | ||
| Works with no bank connection | Manual entry possible | |
| Free tier includes forecasting | Limited on free plan | |
| Plain-language runway date | ||
| Ask a spending question in words | ||
| Credit cards modelled to the due date | Partial | |
| What-if scenarios | ||
| Installs as a phone app (PWA) | Mobile app |
Comparison based on each product’s publicly documented features. Details change - check the vendor’s site before deciding.
Why people look for an alternative
PocketSmith is a capable, mature product, and the reasons people go looking for something else are usually not about quality. The most common are the price of the tiers that unlock long-range forecasting, the amount of setup a full ledger demands, and discomfort with handing bank credentials to an aggregator.
There is also a plain scope mismatch. A lot of people do not want to categorise last month’s coffee purchases. They want to know whether the car repair fits before the mortgage payment lands.
The difference in one sentence
PocketSmith imports what already happened and projects forward from it; Lastwell asks you for what is true right now and projects forward from that. Both produce a daily balance curve. Only one needs your bank login and a tidy transaction history to get there.
What you keep
- Day-by-day projection with every paycheque, bill, card payment and loan installment placed on its real date.
- Biweekly pay handled properly, including the two three-paycheque months a year most tools average away.
- What-if scenarios layered against your baseline as a dashed line, savable and committable when they become real.
What you give up
Automatic transaction import, categorisation and multi-account bookkeeping. If you need historical spending analysis across a decade of accounts, PocketSmith remains the better fit, and swapping would be a downgrade.
How switching actually goes
Setup is your current balance, your pay and your recurring bills - typically under ten minutes, and the onboarding builds a live runway preview as you type. From there the maintenance is marking things paid and adding the occasional one-off. Try the demo first; it loads a full persona with a loan, a card and a three-paycheque month, and nothing is saved.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Lastwell a good PocketSmith alternative?
- If you use PocketSmith mainly for cash flow forecasting rather than bookkeeping, yes. Lastwell keeps the day-by-day projection and drops the ledger, categorisation and bank-feed layers, which makes setup minutes rather than an afternoon.
- Do I have to connect my bank?
- Never. Lastwell has no bank connection at all - you enter your balance, pay and bills, and the forecast comes from that. There are no credentials to hand over and no aggregator in the middle.
- Can I forecast a full year ahead?
- Yes. The engine projects up to a year or more, expanding recurring items, handling month-end clamping and weekend shifting, and stopping loans when they hit zero.
- What does PocketSmith do that Lastwell doesn't?
- PocketSmith offers automatic bank feeds, transaction categorisation and long-run historical reporting across many accounts. If you want automated bookkeeping and multi-currency accounting, it is the more complete product.
- Is there a free version?
- Yes, forecasting is free, including the calculators on this site and the live demo with no signup.