ClearCheckbook opened for public use on May 20, 2006 and has since grown to around 6,500 active users who have entered over 600,000 transactions. Up until now, there has only been one person coding/maintaining/answering questions/troubleshooting/running the site, and that's been me.

What started out as a personal project for myself has grown far bigger than I ever could have imagined. I thought I had the time and energy to keep the site updated and evolving as the demand came in. Recently I've come to the realization that I simply have too many projects on my plate and can't keep ClearCheckbook updated as needed.

This has made me decide to ask for some help and look for someone who has a great knowledge of PHP/MySQL/Javascript and a good eye for design. This position would mean you helping with site updates (mainly the completion and release of V2) as well as future projects such as building an API for the site and improving and evolving the site as needed.

Unfortunately, this will have to be an unpaid position as the site doesn't actually make any money. The donations we receive are used to cover the costs of hosting and everything that goes along with it.

The ideal candidate is someone who enjoys seeing other people benefit from their work and wants to help people stay on top of their finances by providing the best site out there for just that. Being a user of the site is also a great plus, but not a requirement.

If you're interested, please email me a brief resume and some sites you've worked on or currently work on as well as a little bit of information about yourself. You can send all information to brandon [at] clearcheckbook [dot] com (modified to prevent spambots).

I'll be accepting resumes until August 31st. I look forward to hearing from you!
-Brandon

ClearCheckbook was mentioned in the August edition of Money Magazine in a segment about cutting your spending with free tools. We were mentioned along with two other software alternatives.

The segment reads:
"Pros: Info is stored online so you can access it anywhere. You can add expenses as they happen via cell phone or IM. The program also reminds you of recurring expenses.
Con: Budget resets every month, so if you've underspent on groceries, say, the balance doesn't roll over."

Here are images of the cover and story.

For those of you who found the site from this article, welcome! Please let us know your impressions and any comments you have by posting here in the blog or sending us a message.

If your publication or blog would like to talk to someone about ClearCheckbook, please use the Contact Us form and we'll be happy to point you in the right direction.

Last night we passed the 500,000 transaction mark. This is yet another huge milestone for ClearCheckbook and it's great to see the site doing so well and continually growing. Getting over half a million transactions in a little more than a year should tell you a little something about how many people use the site on a daily basis and how we're helping a lot of people stay on top of their money.

Development of V2 hasn't been making huge progress due to other projects and other time restraints. In another week or two, the load on the developers should lighten up greatly and we can focus a lot more time on getting v2 out the door.

Reports are starting to trickle in from our users who recently purchased an iPhone and they're telling us that the ClearCheckbook performs beautifully on the iPhone.

We had to delay our development of the mobile version of the site due to some other projects, but we will soon begin working on it again. The new Mobile version of the site will be optimized for devices like the iPhone, taking load times and the amount of data displayed into consideration.

Are you currently using an iPhone? Let us know how the site works for you or if you've noticed any problems with the site by sending us a comment or posting a response to this blog post.

I just wanted to keep everyone updated on how the status of the version 2 development was going. There have been a few unexpected wrenches thrown at us while trying to get the new version coded (mainly the server experiencing major performance issues). In addition to those issues, all of the code is being re-written for the next version to help improve performance and reduce any errors.

Beta testing should be opening within the next two weeks or so once we have a little more of the site finished. As of now, the main accounts page is functioning with new jiving and sorting capabilities, plus work on a new "quick add" form is almost finished.

Rather than rush out a beta version of the site, we would rather spend a little extra time making sure things work the way we want. Thanks for sticking with us and stay tuned for a new post shortly which details the beta testing process.

Thanks!
-Brandon