Q. Is there any way to use Checkbook Genius with joint accounts - so me and my spouse can see our transactions and balances at the same time?

A. Quite a few people have written about having linked Checkbook Genius systems - that is having, effectively, a joint account system.

Here's the problem with trying to implement a joint system: there's no simple way of having two Android devices and databases talk" to each other. Were the two parties to get the application, each of the Android phones' Checkbook Genius apps would have their own individual databases. Because of the security model and scheme behind the Android platform, each of those individual databases would be more or less
isolated. Having one phone link to and sync with the other would require some kind of Internet and/or network knowledge that is beyond the technical scope of the developer.

In addition, it's always been the goal to keep the design of Checkbook Genius simple - simple for users to use, and simple for the developer to maintain. Having two such apps communicate via network would increase the complexity considerably (particularly in testing for reliability), and there could be potential security issues as well, which the developer is not equipped to be able to handle. Small Screen Software is not a huge enterprise with teams of programmers and
network engineers.

Since that's a technical capability that can't be provided
to users' rigorous expectations, joint Checkbook Genius
systems won't be implemented in the foreseeable future. It's a shame that such a simple idea, once put through the considerations of the design process, can prove impossible, but that's the nature of the beast that is software development.

If any users are needing that sort of interconnectedness, they should consider online banking as provided by just about all the major banking institutions right now. Almost all of them have some kind of web interface where account information is instantly available; give them a call and ask about it (or visit their corporate web site). Users and their spouses or partners could share a common password and be able to monitor their account's actual balance together. Checkbook Genius was never intended to take the place of any bank's account system - it's just a more elegant alternative to scribbling numbers in one of those antiquated paper checkbook registers one gets when opening a new account.

That's probably not the answer many of you were hoping for, but it's good that the question was raised.