Do you find yourself forever failing to clear your debts? Does your financial status always read negative? Well, in case you didn’t know, there’s an app to get you out of that.

Vertex 42 has come up with a system that helps the user control the amount of money they save or spend, depending on their debt ratio. It may be money owed to a friend, school fees, a mortgage, insurance premiums, a monthly SACCO deposit or even an internet subscription. Whatever the case, the Debt Tracking Spreadsheet allows the user to choose different debt reduction strategies.

How does it Work?

The system is, in fact, a spreadsheet that is compatible with Microsoft Excel, Open Office and Google Docs. According to Vertex, it helps the user manage their payments while helping them chose from the most effective debt clearing strategies available.

The most widely-regarded strategy is the snowball effect where the user is supposed to pay the lowest debts first. The process is cumulative in the sense that debts are cleared in an ascending order, from the cheapest to the most expensive.

An alternative technique would be the avalanche effect where the user pays debts from the highest to the lowest expenses. For those that have a hard time keeping track of their debts, the system comes with a payment schedule. This calendar helps the person determine which bills to pay and when to pay them.

What’s more, the spreadsheet comes with a debt reduction calculator. This enables the user to list their debts, their balances, their interest rates and their monthly payments. All calculations are managed by the system automatically as soon as the user keys in the necessary variables.

The system joins the ranks of  Android-based mobile phone Applications that include IOU Debt Manager, Debt Snowball and Debt Payoff Planner. These help the user to keep a record of all their personal debts, bills and loans. They cost between KES 85 and KES 130 on the Android Market while Vertex’s software is available online, for free.