For some inexplicable reason we’re obsessed with making expense tracking as simple as possible. We spend days and nights thinking about it, and pore over your feedback to find new ways.

We might’ve found the simplest way yet - via your browser’s search box. If you’re using FireFox, Internet Explorer 7, or any other browsers that supports OpenSearch, you’ll have noticed a search bar at the top right hand side of your browser. Now you can enter your expense into that search box and hit enter to record it, from any web page, without even having to visit Xpenser.com .

The screencast below shows how to set it up and use it. If you’re screencast challenged, here’s how it works:

• In FireFox, go to Xpenser.com, and click on the icon on the left hand side of your browser’s search box. You’ll see an option for “Add Xpenser”. Select this. You should now see the Xpenser icon in the browser’s search box.
• In Internet Explorer 7, click on the down arrow at rightmost part of the browser’s search bar. You’ll see an option for “Add Search Providers -> Xpenser”. Click on this and add Xpenser. Now select Xpenser as the search engine by clicking the down arrow again and selecting Xpenser.

That’s it. Now you can add expenses from your browser search box from any web page with the minimal number of keystrokes.