SmartyPig LLC launched last week an iPhone application that will help its customers keep tabs on their accounts while on the go.

Des Moines-based SmartyPig, an online banking company that offers its clients a savings mechanism designed to help them set and achieve specific financial goals as they interact with other users, was founded in 2008 by Mike Ferrari and Jon Gaskell.

The iPhone application, which provides a mobile interface for actions such as adding money to accounts, reviewing transactions and transferring funds from one savings goal to another, also allows users to give money to friends by adding money to their accounts, as well as publish comments on Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“We wanted to make sure we put something out that is robust and full-featured,” Ferrari said. “We’ve had a mobile website for over a year now. The iPhone application, and a future Android application, which will be coming out as well, is always something we wanted to develop.”

In the coming months, SmartyPig plans to roll out an application that will run on Google’s Inc.’s Android operating system, as well as a second version of the first iPhone app that will allow the company’s SmartyPigCash Rewards Card customers to check their balances and add money to accounts.

The new iPhone app, Ferrari said, will include geo-location features that pinpoint nearby merchants that offer cash-back rewards to SmartyPig customers.

SmartyPig worked with BitMethod LLC, a local developer of Web- and mobile-based applications, to construct the iPhone app, which went live on Jan. 5.

“I like how they’ve approached all of their technology products,” said Dan Shipton, CEO of BitMethod. “It adds value to them and to their customers,” he said.

Funds in SmartyPig’s savings accounts are deposited with SmartyPig’s banking partner, BBVA Compass, and as of Jan. 6, accounts with balances of $50,000 or less were earning 1.35 percent annually.

Ferrari, declining to disclose how many users the company has, said that to date, SmartyPig’s customers have set combined savings goals of more than $1 billion.