Sneak Preview: Quicken for Mac overhaul due out this fall

[AppleInsider]

Intuit in the far corner of its booth at this week's Macworld Expo is quietly previewing a major revamp of its personal finance software designed exclusively for users of Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system.

The new version, code-named Heathrow, has been redesigned from the ground up as a Universal application that makes extensive use of modern-day Mac OS X technologies like CoreData, an Intuit representative told AppleInsider.

Due out this fall, the software has yet to reach the beta stage, but its advancements are considered to be so vast that Intuit plans to completely re-brand Quicken for Mac as "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" at that time.

Most apparent is a completely new and streamlined user interface that conforms to Apple's modern-day interface standards. Upon first glance, it's possible the new version could be mistaken for one of the Mac maker's own apps with its iTunes-like sidebar and CoverFlow data views.

Much effort has been made on Intuit's part to reduce the clutter and confusion often associated with the existing versions of Quicken for Mac, which include countless menus, buttons and dialog boxes that often serve to complicate the learning process for more novice users, rather than aid them in their financial management.

Replacing all those toolbars, palettes and dialog boxes is a simple, single-window interface. A sidebar on the left is separated into categories such as Banking, Loans & Assets, Investments, Budgets, Calendar and Taxes. Associated data views display on the right side of the single-window interface. Intuit also promises some "Community" features that it will detail at a later date.

Quicken Financial Life for Mac will also reduce the emphasis on traditional data views in favor of simpler, more concise reporting formats that take advantage of the application's wide-spread use of "tags." For instance, a new Tag Cloud view displays a simple summary of a user's financial spending by displaying in a larger font size the names of financial categories in which the user spends the most money. Categories in which the user spends less money are presented in a smaller font size.

Another reporting view, called "How am I doing?," is crisp and clear, listing scheduled expenses in the next thirty days, a list of unidentified transactions, colorful pie charts, and written feedback on how well a user is managing their budget.

Quicken Financial Life for Mac will also feature semi-translucent pop-up dialogs akin to Apple's iMovie controls, and several other interface aspects that will be familiar to users of Mac OS X Leopard.

Intuit, however, has not yet decided on how much it plans to charge for the next-gen Quicken software.















[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ] (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=3627)

[cubedcompanies]

WOW!!! Now I don't give a flip if MS Money is available on the Mac... this blows it away... I can't wait till this ships... too bad it's not till Fall but no worries... Mint.com will tie me over till then.

[Gandalf]

Let's hope Intuit finally makes the data files for Windows and Mac fully compatible and that the Mac version has all the features and functionality the Windows version has. This lack of commonality and the nightmare of transitioning my Windows Quicken data to a Mac version of the software is the only reason I haven't switched this yet.

[2stepbay]

It's about time Intuit gave the Mac some respect. Finally a Universal app surfaces from the makers of Quicken with some Mojo. Curious about $$$ and when delivery can be expected - $79/early 2009?

[zoboomafoo]

lol. thank you for the beta signup link in the pic ;)

Reaction #1 = looks pretty good. in a good way.

Reaction #2 = are they throwing all kinds of new HCI stuff at us in hopes we'll like it (hello, tag cloud)?

Reaction #3 = will they get the banks to come back to them?

Overall, all signs point to this being a good direction, and perhaps worth the wait. But we won't know for sure of course.

[NOFEER]

THIS FALL?????
i'm soooo pissed at quicken that i asked for info about ibank 3 from i think igg software

their online product is sooooo weak and expensive and can't import old data and can't get backups (they say you can keep 5 years online)

tell me quicken why should i wait for YOU, we've been a bastard child of your for too long
whose with me!!!! i have refused to upgrade since 2003 i just download in qif and import.

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php

[BK0001]

Wow! I thought Intuit was just going to milk the aging cash cow until it died. Do a few things on the surface to convince customers to cough up $$ each year, but make no real investments of time or resources, etc...

Someone at Intuit appears to have persuaded the powers that be that Quicken could be successfully reinvented on the Mac. This is surprisingly sophisticated, and gives me hope!

[NOFEER]

i quess a growing mac market share, and the iphone convinced them

[kkerst]

Maybe it's just me but I'm getting a little tired of every single app looking like iTunes. I know, don't mess with a good thing, and it's good for consistency between apps - a problem Apple has had before in the past that I think they've long since fixed.

[success]

Honestly it looks sweet however there are already solid alternatives out there and there will be even more options by the time this thing rolls around. Going by their track record it won't be out until 2009 anyway so...

What would really blow me away is if Intuit release a POS application that worked with Quicken. I'd so be on that ship.

[faithfulFrank]

I wish they would make their "rental Property Manager" for Mac....it is currently windows only.

I've run into that a few times lately....really irks me, but not enough ever to go back to windows....

Frank D.

[cubedcompanies]

THIS FALL?????
i'm soooo pissed at quicken that i asked for info about ibank 3 from i think igg software

their online product is sooooo weak and expensive and can't import old data and can't get backups (they say you can keep 5 years online)

tell me quicken why should i wait for YOU, we've been a bastard child of your for too long
whose with me!!!! i have refused to upgrade since 2003 i just download in qif and import.

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php
aesthetically, i think iBank has done a great job... i use to use their iWork/iBiz product so I'm familiar with their quality.

however, any app that can't connect to your bank and download your transaction history is useless for me... there's no way in heck i'm going to waste my time logging all those transactions by hand. I remember reading on IGG forums that they had no intention of building in support for it... and in an age where debit cards are used like cash, i think that's a big mistake if they want to see significant sales....if a web-app like Mint.com can offer such, iBank should.

[Cory Bauer]

This looks incredibly elegant, which is the last word I'd use to describe Intuit's past products. What a difference!

[CAM]

It's definitely a shame that it took so long, but I'm excited to see Intuit take a "from the ground up" approach. I'm sure the Mac's steadily increasing market share has a lot to do with this.

Hopefully Intuit will be inspired by the Mac development environment. If they really get into it we could actually go beyond feature parity with the Windows version.

The screen shots look quite clean, though I'm curious about the multiple windows. I'm hoping there is the option to see everything in a single window (like iTunes) rather than the mess of windows Quicken has now.

[jragosta]

Let's hope Intuit finally makes the data files for Windows and Mac fully compatible and that the Mac version has all the features and functionality the Windows version has. This lack of commonality and the nightmare of transitioning my Windows Quicken data to a Mac version of the software is the only reason I haven't switched this yet.

I agree. It's been about 10 years since the Windows version got stock option calculations. We Mac users are still waiting.

[gdmoffitt]

it's about time..I've used windows version for many years and then wasted $$ when buying the mac version last year. It was awful..am skeptical that it will match the functionality of the windows version in budgeting and investment tracking, plus the download features. I'll watch the reviews for a while before buying, maybe it'll be a nice 2008 christmas present to meself!

[grpaul349]

It's about time... quicken for windows is the ONLY reason I have boot camp on my Mac.... the current version is a shame. I hope they come out with a decent product comparable to the windows version.

[NOFEER]

has anyone used mint?? or other online products?

[jon.pdx]

Personally, I used to try to support companies that had software on both platforms, because I thought that those companies did a better job than their peers. However, they've done such a poor job and yet they are still insistent on getting paid for a new version each year, I'm not sure I really care about Intuit/Quicken anymore.

[Dave K.]

I don't get people. Quicken for the Mac has been absolute crap for years. Why is anyone giving them the time of day...

[tundraboy]

That's well and good. But if there is no simple way to transfer my Quicken for Windows files then it's NO SALE. Seriously, Quicken for Mac is the crappiest POS software ever that came out of a major software company so I'm not holding my hopes too high.

[Frank777]

So is QuickBooks this far behind? Or should we expect a new version earlier?

[success]

That's well and good. But if there is no simple way to transfer my Quicken for Windows files then it's NO SALE. Seriously, Quicken for Mac is the crappiest POS software ever that came out of a major software company so I'm not holding my hopes too high.
POS? It's not POS.

[cubedcompanies]

has anyone used mint?? or other online products?

i use mint off and on to monitor it's progress... thankfully if there is a security breach, nobody can transfer money between or out of your accounts... it primarily helps you monitor and budget your financial spending, with minimal effort on your part. it's a free service and it looks like they make their money on 'spliffs' by notifying you of which banks/credit cards can offer you better rates... thus saving you money.

my primary gripe is the fact that they use too much javascript/AJAX on the forefront, rather than focusing on a solid feature set... they've addressed some of the major bugs now but at one point some of the bugs were pretty ridiculous, making me second guess their attention to security simply because the javascript was so buggy. however, their dev team is very responsive in the forums... and i love their SMS/email notifications. also, i've found that you can easily delete your accounts and have all your transaction data removed in the event you're not happy with the service... unlike, for example, facebook which retains your entire user-profile, even if you close your account down.

[nofear1az]

I can't say that Intuit has ever made Quicken strikenly interesting for a very long time. Each new version pushed out is the same old version just with more buttons and menus that people don't use... u know, kinda like Microsoft did with MSOffice until they innovated with MSOffice 2007 (PC).

It sure is nice to see them actually re-doing the interface and giving it a new face with more intuitive screens. I'm not sure how the whole me-too iTunes look is going to work but at least they are giving it a try from the ground up. I have to say, that since Intuit lost its innovation, there have been many smaller companies picking up the pace with their competing product. Maybe, this has also helped Intuit start rethinking Quicken for the Mac along with Apple's precedence overtaking people's attention away from the PC/Windows world.

[Silencio]

POS? It's not POS.

Depends on your definition of POS.

QuickBooks POS is only available for Windows, naturally enough. However, if you want a great Mac-based POS solution then I suggest you check out Lightspeed from Xsilva Systems.

:D

[davebarnes]

POS? It's not POS.

Uh, POS = Piece of Shit and not Point of Sale.

[auribe14]

According to the first article from ars technica, "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" will not even feature-match Quicken Mac 2007. The investment side is apparently going to be severely lacking. No word what will happen to all the data you have in the 2007 version.

And it will never be equal to the concurrent Windows version.

[Mystic]

If history is a lesson, you can bet it will be FULL of Bugs,,,

[NOFEER]

i'm going to wait to upgrade to anything
i want to keep Q2003 and upgrade to leopard but it's not compatible

soooo how about this, make a clone of the HD with superduper THEN upgrade my macbook to leopard and run q2003 on my external HD clone, and backup my necessary files when i get timecapsule i could still open tiger in my HD backup and download my transactions to the HD version of q2003

do you think this would work, i could download to the HD and when something comes out i can upgrade both..does this make sense???

[knightlie]

I'm pretty desperate for this, iBank is just riddled with really dumb bugs. I used to love Quicken on Windows a few years ago.

[johnmcboston]

hmmm. Some interesting thoughts in the article and in the postings! :)

I tried quicken many moons ago. I just wanted a simple checkbook register and couldn't get it to work. Thus ended the free trial of quicken. I use XL sheets and am a happy camper. Kind of a sad reflections on the product I couldn't figure out how to do something simple and common. pert of it kind of felt like "We thought of a better way to do it, and we want to force you to learn our way". When the new version came out I wonder how easy it will be to do just what you want - or if it will be easier to understand their model of how to organize finances.

Some of the screen shots were a bit weird. Coverflow? I've yet to find any use for it, and now it's in a financial program showing me coverflows of spreadsheets? The tags are interesting, but will they be used. if Shoes is bigger than Food, you either make too much money or you're in trouble? :) The 'how am i doing' is also interesting. All I can think of are jokes about 'insolvency ahead' pop up windows. but - it's the 'not planning ahead' that gets people into trouble to begin with. Maybe this is what people need to avoid such troubles. If you can see the red flags months ahead of potential problems, then you can do something about it now...

[Macvault]

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

[tjboucher]

I'm trying not to get my hopes up that INtuit will pull this off. However the past 5 years of Quicken have been very disappointing to me.

hope they have a 30 day time bomb demo, because that'll be the only way I try it.

[Lancaster]

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/sign_up.php

[olliedog]

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/sign_up.php (http://https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/sign_up.php)

[Jargon]

Why can't they just make it like Quicken for Windows?

Quicken for Windows is great :\

[SuperMacGuy]

I don't think Coverflow really has a place in banking software. How interesting could it be? Like you have 3-10 registers for checks, savings, or stocks... and all registers look the same. Lots of lines of entries. Coverflow is good for visual graphical data, not for numerical and tables that LOOK similar.
I hope there is an option for opening up more windows also. I find it useful to see multiple registers at once, or move transactions, or have my Reconcile window open and pop back into the main register to add or correct an entry. If this is forced to be a 1-window solution then I will be upset.

[Starhawk]

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php

Thank you for this link! I have been using Quicken 2007 for Mac and have been eagerly awaiting the new version. Based on the fact that it wont even be out until late fall, I checked out iBank and version 3 looks like it's going to be awesome.

They say they beta is coming soon and the full version will be released in February. I dont know how many people here use iBank, but just looking at the features (and quickly checking out ibank2) I have to say I was impressed.

[canuckguy]

I've been using Quicken since 1999. I've upgraded every other year. Quicken's online banking feature has been quite good and reliable over time. In June of last year something changed - for all users, regardless of version or platform - online quotes service for investors in Canadian equities and mutual funds ceased to function normally. In recent weeks problems are reportedly manifesting themselves for US quotes. Users experienced sporadic outage of service for mutual funds and quotes multiplied by 10 for equities. The Quicken support forums (Windows and Mac) have recorded hundreds of posts and thousands of views (hits) in the last eight months on this failure. Quicken has clearly been non-supportive of affected users. Of course there is the well-documented problem with Quickbooks Pro for Mac 2006 deleting the Desktop folder and its contents during an automatic update.

If Intuit/Quicken believes that "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" is the answer for regaining favor with Mac users - let's hope they got it right. What users expect is a comprehensive overview of their finances and predictable online functionality regardless of Leopard spots. Baby Boomers (for example) may be more interested in knowing what they're net worth is or how well their IRA/RRSPs are doing without getting out the ol' pencil and pad and adding numbers from this app and that app. Now Quicken has much at stake - many Mac users are feeling abandoned and Quicken has demonstrated a lack of interest in a fundamental failure to transact online which does not bode well for "Quicken Financial Life for Mac".

[Macvault]

Why is it going to take til next fall for Intuit to have this new Mac version done? It is WAY overdue as it is. This time-frame-til-release makes me very skeptical. :mad:

[latinware]

Lets hope next version will include the following: 1) Be able to use amounts larger than 9,999,999, I think Intuit still living in the 80's, nowdays having more than that amount it's not rare specially here in colombia where I live. 2) Be able to sync Quicken with iPhone. You can do it with the rest of OS's.

[donebylee]

Well, I must admit the iBank 3 took me by surprise. I really thought that was permanent vaporware. If they fix the most important problems I had with it when I tried it -- insane account reconciling scheme and problems with account histories -- then I will happily move over to iBank.

And Quicken is promising what exactly? That they will have half a product a year after its original due date? And we're supposed o be excited about it?

[success]

Depends on your definition of POS.

QuickBooks POS is only available for Windows, naturally enough. However, if you want a great Mac-based POS solution then I suggest you check out Lightspeed from Xsilva Systems.

:D
umm no it doesn't. Quicken plain and simple is not POS. Before you said Quicken was POS now you changed it to Quickbooks. Even Quickbooks POS is basically dead. Yes LightSpeed is good. But LightSpeed does not sync with AddressBook. Hopefully they will change that. I asked them and they said it was too difficult but actually it's not. It's probably just not worth the effort for them.

[chuckbo]

I don't get people. Quicken for the Mac has been absolute crap for years. Why is anyone giving them the time of day...

I gotta agree with you on that one! I'm looking at the article, thinking about how long it's been since we got an upgrade to Quicken that meant anything, how long it's been since it downloaded stock prices (accurately), etc. And I see how good looking this new version appears.

Then I remember all kinds of Intuit shenanigans. Like turning off features that they advertised as part of the program -- to force you to upgrade, setting up QuickBooks so it would stop running after a couple of years -- to force upgrades. Anyone who would go to Intuit and let them hold your data hostage might just be "asking for trouble."

I'm hoping that iBank fixes some of its problems so I can swap. Personally, I would never use the download transaction feature of a financial program; I've known too many people who had transactions that had been charged to their bank account or credit cards erroneously, and then they downloaded them into their financial program all right, only to discover the alient entries too late. No, I want to enter my own transactions so when I do a reconciliation, I'm comparing the bank's records with my own records, not comparing the bank's records to themselevs.

[mdriftmeyer]

This Cocoa Application and later QuickBooks and more will be a boon for Intuit.

[Frank777]

This Cocoa Application and later QuickBooks and more will be a boon for Intuit.

Probably. But it would have been more help to them if they had started work on the Cocoa version three years ago when the Intel switch was announced. All their delaying has done is drive users to iBank and very soon, to Moneydance 2008.

Do we even have a confirmation as yet that QuickBooks is being rewritten in Cocoa?

[NOFEER]

does ibank 3 support ofx format and automatic downloads (in the background) presently i use quiken 2003 since the others weren't worth updating to. i download in qfx then import for each account

[mojo151]

I think I may have gotten into the 'personal financial application' scene going backwards. I started out with iBank (3.0.2) after reading so many posts about 'Quicken Mac sucks....', and after hearing such high praise for iBank (like their accolades from MacWorld,... oh, and their ads where they state something along the lines of 'You finally have a place to go from Quicken!'

My experience with iBank 3.0.2, and subsequently 3.0.3 (which 1/2 way fixed a bug in 3.0.2 which only helped to reveal another bug in 3.0.3)... okay, you see where I'm going. :no: At $60 for buggy eye candy, I'd rather try $70 for ugly yet financially and numerically accurate (... Quicken). :D

Don't throw tomatoes yet, but I just don't get the high levels of gripes about Quicken. It's clumsy at times, with it's myriad of panels to deal with.. and I've even had small annoyances where importing data wasn't as smooth as expected. Trust me, that's par for the course on just about EVERY financial mac app out there. After iBank I tried Moneydance, cha-ching, and liquid ledger. In my experience, Quicken is the smartest way to go. With that, I'm looking forward to this Q-my financial life setup. I'll run it as a test along side Q.2007 to make sure any of its 'missing' features aren't ones that I would use anyways. But I think eventually, those missing elements will be available.

If you try iBank, tell me if this doesn't happen: After the 'beautiful-ness' of the interface appearance wears off for you, you start to take stock in 'annoyances'. Quicken has them too, but in Quicken, you say... that's annoying, but I can deal with it. In iBank, you'll say... "that feature doesn't work AT ALL!" There's a difference friends.

One vote of confidence for IGG Software, makers of iBank... they honored their 30-day money back guarantee. So if you MUST try them, you can do it without feeling like you've seriously laid $60 on the line.

Looking forward to this new Quicken on the Mac,
Cheers.

[Frank777]

Did you try the new version of Moneydance?

[mojo151]

Did you try the new version of Moneydance?

Yeah, I did. I'd say out of the 4 packages I tried other than Quicken, Moneydance was the better of the 4. That programs biggest strength though is probably in its cross-platform design. That, and price. At $40, it was a better experience than iBank's $60. I tried it for a few days, set up about 1/2 of my accounts in it to get a feel for it. I gave quicken the same spin, and liked it better. I don't care for Quicken's myriad of panels as an interface design... but once you get the hang of how to keep track of them, it's good.

I'll say this: If you operate in both Mac and Windows, ie. Mac at home and Windows at the office, and you want something to keep your finances straight in both places... Moneydance is worth a look. When I was researching it for my own use, that point was one of the bright spots that kept coming up for people who really loved it. Apparently, your data file can go from one environment to the next, and the app will digest it. Pretty nice.

Mojo151

[NOFEER]

from what i understand the online product won't allow me to make category printouts for say business reimbursement or taxes, they also don't keep all your data, say i want to compare over 3-5 years i don't think it does it. when i investigated online quicken which really could be a great product they really don't want it to replace the standard products. the cost over a few years is high. but i need to be able to import their data to a spreadsheet or print for taxes, even email the registry. so i looked at "mint" it won't let you import to quicken, and won't let you chose your own categories, or print a category summary for a time period, say last year.
so i looked at ibank as stated above has limitations
i will look at money dance and see if i can print category summaries, download my bank stuff in the background, and it will import to quicken. i wonder if moneydance will allow you to pay bills directly from moneydance then sync with my bank NATIONAL CITY.

quicken has such a lousy product for mac that all these other products see an opening i wish macworld did a detailed evaluation of what's available

i'm working with q2003 and there is no compatibility with 10.5, so if i want to go to 10.5 i have to dump quicken. unless i can reboot in 10.4 and select the OS

maybe we can produce a table of features, pro and con of each of the top 3-5 programs if there are that many of quality to choose from, does anyone know of a review site that has done this? or we can ask MACWORLD for a updated review of personal finance software

if my bank could keep 3 years of data and (longer for a price) allow categories, and category summary printouts for specified time period i wouldn't need quicken

[jwsteele]

maybe we can produce a table of features, pro and con of each of the top 3-5 programs if there are that many of quality to choose from, does anyone know of a review site that has done this? or we can ask MACWORLD for a updated review of personal finance software

I've been looking for a good replacement for MS Money since I moved to Mac in 2006. So far nothing. I run a PC just for MS Money. I haven't seen any serious reviews of the available personal financial software for Mac.

The top programs seems to be: Quicken, Moneydance and iBank.

Here is a complete list of the programs that I found at Apple's download centre.

The Competitors

Quicken Mac 2007 http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/mac-personal-finance.jsp
iBank http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/
Moneydance http://moneydance.com/
Liquid Ledger http://liquidledger.com/
Fortora Fresh Finance for Mac http://www.fortora.com/ffmac/
Squirrel http://squirrelapp.com/
Cha-ching http://midnightapps.com/
Mint.com http://www.mint.com/
Wesabe https://www.wesabe.com/
Moneywell http://nothirst.com/moneywell/
iCash http://www.maxprog.com/iCash.html
Personal Finance http://www.cafeinasoft.com/produtos/personalfinance.shtml
Flowing Pennies http://www.clarkwood.com/flowingpennies/
MyMoney http://www.mthbuilt.com/
CheckBook Pro http://www.splasm.com/checkbook/index.html
Money http://www.jumsoft.com/money/
Prospects http://www.motimotion.com/prospects/index.php
iCompta http://angeman7.free.fr/iCompta/?language=en
iFinance http://www.synium.de/products/ifinance/index.html
Accounts http://www.nano.com.au/
EasyMoney http://www.ttpsoftware.com/Products/easymoney.html
SpendThrift http://blackllamafaction.org/spendthrift/

It seems like this type of software is very popular to create but that no one (so far) has put together all of the features that users are asking for and put them in one Mac friendly package. I have been reading the support forums and testing some of the test programs.

I can post most detailed reviews soon but my initial impressions were:

Moneydance: the real deal but it doens't look like a Mac program could and doesn't take advantage of the eye candy charts available in some of the other programs. It is cross platform and not made for the Mac. That's a plus or a minus. Your call.

iBank: pretty but has a number of bugs and basic programs as a replacement for Quicken or MS Money. For example I think it couldn't handle a 0% loan and hitting increase the date by one at the end of the month goes to the first of the same month rahter than the first of the next month, most of th etime that is tomorrow or the next day. Bizzare. Reconcilliation isn't standard. Expensive.

Squirrel: Nice looking, shows promise but is not even a 1.0 release yet. For example will have scheduled transactions soon.

Liquid Ledger: also nice but lacks support for sub-categories, a key feature of nearly every other program.

Mint and Wesabe are getting for knowing where my money went but they don't (yet) help me manage transactions and model the short future (i.e my mortgage payment comes out next week)

Cha-Ching: looks to have gone into hibernation. No responses to user on their support boards about the next release.

I'd love to strap the look of iBank or Squirrel on to Moneydance.

[NOFEER]

i'm using ibank 3 trial, works ok, but i'm trying to make a category summary for business reimburesement, so next week i will try again. also after importing my quicken "recent" or making a my ledger "this year" only goes back to the date of my last quiken entry. still working with support, i'll say support has been very responsive, better than quiken.
it download from my bank OK, i'm trying to learn to use "smart downloads" but my bank doesn't include the "memo" portion, so i can't use this as a filter.
oh well i'll get there. ibank so far is nice, but it runs on leopard not my tiger macbook
thanks for all the work. the company that can come up with a nice bug free, good support alternative to quickmess will win over many mac fans and money fans.

thanks again

[Frank777]

Nice list. Any of those handle small businesses, and most importantly, Canadian GST returns?

[jwsteele]

Nice list. Any of those handle small businesses, and most importantly, Canadian GST returns?

A few handle small business. There were some business specific ones that I didn't include as I was looking for personal software only. Seems like all the ones that do double entry are aimed at business as well as personal. Check out "Accounted" it's not on the list but looked like it was for small business.

[Kishan]

Don't flame me, but I would really like to read what people here use personal finance software for. I manage two checking, two savings, IRA, Mortage, CD and two credit card accounts on-line. My wife and I have accounts scattered across four states and five financial institutions, and I have never sat down and said "Gosh... I wish that I had a copy of all my financial data right here on my hard drive." Would anyone mind sharing how Quicken, or other software like it, fit into their own financial lives?

Thanks.

[jwsteele]

Don't flame me, but I would really like to read what people here use personal finance software for. I manage two checking, two savings, IRA, Mortage, CD and two credit card accounts on-line. My wife and I have accounts scattered across four states and five financial institutions, and I have never sat down and said "Gosh... I wish that I had a copy of all my financial data right here on my hard drive." Would anyone mind sharing how Quicken, or other software like it, fit into their own financial lives?

Hi Kishan, no problem re: flaming, a question I have for you is why wouldn't you want an up-to-date, all-in-one picture of your financial situation?

You mentioned all your different accounts but, in my opinion, it's not the number of accounts that determine if you use the software. It is a tool to know where your money goes. Some people need the tool, some people don't and some don't want to know. Some people have enough money that it doesn't matter.

I use financial management software to understand exactly where I spend my money so I can make plans for the future by understanding my past and where I can make adjustments.

I recognize that a lot of people don't use this type of software but it is important to me to know (not guess, or wonder, or assume) where my money goes. Most people I have spoken to on the subject would like the results I get but without the work. It doesn't work that way.

Here is an example, I have no idea how someone would plan the purchase of something like a more expensive home, with all the increased costs that it could entail, without a history of what they spend their money on, an existing budget and a future budget. But that's just me. Some people just hope for the best, I guess.

This type of software is, to me, the most important software I own and use. Most of my friends think I am too serious about it but I think they have essentially closed their eyes and hoped for the best. Frequently they wonder why their financial situation is getting worse or never improving.

Anyway that's why I use this type of software.

[NOFEER]

i've been using this for the last month. it can do what you want, i'd send your post to ibank info, you can get a contact email address. there support has been very helpful (email) and timely. maybe it's the trial period "effect" to sell. but i believe it can do this. so far it downloads all the information from my bank, i can rename all the accounts, and if its online i believe it can "grab" it.
but my needs are simple, i have two account,( i don't monitor as closely my credit cards since i pay them off each month and simply review the statement for errors--maybe i should be more vigilant) but i use my software to keep track of business reimbursements and tax based stuff for my cpa.
if i can put the correct category it allows me to see it in many different ways. OK i'm learning about making category summaries, which are not like quicken. but ANYTHING BUT QUICKEN, they have ruined their franchise by poor product and poorer customer service. also with ibank3 it will upload a copy to idisk, and sync with my future iphone.
take a look. i know they push their "Mac" look, but i really don't care about that, its the ease of setup and getting the info i need quickly. like anything it took me a while to set up correctly, my quicken stuff from quicken for mac 2003 took a while to get to the right format (it was a date format issue )but i got it to work. with ibank the big thing are categories, so you can organize. it does allow any definable chart.
send you question to ibank and see what they say. oh, also, ibank 3 works only with leopard, i was going to upgrade from tiger but can't till i am confident that ibank3 is for me. so far so good.

the other nice feature are smart downloads, when you download from your bank, you are given a chance to place them in the category, rename, pretty much anything for that "payee" so next time you import them they automatically are populated with the info you need. so before you import a download you can set these up--very helpful, since many times the bank calls my cell phone charge some weird name and number and i can set it up that when i goes into ibank it says At&t Cell phone......and category: Business: cell phone.

are you starting fresh or changing from other software, money, quicken. because this might have a baring on your case.

[jwsteele]

Cha-Ching has come out of hiding and is preparing a beta for this week and a release for the "end of the summer"

http://www.midnightapps.com/blog/

I've also heard that Jumsoft's Money is aiming to release version 3.0 before the end of July.
http://www.jumsoft.com/money/

Looks like a lot is happening on the financial software front.

Maybe that elusive Quicken killer is just around the corner. Finally.

[NOFEER]

when quicken for mac is released hope hope macworld will do a review and give us some direction
i don't like the idea of using trial versions to test find weaknesses not sure to live with or get another app. the one that makes all the planets align for us mac people will win huge
i like ibank 3 but is there something better, and has a better search ability. when i search it nearly crashes....it works ok but needs some heavy buffing

[jwsteele]

Quicken has updated their web site and gives some more details about the next Quicken for Mac.

All the real info is hidden in the FAQs. The comms person should be fired.

"We have two announcements about our product release and timeline:

1. We will be releasing the product this Winter.
2. The public Beta of Quicken Financial Life for Mac will begin this Fall."


http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/mac-personal-finance.jsp

[NOFEER]

this quicken thing is tireing i've been using ibank3 and i can get through it had trouble printing but found a work around
i just need categories, category summary for selected dates, eg year to date, last year keep 5 years data and be able to print or copy paste (ibank doesn't have this)
basically i want quicken to download my stuff in the background and give me the above, ibank gets to about 85% which is ok it can be better, but there is a huge need out there as more and more get mac.
by the time any new quiken comes out, i'll have it down with ibank 3 and quicken can just kiss my ....., i hate being ignored, and quicken has ignored macs toooooo long
as above some mac-centric site must do a review of ALL mac financial software and then i will pay attention

HEY IBANK3 PLEASE GIVE ME COPY/PASTE, AND GET THE PRINTING CORRECTED.

[outaru]

any news if it'll support multiple currency?

if it does, I'll happily junk ibank..:???:

[Frank777]

The new version of Quicken has now been pushed to Winter. (http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/09/15/whither-mac-quicken)

[snakeears]

The new version of Quicken has now been pushed to Winter. (http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/09/15/whither-mac-quicken)

bummer--just visited quicken mac site. banner on upper right now announces "summer 2009!"

[Frank777]

That's unbelievable (well, not really for Intuit...)

I hope iBank and Moneydance have new upgrades to showcase at MWSF. They will have a field day with Quicken users.

[zoboomafoo]

Oh, it's quite believable if you're in the public beta.:(