My wife is a financial professional, so she is fussy about our home financial software. Quicken (although old and clunky) did things for her that no other program could do.
I finally talked her into buying iBank, and while it comes close, it still doesn't meet her high standards...mainly regarding investment work. She is getting by, but barely.
Fortunately, we saved Quicken 2007 (and years of data) to a separate drive, in hopes that Intuit will finally come through.
So, for $15, for us, it's worth trying it out.
My wife does our books. As an accountant she hates to spend time doing her own books. Quicken 2007 works great for our family. It is a major time savor. We got a new iMac just ahead of Lion and have been holding off on upgrading to Lion because of Quicken. We are happy that Intuit has finally come up with a updated quicken. I just wish they would make a new full featured Quicken 2012 for the Mac and dump the non full featured version. I would pay for it. The time that quicken saves us and the convenience of electronically scheduling bills to be paid is just invaluable.
It seems that even when Intuit finally gets around to fixing things for us (for a price), they don't really fix it: according to the Intuit support pages, it seems the new version can crash, both on Snow Leopard and on Lion. Intuit is asking for help in trying to find out why this happens, so you may want to hold off on buying the new upgrade. I think I will, also.
I bought Quicken Essentials when it came out, but ended up returning it because the reporting was so limited. Instead I switched to Moneydance and have been more than happy with that. It imported my many years worth of Quicken data just fine. The only downside is that it's a cross-platform application (running on Java?) so it doesn't fully conform to standard Mac appearance and behavior. But it's a definite improvement from the old Quicken version I had been using.
I couldn't care less about he Windows parity, but AccountEdge is a fine app for small business accounting. Its what I use and would recommend to other Mac users instead of Quick Books. Why keep dealing with Intuit when they've demonstrated they care about Mac users?
I only mentioned parity with the Windows version because it usually a good sign that the software developer takes seriously the Mac version.
More generally, I think that it is difficult to migrate accounting software packages which is why very many businesses (and to a lesser extent individuals) tolerate some rather bad and out of date accounting software. As an example, our business uses a networked edition of Peachtree Accounting which is only available for Windows (and so we run it under VMWare). We have looked at switching but this is not small undertaking when you have well over 20+ years of customers, vendors, transactions, and other data to which you need timely access. I have not seen any real nice migration tools to facilitate moving from one accounting package to another. Such migrations might not be such easy tasks as there can be complex underlying data structures and largely incompatible database engines for different accounting software packages.
Intuit has treated its Mac customers as second class citizens for so long I actually have trouble remembering when the abuse started? It's been at least a decade. I'd rather do my bookkeeping with an abacus, a yellow legal pad, and a no. 2 pencil than ever buy another product from them.
The fact that it's now the near-universal norm for corporations to treat their customers with contempt in no way excuses it, and makes it all the more important that individuals understand they have a moral obligation to refuse to do business with such companies. Given that the corporation is the dominant institution of our time ? particularly in America where the Supreme Court has ruled purchase of elected officials to be both legal and Constitutional ? the cliché "you get what you pay for" has developed complex resonance and extraordinary pertinence. While we as individuals may not be what we buy, the society we live in is exactly that.
In the 21st century, unexamined consumer behavior as often as not turns out to be the social equivalent of buying meth amphetamine for an abusive spouse. Intuit's history of exploitation is known. Buy Quicken if you like, but please don't then whine about your black eye and missing front teeth.
This is exactly why I switched to Fortora Fresh Finance a long time ago. Quicken Mac was good in OS9, but not in OS X. It's important to note, just because a company offers a Windows version it DOES NOT mean their Mac version sucks. Fortora has a Mac and PC version of their software, but the Mac version is a great native OS X app, it doesn't look like a ported Windows app. I highly recommend you guys check it out http://www.fortora.com
It seems that even when Intuit finally gets around to fixing things for us (for a price), they don't really fix it: according to the Intuit support pages, it seems the new version can crash, both on Snow Leopard and on Lion. Intuit is asking for help in trying to find out why this happens, so you may want to hold off on buying the new upgrade. I think I will, also.
Intuit has done a terrific service in updating Quicken/07 Mac and allowing it to run on the Lion OS. I am grateful to them for providing this update, even if the functions in the product are old.
For me, I have established large data-sets and internal procedures around this quicken. For many of my companies, I have updated to Quickbooks (Mac as well) this is working just fine. For other companies, Quicken is the best way to handle accounting and operations. 2007 function is perfectly fine.
Sorry Intuit. Quicken 2007 wasn't worth it as it didn't add anything useful over 2006. Your epically long inability to deliver anything worth buying for over half a decade drove me to iBank. I'm not looking back.
Intuit has done a terrific service in updating Quicken/07 Mac and allowing it to run on the Lion OS. I am grateful to them for providing this update, even if the functions in the product are old.
For me, I have established large data-sets and internal procedures around this quicken. For many of my companies, I have updated to Quickbooks (Mac as well) this is working just fine. For other companies, Quicken is the best way to handle accounting and operations. 2007 function is perfectly fine.
So, thanks Intuit, thanks.
I took a deep breath, and the two weeks of going over the Quicken and iBank side by side to deliver myself from the yoke of incompetence that was Intuit's software development and business decisions. I had 19 years of data in Quicken so it wasn't a small decision and it turns out to have lowered my ongoing account maintenance efforts too.
Does it work? Are there technical issues other than the emotional ones posted above?
Someone above reported that there are a lot of problems being reported on Intuit's support site. Personally, I don't care enough to even look, so I'll take their word for it.
If you're actually considering it, I would suggest that you go to the Intuit support site to see what the problems are before you jump in.
If you're considering Quicken, or anything by Intuit, check the license fine print. What they've instated over the past years is something called the "sunset policy".
This means that after a few years of use, Intuit will cripple your software so that it will no longer be able to download or import banking information. You have to pay them to upgrade. Personally I find this practice abhorrent.
I began using the product long before the "sunset policy", but raising this falls on deaf ears.
What's funny, if not a bit pathetic, is that Intuit has an online community forum. If you raise this issue, their "superusers" --- a kind of moderator --- will berate your complaint as spam, puerile flame, maybe even call you names, shut you down and label your discussion "closed". Yup, that's right, censorship if you're not a sycophant, lemming-off-a-cliff kind of person. In case anyone's curious, here's where they shut me down twice:
Will this work on Mavericks?? I haven't switched yet but am thinking of it. But before I do, I want to make sure Quicken Lion works for Mavericks. No going back once I switch!
Comments
My wife is a financial professional, so she is fussy about our home financial software. Quicken (although old and clunky) did things for her that no other program could do.
I finally talked her into buying iBank, and while it comes close, it still doesn't meet her high standards...mainly regarding investment work. She is getting by, but barely.
Fortunately, we saved Quicken 2007 (and years of data) to a separate drive, in hopes that Intuit will finally come through.
So, for $15, for us, it's worth trying it out.
My wife does our books. As an accountant she hates to spend time doing her own books. Quicken 2007 works great for our family. It is a major time savor. We got a new iMac just ahead of Lion and have been holding off on upgrading to Lion because of Quicken. We are happy that Intuit has finally come up with a updated quicken. I just wish they would make a new full featured Quicken 2012 for the Mac and dump the non full featured version. I would pay for it. The time that quicken saves us and the convenience of electronically scheduling bills to be paid is just invaluable.
I couldn't care less about he Windows parity, but AccountEdge is a fine app for small business accounting. Its what I use and would recommend to other Mac users instead of Quick Books. Why keep dealing with Intuit when they've demonstrated they care about Mac users?
I only mentioned parity with the Windows version because it usually a good sign that the software developer takes seriously the Mac version.
More generally, I think that it is difficult to migrate accounting software packages which is why very many businesses (and to a lesser extent individuals) tolerate some rather bad and out of date accounting software. As an example, our business uses a networked edition of Peachtree Accounting which is only available for Windows (and so we run it under VMWare). We have looked at switching but this is not small undertaking when you have well over 20+ years of customers, vendors, transactions, and other data to which you need timely access. I have not seen any real nice migration tools to facilitate moving from one accounting package to another. Such migrations might not be such easy tasks as there can be complex underlying data structures and largely incompatible database engines for different accounting software packages.
--TADP
The fact that it's now the near-universal norm for corporations to treat their customers with contempt in no way excuses it, and makes it all the more important that individuals understand they have a moral obligation to refuse to do business with such companies. Given that the corporation is the dominant institution of our time ? particularly in America where the Supreme Court has ruled purchase of elected officials to be both legal and Constitutional ? the cliché "you get what you pay for" has developed complex resonance and extraordinary pertinence. While we as individuals may not be what we buy, the society we live in is exactly that.
In the 21st century, unexamined consumer behavior as often as not turns out to be the social equivalent of buying meth amphetamine for an abusive spouse. Intuit's history of exploitation is known. Buy Quicken if you like, but please don't then whine about your black eye and missing front teeth.
It seems that even when Intuit finally gets around to fixing things for us (for a price), they don't really fix it: according to the Intuit support pages, it seems the new version can crash, both on Snow Leopard and on Lion. Intuit is asking for help in trying to find out why this happens, so you may want to hold off on buying the new upgrade. I think I will, also.
Why am I not surprised?
For me, I have established large data-sets and internal procedures around this quicken. For many of my companies, I have updated to Quickbooks (Mac as well) this is working just fine. For other companies, Quicken is the best way to handle accounting and operations. 2007 function is perfectly fine.
So, thanks Intuit, thanks.
Intuit has done a terrific service in updating Quicken/07 Mac and allowing it to run on the Lion OS.
Shame they didn't do it right, then.
Intuit has done a terrific service in updating Quicken/07 Mac and allowing it to run on the Lion OS. I am grateful to them for providing this update, even if the functions in the product are old.
For me, I have established large data-sets and internal procedures around this quicken. For many of my companies, I have updated to Quickbooks (Mac as well) this is working just fine. For other companies, Quicken is the best way to handle accounting and operations. 2007 function is perfectly fine.
So, thanks Intuit, thanks.
I took a deep breath, and the two weeks of going over the Quicken and iBank side by side to deliver myself from the yoke of incompetence that was Intuit's software development and business decisions. I had 19 years of data in Quicken so it wasn't a small decision and it turns out to have lowered my ongoing account maintenance efforts too.
Does it work? Are there technical issues other than the emotional ones posted above?
Someone above reported that there are a lot of problems being reported on Intuit's support site. Personally, I don't care enough to even look, so I'll take their word for it.
If you're actually considering it, I would suggest that you go to the Intuit support site to see what the problems are before you jump in.
If you're considering Quicken, or anything by Intuit, check the license fine print. What they've instated over the past years is something called the "sunset policy".
This means that after a few years of use, Intuit will cripple your software so that it will no longer be able to download or import banking information. You have to pay them to upgrade. Personally I find this practice abhorrent.
I began using the product long before the "sunset policy", but raising this falls on deaf ears.
What's funny, if not a bit pathetic, is that Intuit has an online community forum. If you raise this issue, their "superusers" --- a kind of moderator --- will berate your complaint as spam, puerile flame, maybe even call you names, shut you down and label your discussion "closed". Yup, that's right, censorship if you're not a sycophant, lemming-off-a-cliff kind of person. In case anyone's curious, here's where they shut me down twice:
***
https://qlc.intuit.com/post/show_full/bvae8mRn0r4AVQeJfaade6/another-sunset-policy-complaint?p=1&ppid=486079240&q=%22sunset+policy%22&s=0
and
https://qlc.intuit.com/post/show_full/dMB_1kRpqr4ACOeJfaade6/re-censoring-another-sunset-policy-complaint?p=1&ppid=486079240&q=%22sunset+policy%22&s=1
Given the way Intuit updates (or doesn't update) their software, your best bet would probably be to focus on working to switch away from Quicken.