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Quicken Essentials for Mac in Seattle Best Buy Stores Now.

S

Stu Pidasl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
6
0
I was in the Bellevue, WA Best Buy store yesterday in the Apple area and my jaw almost hit the floor when I noticed that they had 5 or so copies of Quicken Essentials for Mac sitting on the shelf. I had to do a double take because I thought I must have been mistaken, but there they were in all their glory.

I was tempted to buy one, as I have been looking for a financial software package on the Mac and have been tracking the whole Quicken fiasco for the past 18 months or so and from what I've read they aren't supposed to be available until next week.

I did however pass it up.

As much as I would like to replace my copy of Quicken for Windows with a cool Mac version, so I can avoid having to run my Virtual Machine. Quicken Essentials for the Mac is too dumbed down to be an effective solution for me.

I just wanted to let people know that it is available at Best Buy stores, at least in the Seattle area (Bellevue and Lynnwood stores specifically). I apologize that I did not think to take a picture of it when I was there.

Has anyone purchased and installed a copy yet? Are there any first impressions from using it?
 
Agree, who cares. Quicken Essentials is just for record keeping. If you want a truly comprehensive (not just the essentials) financial program, Quicken for PC is light years ahead & I doubt the mac version will ever compare.
 
DFTU101 said:
Agree, who cares. Quicken Essentials is just for record keeping. If you want a truly comprehensive (not just the essentials) financial program, Quicken for PC is light years ahead & I doubt the mac version will ever compare.
Click to expand...

i think the problem is my "essential needs" are quite comprehensive. :D
 
If this program is really going to be THAT bad from everything I've read, what am I supposed to do? All our options are pretty bad:

-mint.com or moneydance.com NO
-Quicken 2007 for Mac NO TERRIBLE
-Install parallels and Quicken REALLY?
-Install my MS Money 96 (best program I think)

I'm sick of waiting for something good to come around.
 
Up and running with Essentials for MAC

Picked up a copy from my Best Buy yesterday. Install and import of 5 years of previous quicken data to include Quicken PC 2010 went flawless. I literally verified that the data imported correctly, re-entered my institution passwords, downloaded my current transactions and went to work. Over the last 6 weeks i have demoed several application to include; Ibank, Moneywell, Moneydance, and Fiortia. Quicken Essential 2010 is my choice. This completes my transition from the PC. :)
 
Interesting - I am really underwhelmed that the new version actually is a step back from older versions, but I really hate having to fire up the VM every time I need to access MS Money.

So nmroper, how are you liking it?
 
I bought it and installed it over the weekend. I'm running it side-by-side with SEE Finance. Its amazing how the two apps look so much alike. No preference so far.
 
Does it seem very finished and polished? I haven't really seen any good reviews online yet.
 
pokeyjoe said:
I bought it and installed it over the weekend. I'm running it side-by-side with SEE Finance. Its amazing how the two apps look so much alike. No preference so far.
Click to expand...

Please post back if you end up preferring one over the other. I am considering SEE Finance as a Quicken replacement since I am reading so many bad things about the new Quicken.
 
btownguy said:
Does it seem very finished and polished? I haven't really seen any good reviews online yet.
Click to expand...

Are there reviews? The Mac community is pretty small to begin with, and Quicken FL Mac users I'm sure are even smaller.

I bought it today at Best Buy. I transferred all my stuff over, but deleted all my accounts except for my Checking and Savings. Those are the ones I really need to track, the credit cards are just there until I can get them paid off.

What was really neat was 2 of the cards I have loaded right up and download automatically. In the past, I had to go to the website, download the monthly file, and move it over to Quicken. It also found my Student Loan stuff, 401(k), and a couple of other department store cards I have.

I haven't had a chance to mess around with it too much. I'm going on vacation tomorrow and probably won't have time until next week. So far, though, it seems similar to the beta everyone tested last year, but you can tell this is not a beta.

If y'all want to know about any features, just ask. I'll try to get to them while on vacation, but being in the Big Easy might make it a little tough.
 
I don't think I'd have the grips many are having about QEM because I only need to track my checking account. I have a separate spreadsheet where I track all of my investments in the very specific manner I require. From Quicken, I really just need a solid polished program (on the Mac) that will track my checking account. I need to be able to get good graphs on income/expenses. I REALLY need to be able to create reports such as "Education - YTD" or "Charitable Contributions - YTD". How robust is the reporting on QEM?
 
This is what I posted up on MacInTouch:

Like several others, I've been using SEE Finance as an alternative to Quicken 2007. I picked up a copy of Quicken Essentials (2010) over the weekend and have been running both it and SEE to see which I like better. I don't track investments or anything fancy. I just use the register to track three checking accounts, a savings account and two credit cards.

A couple notes about the new Quicken:
- You can no longer make entries directly into the register. I don't know of any of the "new" financial software offerings where you can, but I haven't tried every last one of them.
- Quicken no longer presents you with a review of your transaction imports. In 2007, you'd get a window with everything being imported and those already in the register would carry a special identification. This was important to me. It gave me a "warm and fuzzy" about the import.
- I tried three (3) times to import all my Quicken 2007 data (about 3500 transactions). I followed the conversion instructions carefully, but every time I ended up with a different balance on my primary checking account (none of the balances were correct). I finally gave up and just imported everything my bank currently had available and that worked fine. I was able to import the whole Quicken 2007 data file (QIF) with SEE Finance, by the way.

So how are they side-by-side? Almost identical - even in appearance. At this point, I can't recommend one over the other for the type of financial tracking I do. If pressed, I would recommend SEE Finance over Quicken - it costs half as much.
Click to expand...

I would have to say the Quicken product is more polished (prettier). I also don't have to pay attention to my transaction imports. I don't have to look for duplicates the way I do with SEE. This is important since I'm usually not very awake when I check my stuff (5:30am and not enough coffee).
 
I'm using MS Money '96 in WinXP / Parallels and chronically hoping for a good looking for a good finance app. Quicken Financial Life was exciting but then became vaporware. So now, Essentials? At first glance, it might do what I need. Looking forward to reviews.

Is there a demo to download? Really want to try it!
 
pokeyjoe said:
- You can no longer make entries directly into the register. I don't know of any of the "new" financial software offerings where you can, but I haven't tried every last one of them.
Click to expand...
How do you enter your finances and reconcile and etc. if you can't enter data? This is the very core of personal finance: tracking one's finances. :confused:
 
QEM Bill Pay Question

I'm awaiting the MBP refresh like everyone else and looking at software to replace what I use on my PC. I use Quicken and would like to move to a Mac version when the MBP refresh happens.

My concern is with the fact that QEM doesn't support bill pay. Is this the bill pay you have to pay Intuit for to have them do your payments for you?

I use bill pay through my bank (I guess) via Quicken. I set up electronic payees, enter the transaction in my Quicken register as an electronic payment, and then transmit it to the bank (while downloading other transactions from the bank). I assume the bank then handles the payment process. I don't pay anything for this; I believe it's a service my bank provides; I just don't create the payments on the bank's website.

Is this functionality available in QEM, or is this feature also eliminated? I'm not sure if "doesn't have bill pay" means the Intuit "paid" version or the scenario I describe above.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide. If it's not supported, then I suppose I'll go the Parellels/Quicken 2009 or 2010 route for the MBP.
 
I guess this is just another one of those areas in which competent software is not available for macs...

Another area is maps...there's nothing like Microsoft Streets for the Mac, and the google and yahoo online programs basically...suck.
 
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