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How is the new Quicken?

richpjr

richpjr

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 9, 2006
4,003
2,943
When the new version of Quicken for the Mac was released, it got ripped apart pretty good and a lot of people went to alternatives. I know that Inuit had come out and said they would be releasing updates to address some issues and was wondering where it stands today. I bank at Wells Fargo and they just dropped support for Microsoft Money, which I have been using forever. So now I need a replacement and was wondering how the new version of Quicken is.
 
I don't think there have been any significant updates to Quicken Essentials for Mac. One of the biggest limitations, IMO, is lack of bill pay feature (thru Quicken) or lack of direct connect bill pay (thru your bank...that is you can enter the payment directly on Quicken...connects to your bank...sends the payment). You have to go onto your bank's website to may payments. Later, you can then download these payments to Quicken, so at this time, it's not much more than a checkbook to reconcile your finances. I use Quicken for PC (miles ahead of Mac version). From Quicken, I can make payments for all my bills, transfer money to different accounts, etc. That said, a lot of banks are starting to charge a monthly fee to use the feature to enter payments thru Quicken..they would rather you go onto their website and make payments (which is usually free).

Also if you like to track investments, see how they are doing, the PC version is much better.
 
I'm still messing around with Squirrel, but if it doesn't work out, I'll go to Intuit, those limited features (checkbook reconciling) are really ALL I'm looking for. I tried and hated Mint, iBank, and MoneyDance.
 
I have been using Quicken 2007 for Mac and occasionally get pissed at it for messing up something. So I decided to give Essentials a try. After 1 hour of trying it out I removed it entirely from my machine and sent Intuit a refund request. It is terrible! The biggest drawback IMO is the almost complete lack of reporting. I could have probably bent many of requirements to meet the way it worked but with the lack of reports it was a non-starter. They have a lot of nerve charging for this mess of a product. As for iBank the big problem here is if you have been a Quicken user for any length of time it just doesn't work the way you have become accustomed to work.
 
The lack of a good personal finance program for the Mac continues to give me pain. I am still running an old PC just to keep my Microsoft Money program active. I bought ibank and just could not get it to work for me. I don't buy the argument that everyone just banks on line and that makes a program on your computer unnecessary. I keep good records and it has saved me money on more than one occasion.
 
We are running a Windows virtual machine on our Mac mini server solely to run Quicken and before that we ran Microsoft Money on the VM. Nothing that we tried on the Mac side was suitable. Decent (or any) investment tracking was the primary shortcoming.
 
Yup Quicken on the Mac still sucks.

Tis the only reason I have a VM on both my iMac and MBA. I've used it and bought every version, every year since 1990 (Quicken for DOS). Not going to quit now.

I tried using the bill pay from within Wells Fargo website but it actually creates more work.
 
Eldiablojoe said:
I'm still messing around with Squirrel, but if it doesn't work out, I'll go to Intuit, those limited features (checkbook reconciling) are really ALL I'm looking for. I tried and hated Mint, iBank, and MoneyDance.
Click to expand...

UPDATE: I'm actually quite happy with Essentials, it does what I need it to do, and it does it easily, without confusion, with an easy to follow GUI. I use my wells fargo website for bill pay, so I don't pay bills from within my financial software. I use it mostly to download transactions and then reconcile statements. For me, this works perfectly. I understand that I am probably in the minority of users with this opinion, fwiw.
 
talmy said:
We are running a Windows virtual machine on our Mac mini server solely to run Quicken and before that we ran Microsoft Money on the VM. Nothing that we tried on the Mac side was suitable. Decent (or any) investment tracking was the primary shortcoming.
Click to expand...
+1, using VM and Q2009 Win version. And investment tracking is primary reason.

And to think that Quicken's initial success was on the Mac platform back in the mid-late 80's, which I participated, and now has such limited products/support for a growing market is rather disappointing.

From the biz/customer satisfaction side, folks like myself are spending money for VM and Win s/w to run on OSX platforms. To me this is lost revenue for Intuit, since there is a reasonable chance that they could capture a portion of this with a quality OSX version.
Oh well....... that is life!
 
ReelAction said:
From the biz/customer satisfaction side, folks like myself are spending money for VM and Win s/w to run on OSX platforms. To me this is lost revenue for Intuit, since there is a reasonable chance that they could capture a portion of this with a quality OSX version.
Oh well....... that is life!
Click to expand...

One would hope so, but it is probably not the case as long as they don't have any real competition. When the choice is Quicken for Windows on a VM or the non-existent Good Quicken for Mac, they get a sale no matter what.

As far as Intuit is concerned they can only expand their market with low-end products like Quicken Essentials that compete directly with the exiting Mac offerings.
 
I exported/imported my Quicken Premier 2010 file according to Intuit's instructions, and my transcactions change my balances in the opposite way that they're supposed to: deposits to my checking account DECREASE the balance, and payments from my checking account INCREASE the balance. Credit card balances work oppositely too: charges decrease the balance and payments increase the balance.

Quicken for Windows works fine on my Fusion virtual machine. I guess I'll just keep using Windows for Quicken.
 
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