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Lack of Diverse Finance Software

dgrizzell

dgrizzell

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
34
2
Nashville, TN
As a student of finance and avid Mac user, I'm a little disappointed in the slim market of personal finance applications for OSX. For years I used Quicken on Windows before I got my MacBook and was actually impressed with its features. Obviously, Quicken for Mac 2007 was a complete failure - I have yet to use any software that could compare in its bugs and crashes.

At this point, I'm using iBank, which appears to be the best application out there of the many I have tried (see below). This is sad, since iBank is lacking in features, advanced investment management, and many of the asset/loan tracking elements that Quicken was able to offer.

The difficulty with this problem is trying to find the middle ground. I group finance software into three areas:

Beginner - Basic budgeting software to balance your checkbook and track spending.

Intermediate - Track various loan types, asset depreciation, investments, and account balances with various forecasting and budgeting capabilities.

Advanced - Full-fledged accounting software that is needed to "do the books" by small business. These usually included a POS system and some type of extensive reporting feature for financial statements.

I'm looking for something in the intermediate category that is basically one step below business level accounting software.

Here's what I've tried:

Money
MoneyWell
Fortura Fresh Finance
iBank
Squirrel
Quicken for Mac 2007

Anyone having a similar problem? Maybe some success in the same area?
 
Check out Gnucash

I also have tried Quicken on windows and am looking for something on the Mac. I've tried iBank and just got Gnucash. Its free and looks good. The reporting is better than iBank and it seems to do everything except online bill payment. You can get it at www.gnucash.org
 
For intermediate features I'd go with gnucash. It's used by many businesses and being a double accounting program is easily more advanced than the usual Mac efforts. Next to that is Moneydance. Cross platform, nearly double entry accounting and is fairly feature packed with good support.
 
Thanks for the recommendations.

Just as an update, I just recently started using SEE Finance and have been really impressed. The build is stable and it has all of the features of iBank plus some.
 
You could also wait for the next Quicken for Mac release which is due out February 2010. It sounds like it will be a big improvement to the previous version.
 
ValL said:
You could also wait for the next Quicken for Mac release which is due out February 2010. It sounds like it will be a big improvement to the previous version.
Click to expand...

And what are the odds that they make that date, given their horrible track record with their previous stabs at a new version?
 
richpjr said:
And what are the odds that they make that date, given their horrible track record with their previous stabs at a new version?
Click to expand...

No kidding? It looks like all the hype for Quicken Financial Life for Mac was 2 years too long. I still haven't really found anything - SEE was not enough. Anyone else have recommendations?

*Bump*
 
Duffinator said:
Quicken for Mac 2010 must be close, I received an email from Quicken today and I'm able to preorder the software. Still states it will be released in February 2010. We can only hope.;)
Click to expand...

Please, inuit has always given the mac users the short end of the stick when it comes to quicken. Less features, less updates, more buggy and unstable.

I've given up on Quiken, why should they get my hard earned money for such a shoddy product that they themselves don't take serious.
 
Does iBank or any of the other programs do online banking? Or is Quicken 2007 the only one that does it? That is the only feature I really care about, beyond basic tracking. It is very disappointing that Quicken 2010 won't even do this.

Like many others, this is the only reason I still have my 2003 Dell still hooked up. I have been using Quicken for about 13 years and haven't paid bills using checks in just as long. I guess if no program can do this on the Mac, then I'll have to use the online capabilities of my bank, which is like $5 a month.
 
mongrol said:
For intermediate features I'd go with gnucash. It's used by many businesses and being a double accounting program is easily more advanced than the usual Mac efforts. Next to that is Moneydance. Cross platform, nearly double entry accounting and is fairly feature packed with good support.
Click to expand...

My vote is for MoneyDance. It has been my banking app for 2 years since moving from Quicken and Windows.

ValL said:
You could also wait for the next Quicken for Mac release which is due out February 2010. It sounds like it will be a big improvement to the previous version.
Click to expand...

Please. Intuit sunsets their products too quickly, locking out features to force users to upgrade. BTDT and one reason they are on my NEVER TO BUY LIST. :)

JayInNJ said:
Does iBank or any of the other programs do online banking? Or is Quicken 2007 the only one that does it? That is the only feature I really care about, beyond basic tracking. It is very disappointing that Quicken 2010 won't even do this.

Like many others, this is the only reason I still have my 2003 Dell still hooked up. I have been using Quicken for about 13 years and haven't paid bills using checks in just as long. I guess if no program can do this on the Mac, then I'll have to use the online capabilities of my bank, which is like $5 a month.
Click to expand...

MoneyDance is said to do online banking. There is an extension I use to track stock prices and it maintains my portfolio.

For online banking, I use my bank's website and download QIF files to import back in to MoneyDance. It is the workflow I had to resort to under Quicken when they sunsetted my version after 3 years and disabled online banking for me. It works and allows a degree of separation.

Must admit I've been thinking about investigating the online banking part though.
 
JayInNJ said:
Does iBank or any of the other programs do online banking? Or is Quicken 2007 the only one that does it? That is the only feature I really care about, beyond basic tracking. It is very disappointing that Quicken 2010 won't even do this.

Like many others, this is the only reason I still have my 2003 Dell still hooked up. I have been using Quicken for about 13 years and haven't paid bills using checks in just as long. I guess if no program can do this on the Mac, then I'll have to use the online capabilities of my bank, which is like $5 a month.
Click to expand...

Yes, iBank does online banking. I would highly recommend iBank to anyone looking to do basic personal finance, i.e., credit cards, checking account, and savings account. I would not, however, recommend using their software to track non-deposit based accounts such as brokerages and investments. This is my chief problem with iBank, Moneydance, and all the others. The only program I ever used that tracked this information well was the latest Windows version of Quicken.
 
dgrizzell said:
Good point. I guess I'm looking for a second opinion?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you are looking for. Most of the dissatisfied Quicken people seem to be unhappy that after numerous delays, they released a product that removed a bunch of features that the previous versions had in it. Depending on whether you needs, this may or may not be a deal killer. If you are looking for a check register and some high level overviews of your finances, it works fine (though is kind of pricey for what it does).
 
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