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I just bought iBank and they are currently running a rebate offer if you have purchased Quicken or MS Money you can get $20 back so the cost would only be $40.

So far I'm very happy with iBank--very easy to set up and download from my bank.

At least they are offering some sort of incentive. Unfortunately, I don't own either of this applications. Oh well.

Everyone is raving about YNAB (you need a budget), so I might fire up Parallels/XP and see how that works out. I'd much rather use a native Mac application but if YNAB is the best solution then it might be worth it.
 
iBank rebate details

I just bought iBank and they are currently running a rebate offer if you have purchased Quicken or MS Money you can get $20 back so the cost would only be $40.

So far I'm very happy with iBank--very easy to set up and download from my bank.

Sorry, everyone, I don't want to come off like a marketing guy (which I am). But just to add some objective and relevant info: the extended rebate offer applies to iBank purchases made by Oct. 31, and won't be extended again. In case that sounds the least bit like a hard sell, you have 30 additional days to request your rebate or a full refund for iBank if it doesn't meet your needs or expectations. More info is at http://www.iggsoftware.com
 
Personally I'd pay $100 in a heartbeat for a mac native program that allowed me to pay bills online (directly like quicken), download transactions from my bank directly (like quicken) and track investments and would let me import my data painlessly that I've built up in quicken over 10 years of use.

I don't care about the cost - it's a piece of software that I use very frequently and it's important it works right. However there doesn't seem to be an option that does the above at any cost.
 
Sorry, everyone, I don't want to come off like a marketing guy (which I am). But just to add some objective and relevant info: the extended rebate offer applies to iBank purchases made by Oct. 31, and won't be extended again. In case that sounds the least bit like a hard sell, you have 30 additional days to request your rebate or a full refund for iBank if it doesn't meet your needs or expectations. More info is at http://www.iggsoftware.com


Just to clarify. Is this rebate only for current users of MSMoney and Quicken? Or is the rebate extended to any new user, as long as it's purchased before the 31st? Instant rebate, correct?
 
Sorry, everyone, I don't want to come off like a marketing guy (which I am)....http://www.iggsoftware.com
Will the trial version of iBank import unlimited records from MS Money? Or, does iBank have a 100% money back policy?

I'm interested in trying iBank, but if I can't verify it will import my complete MS Money data (10 years worth), then I'm back to waiting for Quicken or something.
 
Will the trial version of iBank import unlimited records from MS Money? Or, does iBank have a 100% money back policy?

I'm interested in trying iBank, but if I can't verify it will import my complete MS Money data (10 years worth), then I'm back to waiting for Quicken or something.

Most programs can import whatever you can export from MS money. You will have to export each account separately. I think loan accounts require a special procedure as they can't be exported to qif the same way.

Moneydance has a guide and I believe the process is similar for ibank:
http://help.infinitekind.com/faqs/frequently-asked-questions-2/moving-from-ms-money-to-moneydance

ibank disucssion
http://forums.iggsoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=13506&p=38950&hilit=ms+money+microsoft+money#p38950
 
answers about iBank

Just to clarify. Is this rebate only for current users of MS Money and Quicken? Or is the rebate extended to any new user, as long as it's purchased before the 31st? Instant rebate, correct?

Not instant, sorry. This is a mail-in rebate, with quasi-instant refunds to online purchases made at the IGG site. (You mail in, but we don't mail out checks in most cases.) The mail-in requirement is for verification of prior licenses to Quicken (any version, Mac or PC) or Money.

Will the trial version of iBank import unlimited records from MS Money? Or, does iBank have a 100% money back policy?

I'm interested in trying iBank, but if I can't verify it will import my complete MS Money data (10 years worth), then I'm back to waiting for Quicken or something.

Trial version lets you mess around within limits. But with purchase, IGG's 30-day money-back guarantee is exactly that. Check it out, get your data ported, use our support team if you need help getting over any humps, and if it's not working, or not for you... we buy it back. Your MS$ data should transfer fine, but in this forum I would rather generalize than promise.

Personally I'd pay $100 in a heartbeat for a mac native program that allowed me to pay bills online (directly like quicken), download transactions from my bank directly (like quicken) and track investments and would let me import my data painlessly that I've built up in quicken over 10 years of use.

I don't care about the cost - it's a piece of software that I use very frequently and it's important it works right. However there doesn't seem to be an option that does the above at any cost.

iBank's capable of all of the above, save for in-app billpay. I don't want to gloss over that limitation - it's a dealmaker for some users - but for many people billpay is just a tool of habit. I can't say what's best for you, but I pay nearly everything online, automatically or manually, and whether I do so from my bank account or via credit card, it all reconciles when I update the accounts via OFX. I find it's the same number of steps, just a different way around. Promise you'll pay $100 once we add it? :)
 
I will, Iggy.

I use scheduled transactions to pay many bills automatically. It's a must have on my end.
 
MoneyWell

I bought MoneyWell in August and continue to learn the features of it. It is not a "record keeping" financial program like Quicken. Instead, it actually shows you what you are spending as you go, and you can see at a glance if you spend more than you want in any particular category. For instance, if you dine out too much, your Dining bucket will tip over and show you in the red. When you first begin the program you tell it how much to allocate for different catagories (buckets). For me, this is what I need to keep on track and keep my accounts in order. Give it a try (free trial). For some, it is difficult to learn the concept, but once you catch on it is a really good program. And support is top notch!
 
Most programs can import whatever you can export from MS money. You will have to export each account separately. I think loan accounts require a special procedure as they can't be exported to qif the same way.
Many finance apps have a 100-transaction limit that prevents a full import test.

I demo'd MS Money 2008 last year: it fully imported my current data set and let me do a thorough test and comparison to my older version.

iggypop said:
Trial version lets you mess around within limits. But with purchase, IGG's 30-day money-back guarantee is exactly that.
My worry is those "limits" :) I want to load my current financial set, have my wife spend a couple days with it (as she actually does daily finances) and decide if we can ditch Money and buy iBank :)
 
So, I'm wondering if I should just run YNAB(you need a budget) on Windows via Parallels OR go with the native Mac app 'iBank'. Besides the obvious, working on Windows and not native Mac argument, what's the benefit of one app or the other at this point? I'm going either for sure, just trying to see if I missed anything that someone can bring to light. Any pros/cons either way?

Thanks!

~e
 
So, I'm wondering if I should just run YNAB(you need a budget) on Windows via Parallels OR go with the native Mac app 'iBank'. Besides the obvious, working on Windows and not native Mac argument, what's the benefit of one app or the other at this point? I'm going either for sure, just trying to see if I missed anything that someone can bring to light. Any pros/cons either way?

iBank and YNAB are entirely different beasts. iBank, like most PFM's will give you budget reports after you've spent your cash. It's not a budget planner. The vast majority of PFM's use this budgeting style as it's easy to implement and makes sense to people. It lets them say "we do budgeting" on their feature page but it's not a good budgeting tool.

YNAB is an Envelope Budgeter. Other apps like this are "Budget" by Snowmint, Moneywell (very good) and my own personal unannounced application. Envelope budgeting lets you split your income ahead of time into "envelopes" which you then pay bills out of. Generally assigning a outgoing transaction to that envelope will deduct the amount from it. That way you can see how much cash you have in each category left to spend. It's an excellent budgeting method that works.

Your choice comes down to requirements. Do you want to seriously control a budget or do you want a good application that controls transactions.

Basically an envelope budgeter will save you money, the others will tell you what money you've spent after you've spent it, which is usually too late.
 
Your choice comes down to requirements. Do you want to seriously control a budget or do you want a good application that controls transactions.

Basically an envelope budgeter will save you money, the others will tell you what money you've spent after you've spent it, which is usually too late.
It also depends on how you think about money. If you think of money in terms of envelopes or buckets or wells or whatever, then a MoneyWell type program may be for you. If you think in terms of bank accounts, then a Quicken typ program may be for you.

I'm a bank account thinker and find these envelope approaches incomprehensible. But other people find enveloping their money the only way to get their finances under control.
 
Basically an envelope budgeter will save you money, the others will tell you what money you've spent after you've spent it, which is usually too late.
I'm not sure which category I'm in :)

I've been using MS Money since 1.0 and spreadsheets before that. I do use budgeting, but not in the sense that I only have a fixed amount to spend on any particular category in any month. It doesn't matter if the actual amount is under or over the budget. What I use budgeting for is for predicting future cashflow in all my accounts. The cashflow forecast is absolutely essential for me and budgets are necessary to make it work.

Maybe I should explain what I mean - I would love to hear that there is another application which is able to do this. The key elements are:

1. Recurring future payments and deposits with flexible payment intervals and dates, and the ability to edit an individual future transaction for a specific date without affecting other payments in the future, and the ability to enter one-off future transactions.

2. Budget for each category which can be set up manually, or automatically based on a combination of historical spending patterns and future recurring payments, and which can be allocated to a specific account or split over multiple accounts e.g. dining out always on Visa, supermarket always on Switch card, fuel on either account.

3. Intelligent cashflow forecast for each account for up to 12 months ahead, which takes into account all future payments and deposits, budgetary amounts, and any actual transactions recorded in the period e.g. say the average spend on dining out is £200 a month, we are halfway through the month and have spent only £50, and there's a recurring payment on the last weekend of the month for £60, cashflow forecast would assume that another £90 will be spent in this category this month.

This is all a lot simpler than it sounds but in practice, I know roughly how much I will have in any one of my accounts up to 12 months ahead. I also know what my credit card bill will be every month for the next year, can adjust the future payments individually from my cheque account to reflect that, and so I know how much can be paid into my savings account every month for the next 12 months. Obviously this is just a forecast but getting the budgets right makes it a pretty accurate one. Additional expenditure which is unplanned makes you think about the whole picture of the next 12 months - not just a month at a time.

Exceeding a budget for a category in a month happens frequently and the idea of a tipping bucket or an envelope or whatever maybe doesn't fit with that. In my system, the budget is an average monthly spend, not a maximum, so some months it will be over, some under. Over all the different categories it evens out. But my point is the budget is not a budget in a strict sense of some arbitrary limit to spend on a category beyond which there's a problem - it's a means of forecasting only.

This is not something I am ever going to give up - it works very well as a system and if I have to keep using MS Money in a virtual machine for the foreseeable future, then I will do that. However I would love to hear that there is a native Mac app that will do the same things for me. Is there? I have looked at a the websites of a few apps and come to the conclusion that there isn't :( I'm wondering if I'm going to have to write one myself in the longer term.

I should also say that really, requirement number 4 is an easy import directly from the .mny file. I can't believe it would be that hard to reverse engineer the format and take care of all accounts, categories, budgets etc in one go. QIF export/import is not a very flexible or comprehensive medium - and who wants to do it one account at a time? How does that even work if you have lots of historical transfers between accounts. I'm wondering if the next version of Quicken will do exactly that. I'm sure I read when MS killed Money that the next version of Quicken was going to be delayed due to conversations with MS to make the transition easier. I read that as suggesting MS are going to document the format of the database file and allow Quicken to maybe import directly from the .mny file. I hope so.
 
As a nearly 20 year quicken user, I would LOVE to find a mac program that would let me ditch intuit for good. I'm still using quicken in parallels (and that is the only reason I still run parallels) because the mac version sucks so bad.

the problem I've had when looking at every other mac option is that I absolutely need to have interface with my bank to pay electronically through the program (with quicken, I have scheduled transactions monthly for gas bill, mortgage, etc and can send "checks" electronically whenever I want, WITHOUT having to use my bank website).

I also download and track investments using the program.

I've not found any program that can do both of those things on the mac side reliably. If that has changed, I'd sure love to check my options.

I personally find it remarkable that there hasn't been more development in competition to quicken on the mac side.


Same requirement here, especially about the online billpay. I believe Moneydance can do this. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but plan to. Has anyone else given this a shot?
 
Just got my "you must upgrade quicken or we're going to make it stop working" letter from intuit. I'm using 2007 version - they make you upgrade every 3 years. Screw you intuit - make a product I WANT to buy... I used to upgrade every year.

So now I've got until April to find an alternative or I have to once again shell out money for a windows version.
 
None of these apps do anything for anyone as long as banks continue to charge you a ****ing fee to download your transactions. It used to be free, but now it costs 5 bucks or so depending upon the bank. I can't believe they charge you for this crap now. I told my bank to cancel mine after I found out they were charging me for it.
 
Same requirement here, especially about the online billpay. I believe Moneydance can do this. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but plan to. Has anyone else given this a shot?

Both you and "PPRIOR" might need to get together and write your own application. There is really nothing that will allow you to do what you ask other than Quicken. Quicken has potential but in the end are a huge disappointment and yet they still suck money out of your for upgrades every chance they get. Each upgrade bring it's own new set of problems.

I would say you might need to suck it up and do a few things manually. Enter or import your data into another application and pay your bills either on via your bank or the company owed website. It really isn't that hard to do and if you think it is, then that just pure laziness. It's very easy to do.

I personally use, YNAB3 for the Mac. It's got to be the best finance/budgeting software on the market. YNAB's interface is slick, powerful and intuitive. You can import your bank data but I just enter everything manually. Unless you have a mind boggling amount of transactions, you don't really need to import the data. Doing by hand is easy and for me a lot more satisfying. I've tried SO MANY other options and this by far is the best. Can you tell that I love this app? LOL! If it's worth anything, before YNAB3 was released, I was about to go with iBank.

Just my 2 cents. ;-)


~e
 
None of these apps do anything for anyone as long as banks continue to charge you a ****ing fee to download your transactions. It used to be free, but now it costs 5 bucks or so depending upon the bank. I can't believe they charge you for this crap now. I told my bank to cancel mine after I found out they were charging me for it.

You are ABSOLUTELY right! Believe it or not, I found going to the actually company site (cable, phone, credit card, gas, etc.) is better in that they don't charge you a "check fee". Yes, you'll notice (at least for me), Citibank charges $1 CHK fee for every bill I pay through them. I have a folder set up in my bookmarks that contains all the companies websites that I have to pay every month and all I have to do is just go to each one every month and it's paid without incurring that bank fee.

~e
 
You are ABSOLUTELY right! Believe it or not, I found going to the actually company site (cable, phone, credit card, gas, etc.) is better in that they don't charge you a "check fee". Yes, you'll notice (at least for me), Citibank charges $1 CHK fee for every bill I pay through them. I have a folder set up in my bookmarks that contains all the companies websites that I have to pay every month and all I have to do is just go to each one every month and it's paid without incurring that bank fee.

~e

I've never been charged a check fee or any fee for using online banking through Quicken. My bank has been Wachovia for a few years now. I tried Moneydance for a little while today. It can do online bill payments, but doesn't let you setup repeating payments. To me that is the only reason to have "banking software". You setup all your recurring bills to be automatically paid, and setup your other bills to be paid as the bills come in. Since you can set the payment dates, you then can see your cash flow for the next month or two. Doing some hybrid of a website and then using software to track your account doesn't cut it, since it won't know what pending payments you made. At that point I would just stick with the bank web interface for everything. It is a shame software I have used since 1996 is getting worse. I might give Quicken 2007 a try since it seems to be the only thing with these basic features. I can't see how they will discontinue it since Quicken 2010 doesn't support many features anymore and they actually point you to the 2007 version if you want to do online banking or track investment purchases.
 
I wouldn't count on online banking being free for much longer, at ANY bank. They will fee you to death to make up the new taxes that His Holiness is putting on the banks.
 
I wouldn't count on online banking being free for much longer, at ANY bank. They will fee you to death to make up the new taxes that His Holiness is putting on the banks.

I agree the fees keep increasing. I think I have been getting it free because of the account I have, just like I get free checks. I think it is some type of "premium" free checking account where you have to maintain a minimum balance. My banks keep getting bought by other banks, so I am never sure what the account is called, but they have kept the same terms all along.
 
Still confused here

Well, for me it's the tail wagging the dog. I so much want to buy an iMac but have many years of quicken data on my PC. I love quicken, which i use for personal finance and two organizations I am involved with.

The main features I use are:

Sceduled payments and bill pay

d/l from credit cards to update data or to reconcile with what I entered

advanced scheduling of payments to cover vacation time (guess I could handle some of this on iPhone and go directly to customer website)

reporting function esp for the 2 organizations

investment tracking is handled by my financial manager
budgeting function not really used

I have read the entire post and have come away with the following:

1. No real good mac program available
2. I need to at least look at the products mention in the thread--ibank; moneywell; ynab; money
3. Quicken for mac 2010 doesn't appear to be the answer


I private messaged someone on the thread who appears to be in the same boat as I am--long time quicken user and really doesn't want to change.

I asked this question and would appreciate comments from others. If I d/l Windows XP onto the Mac can I use Quicken for windows that way. I am betting the answer is NO as it sounds too simple and someone would have proposed that. Might what I want to do have something with people mentioning running Virtual or Using Parallels (which I assume is a Mac product).

anyway sorry for rambling but would appreciate comments or suggestions. LOL I guess misery does like company.

thanks all,
Mike
 
I asked this question and would appreciate comments from others. If I d/l Windows XP onto the Mac can I use Quicken for windows that way. I am betting the answer is NO as it sounds too simple and someone would have proposed that. Might what I want to do have something with people mentioning running Virtual or Using Parallels (which I assume is a Mac product).
Yes - you can install XP/Vista/Windows 7 on a Mac inside a virtual machine using Parallels, VMware or VirtualBox. Then you can run any Windows program inside it while simultaneously using OS X applications. I'm using Microsoft Money and some Windows genealogy software on my Mac until such time as there is an obvious Mac replacement with the functionality I need.
 
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