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Personal financial organizer suggestions

E

efoto

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
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Cloud 9 (-6)
I did a search on Versiontracker with results here but after reading through some of them, I couldn't really figure out what would be a good start.

Anyone have experience with any of the apps for Mac designed to be a financial manager or simple account tracker? I am basically looking for something similar to M$'s Money program if that exists. I would prefer the app be free (of course, who doesn't like free) but if it is really great software, a few pennies wouldn't kill me.
 
efoto said:
I did a search on Versiontracker with results here but after reading through some of them, I couldn't really figure out what would be a good start.

Anyone have experience with any of the apps for Mac designed to be a financial manager or simple account tracker? I am basically looking for something similar to M$'s Money program if that exists. I would prefer the app be free (of course, who doesn't like free) but if it is really great software, a few pennies wouldn't kill me.
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I'll bump this !!!!! hope someone could help...it intrests me as well
 
I've been using CheckBook by Splasm for a few years now to keep track of my bank account balance, It's basic but it does everything I need.
You can find it at www.splasm.com
I think they have a demo you can download, so you could try it out for free.
 
iSaint said:
I use my wife, she's free but she won't use the computer.

My iBook came with Quicken for Mac , which made it free. Did your Mac come with it?
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Glad to hear you setup, but unless she will work for me, for the same fee, I probably haven't found a solution yet :p

There is QuickBooks NUE 2005, but it says I get 10 launches before you are required to register, so not looking like a great solution.
 
grahamwallis said:
I've been using CheckBook by Splasm for a few years now to keep track of my bank account balance, It's basic but it does everything I need.
You can find it at www.splasm.com
I think they have a demo you can download, so you could try it out for free.
Click to expand...

I just took the feature walk-through on splasm's site (wow thats fun to pronounce, splasm :D) and it looks like a pretty well featured program. There is indeed a trial that "limits each account (so you can have more than one I assume) to 25 entries until you enter a valid registration key".

Looks to be good, thanks a lot.
 
I use Quicken 2005 for Mac. It's very easy to use and if you choose to, you can have it autopopulate your register by connecting directly to your bank. I prefer to download my transactions once a month to reconcile - and Quicken handles that beautfully - matching up amounts and dates without a hitch. All I ever have to do is press 'ok'. For my small business I use Quickbooks Pro 2005 for Mac.

I realize these programs aren't free or even cheap, but since you are going to be managing your finances I think it's well worth the investment. Usually You get what you pay for ;)
 
Cooknn said:
I use Quicken 2005 for Mac. It's very easy to use and if you choose to, you can have it autopopulate your register by connecting directly to your bank. I prefer to download my transactions once a month to reconcile - and Quicken handles that beautfully - matching up amounts and dates without a hitch. All I ever have to do is press 'ok'. For my small business I use Quickbooks Pro 2005 for Mac.

I realize these programs aren't free or even cheap, but since you are going to be managing your finances I think it's well worth the investment. Usually You get what you pay for ;)
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Well I pray I won't have a use for Quickbooks Pro because I know I don't have the budget for it. As far as Quicken '05 for Mac, that is inticing. The CheckBook program from Splasm seems pretty good after playing around with it for a few minutes.

If there are other options out there, please continue to list them. Thanks to all, great suggestions and good resources.
 
Quicken 2005 is the way to go. My Mac supports Mac data formats, so I can import transactions very easily. Quicken BillPay is probably the single best thing I've started doing in the past 10 years (besides switching to Mac). You can schedule and pay all of your bills right from Quicken. I do occasionally get crashes with Quicken but nothing that has affected my data. I do wish Apple or even Microsoft would release financial software. It would be nice to have some options. The shareware ones are just too basic for my tastes.
 
Sorry to jump in here but I've got a question about Quicken.

Intuit stopped UK support for Quick back in January. I am seriously considering getting the US version as I have a large MS Money file that I need to import.

Will the US version handle UK Sterling OK? I am not too worried about online banking, such as bill paying, and downloading statements, I do all this manually.
 
I use Quicken 2004 at home. If you're use to MS Money, I don't recommend using Quicken. Seriously. MS Money is the one program I miss the most from my Windows days.

Another checkbook program is MoneyDance although I've never tried it. I've heard its nice though.
 
Windows versus OS X Quicken

I am in the process of attempting to make the jump to all Apple. My XP Pro system is in the basement getting its wireless connection via my Airport Extreme. The new iMac G5 20" is in the office and looks great.

Quicken for Mac is a step backward from the Windows version. On my PC I download from the bank or credit card company and the data is automatically imported and reconciled. I became very frustrated trying to use Quicken 05 for Mac.

So, will I need a program like virtual PC to run the Windows Quicken or will I be relegated to using the PC in the basement for my financial needs?

Thanks for the feedback, Paul
 
You know, if you aren't doing stuff like bill pay or whatever. Just use Excel.

You can find templates for everything these days.
 
PaulKCK said:
On my PC I download from the bank or credit card company and the data is automatically imported and reconciled. I became very frustrated trying to use Quicken 05 for Mac.
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I use Quicken for Mac 2005 and that's how it works (Fifth Third Bank). I have "Download Transactions Via Website" enabled in Accounts as well as "Auto Reconcile". I have my Customer ID, Routing Number and Account Number entered under the Financial Institution. I manually download the "Web Connect" file from my bank and then choose File ->Import -> Web Connect from Quicken. That opens the "Download Tranasactions" window with all my new transactions and automatically matches them with what is already in my register. All I have to do is press Accept for each or Accept All to reconcile.

I have another account that I do not enter transactions for. I just download and auto reconcile from the bank and visually check the numbers.

Both methods work fine for me with Quicken for Mac 2005. Have you tried the methods above?
 
zudo said:
There's liquidledger.com but they don't appear to have a trial version at the moment. I don't feel like paying out for it without trying
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Supposedly there is a 30 day trial version in the works, as stated on their site. From the reviews, containing some bias I'm sure, the program does seem quite powerful yet simple, which is a good combination in my mind. I'm interested to see how this program works, hope the trial is available soon!
 
patseguin said:
Quicken 2005 is the way to go. My Mac supports Mac data formats, so I can import transactions very easily. Quicken BillPay is probably the single best thing I've started doing in the past 10 years (besides switching to Mac). You can schedule and pay all of your bills right from Quicken. I do occasionally get crashes with Quicken but nothing that has affected my data. I do wish Apple or even Microsoft would release financial software. It would be nice to have some options. The shareware ones are just too basic for my tastes.
Click to expand...

Quicken '05, or any version for that matter, has aweful reviews from users on Apple's software page and other places around the net. Every says it is relatively featureless in comparison to it's PC counterpart, and that there is little to no support for the Mac version.

You have found it to be otherwise useful?

Anyone here have used the liquidledger program by chance? It sounds iteresting but I don't want to fish out cash before ever seeing/trying it.
 
efoto said:
Quicken '05, or any version for that matter, has aweful reviews from users on Apple's software page and other places around the net. Every says it is relatively featureless in comparison to it's PC counterpart, and that there is little to no support for the Mac version.
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The unhappy users are always the most vocal. I used Quicken on the PC for years and made the switch to the Mac version when I bought my Power Mac over a year ago. There's almost nothing I can't do on the Mac version that I could do on the PC version. In fact, after my recent exploration into automatic reconciliation I am happier with the program than I've ever been.
 
Cooknn said:
The unhappy users are always the most vocal. I used Quicken on the PC for years and made the switch to the Mac version when I bought my Power Mac over a year ago. There's almost nothing I can't do on the Mac version that I could do on the PC version. In fact, after my recent exploration into automatic reconciliation I am happier with the program than I've ever been.
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I know that loud and unhappy seem to go hand in hand, just kind of turns you off when more satisfied customers don't post decent reviews, scares you off a product. After reading the reviews for Quickbooks and Quicken, I think perhaps 19 reviews in total in Apple's store, not a single one was better than 50% :(

I'm glad to hear you like it. The only program I have found that potentially could work is this liquidledger, but since there is no trial and I'm not a huge fan of setting money down for questionmarks, I have to wait. Quicken goes for $70USD? Worth the money to manage the money you think? or can a little app mentioned above for $15 or $30 do just as well?
 
More Quicken for Mac commentary-
I have been an extensive Quicken user since 1996/97, upgrading every year or two since then. I switched to Mac in 2003 (still using Quicken 2004 for Mac) and can therefore offer some opinions of the pros/cons of PC vs Mac Quicken.
-- There is no doubt that the Mac version is less complete, but all primary features and benefits are there.
-- OS X is the greatest benefit to the design of Quicken for Mac relative to the PC version. You can have multiple registers open and visible at a time, as well as any other open window - just add expose and it makes for great workflow. You're not constricted to the PC one-window, fullscreen view.
-- While Quicken for Mac tries to include an 'overview' window, I have found it's more useful to create your own overview pages, composed of several windows of information. For instance, for loans/real estate, I keep the mortgage register, the house asset register, the loan list/info window, and the payment schedule windows as default for that page. This is true for all Quicken areas (banking, investing, reporting, etc.) - define your own view. While I miss some of the Windows summary pages (they were fairly inflexible but included some good stuff), I have learned to really appreciate the ability to design your own.
-- Investing - The PC version handles the wide variety of potential transactions better than the Mac version, and the portfolio view (the most important view to me) is a lot better in Windows. The Mac version does not even total daily gains/losses, so I have to go to Quicken.com to view sums. But updating your Quicken.com data using the Mac excludes cash in the account, so those online balances aren't exactly right either. (Also, ONLY investment accounts can be seen on Quicken.com for the Mac - no banking or other summaries available.)
-- More and better reports/graphs in the Windows version. I would love to walk into Intuit's Mac unit and show them how it should be done. As it stands, reports and graphs are so inflexible and so hard to get a meaningful picture or presentation of anything. Really. Budgeting in the Mac version is the same as older Windows versions (2002 version and earlier, I think), but I prefer that.
-- During my switch period, I thought that Quicken was the only true weakness in the Mac world, at least for me. I even considered VPC just to continue with the Windows version. At this point, though, there truly are pros to the Mac version that are not available for Windows. I have accepted its weaknesses and have moved on. But, it could be SO MUCH BETTER.
-- Quicken for Mac simply needs some real competition. I would love for Apple to compete, but it would probably take several years to catch up to Quicken, even as it stands today. No other competing products on the Mac can compare overall - brutal shame.
Enough rambling. Feel free to ask questions...
 
Thanks

Thanks for the time to respond about Quicken for Mac. Sometime this summer when things settle down I will see if I can get Quicken for the Mac running a little better for me. Also, did you import your quicken data from the PC when you made the switch?
 
PaulKCK said:
...did you import your quicken data from the PC when you made the switch?
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I bought my first Mac 18 months ago and imported my Quicken data from the PC version. It goes back to 1998. No problems here.
 
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