I couldn't agree more. I tried Banktivity for 1.5 years. It just never worked right. I spent more time fighting it than using it, and their customer service was... well, lets just say they just were not a viable option. I switched to Quicken 17 a few months back -- it took all of 10 minutes to x-fer all info -- and it has been one of the best decisions. It is SOOOO much better to the point that I'm embarrassed I didn't do this sooner. I too, decided to clean up all the weird categories Banktivity generated (as previous poster noted, this is optional... for the "clean data" freaks out there like me). Took some time, but now all my reports and data from Quicken is clean, concise, and accurate. I can account for every penny that moves anywhere.
Also switched from Quicken to iBank 4 , now Banktivity 5.x (BTW: Dumb name change for no reason) and it is of course not perfect.
The UI is non intuitive and there are a lot of quirks. When I read that the company allegedly uses the app to run their company finances I have to laugh and wonder if/why they do not see some of the inconvenient ways they force upon users for doing things.
For starters it never gives you a new entry line staying on the date you are trying to record when you click enter or return or save. You have to select a new entry. To be fair , this may be a patented feature and they do not want to pay for licensing.
Split transactions in memory need to be cleared , so one can enter a category which doesn't require a split.
One should just be able to overwrite it in the field.
Banktivity is very mouse happy if one wants to do things without mistakes and having to check what is on screen.
Another negative is that it has a fixed way of displaying information. The only way to enlarge that is to change the screen resolution in system preferences.
Every once in a while I go to the forums, when something really annoys me or I am trying to find a workaround.
Funny to read from the president that they recognize that issue, but have no idea what to do about that.
(We can't make everybody happy)
I suggested to allow for pinching and zooming, a now classic Mac possibility which many other apps allow.
The fact that they want extra money to connect to your bank to download info is a money grab, which I sidestep by just downloading from my bank and importing the data. (Don't know if they still want money for banking connections , as I never used the "feature")
I realize this may look like a negative review and why am I still using it?
It is the best for MY set up on a Mac and does everything I need for a good price. I have a lot of patience and can deal with non perfect things in life if they do not totally waste my time, unless something far superior is around.
The trick is to learn it's quirks and instead of fighting it, outfoxing it
(For lack of a better word) Shouldn't be necessary, but so be it
Banktivity is very basic and simple, but it does what it does really well. The money I spent on Banktivity so far is minute compared to when Quicken used to always want at least around $ 40 a year to upgrade.
I also do not like if there are several versions, like basic, , plus, pro, home, business etc. etc. Just give me one version with all the features.
Whatever I don't use I don't use.
As for customer service , it depends on what you need. I once had a corrupted ibank database, which they helped restore patiently until it worked again. Some fluke occurrence.
Anything relating to app annoyances they will not be good at and point you to the forums or ask you to put in a feature request. Whatever I needed to solve was done by trial and error. The manual (who reads manuals these days?) may help 50% of the time.
Again , maybe just for me, it all works really well since ibank 4, which is years ago and they have been around when Quicken dropped the ball for a long time. I tried others and in the end settled on ibank/Banktivity.
One of the best reviews one can read is to check at Amazon reviews and go to Grant A. Thompson's review, who actually updates his comments and even addresses the gripes of frustrated users.
Once you get past the "Old" way of doing things and what is admittedly a bad UI experience the program is
as he writes : Still the best!
