Replacement for Quicken 2007?

[penndragon]

Parallels Virtual Machine

I have an i5 iMac, Parallels5, and Quicken 2006 (which suits my needs). Would it be possible under Lion to have a Virtual Machine running Snow Leopard, Rosetta, and Quicken 2006? Or is that being naive?

 

[tamvly]

I had thought of running Snow Leopard under VMWare, but have never seen anyone talking about doing. Interesting idea - install a bare bones SL with Quicken. I like it.

 

[OneForGadgets]

This weekend I decided I needed to download some of the programs listed here and give them a test run. My personal preferences were the software required:

- An iPhone application to sync with
- The capabilities on handling an envelope budget system
- Able to easy import my information

MoneyWell:

I had heard such good things about this application, that I decided to immediately go with this one first. After importing all my information (which was very easy and I did not appear to lose any of my transactions), I began to setup the spending plan and allocated my salary to the buckets.

Overall:
I was not too thrilled about this application for a few reasons. First as great as the idea is, I found myself confused more than understanding how it worked. For example, I do track the taxes charged with each individual transaction I have (always have, no idea why), but since the TAXES is a bucket, I would see a negative balance in there at all times. The tutorials provided were great for the general understanding of the application, but did not really help me learn how to use it. I may need to revisit this software later.

iBank:

I currently use this software as we speak and to be quite honest I am again not thrilled with it. Even though it is able to handle all my basic transactions with ease and sync with my iPhone without an issue - it seems that is all it can do. The reporting features has issues (things that are labelled as income when they are expenses) and the budgeting software is pretty much garbage. Your not able to adjust the dates for pay (I receive my check on the 15th and last day of the month), you are unable to change your budget month to month, etc.

YNAB:

Am downloading this tonight, but I don't have high hopes.

Just been horrible all around for personal finance software for Mac. Unbelievable.

 

[iMerik]

SEE Finance & Moneydance

Brian Jarrett's reviews of SEE Finance and Moneydance have reaffirmed what I have read elsewhere that they are probably the two strongest options. I'm going to give both a try. The fact that I can attach receipt/invoice/document images to transactions in SEE Finance and not in Moneydance (longtime request) might just be the tiebreaker. Although, I do like the Moneydance summary homepage.

 

[talmy]

I'm a long time Quicken then Microsoft Money then Quicken again user that has never found any native Mac financial app up to the task. I've got a Mac mini server that, among other things, runs Quicken for Windows in Windows XP Pro under Parallels. My wife and I access the virtual machine using Microsoft Remote Desktop from our respective iMacs at home or with VPN remotely. Performance is very good and there have been no problems sharing the database.

 

[Resident Pixie]

Alternative to Quicken

I'd be curious to see what recommendations come up. Moneydance is one option I've looked at, as well as Checkbook or Checkbook Pro. Don't know if they are Lion compatible.

Thanks for mentioning CheckBook Pro Here is a short video to see if others would find it to be a good replacement for Quicken. www.quickenrefugees.com Full Disclosure: I do work for Splasm Software.

 

[robnbill]

Thanks for mentioning CheckBook Pro Here is a short video to see if others would find it to be a good replacement for Quicken. www.quickenrefugees.com Full Disclosure: I do work for Splasm Software.

Two questions:

1. Does CB Pro have the capability to automatically download transactions from financial institutions? and
2. Can CB Pro connect to any Bill Pay Service and/or banks to pay bills?

 

[duheb]

SEE Finance for me

There have been several threads on this subject. It seems the most common "favorite" is iBank although I didn't particularly care for it. I'm trying to decide between MoneyDance & SEEFinance. You can find trials for all of them on MacUpdate.com.

I trialed IBank4, Moneydance, Moneywell, and SEE Finance and it looks like i'll stick with SEE Finance. It seems to be best what I need. I was able to upload about 15 years of Quicken data ALMOST painfree, and although it is not the perfect quicken replacement, it is viable. I'm not looking back!!!

 

[YMark]

iBank:

I currently use this software as we speak and to be quite honest I am again not thrilled with it. Even though it is able to handle all my basic transactions with ease and sync with my iPhone without an issue - it seems that is all it can do. The reporting features has issues (things that are labelled as income when they are expenses) and the budgeting software is pretty much garbage. Your not able to adjust the dates for pay (I receive my check on the 15th and last day of the month), you are unable to change your budget month to month, etc.

YNAB:

Am downloading this tonight, but I don't have high hopes.

Just been horrible all around for personal finance software for Mac. Unbelievable.

I've been an iBank user for a couple of years, never have been real enamored with it. It does the job, but it is ugly and has a terrible UI.

I recently purchased YNAB after using the trial for a week. I'm really starting to like this application. It is a bit different in the way you think about finances, it's strong suit is budgeting. If you're needing something for investments, YNAB isn't the ticket.

They also have a great support forum. Give it a try.

 

[stressymum]

iBank 4 not so bad

I was a diehard Quicken user until I converted from PC to Mac, and found that Quicken Essentials is a mere (and horrible) shadow of its Windows version. After trying loads of apps (most of them mentioned here), I decided to invest in iBank and after some initial wobbles, I am getting used to it. I decided against a lot of the other apps as the information lives in the cloud and I would rather not have my financial information out there.

The latest version, iBank 4, has some great UI improvements. True, it is still a little clumsy (especially its reporting) but if you are after a Quicken equivalent, it is not a bad replacement.

I especially like the fact that is has an iOS version, which I find really handy for updating expenses on the go, especially when we are on vacation. I update all expenses on my iPhone instead of waiting to download/input when I get home. I just sync it all up to my Mac when I return. It is a handy way to keep tabs on the vacation expenses as well.

Good luck and hope you find what you need!

 

[nicks]

I am glad I stumbled on this thread, definitely one I am very interested in.

However, one of the main features I look for in the finance software is being able to sync with my iPhone. It seems that Quicken can't do that or am I missing something? I see Mint.com, but it doesn't link with Quicken does it?

Have you tried Pocketmoney (from Catamount software)? It started as an iphone app - but now has a desktop version as well. It is easy to sync over wireless

 

[lstone19]

I'm going with Moneydance. I tried iBank and SEE Finance as well and quickly ruled them out. SEE Finance does not print checks and seems to have a rather bizarre treatment of income based on their sample screenshots (income is just the opposite of an expense just as assets are the opposite of liabilities but it appears SEE Finance wants to treat income as a quasi-asset). With iBank, I was extremely frustrated trying to arrange my accounts in (imported in a somewhat random order - no option I could find to sort them alphabetically; dragging them is both very time consuming but they would appear a few lines off from where I dropped them.

Moneydance seems to have imported the QIF pretty cleanly. The only issue I seemed to have was with "Return of Capital" transactions which are pretty few and far between (I do not currently own anything that normally does Return of Capital (the last sold earlier this year) but that could change (REITs tend to do some Return of Capital as do partnerships) so I'd love to see better handling of it). Return of Capital reduces your basis in a security without changing the quantity so it's important that it be accurately tracked.

Investment tracking does appear to now be lot-based (although my brokerage handles that well too). Matching up lots on some securities on which I had done partial sells was relatively painless. YTD Capital Gains report matched Quicken's except for the securities which had Return of Capital transactions in their history.

Reporting seems to be not as strong as Quicken but I can live with it.

Some comments on Intuit's "solutions". IMHO, any solution that involves continuing to run Snow Leopard (either natively or in a VM) is a long-term non-starter. Eventually, you will end up in an environment where running Snow Leopard is no longer possible. Hardware dies, etc. Intuit has made it plain they do not care about this market segment any longer. Going with a solution that keeps you using Quicken in some form is just putting off the inevitable. At its level, they knew or should have known that the PPC architecture was no going to be usable forever. To just now be scrambling for a long-term solution is irresponsible and to me just tells me I can not trust Intuit long-term.

 

[Macant]

Lots going on here. What is recommended for someone who wants to simply track there bills and money spent? Nothing fancy is needed. Just wanna track my money coming in and money going out. A nice easy to use gui would be great.

 

[wonkyknee]

New to Mac - want to rune Sage Accounting software

I am totally confused!! I bought a MacBook Air, not knowing that I cannot run Sage - have to have Windows - in a jam - do I use Parallels 6 or Boot Camp and have Windows 7 installed??

It seems as if I am going backwards. I would only be using Windows for Sage work. Any advice, please?

 

[talmy]

I am totally confused!! I bought a MacBook Air, not knowing that I cannot run Sage - have to have Windows - in a jam - do I use Parallels 6 or Boot Camp and have Windows 7 installed??

It seems as if I am going backwards. I would only be using Windows for Sage work. Any advice, please?

I'd use Parallels (or other virtualization software) over Boot Camp. The performance loss is negligible and the convenience of not having to be constantly booting back and forth is great. For most programs you can have the data stored over the "network" to your OS X file system which makes backups, especially with TimeMachine, painless.

 

[paduck]

I had thought of running Snow Leopard under VMWare, but have never seen anyone talking about doing. Interesting idea - install a bare bones SL with Quicken. I like it.

There have been some articles about Lion allowing instances of SL to run in a virtual environment. I think that is going to be my Quicken solution.

 

[talmy]

There have been some articles about Lion allowing instances of SL to run in a virtual environment. I think that is going to be my Quicken solution.

You have it backwards. The license for Lion allows running it in a VM, so you could run Lion in a VM under Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard Server is the only Snow Leopard that is allowed to run in a VM.

 

[alainr]

Question re: crossover and quicken substitutes

I currently use Quicken 2010 with an application call Crossover so that I don't have to crank up VMWare Fusion and Windows XP just for Quicken. I too have a long Quicken history, and I wanted to make sure that my data would carry over.

I have used quicken windows for over 15 yrs for a law office and real estate companies in additional to personal use. Once i got my imac 3 years, i installed vmwarefusion justfor quicken. I want to switch to a macbased finance program to avoid dealing w/the windows side because of the time in getting to it; printer settngs etc. But on the other hand, i know allthe quicken shortcuts i need and all the classes/categories/reports. etc.

Does crossover make it really easy to use quicken windows? i had never heard of it? it might make it worth staying w/windows quicken. Any disadvantages? i went to the website, but didn't get a clear idea.

if i switch, i need a program that allows me to print checks, do custom reports, have classes and categories. i don't use it for investment. i was going to check into moneydance and ibank.

 

[flow8n]

QE discount

As intend to upgrade my iMac to Lion one of these months, I've been exploring changes from Quicken '07.. Didn't care for iBank of YNAB and the various Money*** products. That may be from many years as a Quicken bookkeeper and basic reports type user?

Anyway, discovered today that Intuit is discounting upgrades to Quicken Essentials. Just search for 'Lion' at Quicken.intuit.com and results on Lion compatibility will offer $25 off of QE purchase..

QE is Lion compatible and seems strong upgrade from '07 to me so far..

 

[talmy]

QE is Lion compatible and seems strong upgrade from '07 to me so far..

Quicken Essentials is a questionable "upgrade" from Quicken '07. Look at it carefully as it is missing plenty of features found in the older Quicken (and Quicken for Windows) products.

 

[HadItWithWindow]

I'm tempted to organize a "How to replace Quicken on Mac" thread, rolling up folks' experiences with alternatives.

I don't know a single person who actually likes Quicken. This is just the latest fiasco.

Frankly, why Apple doesn't do their own is beyond me. There are probably far more people interested in a comprehensive, extendable personal financial solution than in, say, a music app like Garage Band (which, don't get me wrong, is a GREAT product).

YEAH. My thoughts exactly. I fricken hate Quicken 2007. I have to keep windows versions running but it's not worth it any longer. anything but Quicken for me. They did nothing for Mac users.

 

[paduck]

I don't know a single person who actually likes Quicken. This is just the latest fiasco.

Frankly, why Apple doesn't do their own is beyond me. There are probably far more people interested in a comprehensive, extendable personal financial solution than in, say, a music app like Garage Band (which, don't get me wrong, is a GREAT product).

I quite like Quicken 2007. I think it is a great application. It completely suits my needs. I don't understand why Intuit doesn't invest in the product - which can certainly be improved, but it is still really good for tracking my finances and retirement accounts.

I 100% agree that Apple should look into taking over the property in the absence of Intuit caring. They could roll it into iLife quite easily.

 

[Old Mac Guy]

Quicken 2007 for Mac

I have been a Quicken user on a Mac since it first came out in 1985 ( could be off by a year) it was first built to run on the first Mac. For Intuit to let this product to flounder like they have for the Mac is really unbelieveable. I am running Quicken 2007 currently and can not switch becasue I use thir bill pay product. To my knowledge there is no other Mac product that does bill pay. I also was a beta test set for a new MAC product that they were promising in 2008 and susbsequently dumped.
I called Quicken support and complained and got them to send me a Free download of Quicken 2010 to run on Windows. I run VM ware as well when I have to. I spent 3 hours yesterday trying to convert my files. I was on thier chat line and the guy walked me through the conversion once and when that didn't work he sent me a link and siad you are on your own!!! I still have not able to convert the file.
My suggestion is that everyone call and demand the free copy of Quicken on Windows maybe then they might get the message!!!!!

You really don't want to piss off an Old Mac Guy!!!!

 

[DewGuy1999]

I quite like Quicken 2007. I think it is a great application. It completely suits my needs. I don't understand why Intuit doesn't invest in the product - which can certainly be improved, but it is still really good for tracking my finances and retirement accounts.

I 100% agree that Apple should look into taking over the property in the absence of Intuit caring. They could roll it into iLife quite easily.

I imagine that if Apple made a finance app, it would be an awful lot like Intuit's Quicken Essentials for Mac. Heck the head of Quicken even called it the missing iLife app.

 

[MacDawg]

I switched to iBank this weekend
Converted my files with no problems

I am a Quicken user since 1991
And I am not happy to have to change from 2007
But Intuit has screwed the Mac users

Not real happy with iBank, but not many other real choices