Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Suggestions for Mac Budgeting Software
- Thread starter Maxington
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have been pretty happy with iBank.
I was using Moneywell, but they rolled out a 2.0 that completely ruined the app. Stay away.
I was using Moneywell, but they rolled out a 2.0 that completely ruined the app. Stay away.
Do you need to something to budget or to keep track of your banking/checking/credit/investment accounts?
I'm using two apps. I use Quicken to keep track of all my accounts. It's basically an electronic check register. From that, I can run reports on spending habits and stuff, but I don't because most of it gets put in either Misc category or cash withdrawals.
For budgetting, I use a spreadsheet I created in Numbers. I did this years ago and it took about 3 or 4 months to get it exactly where I needed it to be. I do a zero-based budget and for each line I have planned expenses, actual expenses, and my difference, which should be zero (or a positive number) at the end of the month.
I'm using two apps. I use Quicken to keep track of all my accounts. It's basically an electronic check register. From that, I can run reports on spending habits and stuff, but I don't because most of it gets put in either Misc category or cash withdrawals.
For budgetting, I use a spreadsheet I created in Numbers. I did this years ago and it took about 3 or 4 months to get it exactly where I needed it to be. I do a zero-based budget and for each line I have planned expenses, actual expenses, and my difference, which should be zero (or a positive number) at the end of the month.
Is there anything as easy and graphical as Mint.com but as an offline application? I installed iBank tonight but it is going ton be a major pain to create and assign categories to every transaction; I thought it would do this automatically for common expenditures but it doesn't seem to do anything automatically. I don't want anything dramatic but I don't want to spend my whole life on this thing either. Any ideas?
EDIT: Of course you can create categories or assign predefined categories but you must have all of your categories defined before you do even your first back account import, because the filters are applied only when an account is imported. There seems to be no way to edit the import rules and the reapply those rules.
EDIT: Of course you can create categories or assign predefined categories but you must have all of your categories defined before you do even your first back account import, because the filters are applied only when an account is imported. There seems to be no way to edit the import rules and the reapply those rules.
Last edited:
Here's one of my many frustrations with mint (I'll take care to not get my soap box out).
My wife and I have set up a savings account to have our savings goals removed from the rest. We have several things we're saving for, such as a down payment, a vacation, a "Whenever a baby comes" fund, a car replacement, emergency fund, etc. Granted, not each of those gets money each month, but that just adds to the need for me to have somewhere I'm keeping track of it.
When I went to set up a savings goal in MINT, I started with vacation fund. It made me set up some gimmicky "$X/month goal?" type information, which wasn't super easy. We don't have a goal yet, it's just an account that keeps growing so that when we need one, we have cash to pay for it. Got it set up with arbitrary numbers, etc, and linked it to our savings account.
Went to go set up our emergency fund, and it wouldn't let me set it up!! I searched their help site, and found out if I had 5 savings goals, then I'd need 5 different bank accounts. Unbelievably moronic.
So i'm in the same boat. I don't need a super powerful platform. At this point, my wife and I do our budget each month on a spreadsheet I got from a dave ramsey link (we're on babystep 3 for what it's worth!! PUMPED), so i don't necessarily need something that does a whole lot. If i find an app I'm comfortable with, I will, but I just need the basics. I've heard Quicken Essentials is the suck, and the only other one people seem to know is MINT, which i can't stand.
ALL of that to say, I'd love to hear anyone else's suggestions, too!
My wife and I have set up a savings account to have our savings goals removed from the rest. We have several things we're saving for, such as a down payment, a vacation, a "Whenever a baby comes" fund, a car replacement, emergency fund, etc. Granted, not each of those gets money each month, but that just adds to the need for me to have somewhere I'm keeping track of it.
When I went to set up a savings goal in MINT, I started with vacation fund. It made me set up some gimmicky "$X/month goal?" type information, which wasn't super easy. We don't have a goal yet, it's just an account that keeps growing so that when we need one, we have cash to pay for it. Got it set up with arbitrary numbers, etc, and linked it to our savings account.
Went to go set up our emergency fund, and it wouldn't let me set it up!! I searched their help site, and found out if I had 5 savings goals, then I'd need 5 different bank accounts. Unbelievably moronic.
So i'm in the same boat. I don't need a super powerful platform. At this point, my wife and I do our budget each month on a spreadsheet I got from a dave ramsey link (we're on babystep 3 for what it's worth!! PUMPED), so i don't necessarily need something that does a whole lot. If i find an app I'm comfortable with, I will, but I just need the basics. I've heard Quicken Essentials is the suck, and the only other one people seem to know is MINT, which i can't stand.
ALL of that to say, I'd love to hear anyone else's suggestions, too!
I posted earlier I have moved over to iBank and it fits my needs. After reading your post I looked over the budgeting features of iBank (I don't use this feature) and it looks like it would do what you want. You can go here and DL the iBank manual to review the budgeting section to see if you you think it might work for you.
I'm a big fan of Jumsoft Money. I tried iBank, but didn't care for the double line entries. Jumsoft Money looks more like a spreadsheet, but imports transactions and has terrific reporting that is very easy to use.
It took about 2 days to get the categories setup and transactions organized. The good news was that I found a bank error that ended up paying for the software.
One caveat about Money - I have read some horror stories about users upgrading from previous versions (ie. v1.0 -> v2.0). When that time comes for me, I expect to make lots of backups.
It took about 2 days to get the categories setup and transactions organized. The good news was that I found a bank error that ended up paying for the software.
One caveat about Money - I have read some horror stories about users upgrading from previous versions (ie. v1.0 -> v2.0). When that time comes for me, I expect to make lots of backups.