Lion OS X 10.7 and Quicken 2007

I have been wrestling with all this for months, and I want to endorse SEE Financial with two caveats to explain why I ultimately decided NOT to use it.

First, let me say the conversion of data was as smooth and easy as previously described. Data download went fine and all was right with the world.

But I occasionally have to print checks--and SEE doesn't support that--or at least it didn't at last check. They do state that's a priority for them and they may have fixed that.

But the killer for me was the lack of bill paying from within the program. With Quicken I can execute a bill payment instruction and I've entered the data once. If I go to a program without it, I have to set up all my bill payments again, then enter them on the banks website and fiddle with them again once they come through the download--assign categories, ensure the payment name is correct, etc. Just hasn't been worth the hassle of setting it up and then administering it for me.

But if you can live without those two features, then go for SEE--I have no love lost for Quicken, even though I have been a BETA tester for every release of Quicken since early last decade, I just haven't been too bust the on that front the past four years.

As I see it your problem is not really with Apple but with Intuit. They are the ones that wrote the junk so they are the one to blame.

The sad part is that they went from that crippled version to nothing at all with Lion because they were unable to convert their code from PowerPC to Intel.

Personally my solution was to totally bail on Intuit seeing as how they were treating us so poorly.

Allan

@Ellyenne:

I wish I could answer your question about whether SEE preserved investment history, but I have no idea: My data was always so screwed up in Quicken that I would not have wanted it to match in SEE. All I know is that now my accounts match reality in SEE, so I'm happy.

But since there's a free trial and the importing process is smooth, you might just give importing your data a shot and see if it works! Shouldn't take too long to test it.

It seems after reviewing proposed solutions over the last 6 months, that the happiest users were the ones switching to ibank. Intuit has terrible business sense recognizing how rapidly the market share of Apple users has expanded (particularly in the laptop category and in the critical 18-25 age group. For those of us with extensive data (especially investments) in Quicken 2005 and 2007, essentials is useless and the prospect of either running the virtual machine or maintaining a second mac running snow leopard is not a long term solution. For now I am running Quicken on a second computer and have already moved on to Lion on my primary laptop. I will be doing an IBank Conversion and run both for a short period until I am comfortable and then abandon Quicken like Intuit abandoned the entire Mac community.

As I've said before, I am satisfied with my solution which is to set up a second Snow Leopard boot drive. There was some excitement when I first went this way but it turned out to be a bad internal drive. Now that that's straightened out, dual booting has been fine and reliable.

AS I have stated before, I have now been using Ibank for many months and it turned out to be so far superior to Quicken I am sorry it took me so long to find and start using it. Thank you Intuit for showing me the light! You are still getting your few bucks from me for Turbo Tax but I am looking to finding a replacement for that as well next year.

I have 15 years of data transferred over to Ibank and find it far more readily accessable than it ever was on Quicken. There is a learning curve but worth the effort.

George in NY

Allan Eckert wrote:

As I see it your problem is not really with Apple but with Intuit. They are the ones that wrote the junk so they are the one to blame.

The sad part is that they went from that crippled version to nothing at all with Lion because they were unable to convert their code from PowerPC to Intel.

Personally my solution was to totally bail on Intuit seeing as how they were treating us so poorly.

Allan

Allan,

As was mine, solution to totally bail on Intuit, it was obvious they didn't want my business after I switched from PC to Mac. I will never go back to PC's and never again to Quicken.

George in NY

Just got this message from Quicken, that they will have a Lion-compatiable Quicken for Mac program available by spring. http://bit.ly/tXXWAc

Too little too late. I have abandoned Intuit and theiur garbage.

Besides that Intuit's promised updates have a habit of slip sliding. My guess is if they pull it off by 2014 that will be about right for them.

Allan

As one who was involved from the start of this discussion, for the many reasons expressed by others about Quicken, I agree that this late decision of Quicken/Intuit to support Lion is just not good enough.

Forgive me, but as they say in the vernacular, "Screw Them!"

...John

PS iBank is a great program that promises to only get better. I have committed to it and can't say enough about their support group.

That's nice. 😉 Now all I need is for Intuit to provide an iPhone solution that matches what Pocket Quicken used to give me for my Palm PDA. I won't hold my breath.

James Belt wrote:

Just got this message from Quicken, that they will have a Lion-compatiable Quicken for Mac program available by spring. http://bit.ly/tXXWAc

Recieved it as well, and also agree too little too late. I know what was true for me and I suspect is for many. Once you have invested the time and effort in data managing and setting up program for your financial requirements etc we tend to stay with a program even if have to endure shoddy support like Quicken provided. Easier to stay with Mac QUICKEN garbage program than find, learn and setup something new. But once you leave Quicken and invest in another program, in my case Ibank, the same is true. At this point NOW, much less some promised SPRING maybe fix ( by the way long way to Spring ) Intuit could literally not GIVE me a new Quicken for FREE much less think I would pay for it.

Kind of like getting a divorce, finding and marrying your sole mate, then exwife begging you return for more torment. Too painful, too costly and a lot of water under the bridge 🙂

Goodbye forever Quicken, don't call, don't write, the alimony payments are done.

George in NY

I for one was glad to hear the annoument. Quicken for Mac 2007 is buggy and that is putting it nicely. It's old. It does not have the best UI in the world. That being said, I've looked at the other products out there and while some have good features, none of them have all the features that Quicken for Mac 2007 offers that meet my needs. There is one thing or the other missing. Frankly, I wish I could say good bye to Quicken, but I have over ten years worth of data and nothing out there offers everything I use in QFM 2007. Certainly, there must be some other software company out there that can make a better product, have better customer support, and give a hoot about Mac users. Until that day comes, at least for me, I will stay with Quicken for Mac.

I've checked out a number of the competitors, including iBank, and have found them all lacking in the number and type of financial facilities that they can connect to. This, and my need for investment tracking, has kept me continuing with Quicken for Mac. I don't care how easy they operate, or if they can import my quicken data. If they don't have a contract to connect to my banks and credit card systems then I'm not moving.

Sarcasm mode fully enabled here: Lessee, what would be a more difficult job... writing code to make a finantial program (Quicken) run in Lion, which correct me if I am wrong... is basic arithmetic and record keeping, or making a image manipulation program (Photoshop) run in Lion? Adobe didn't seem to have any problem making a very very complex application run in Lion, so I can't see why it would be so bloody difficult for Intuit to write an application do arithmetic and record keeping.... but that's just me...