Q: best financial software for mac

MlchaelLAX wrote:

 

Yeah: I got lazy on my iPhone and didn't check the spelling.

 

Honesty is a state of being that is not measured in dollars.

I'll agree with that, but I don't agree that honesty = heroism, it should be the norm.

I spell very well, until it's an iPhone, then gibberish is never far away

Honesty is rarely the norm when one is confrontrd with free software.

And it is heroic for Larry to go out of his way to puchase a copy from Intuit after MacUpdate falsely lead him to believe he could pay a shareware fee.

I'll second that as well, and as for the people who use software without paying for it?

There is a word for that, 5 letters, starts and ends wth a T.

Larry Israel wrote:

I'm running OS 10.8.4 (on MBP 3 months old) and QI 16.1.2 does run on this configuration.

Thanks for clarifying.

Csound1 wrote:

 

There is a word for that, 5 letters, starts and ends wth a T.

Ah: must be THEFT! 

Of course, if it is "fair use," not so much!

Grey area, I often download free trials and such, I buy what I keep and it was a trial so no transgression there. Some of the trials continue to work without paying (a loss of some features perhaps) but that would be unfair use.

As Larry obviosly met MacUpdates download critera I would argue that it is indeed his, without payment. But I may be wrong.

Csound1 wrote:

 

I'll second that as well, and as for the people who use software without paying for it?

 

There is a word for that, 5 letters, starts and ends wth a T.

Let's not forget, if you are a member or a regular poster on many sites, they will give you some software titles as a thank you. I've received several over the years this way.

I've been a PC Quicken user for many many years, many on a VMware W7 virtual box. I've lost my patience and trust with Quicken, and found this long thread. Quicken's poor programming quirks have always annoyed me (e.g. hard coded limits on things like the number of split lines), but I've always soldiered through. This month, I hit some maximum number of lines allowable in an account, and while taking reasonable steps to fix the problem, Quicken deleted ALL of my records and now cannot decrypt my QDF file. On top of that, maintaining a secure windows box is awfulness, and of course there's no tablet support, so I just give up on the whole awful Quicken/Windows mess and have resolved to start fresh.

Based on postive reviews of two good options, and really negative reviews of everything else, the two best options appear to be Money by Jumsoft and YNAB. I see lots of plausible negative feedback here on other options. Is there positive experience with Money or YNAB?

It looks like YNAB stores your personal financial data in the clear (!!!, http://forum.youneedabudget.com/discussion/17667/another-dropbox-breach-please-a dd-cloud-encryption), an egregious security risk. This leaves Money, which apparently syncs only over the LAN. One hopes that if and when they add iCloud support they will put all your financial data in a DES3 container.

This is an excellent post & thx to everyone that's provided a great bit of information!  I am a Mac user looking for THAT perfect financial mgmt software, almost ended up buying Quicken Essentials and thankfully didn't given the reviews on Quicken's site, at Amazon & here.  I currently use Mint, love that its quite simple etc - but that's the issue I have with it - too simple:  I cannot reconcile, or do reports by sub-categories, to point out 2 simple needs.  I do have the standard portfolio of checking, credit cards, loans, investments & tax requirements like most and think Mint is too simplistic to handle such requirements  In any case, I have read the reviews at toptenreviews, and on this forum, and am a bit concerned about using iBank or Moneydance, 2 S/Ws that are talked about on this forum and there,  I like the familiarity of Quicken - used it for years on the Win platform - and am ****** that Intuit does not have a product to mirror Q-Prem for Windows for the Mac platform.  Until such time, I guess I am doing the Parallels+Qprem-Windows route, with the hope someday the native version will reach a level of sophistication.  This is an expensive route, but I am just not finding a cheaper but equivalent alternative that I can trust and stick with for the next decade.

Where is the expense?

VirtualBox is free.  Windows XP (don't need 7 or 8) can be had for a song.  And you already have quicken for PC.

This is my solution and it's rock solid on my MBP.

Everyone -

I'm in the same boat.  Prior to moving to Macs in 2009, I used Quicken Home and Business.  It was good, on balance, except for Intuit's customer support.  When we made the move, I was enormously relieved to have left the Windows environment and never looked back.  Using a PC-based product in a virtual environment was not an option.  Instead, after lowering of my expectations and a lot of research, I went with Moneydance,

I have just invested a fair amount of time over the weekend evaluating other personal finance programs for the Mac and once again concluded that Moneydance is the least unsatisfactory Mac-based alternative to the Windows versions of Quicken. 1) Its dual-entry accounting engine is totally reliable, 2) Its tax-related accounting is as well, and 3) The initial migration of .qif files is reasonably straightforward and error free, if one follows Moneydance's instructions. After reading user reviews on several sites, I have found that the same cannot be said for iBank, SEE Finance or Money (Jumsoft), the leading options I was considering. 

And yet the flaws of Moneydance are not going away: 1) Its reports lack consistent formats and are thoroughly unprofessional, 2) It cannot generate a Net Worth report covering multiple points in time, and 3) Its budgeting features are limited and cumbersome to use.

I have, therefore, decided to explore migrating to QuickBooks or AccountEdge (both Mac versions). This will not be a minor undertaking.  Note: It is core accounting and reporting functions that I need to manage our finances and not investment tracking, which I handle separately.  I also manage a small landowners assocation with invoicing and accounts receivable.

Do any of you have experience with either?  Is this doable? Can I migrate my .qif files? And do you have any additional words for the wise?

Everyone -

Scratch Flaw No. 1 above.  Today, as a result of some outstanding Tech Support from the Moneydance Team, we fixed the report out problems I was experiencing.  The new reports are excellent.  One down and two to go.

Tad

tadcrawfordmv:

I use QB Pro 2013 (now 2014) to run my business.

My company went MAC years ago, but we keep ONE windows box to run QB.

I would LOVE to ditch it and switch to something MAC native.  QB Mac is totally uncompatible with QB Windows file formats.

Which means I would not be able to share data with my off-site accountant.  Which means there is no benefit to switching to QB Mac, I might as well open up the field and look for the "best" solution.

I'm not "scared" of cloud computing.  But I don't like the way EVERYBODY that offers it seems to be giggling with glee at the prospect of wringing money out of me forever!  And it may be very hard to get my data out so I can switch software later.

A lot of ex-Quicken users seem to think iBank is great, and I like their support of iPad and iPhone.

Does MoneyDance do anything similar?

MlchaelLAX wrote:

 

If 16.1.4 does not work out for you, let me know.

So far so good...including splits.

Message was edited by: Larry Israel