snokeja

December 30, 2011 at 7:39am

I use a Mac (currently 10.6) and have used Qucken for 20 years. My current version is 2005, as my needs are simple and the 2007 upgrade did not seem to have anything I felt I needed. In March 2010 I anticipated the loss of big-endian programs on the Mac, so I bought Essentials. With great effort, I was able to transfer my Quciken files to essentials, but as one of our main uses is writing checks I ended up returning the program and got my money back.

On December 22 I got a message from Quicken announcing a new interest in Macs by Intuit and an upcoming Quicken for Mac in Spring 2012. I went to their Web site and found a contact link and sent a message that essentially reproduced my first paragraph. I have gotten three replies: the first said that Essentials now can write checks. When I went back online, I found it also does some online banking things now.

For me, if it had been able to write checks, Quicken Essentials would have worked, so I am tempted. I read the main post above and the comments and it sounds like IBANK4 might work for me. The price on their page is $50, not the $20. I would appreciate comments? (I have not looked at their survey yet.)

anniebio

December 21, 2011 at 3:24am

I switched to SEE finance and am very, very happy.

I had upgraded to Mac OS10.7 (Lion) without realizing Quicken for Mac would no longer work on it. I first tried to get Quicken for PC set up using a VM on my Mac - that part was easy but transferring a Mac Quicken file into the PC version of the Quicken was a 'simple' 20-step tedious manual process that was just unconscionable from a software design perspective. I cannot imagine it being more painful. I spent probably 20 hours on it and was nowhere closer to accomplishing what should be a simple task, just getting my accounts switched from the Mac to PC version of the same Quicken software. Total nightmare! And it's not like it would have been so pleasant starting up a VM every time I wanted to check an account balance, nor paying fees for the VM and for Quicken/PC.

I did a ton of research and considered running virtual 10.6 so I could continue to use Quicken for Mac but that's a pain, too, and I figured it's time to stop rewarding Quicken for making my life miserable. I considered the alternatives listed here (thank you so much for the article! It really helped) and decided to try out SEE finance's free trial. About 20 hours later I had not only loaded all my past data into it successfully (it went SO smoothly!), I've learned just about every feature of the software and am really comfortable with its usage; the documentation is great and nearly comprehensive. I asked a few questions via support and got replies within a couple of business days (with an apology for the 'delay' due to it being a busy season for them! I've never gotten such quick response from a software company). I should mention that the lengthy parts of the switchover process were Quicken's fault, not SEE...it took me a while to check that the data in SEE was accurate and it turned out it was because the data in Quicken was screwed up.

I've got all the accounts reconciled, my budget re-created, weirdo transfers functioning, and recurring transactions set up. Things that never worked properly in Quicken work smoothly in SEE (e.g. retirement account balances that never matched up / required balance adjustments, and a budget that continuously forgot values and got corrupted).

The only feature I'm missing relates to tracking expenses using the budgeting tool - there's not quite enough drill-down capability so to dig in you have to go to the separate Report tab (I don't mind so much, since at least there's a workaround). This is listed as an upcoming improvement in SEE so I'm willing to live with that, and again, given that Quicken had certain things just broken (seriously, every once in a while the budget would just lose all its subcategory values and require me to re-create them from memory) and given how Quicken has handled its Mac products, I am SOOOO happy to have abandoned Quicken!

bkgkiely

September 10, 2011 at 9:18am

Hi
I have (and hate) Quicken Essentials.
Will either See finance or iBank import my 20 years of financial information from Essentials (2010).
Or is there a way for me to re install Quicken 2007 & import my Quicken Essentials into that and then into either See finance or iBank?

appreciate any help!

I feel trapped!!

fitzallen

August 06, 2011 at 5:12pm

My problem with Lion is Canvas X. In the years I've used it for my model railroad, for genealogy, and most importantly for engineering design, I have created scores of documents that I need to be able to open and/or modify. As far as I can determine from on-line forums, my only way to continue using Canvas will be to keep Snow Leopard on a partition. Another possibility is Canvas 11 on virtual Windows under Parallels; though that is likely to be compatible with my documents, I have been unable to confirm. Anyway, I find it ironic that Apple's $29 Lion might force me to spend $199 on competitor Microsoft's Windows. I have also e-mailed several other Mac graphics programs to ask if they can open and modify Canvas documents – but none have replied. If anyone knows which can, let me know.

I agree with you that Apple needn't be hung up by ancient history, but I'd like to know why Rosetta (or a third-party equivalent) couldn't be made to work with Lion. I'd pay for that!

wseligman

August 05, 2011 at 8:43pm

I agree with all the negative things said about Quicken Essentials for the Mac. Not only does it have all the problems cited in this article and elsewhere on the net, but its user interface is poor. In particular, reconciling accounts is needlessly difficult.

I've tried both iBank and SEE Finance. To my disappointment, they're not much better than QE. In fact, they have one disadvantage that keeps me with QE: Of the three programs, QE is the best at downloading information from my bank sites.

I am angry and frustrated about the way Intuit has treated their Mac customers. Unfortunately, even with the piece of garbage that is QE for the Mac, they are still the best game in town.

milder

July 24, 2011 at 6:14pm

I'm in the process of making the transfer, using 4.2.4 of iBank. I really like it but for one (major) problem: It does not support Classes. And its support of Categories is sketchy. Boy, I hope they come up with a way of fixing this, because I rely completely on both.

fredb12

July 16, 2011 at 6:10am

I downloaded iBank and ran some accounts through it. The look is different which I can adjust to. But I do a some options buying and selling, and it shows me as still owning many of the options, especially those which expired. I do not know if it is because I do not list the symbols, or because you sell first, buy second. but I would need to enter these by hand.
I need something more for investment than budgets. Anyone else have this issue.
I will hold off on Lion for a while.

ckuttner

July 10, 2011 at 8:43pm

I've only been doing a bit of basic fiddling with it, but iFinance seems to be working well for me. The

I downloaded it just a few months ago, and found it imported my Quicken 2005 (yes, 2005!) data just fine (I'm running OSX 10.6.8). There was a problem with check formatting for US "cheques," (heck, it's a German program), but not only can one do a custom format, but even better, when I emailed the developers I arranged to send them images of my Quicken checks (with the account number conveniently covered) and they upgraded the program with the format.

I'm getting ready for Lion, and even though Intuit is offering Quicken Essentials for $20, it just doesn't sound worth it to me.

iFinance seems pretty close to ready for prime time, although the interface is a bit strange:

drbonbi

July 08, 2011 at 6:31am

The answer to your "final question" ...

3. Why doesn't Apple save us? Apple makes world-class, award-winning software, so why don't they put together the talent to create an amazing personal financial solution? Why doesn't Apple simply take the lead in this market?

... is Bill Campbell. Current Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Intuit Inc. and a Director of Apple.Inc.

He's a long time colleague and friend of Steve's. Somewhere I suspect there's a non-compete agreement between them - if only a handshake. It has ill-served Intuit's Mac customer base. But, it's the only explanation that makes any sense.

azdbac

July 07, 2011 at 6:49pm

I used Quicken on a PC for years and had no problems with it. I switched to Mac several years ago and although I love my Mac I have to say your article hit the mark completely when it comes to Intuit Quicken for Mac. It amazes me that Apple or some other programmer has not produced a software that can be used on Mac and do the same things (and better) than Intuit does! I have years of data that I do not want to lose, but I seriously doubt if Essentials will import it all....2007 Quicken didn't! I had to do it by hand for allot of it. There is some data it will not import at all. I actually wish I would have continued using the previous version of Quicken.
Thanks for your article....at least I know I am not alone.

fredb12

July 05, 2011 at 6:14pm

I thought about switching to Quicken for Windows, but when I went to the Quicken, it stated the following:

Move to Quicken Windows

You can easily convert your Quicken Mac data with the exception of Investment transaction history. You will need to either re-download your investment transactions or manually enter them.
This option is ideal if you use Quicken to track investments.

This means I will need to enter by hand over 13 years of transactions, which is ridiculous. Why would they not be able to import transactions? Investments is all I use Quicken for.

twinstars

June 30, 2011 at 6:46am

I appreciated your summary of the facts regarding Quicken 2007 for Mac and the compatibility issues with Lion. As a long time Quicken user I am join the ranks of the very frustrated. What to do? I would go to IBank 4 even with the data transfer issues but my bank (not one of the big boys) does not recognize any software for the Mac except Quicken. I could change banks but don't want to, I could run the PC platform on my Mac but don't want to, and I would switch to IBank 4 but can't. I may be forced to go with getting a PC like dbqfan for my financial tracking but will hold off until the fall in the hopes that someone comes up with a fix. Please continue to keep us posted.

Phd

June 29, 2011 at 4:28pm

The Intuit experience for Mac users is one of broken promises for an updated product (Quicken for Mac, then Quicken Financial Life For Mac, then Quicken Essentials for Mac) through sporadic communications (the Quicken Blog, Demo versions at Mac conventions, press releases stating that the company is starting over and writing code from scratch (TWICE!) coming to us year after year.

All of it has convinced me of one thing;
Intuit cannot be trusted any longer.

It is clear they don't have the brain trust necessary to create this software. It no longer matters to me why they don't support the Mac community or why they turned over their entire personal finance division to a guy who ran a competing company (after buying that company), or why their staff may be small or even how difficult it may be to migrate years of financial data to other Mac based financial software programs.

What matters is that I have stopped entrusting the management of my MONEY to a company that no one should trust.

panders13

June 29, 2011 at 1:46pm

I am in the process of switching from Quicken 2007 to iBank 4, and so far it has gone fairly well. I blame most of the problems with importing the data on Quicken's export (some accounts became categories, for example), as well as the fact that I'm trying to combine 2 sets of Quicken data (pre-2002 and post-2001). Once I get all of the transactions straightened out, the account balances are matching those from Quicken just fine.

As far as features, it appears to have all that I need, and then some. I track all of my finances, including investments, IRA, etc. The reporting capabilities appear a little weak, but I think I can work around that.

gpgrubb

June 29, 2011 at 1:12pm

I switched to iBank 4 a couple of months ago and am satisfied. The import did take a couple of tries, but I think that was an issue with my Quickbooks. I had about 20 years of data, too, tracking 10 companies and my personal data, as well. iBank has handled all this well and continues to feed us updates - a very responsive bunch!

nelsonh

June 29, 2011 at 9:54am

Dead-on article, you've hit on every point of frustration I've been through over recent years with Intuit/Quicken and my search for a better alternative. I've begrudgingly settled on Quicken Essentials for now but am still keeping an eye out for a replacement; I've flirted with the iBank demo twice but it just doesn't seem quite there yet. If Acclivity/Account Edge would introduce a consumer-targeted version of their software, they could pull the rug right out from under Quicken. Intuit obviously and incomprehensibly just does not understand the Mac or Mac users, and really never has.

I have little hope for Intuit ever releasing substantive updates to QE Mac, so I'm desperately wishing for a competitor to step up to the plate. And you're right about the most glaring absence from the market of all: I would pay ANY price for a personal finance program from Apple.

bobbd

June 29, 2011 at 9:01am

For a few months after I got my MacBook Pro, I ran Quicken for Windows under Crossover. I looked at many native options and decided on Moneydance. I too had balance issues when I first imported. Quicken keeps transfers as separate transactions and Moneydance attempts to match them up by date, amount, and the from/to accounts and possibly more. It turns out that one of my transfers was "broken" in Quicken and that's why my balance was off. I corrected the broken transaction and I've been a happy user ever since.

Moneydance also has an iPhone App so I can enter transactions when I'm away from my MacBook. As well, I always have my current balance without the need to sign on to my bank.

dbqfan

June 29, 2011 at 8:22am

I have dumped Quicken for both my Mac and my PC. I am using my Mac less and less as I am finding that the Mac seems to be taking the back seat at Apple in favor of the iPad and iPhone. I think Apple could care less about the Mac so I am moving all my business to my PC's and will keep my Mac for entertainment etc. I am selling all my old and newer Mac's and will just keep my Mac Book Pro to play with. The iPad is nothing more than a memory stick with a monitor and I just can't see all the hype as a iPad is worthless to me as a business person. It has no file system and you have to jump thru hoops to print a letter.

martuca

June 29, 2011 at 3:57am

I'm not sure why you are being so hard on iBank 4. I recently switched from Quicken to iBank 4 and the import (from Quicken) worked perfectly. I honestly like the product and would recommend it for mac users.

allenkenya

June 28, 2011 at 10:30pm

Thanks for this article. I've never updated Quicken beyond Q2004 because it continued to do everything I wanted, even under Snow Leopard. However, with the pending release of Lion, I've begun to look for an alternative and have not been pleased with the offerings. It appears that iBank and SEE Finance are the best and there are widely divergent reviews of both, particularly in regards to their ability to import Quicken data.

mwallison

June 28, 2011 at 5:06pm

Great article that sums it up very well about Quicken for Mac and your comment about the last upgrade (essentials) was spot on. What an upgrade joke. I download and tried it but quickly returned it for credit... I'm still scratching my head on that one.
The best Mac finance program I've turned to (and currently using) is MoneyDance. It works but, still needs to be groomed a lot. Their support people were very responsive but, they seems to have slowed with (developers?) the needed, simple updates to make it more functional and easy on the eyes.
I'll give "See Finance" a try as I've not heard of it and I've been looking everywhere after Quicken 2007.

Where's Steve Job's voice when we need him??? Apple's board members should be ashamed (especially one of them).

Marty

ghornik

June 28, 2011 at 2:41pm

Evidently Intuit's reps don't have a party line to quote, because the rep I spoke with about how to deal with Lion swore to me that a Lion-compatible update is in the works and should be released soon.

ghornik

June 28, 2011 at 2:41pm

Evidently Intuit's reps don't have a party line to quote, because the rep I spoke with about how to deal with Lion swore to me that a Lion-compatible update is in the works and should be released soon.

Loup407

June 28, 2011 at 1:19pm

for a while...Lion may be the motivation I need to make a change. Intuit has ignored and underserved the mac market for years. This won't get better...how many times have we seen the "too big to fail" attitude bite companies in the ass?

Geoduck

June 28, 2011 at 1:15pm

We switched to MoneyDance a year ago and it does everything we need. Imported everything from Quicken without missing a beat. I seem to remembering having to do an export from Quicken and an import to MoneyDance, but all the accounts, entries, preset deductions, everything came in just fine. A cross check of the balances from Quicken and MoneyDance matched to the penny.

Not sure why you had trouble with this. The only thing I can think of is that you had Quicken 2007. we had Quicken03 so the data might have been different. Either that or you didn't export it correctly.