Financial Application for new iMac user- or Quicken for PC

Hi all-

I just bought a brand new iMac. I am coming from PC and I'm looking for suggestions for family financial management software. On PC I used Quicken. I have a real problem with their buggy software. I've tried a few other programs on PC and regrettably have come back to Quicken.

My new iMac represents an opportunity. Where I once took it for granted that I would run Parallels , Win8 and Quicken I thought this would be a great time to try something new.

The things that I need in a software app:
Reliability: I need an application that won't mysteriously break or start dropping connections to financial institutions
Mobile compatibility: Android and iPhone
Ability to manually input transactions and accept them as cleared when they are downloaded
Scheduled Transactions
Forecasting Cashflow: I need to know if I spend an extra $1,000 next week will I have enough in that account in 3 subsequent weeks to cover a transaction that is scheduled. This seems to be where other applications fall short of Quicken's capability.

It seems that Moneydance is out of the running, it doesn't mark manual transactions as cleared after downloading (unless my info is incorrect)
I looked briefly at iBank but the reviews indicate trepidation even amongst its longtime users.

I'm prepared (if necessary) to start a new data file since this is somewhat early in the year. I want to make a decision and begin setup by the end of this week and hoping to get some good suggestions.

Unfortunately, you've already eliminated the two apps I was going to suggest. You may be better off running the Windows version of Quicken on your new iMac. However, I strongly recommend not running Windows using a dual boot such as Boot Camp would provide. You may find that you can just as conveniently run Quicken from a virtual machine on your iMac using virtual software. VirtualBox from Oracle is free and easy to setup. The only drawback is that you will need a legal copy of Windows. And your iMac can not run anything older than Windows 7 SP1. And you can not use an upgrade version, it has to be a full install version.

I just "discovered" that Quicken for Mac comes with a 60-day money back guarantee. It also looks like they made some changes to the software that may meet my minimum usability requirements.

Unfortunately, I may struggle to get over the idea that Intuit purposely breaks the software when the new version comes out (they said they don't support anything more than 2 versions old), but I'm also going to seek some paid training with the idea that it may be dumb user syndrome and not faulty software.

You're preaching to the choir when speaking of Intuit. I long ago got rid of all and any software by Intuit. To this day, I refuse to run Turbo Tax because of that. Just my personal opinion of course, hopefully Quicken Mac will turn out to be useful for you.

After many years with Quicken I switched to iBank a year ago and I'm very happy with it. Does investments, easy imports manually from Canadian bank, scheduled transactions, one click forecasting. Exports to Qucken format for our accountant. The new version has beta cloud sync that so far iiis working great to sync between iMac, iPhone and iPad. The reports work fine and I can drag and drop them into Excel. No complaints.

chscag said:

Unfortunately, you've already eliminated the two apps I was going to suggest. You may be better off running the Windows version of Quicken on your new iMac. However, I strongly recommend not running Windows using a dual boot such as Boot Camp would provide. You may find that you can just as conveniently run Quicken from a virtual machine on your iMac using virtual software. VirtualBox from Oracle is free and easy to setup. The only drawback is that you will need a legal copy of Windows. And your iMac can not run anything older than Windows 7 SP1. And you can not use an upgrade version, it has to be a full install version.

Click to expand...

Just wondering why you don't recommend running Boot Camp for using Quicken for Windows. Seem to me to be safer than a virtual machine. I have an official Windows 7 DVD, so that's not a problem. Is not Boot Camp safe? Just got a new iMac, and I know it comes with Boot Camp at no extra charge.

Thanks for any advice.

Boot Camp is perfectly safe, no one said it wasn't. However, in order to use Boot Camp to dual boot to Windows, the machine must be rebooted. Also, while running Windows in a Boot Camp dual scenario, if by chance your Windows should become infected with a virus that can't be cleaned with AV software, chances are you'll wind up having to re-install. And that can be a big mess leading to other problems.

Is running Windows using Boot Camp safer than a virtual machine? No it's not. Keep in mind that a virtual machine is actually a large file which contains Windows and both are running in OS X. Can the virtual machine Windows become infected also? Yes. However, it's many times easier to recover from. A virtual machine can be started and stopped within OS X, no reboot required.

When to use Boot Camp: When running a graphic intensive program (games, etc) where the full power of the hardware is needed. Quicken does not need that.

I've used iBank for about 3 years and really disliked it. I use Account Edge for my farm business and someone here suggested just using it for my personal stuff too. So I made a new personal account with it and love it. It used to be called MYOB. Has linked accounts and payroll capability and a/r options which most people don't need. I just ignored all that.

The checkbook feature on iBank was just too tiny and unusable for me. I don't need pie charts and graphs and the transaction data was too difficult to retrieve.

chscag said:

Boot Camp is perfectly safe, no one said it wasn't. However, in order to use Boot Camp to dual boot to Windows, the machine must be rebooted. Also, while running Windows in a Boot Camp dual scenario, if by chance your Windows should become infected with a virus that can't be cleaned with AV software, chances are you'll wind up having to re-install. And that can be a big mess leading to other problems.

Is running Windows using Boot Camp safer than a virtual machine? No it's not. Keep in mind that a virtual machine is actually a large file which contains Windows and both are running in OS X. Can the virtual machine Windows become infected also? Yes. However, it's many times easier to recover from. A virtual machine can be started and stopped within OS X, no reboot required.

When to use Boot Camp: When running a graphic intensive program (games, etc) where the full power of the hardware is needed. Quicken does not need that.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice - spent 3 hours trying to configure Parallels, gave up and tried Vmware Fusion, and it worked like a dream! I'm now happily running the 2 Windows apps I need in a window and couldn't be happier.

This is the best Mac related site on the internet. Keep up the good work.

Randy

Try an alternative called Home Accountz which works on Mac, PC and Linux. I started using it when Quicken was pulled from the UK market:
Accounting Software UK - Easy to Use Financial Software - Accountz

Isn't this UK only?

I decided to run Oracle VirtualBox and have started installing....ran into a small problem (no network hardware working for WinXP) but I have a theory for a solution, just haven't had chance to try it yet.

I also may get a copy of Win8.1 but not sure yet if that works for another application I need Windows for yet and I do not wish to run 2 Windows VMs when I can just have 1.

My plan is to run Quicken2014 for Windows for at least one more year and see if other Mac applications catch up with the feature set of Q4W.

re: Quicken

If Intuit made a Mac version that had all the functionality of the Windows software, I'd be on it in a minute. I don't do anything real fancy with it, but I need the download and bill pay stuff, and I've heard that the Mac version has trouble with that. Also, the Mac version would have to be able to read in my 10+ years of history in the current data file.

randy_m said:

re: Quicken

If Intuit made a Mac version that had all the functionality of the Windows software, I'd be on it in a minute. I don't do anything real fancy with it, but I need the download and bill pay stuff, and I've heard that the Mac version has trouble with that. Also, the Mac version would have to be able to read in my 10+ years of history in the current data file.

Click to expand...

I never quite understood why people kept so much in one datafile. Maybe for me its the fact that Q tends to get screwy after awhile and the most I've gotten was 3 IIRC. I have a 13mos in my current datafile and I've seen some degradation already manifested as unreconciled balances. Since they were small, I accepted and moved on. But that's probably better said on a Q forum and not a mac forum....