But Quicken 2007 was showing its age. Why? Basically because it worked (most of the time), and I didn't like any of the alternatives, which I would occasionally test. For more information, click here.Yes, I was using an eleven-year-old app to track our family's spending and investments. You can also use Dropbox to move files. QXF file to media that will allow you to move it to your PC, such as a thumb drive or CD/DVD.Felt like a Mac app I wasn't interested in something that felt like a port from Windows, or lacked the specific "Macness" one gets in an app written for the Mac.M Imported our historical Quicken data I didn't want to lose 24+ years of our financial data. (I hate subscription software in general, but as it turns out, this one isn't really a subscription.)Read on for brief overviews of each of these three apps (with more detail on Quicken) and my rationale for deciding on Quicken. Going in, I was dead set against it, mainly due to its annual subscription structure. It was finally time to find its replacement.In July, I wrote in Using Quicken for Mac Quicken used to import data from earlier versions or Windows versions is also compiled for PowerPC Macs.After reviewing lists of alternatives—and asking on Twitter—I focused on three apps: Bantivity, Moneydance, and Quicken 2018 for Mac.After looking at all three, I surprised myself by deciding that Quicken was the best tool for our use. Worst of all, it would crash on occasion, necessitating rebuilding all my data files.
![]() Moving Data From Quicken To Windows Update Our BankBanktivity won't import reconciliations, so none of my accounts were reconciled. Moneydance ignored the "hidden" status of accounts, so a lot of old, closed accounts showed up. As such, I can't vouch for how well any of these three programs handle those tasks.All three apps imported my Quicken data file, though with varying degrees of success. Included online account access I want to update our bank, credit card, and investment accounts from the source, instead of having to manually enter transactions.Things I don't really care about are bill pay (I use our bank), reports, budgets, and charts and graphs for anything outside the investments section of the app. How can i enter an activatin key for office for mac 2016Performance-wise, the app feels a bit slow it takes a couple of seconds to open an account in a new window after double-clicking its entry in the account list. And while that doesn't inherently make it bad, Java's generic "write once for many platforms" code shows itself in a few places: The Preferences window doesn't look anything like a native Mac app window, and the buttons in the app are definitely not macOS-style buttons. (It's easy to tell them apart in this four-line partial register, but in the full register with comments on the second line for many entries, everything blends together.)Moneydance is a Java app. I found the interface not to my liking—there are icons next to each account, which makes the layout look busy, and I found its register view confusing:Notice that entries take up two rows, but the white/blue background alternates every other row…so if you're glancing at the register, it's nearly impossible to pick out one transaction unless you click on it to select it. It looks very busy, but once you get into an account, the view is much cleaner than Moneydance:This view can also be infested with icons, but those can (thankfully) be disabled in the app's preferences. Its account list view is also laden with icons—folder icons, new activity count badges, and status badges. 2 - BanktivityBanktivity was a strong contender it was neck and neck with Quicken until I got more into the transition and looked closely at all of our accounts. Because I wasn't downloading investment data in Quicken 2007, I had manually entered the splits using Quicken's split tool. That's a big time waster for me.On the investment side, I had issues with two stocks that had had stock splits. Unfortunately, you can't do that with a double-click, as that brings up the account's info panel you need to right-click and choose Open in New Window from the contextual menu. Outside of that, Direct Access is a $45 per year subscription.Banktivity doesn't have any of the "non-native" issues I found in Moneydance the app looks and feels like a traditional Mac app, and opening an account window from the account list is speedy. While many of our accounts offered free OFX support, there were a number that only worked with Direct Access, which is free during the generous 30 day trial period. It's also speedy, opening new account windows promptly when double-clicked.I like the minimalist one-line register views—they're clean and easy to read:(If you need to see the details, you can double-click to see an expanded view.)You can choose one of four levels of line spacing for the register—they include Comfortable, Cozy (pictured), Compact, and Tiny. As I hoped, Quicken handled the import of my old data perfectly, bringing across the reconciliations and handling investments properly. That allayed my fears of needing to subscribe forever, just so I wouldn't lose access to my financial data.Unfortunately, there's no free trial of Quicken, but they do offer a 30-day money back guarantee, so I paid and started testing.What I found is an app that, for the most part, takes everything I liked about Quicken 2007 and modernizes it. 1 - Quicken 2018When Quicken 2018 was released as a subscription product, I tweeted my displeasure with the change, as I have a big issue with "software as a service." But as I dug into the app, I discovered that their subscription isn't really a subscription: If you stop subscribing, you can still use the app to enter and track financial data you just lose access to the online components and Quicken's support services. ![]() The help file itself is detailed and well indexed, making it fairly easy to find what you want. After buying, I received an email thank-you from the CEO, explaining where they've been and where they're trying to go, and thanking me for being a customer—sure, it's a form letter, but it's more than I ever got from Intuit.The in-app help options, as seen at right, are extensive and include a link to the community forums as well as an in-app screen sharing feature. And to me, it seems "new Quicken" is trying hard. But it's possibly bad in that an investment group only buys a company for one reason: To later sell it at a big profit.But to get to the point where the company is worth a higher valuation, they have to offer things that customers want. That's both good and bad it's good that they're out from under Intuit's lack of interest in the Mac app. For us, as we need to track loans and investments but don't need bill pay, Deluxe was the obvious choice.Right now—and probably for quite a while, I'd imagine—a two-year Deluxe subscription is $69.98, bringing the cost per year to $34.99, which is a bargain. The comparison page lays out all the differences. Quicken for Mac comes in three versions: Starter ($35/year), Deluxe ($50/year), and Premier ($75/year). Buttons look right, the prefs look right, shortcut keys work as expected, etc.Finally, there's the issue of cost.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMary ArchivesCategories |