Home Forums FineTunedMac Community Lounge Quicken 10 Rant

I am a longtime user of Quicken. In the main, I have been quite happy with it. I wish it were UB and had the features of the PC counterpart, but I am, or was, quite willing to wait for the next update. Quicken 10 has long passed its oft promised release dates, but still I wait. Quicken 2007 works ok.

In the main, I have used Quicken to satisfy my household financial life and, even more importantly, track my 6 investment portfolios, e.g., manage stock & bond & mutual fund buys and sells, track equity prices, analyze performance trends, etc.

At long last, Quicken 10 ($69.99) is promised to be released in February 2010. Here are its (long awaited) features:

1. View your accounts all in one place (Yawn).
2. Shows your current balance, including upcoming bills and paychecks (Not new).
3. Automatically categorizes transactions so you can see where your money's going (Not new).
4. Helps you avoid those pesky late fees (Wow, what a feature! And not new.)

And this is what it won't do:

1. Can I track my investments?
“ …It will not, however, track investment buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports. If you need more more (sic) advanced investment features, try Quicken Mac 2007.”

2. Can I export my data to TurboTax?
“Quicken for Mac does not support that capability. If you'd like that functionality, we recommend trying Quicken Mac 2007.”

3. Can I pay my bills within Quicken?
“While you cannot pay bills within the product itself ("direct bill pay"), you can track your bills and make sure you have enough cash to pay them when they're due. A few alternatives available include using Quicken Mac 2007 or using the bill pay functionality on Quicken Bill Pay.”

4. Can I transfer my data from an older version of Quicken Mac?
“Yes, you can transfer data from Quicken Mac 2005, 2006 and 2007.” (Wow, allows one to upgrade without losing data.)

5. Can I convert my Quicken Windows data to Quicken for Mac 2010?
Yes, it converts Quicken Windows 2007, 2008 and 2009 data. (I wonder what happens to the Windows investment data and all the other features that are not supported in the Mac version.)

At last, my choices:

1. Find a comparable product. As yet, I have not found such a critter. Still, my search continues. (Ideally, it will allow me to export my Quicken data.)

2. Use the PC Quicken version on Bootcamp. For all practical purposes, exporting my data to a PC version is not doable or supported.

3. Continue to use Quicken 2007 until I find a better option.

I think the best spin is that Intuit says the delay in Quicken 10 is that they have been listening to the Mac Community and needed time to incorporate their wishes.

And so I rant and beg forgiveness for the long post.

If you could provide a list of products you have tried and rejected it might save time and a lot of repetitious suggestions.

Joe,

I have searched VT and MacUpdate (finance & money) and got many hits. Alas, most are designed for checkbook and budgeting, and small business management, and are weak re investments. These include My Money, Money, MoneyWell.

The only possible candidate I have found (so far) is Liquid Ledger 2, though I have yet to DL the trial copy.

Suggestions most welcome.

I have used MoneyDance for some time, and IMO it has excellent investment management features as well as good online banking support through most major financial institutions. MoneyDance is written in Java (not JavaScript) and is fully Mac, Linux, and Windows compatible although the development work is primarily done on a Mac. Even better the developer is very responsive to the user community. Like all accounting apps it has its quirks but it isn't difficult to adapt to. It will import the QIF files from your existing Quicken although it may require some cleanup work afterwards.

The free trial version is, I believe, limited to 100 transactions and that should be enough for you to get a feel for the product. You cannot get the full "feel" of the product without downloading. The price is very reasonable, I bought a license for MoneyDance 2005-2006 and the updates and upgrades have been free since that time so it has amortized out to a bit over $10 a year so far.

Many thanks Joe. Money Dance looks like just the thang.

I know there will be importing issues and adjustments and learning new ways, but still, Money Dance may well be what I want (or need). And as Quicken's days are numbered, the sooner I bite the bullet the better.

As of now, my plan is to begin a parallel test with Quicken & MD on 1 Nov.

Stay tuned...

Had I thought of it, I would have strongly urged your plan of running in parallel. Having gone through the pain of switching accounting software more than once, I have another suggestion for you to consider. If you do decide to make the switch, I have found the ideal full cutover date to be 1 January so you begin the next fiscal year with the new system. It makes everything a lot cleaner next tax time.

By-the-way, I like the Voltaire quote. It is too true