Tuesday
Feb032009
Mac Financial Apps
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 11:24AM 
I started a mini twitter storm yesterday by expressing my frustrations with trying to find a simple yet effective Money management application for the Mac. Up until a few months ago, I was still using MS Money 95 (yes 95!), the last application from my pre-mac days and the only one I needed a windows virtual machine on my mac for.
Well I decided to bite the bullet and transfer over to a Mac application to remove my dependancy on the windows environment.
Well, there are tons of really smart Mac applications out there for every niche under the sun so shouldn't be any problems?
After a very brief mooch around, I ended up with iBank.
After using it for a few months, I want my MS Money'95 back.
You know, if I enter 02/01/09 I really don't expect my consumer level package to interpret that as 2nd Jan 0009 - I mean, come on FFS!!
Anyhow, I'm not happy and want a Mac app that makes life easier and makes keeping on top of my finances fun, you know, like all my other apps behave.
As a side note, I've found a great online package for my business accounts called Kashflow (affiliate link) Whilst not a Mac app, it's brilliantly simple and just works. I'd like something similar for my home finances please.
I've found that most apps are either too complex or too simple.
I just want something that makes data entry easy and gives me a forward looking view for the next few months to see if I'm going to go overdrawn and allows me to juggle things about to stop that happening.
The leader in the recommendations appears to be Moneywell but I'm not too sure if I really want to spend the time setting up all these buckets and moving stuff about. I still can't see a nice simple projection of how my finance will look over the next few months, but that just may be me.
With all the packages, there is a big investment in time in setting them up and I want to be sure I choose the right one.
James Oberwetter was kind enough to email the links below to me following the Twitter thread yesterday. I've not tried all of the apps but it's a good place to start.
MoneyWell
Cha-Ching
moneyGuru
MTH Software: Home of the high quality personal financial software
Moneydance® 2008 - Personal Finance Manager for Mac, Windows, and Linux
iBank | Personal finance, money management and small business software for Mac OS X
EasyMoney
IGG Software | Personal finance, money management and small business applications for Mac OS X
Jumsoft | Money
Squirrel - Personal Finance Application
Feel free to leave your own comments and recommendations for financial software on this post.
It shouldn't be this hard!
Reader Comments (25)
I feel your pain Don. I've been looking for a good accounting package that feels 'Mac like' since I became self-employed a few years ago.
I want something similar to my previous solution QuickBooks on PC (no Mac version in the UK!), I think I've looked at them all but MYOB etc are just plain ugly and not intuitive. I tried Billings (http://www.billingsapp.com/) for a couple of months and that's OK for invoicing but not for the financial side.
Just started a trial of Xero (http://www.xero.com/) a week ago and think I've found what I'm looking for :-)
I'm surprised you haven't had a look at Personal Accountz from accountz.com (http://www.accountz.com/household.html).
It has a very attractive user interface, is straightforward to use, is very flexible and is cross-platform.
(And it's produced in the United Kingdom.)
Thanks Nicholas, not seen that one before! Will check it out.
Same here... I'm wondering why google never had the idea of indroducing a very easy way of taking control over my personal finance and some small-business-accounting... That would perfectly fit to all the other google applications...
Don -- Good for you for deciding to shed your last tie to Windows.
Your list didn't include CheckBook Pro from Splasm, the same folks who do Audiobook Builder and ViddyUp! CheckBook Pro is very straightforward and stable. Do yourself a favor and take a serious look.
You didn't have Quicken on your list. That might be because the current version is so bad it's not worth considering and no one would recommend it. But it is undergoing a major rewrite and may be worth looking at when it is ready. Keeps getting pushed back though. And of course finances can't wait.
Quicken hasn't been supported in the UK since 2006 (http://www.quicken.co.uk/) - that might be why Don didn't include it. I hate to say this, but you can't beat MS Money. I use iBank but would not recommend it to others.
I use Quicken for Windows v 2004. in Parellels The last produced for the UK before they plulled the plug and ran home to the US. Like every one else I would like a Mac accounts program. I have squirrel, which they say is Quicken like but simpler, but I've yet to take the plunge with years of back records. Exporting from PC to Mac does not work.
I use Moneywell and have liked it so far. You have to like the concept of the envelope system to really get it though. I love the fact that I can set up, fill the buckets electronically with cash and my wife can check to see if it is a good idea to spend in each category depending on how much cash it has left in it. You have to stay on top of it more on a regular basis but it does pay off in the long run. I also like the simple one pane interface so I don't have to click through a lot of screens to see what is happening with my money and budget categories.
I looked at Checkbook Pro but it does not have a running total by date like iBank does, you can only see the final balance. iBank, i think, is the best of the bunch but it's not perfect. I would love to see a solid black line separating future/past dates, its just kinda comforting.
I use TinyBooks from Ken Winograd. It is simple to use and gives me the reports I need for my small business. I didn't need all the stuff in Quicken.
http://www.winograd.com/ftinybooks.html
Don,
I have found that being unemployed is the only true solution. :-)
I use Checkbook, but only to make sure that my checking account has a buffer and that I won't overdraw.
The invoicing software choice is also poor. I have tried Bilings and Invoice3 and although both claim 'Mac Like' status, the initial layout of the invoice is a tortuous affair. Let alone some of the glitches exhibited by both progs....
Don,
Intuit is working on a major revamp of its mac apps. The new version of quicken is going to be called Financial Life. I am currently beta testing it and its pretty nice and definately has that mac feel. Here is the beta signup form.
https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/sign_up.php
Hello,
We are the a small, friendly software company and our product was mentioned on this blog: MTH My Money (at http://www.mthbuilt.com)
We do support conversion of Microsoft Money files into our database format, the wiki page with a step by step instructions at:
http://wiki.mthbuilt.com/How_to_convert_Microsoft_Money_file
If you are unhappy with our product you can always export the data out, we support all relevant industry standards,
Thanks,
Tim
I tried many of the apps mentioned above but settled on Fortora Finance http://www.fortora.com/ffmac/ which seems to be a sleeper in the Mac community. The reports mate well with Numbers and I often have the occasion to drag things over to a spreadsheet. Its not beautiful in a Mac way but I found many of the other apps had so many bells and whistles that I lost the ledger book look that reassured me I was really getting everything entered where it should go.
Check out Prospects:
http://www.motimotion.com/prospects/
I found it on apple.com as a Staff Pick and it is very, very close to being "the one". It was just created in January 2008, and has only one developer, but it is very well done.
I want to like this one so bad, but there are still some qwirks. I'd be interested in seeing what you thought.
Phew! That's an awful lot of suggestions ;-) Will need to try out some of these as time permits.
Thanks for the input.
Well, Don....what did you find out? I have never used any personal finance software (always done by old-school ledgers or created my own excel spreadsheets!). And now am starting a small business/sole-proprietorship and need help. When you have a chance, can you let us know what your thoughts are? Thanks!
@Aimee.... Well Aimee, I have to admit that I've still not found anything that fits the bill. Perhaps I need to rethink the approach I'm taking with managing my personal accounts.
As far as my business accounts are concerned, I'm delighted with Kashflow (affiliate link - http://www.kashflow.co.uk/?code=AFF2100358) as an online system for managing my business accounts.
Yes, I think I need to review what I'd doing and what I need to be doing with my personal accounts, all these apps can't be wrong!
Hi Don, I've been following this issue for over 3 years and found this site doing the same thing:
http://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/05/looking-for-mac-os-x-personal-finance-software/#comment-10147 You might find it interesting.
I was a MS Money home & business user for my tiny sole proprietor business. I'm not completely satisfied, but now I'm using FreshBooks for invoicing, have just started to try Outright, but it seems limited, but links with FreshBooks (which an IT consultant waiting in line at the Apple store turned me on to). I'll have a look at Kashflow - thanks.
For personal, after years of doing this by hand after leaving MS Money, I'm trying Quicken Online. I had some glitches with one of my banks, but after back and forth with support, they forwarded to the banking division. I then deleted the account, closed the site, then opened and tried again, and it worked. My husband likes this one, but I'm the one that uses it, so .....
I will try the new Q Financial Life after it comes out this summer and has some better reviews. I will try Fortora Fresh Finance and My Money, but neither has many reviews as yet.
Thank you for keeping this issue in the light!
This was a battle for me too until I found Moneyworks - http://www.cognito.co.nz/ - full range of product - great support. This was written for the Mac not the other side !
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In case you were wondering, as far as my personal finances are concerned, I've gone for a very simple approach. When I evaluated what I needed, I really just wanted an easy way to check my bank account and do a forward project for the next three months to make sure I wasn't going to go overdrawn and to see what (if any!) I could save. I found in all the applications, I was spending far too much time entering data.
I finally went with no longer entering in data to reconcile but just downloading in CSV format from my bank and then importing into Numbers to add a few months onto the end of it.
Simple but it's all I needed.
Dare I mention........Accountedge? (Australian Version 9) I guess the only person who likes it is my accountant. Would love to use a more friendly designed interface, but I have not found any to sync (perfectly) with the aforementioned. The idea of having to duplicate the ledgers each month by running two applications is simply beyond my imagination.