Quicken for PC to ? for Mac

Jaybird180

Jaybird180

Final Approach
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Jaybird180
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 (virtualization), 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.
 
I concur. I don't know of anything else for personal financial software. Granted, I haven't spent much time investigating as Quicken works for substantially all of my non business clients. Also I would think you could import the Quicken PC backup file.
 
I love having Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro and I run it simultaneously with Parallels. Even with Windows-only professional software that requires a Hasp key my Macbook runs circles around my newest desktop PC. You've gotta have enough RAM to run both operating systems but it sure works well.
 
I've used Quicken for Mac for decades and found it to not be terribly buggy. I felt the more recent iteration I'm using a step back from the one I used, but it still functions.
 
I use MoneyDance, but I'm not sure it's as full-featured as Quicken. It syncs via Wifi or Dropbox with the iPhone or Android software flawlessly, but I only really use it for bank reconciliation and light budgeting.
 
I hated Quicken for Mac. Buy yourself a copy of Parallels 10 and Quicken for Windows. I have been a Quicken user since 1989 and switched to the Mac version when I bought the Apple. It is like the Garmin Pilot on iOS and Android thing. Mac version always was catching up and was buggy.

When you buy Parallels, you can run it as the boot drive -- means your Mac will boot up just like a PC or run Parallels within Mac. You will find other Windows products like Office are really different on a Mac.
 
That was my plan. It seems they made some changes to the 2015 version to get closer to the PC software in functionality.
 
Another cool thing about Parallels is Parallels Access. I can use my desktop or laptop from my iPad or iPhone as long as I haven't turned off or closed my computers. Open files, documents, pictures, etc. Pretty handy.
 
I have been considering switching to Quicken for Mac 2015 for a while. I presently use Quicken 2013 with Parallels. When I clicked on Midlifeflyer's link I saw it was half the price as in the App Store so I bought it to try. In the grand scheme of things $35 vs $70-something is insignificant but it gave me the push I needed. :rofl:
 
midlifeflyer said:
Any reason to not simply use Quicken for the Mac?
Click to expand...

Yeah, Intuit is teh evel. Quicken for Mac was buggy and not updated for last 5-6 years.

Then they did the usual and come out with new versions that were worse, charging for hope all the way:
https://scottworldblog.wordpress.co...-hate-mac-users-and-why-doesnt-apple-save-us/

Wanna know why they tout now that you can change the size of the register? Up until the 2015 version of Quicken they had hard coded the fixed font size for 1990s Mac screens so the font on current screens was small and pretty much unreadable.

Heh. It looks Quicken Mac 2015 is just as bad as always.
https://www.facebook.com/Quicken/posts/10152267933880978

"C'Mon, Charlie Brown, this time I'll hold the football."
I use GNUCash
 
Everskyward said:
I have been considering switching to Quicken for Mac 2015 for a while. I presently use Quicken 2013 with Parallels. When I clicked on Midlifeflyer's link I saw it was half the price as in the App Store so I bought it to try. In the grand scheme of things $35 vs $70-something is insignificant but it gave me the push I needed. :rofl:
Click to expand...

Let us know how it goes
 
mikea said:
Yeah, Intuit is teh evel. ...[/URL]
Click to expand...

Whatever that means I'm pretty sure I agree. I have been using Quicken for so long it's not funny and I hate it. Every two years they completely disable it and force you to buy an "upgrade" that does nothing more than the old version In fact they don't even bother to fix the bugs , they come along with the upgrade.

But...every two years I contemplate dumping Quicken and I can't find an easy way to do it. There's really nothing else out there because I think that most sensible people have completely abandoned such dinosaur-ware and do their financials from web based apps built into the online banking. I'll admit I do all my bill pay through Wells Fargo now and no longer use the clunky old Quicken pay system that probably no longer even exists.

Why I keep it I don't know, maybe it's just the idea of having a datafile containing every financial transaction I've made for the past 32 years right down to buying a big gulp at 7-11 with my ATM.

Not that I ever look at any of it.

If they disable it again this year maybe I'll finally dump it and rid myself of Intuit forever. YaY!! :goofy:
 
I used Quicken for PC for years but then went to the Dark Side and got an iMac. I had heard bad things about Quicken for Mac, so I installed iBank. Took a little getting used to, but now I do like it. They even have an app for an iPhone.
 
Was a diehard quicken user for decades. Ditched it all 3 years ago in favor of online aggregator Mint. No more entering in receipts.

MUCH Mo betta! Free and works on Mac just as well
 
Jaybird180 said:
Let us know how it goes
Click to expand...
Finished importing and I'll say that part went better than expected. All accounts (and I have quite a few) have the correct balance. Transactions look OK. I'll check the accuracy of other things like cost basis tomorrow.

I'll say that the interface and display is a little different. I already know that there are not as many bells and whistles, but I didn't use a lot of them anyway. I mainly track my bank, credit card and investment accounts and that is about it. I never make transactions through Quicken although I download transactions and quotes from financial institutions.
 
Quicken is an Intuit product. So is Mint, isn't it?

Why does Intuit give Mint for free, causing paying Quicken customers to abandon that product and quit paying? I don't get it.
 
I dumped Quicken years ago when they let the Mac version get so far behind the PC version that it looked like a Fisher Price toy compared to the Windows version. I ran the Windows version in a VM for a while.

I forced myself to build a few good spreadsheets and moved monitor and update duties to Mint. Mint was not an Intuit company at that time and I wanted far away from their low quality treadmill of paying every year for marginal updates.

I'm amazed they haven't completely screwed up Mint yet.

I fiddled with GNUCash and hated it. Along with three or so other Mac only financial packages. All paid. It was a waste of about $150 and nothing did what Quicken Windows will do. Maybe that's changed.

By the way: VirtualBox has made big strides over the last couple of years and is absolutely free. I'm a Parallels guy from long ago, but for the little I use the Windows VM now, I wouldn't buy it. VirtualBox would handle it just fine.

Never had to deal with QuickBOOKS (not Quicken) on either platform other than helping others recover crashes. There's cloud based invoicing and accounting systems that I'd use before QB at this point.

By the way if you get serious about the spreadsheet, Numbers definitely won't cut it, and Excel for Mac sucks compared to the PC version, too. Best to do that in a VM also.

The nice part about Windows VMs on Mac is you can essentially contain the virus known as Windows and only launch it when needed. Heh.
 
Silvaire said:
Whatever that means I'm pretty sure I agree. I have been using Quicken for so long it's not funny and I hate it. Every two years they completely disable it and force you to buy an "upgrade" that does nothing more than the old version In fact they don't even bother to fix the bugs , they come along with the upgrade.
Click to expand...

QFT...especially the bolded part. Quicken sucks. But as you also say, I haven't found a viable alternative.
 
timwinters said:
QFT...especially the bolded part. Quicken sucks. But as you also say, I haven't found a viable alternative.
Click to expand...


Microsoft Money had a chance to de-thrown them but Microsoft decided to make their money elsewhere.
 
Marauder said:
Microsoft Money had a chance to de-thrown them but Microsoft decided to make their money elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I like Money before they exited the market, that's when I switched to Moneydance. I like the interface on Moneydance, and it will manage bill-pay, investment tracking, budgeting/cash flow, etc. just like Money did.
 
denverpilot said:
I dumped Quicken years ago when they let the Mac version get so far behind the PC version that it looked like a Fisher Price toy compared to the Windows version. I ran the Windows version in a VM for a while.

I forced myself to build a few good spreadsheets and moved monitor and update duties to Mint. Mint was not an Intuit company at that time and I wanted far away from their low quality treadmill of paying every year for marginal updates.

I'm amazed they haven't completely screwed up Mint yet.

I fiddled with GNUCash and hated it. Along with three or so other Mac only financial packages. All paid. It was a waste of about $150 and nothing did what Quicken Windows will do. Maybe that's changed.

By the way: VirtualBox has made big strides over the last couple of years and is absolutely free. I'm a Parallels guy from long ago, but for the little I use the Windows VM now, I wouldn't buy it. VirtualBox would handle it just fine.

Never had to deal with QuickBOOKS (not Quicken) on either platform other than helping others recover crashes. There's cloud based invoicing and accounting systems that I'd use before QB at this point.

By the way if you get serious about the spreadsheet, Numbers definitely won't cut it, and Excel for Mac sucks compared to the PC version, too. Best to do that in a VM also.

The nice part about Windows VMs on Mac is you can essentially contain the virus known as Windows and only launch it when needed. Heh.
Click to expand...

I use Quickbooks Pro on Ubuntu under an Oracle Virtualbox XP machine.
Works great. Every times you launch Windows, it builds a new machine.
Handles the Jeppesen software for gx updates too.
 
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