Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?

190 Responses to “Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?”

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1. 51
   Willyjp Says:
   June 13th, 2011 at 11:02 am

   scott:
   Since you’re intimately familiar with iBank, how about another question, for someone in a little different situation?

   I’m a Quicken Windows user who’s recently converted to Mac. I passed on switching to iBank because, according to what I could learn, iBank cannot convert the newest Quicken file format (.QDF).

   I was already upgraded to Quicken Win 2011 when I got my Mac, and the entire Quicken data file is now merged into the single .QDF file. According to the info I got, a comma delimited conversion (which would be a disaster) was the only option for me. Is that correct? Does iBank have any plans to add the newest Quicken file format to its conversion capability? Other than the conversion block, I was very impressed by my look at iBank and would love to switch to a native Mac program, since the dealing with future OS changes, etc. will always be more secure than with the Parallels emulation I’m running now.

2. 52
   scott Says:
   June 13th, 2011 at 11:30 am

   hi willy, you should be able to export your QWin 2011 data as a QIF file, which is the format iBank imports. i believe the QDF file is an archive for Quicken itself, while QIF is a longstanding format compatible with many software applications on Mac or PC.

3. 53
   George From Tulsa Says:
   June 13th, 2011 at 2:37 pm

   Scott:

   I have Q Win 2010. It is easy to export QIF from Q WIN. iBank IMPORTS QIF.

   I’ve looked and looked, but find no statement that Intuit removed all QIF function from Q Win 2011. If they did, and you have data in CSV, you can try QifMaster on the Mac to convert the CSV files for iBank.

   But for sure you can’t load a .QDF file other than Quicken. That’s Intuit’s proprietary format.

4. 54
   Gaylen Rebbe Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

   HELP I am using quicken 2006 and it is pretty long in the tooth.

   I want to keep my old banking files. I have a Mac g5, the last of the PowerPC chips, a macbook with intel chip and a ipad 2.

   Any recommendation for a new banking program. I am just using it for checking and budgeting. I was an accountant for many years and I pushed and forced my quicken software to do many things it was never set up to do.

   Thanks

   Reb

5. 55
   George from Tulsa Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 5:43 pm

   Gaylen:

   Your G5 is a dinosaur. Understand its life expectancy is short.

   If you want to keep your old files and don’t want to change anything, consider buying a new Mac NOW with Snow Leopard and Apple Care. You should be good for the next three years.

   Note iBank and other Mac programs will import QIF files if you want to convert. You’ll need to do that before going to Lion, if you go to Lion. No Mac program functions like Quicken.

   By the way, Quicken 2007 proved much more stable on Intel Macs than Q 2006. It was a worthwhile upgrade. If you plan to stick with Mac Quicken, I’d recommend buying 2007, and getting the 3 updater releases for that program.

   There will be a lot of Quicken 2007’s in the dump (or eBay) soon, and you might still be able to buy copies new from Intuit or Amazon.

   By the way, apologies if the contents of this appears twice. I guess I’ve posted so much the program thinks I’m a spambot!

6. 56
   NLP Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 6:36 pm

   I really don’t want to create a separate partition just to run one program, so that’s out for me. Crossover is possible, but I think it doesn’t address the underlying major issue — the lack of native support from Intuit, which is obviously not getting better anytime soon, if at all.

   So with my preference for native support and not running a partition, I’ll re-look at iBank, which I know has the functionality, but I don’t particularly care for the UI.

   But… this thought just occurred to me. Has anyone ever looked at keeping personal accounts in QuickBooks? I already have that for the business bookkeeping I do, and it has native support. I need to explore it and see if it will work with some tweaking, but I thought I’d throw it out and see if anyone has any opinions. Any thoughts?

7. 57
   George from Tulsa Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 7:29 pm

   NLP:

   I tried Quickbooks Online. The version I tried was going to cost $600 a year. It had no way to import data, so all my YTD would have had to be laboriously entered by hand.

   Worse, there’s no real way to extract your data from QB Online once it is there. That’s how Intuit locks users in.

   I didn’t try Quickbooks (local). It is a double entry accounting system which enforces much “accounting” procedure you’re probably not used to as a Quicken user. Again, there’s no escape from Quickbooks. Either you abandon your old data, or stick with Quickbooks as Intuit lifts your wallet and requires updates.

8. 58
   NLP Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 7:46 pm

   George from Tulsa:

   Oh, I agree that QuickBooks Online is limited and too expensive. I’ve explored it before and been highly disappointed.

   I regularly use QuickBooks (the local software on my computer) for business accounting, and it works quite well. (And yes, I am quite used to the procedure — it’s part of what I do for a living!) Which of course means I should probably already know the answer to this question, but there you have it.

   Basically, I’ve always been very delineated when it comes to my clients. I keep their personal accounts in Quicken and their business accounts in QuickBooks. What I haven’t explored yet (and is the basis of this question) is keeping the personal accounts in QuickBooks as well.

   Was just wondering if anyone had any experience on that front. Will be exploring it myself a little more in the coming weeks.

   Thanks!

9. 59
   George from Tulsa Says:
   June 14th, 2011 at 9:43 pm

   NLP!

   Sounds like you’re the one to tell readers the differences between Quicken and QuickBooks as might apply to individuals vs. businesses.

   Would one difference be export to TurboTax?

10. 60
    Willyjp Says:
    June 15th, 2011 at 1:18 am

    I’ve already posted my very positive experience with Parallels Desktop and Quicken Windows (in my case 2011), but at the risk of being repetitive, I just want to respond to the comment about being reluctant to establish a “separate partition” just for Quicken.

    Setting aside the expense issue (which is not insignificant by the time you’ve bought Quicken for Windows, Parallels Desktop AND a fresh copy of Win 7 or XP [cheaper and just as good for THIS purpose, IMHO]), nevertheless I just cannot state how seamlessly and well Quicken runs on my Mac under Parallels Desktop 6. Maybe, technically, the emulated machine IS a “separate partition”, but you will NEVER know it. Quicken resides on my dock just like any other Mac program and starts and runs faster than it ever did on my PC. I can, and often do, have Safari and Outlook for Mac open in their own windows and have Quicken and sometimes Internet Explorer (for bank sites only) open in the “Windows window.” And my PowerBook handles it all without breaking a sweat! Even a Time Machine back-up going on doesn’t slow things down.

    You would never know that you’re running anything but a Mac program, and, if you like, you can use the “Mac look” view and Quicken will even approximate the look of a native Mac program. It just runs absolutely fine and trouble free and really obviates the widely stated yearning for a “Mac version” of Quicken, IMHO.

    As far as the security issues, I do not, and will not, surf the web or do email in the windows emulation. I only go to bank and financial websites (like bill paying sites) in Windows, and mostly secure sites at that. I am running an anti-virus and malware program and firewall in the windows emulation, just for added safety, but it is unobtrusive and trouble free.

    So, as I’ve said before, if you really like Quicken and want to run it on your Mac, there’s really no reason other than the cost issue not to try it. I will be very surprised if you’re not entirely satisfied (assuming you’re satisfied with Quicken Windows to begin with!).

    I agree with the appeal of a native Mac personal finance program, and I just may try iBank, now that I found out that I can export a .QIF file from my 2011 Quicken! But I’m not sure iBank, though a good looking program, has ALL the functionality and tricks of Quicken (which has been through an undeniablly long development cycle).

    Anyway, IF you want to run Quicken, don’t let Parallels Desktop go by without a try! It is really an amazingly efficient and trouble-free way to run Windows programs on a Mac. (I am NOT connected to Parallels in any way, BTW!)

11. 61
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 15th, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Willyjp -

    1. I agree with you, with this addition. I’m using Mac Minis, two are the latest model with 2.4 ghz Core 2, both with 8 gig. One of those has a 240GB OWC SSD. A third is a 2009 2.53 ghz with 4 Gig. The SSD one is of course the fastest; installing Win 7 onto the SSD is amazingly fast. But none of them are processor hot rods, and I found the Parallels Virtual Machine SEEMS to work faster and better if it builds on a Bootcamp install rather than a “pure” Virtual install. It also seems Q Win10 seems “happier” in the “real” bootcamp install.

    2. Bootcamp is now version 3. But after install it will suck down and install versions 3.1 and 3.2, both of which bring improved Apple Windows drivers. I don’t know if Parallels makes such Apple enhancements redundant, but if they’re in the VM, I’d think it can’t hurt.

    3. In deciding which version of Quicken Win to buy, I selected 2010 because I had read (somewhere I can’t remember) that Intuit had returned to playing advertising inside Quicken 2011. They sure **** me off years ago when they did that and even after I blocked Quicken from internet connection, it kept playing the same ads in my face, over and over, while I was paying bills.

    Does 2011 have advertising? If it does, your comments?

12. 62
    Willyjp Says:
    June 15th, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    Replying to George’s points:

    Well I do have t admit that I probably over-bought in the horsepower dept. when I bought my first Mac….and the salesrep in the Mac store told me I was, but I didn’t believe him! Coming from a Windows environment where “bloatware” and security add-ons require ever more resources just to stay even, I went for the PowerBook with the 2.3 Ghz processor (that has double sized RAM 8MB ram cache and 4 GB of RAM. But I knew I was probably going to be running this emulation thing and I had visions of deadly slow start-ups and switches. The Apple store rep said, “well, the Mac OS uses RAM and processor resources differently and you won’t get so bogged down with a lot of stuff running.” (I’m not super tech-y informed, so I can’t debate that point at all) I guess he was right, because this laptop is blindingly fast whether it’s running 1 simple Mac app or the whole shooting match plus the Parallels Desktop with Quicken & Internet Explorer open.
    But I make this point just to concede that, if resource availability is an issue, then sure, I can accept that the boot partition route will give better service…at the cost of less convenience.

    As far as Quicken 2011 and ads: I noted above in this thread that you or someone made a comment about that, and I wondered, because, frankly, I had not noticed anything that I considered advertising at the time. Sure, it installed along with a couple of “craplet” desktop icons for their credit card, etc, but Quicken has done that for years. But since you mentioned it again in this last post, I went and looked. And yes, there IS an advertising pitch (but only 1) and it’s right up front. I had noticed that when I boot Q’11, the first tab that is always open is “Tips and Tutorials” instead of “Home” with your spending and acct. status summary. And of the 2 sub-tabs in “Tips & Tutorials”, the “Quicken Services” tab is alway open with a little display that touts the Quicken Visa card, Quicken online backup, Experian credit reports and maybe one other. But honestly, though I had noticed that the default opening screen was different (and made a mental note to see if I could change it), I really hadn’t conciously identified it as advertising, because I never really look at the opening screen anyway. I just go straight to my main account list and start entering or whatever. But you are certainly correct that there IS a blatant ad right up front on startup. I know you used to be able to set your opening page in Quicken, though I haven’t tried that yet on Q’11. Maybe you can’t anymore? Other than what I described, however, there’s no other advertising, no “pop-ups” or anything like that.

13. 63
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 15th, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Willyjp -

    Thanks for the Q2011 advertising info. Sounds less awful than the version that flashed ads at me while I was writing checks, taking up precious space on my then state of the art 14″ CRT.

    Bootcamp is an easy setup (if the instructions are followed!). Sliding Win into Bootcamp can take some time on a spinning HD. Qkn was much happier there than in the Parallels only VM I tried first. One advantage in Bootcamp “native” Win install: I was able to use the keystrokes to tell Qkn to stop pestering me to register. That hadn’t worked, either in the Wine installs, or in the VM.

    Once Win & Qkn are in the Bootcamp partition, installing Parallels enables user to open Bootcamp Win as a VM. That’s really fast and (to me) worked better than the “pure” VM Parallels install.

14. 64
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Dave Hamilton of “The Mac Observer” actually wrestled Aaron Patzer, Intuit VP, to the ground. Patzer says Intuit is “negotiating with Apple to port parts of Rosetta into a revised version of Quicken 2007, that the PowerPC code in Quicken 2007 makes it “not possible” to port to Lion, and the adaptation may never occur.

    Dave’s article: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo.....ight_away/

    Yesterday AccountEdge Basic was released. Trial download available at:
    http://accountedge.com/mac/basic/

    AEB is $99. Available on the Mac App store with the advantage that provides home user multiple computer licenses. It is a “real” accounting package with some QIF import export functions. Going to take a look at the trial.

15. 65
    Jcca Says:
    June 21st, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    Question for Scott at IBank.

    I’ve been DYING to leave Quicken (using 2005–didn’t see the point of upgrading to 2007) since about, oh, 2006. I’m not really a power user, but the lame features on Essentials are just insulting. I am slef-employed. My Husband is also, and we also have a rental property. Income and expenses have to be traced separately for each of these, but we don’t have separate accounts. I use Quicken Classes to do this.

    I see that iBank now has some things I need:
    -tracking investments (our primary accts are brokerage)
    -splits
    -downloading from banks (too much to hope for that this simple thing should be free)

    but how can I track my various “businesses”?

    If iBank can do this you have no idea how grateful I’ll be.

16. 66
    scott Says:
    June 21st, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    hi jcca,

    the short answer yes: iBank is flexible enough to meet your needs as described. to offer a bit more detail: you can set accounts up in separate documents (say, for yourself, your husband, your rental) and use smart accounts and import rules to quickly organize transactions.

    or, since you don’t consider yourself a power user, you can create custom accounts and track income and expenses manually (as they may be relatively simple for a small rental property, for example).

    as i don’t want to use this discussion for a sales pitch, i’ll just add: you are not stuck with quicken – there are many mac alternatives. iBank is one of them, and checking out the free trial version may help you decide if it’s the one you need.

17. 67
    jcca Says:
    June 21st, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Thanks, I’ll try it. Where should I go to get more instruction on how to use iBank this way?

18. 68
    jcca Says:
    June 21st, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Huh, site thinks I’m a spambot. So I’m not sure that my last post happened.

    Again: thanks for the info. I will try it. Where can I go for detailed instruction on how to use iBank this way? When I say “not a power user” I meant I don’t use every feature of Quicken, but I’m pretty savvy around the Mac.

19. 69
    scott Says:
    June 22nd, 2011 at 9:13 am

    hi jcca,

    you can click on my name above to go to the IGG website for more info. you may also find the iBank video tutorials helpful, and the help files within the app are pretty thorough.

    beyond that, the site has extensive user forums, and you are more than welcome to contact the IGG support team, even while using iBank in trial mode. one way or another, we can get you going. if you’re a savvy mac user, you should adapt to iBank pretty readily.

20. 70
    Gail Says:
    June 22nd, 2011 at 6:13 pm

    Wells Fargo only supports Quicken or Quickbooks for Bill Pay. I am wondering about converting to Quickbooks. It is more then I need, but will it do what I now do in Quicken?

21. 71
    George Still in Tulsa Says:
    June 22nd, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    Gail -

    Here’s a link to an Intuit forum in which an employee of the company seems to be suggesting issues with Quickbooks on Lion. She’s not suggesting it won’t run on Lion; she is calling into question what version will run on Lion. Thus you might want to wait until jumping from the proverbial frying pan into the allegorical fire.

    http://community.intuit.com/po.....x-entirely

    In the meantime, here’s a link to what looks to be an Intuit site offering a trial of Quickbooks

    http://quickbooks.intuit.com/p.....trials.jsp

    If you put the (substantial) effort into getting Quickbooks started, then Intuit will OWN you. There’s not much escape from Quickbooks as their sorta’ is from Quicken.

    Intuit has a policy of disconnecting Quickbooks from bank updates every three years (as I remember reading, don’t come sue me, Intuit). That means you’re forced to upgrade, if you want to keep using the bank \connect features.

    In my job, I pay a lot of bills. Our bank, which is local / regional, uses a bill pay service that I know isn’t theirs, they’re just paying some other company to do the backend database, mail the checks, whatever.

    I’ve found it dead easy to use the online bill pay service. Every payee is memorized at the bank and all I have to do is click the payee, enter the amount, and add a memo if I want (e.g., Invoice # 323456)

    When a check (or deposit) clears, the bank posts a PDF of the item. There’s lots of download choices. One, OFX, slides right into Apple’s Numbers program which formats the data beautifully. Being a heavy Excel person, I take mine as .csv Yes, I’m re-entering into Quicken, but I’ve found that better than importing a screwy QIF which creates new account categories.

    Importing a bank QIF file is where iBank shines . . . though you will have to “fix” transactions iBank hasn’t seen before.

    In summary, before upgrading to the (difficult) Quickbooks, consider if you really need the direct connect to your bank. It may save a few clicks when you’re paying bills, but not nearly as many clicks as you’ll spend setting up Quickbooks, then living within its restrictive (compared to Quicken) double entry system (e.g., you can’t just delete an error but have to journal voucher it away).

22. 72
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 23rd, 2011 at 12:28 am

    Gail -

    I wrote an earlier post to you on my new Google Chrombook. Don’t know if it just went zzzzipping into ozone, or is waiting moderation . . .

    There are problems with Quickbooks 2011 and Lion. So you might be stepping from proverbial frying pan into fire.

    http://community.intuit.com/po.....d-osx-lion

    http://community.intuit.com/po.....x-entirely

    That said, Quickbooks is quite different than Quicken. Quickbooks enforces “accounting principles,” like errors must be corrected by journal voucher not simple edits, and requires a “chart of accounts.”

    It will do what Quicken does, just not so easily, and it locks you and your data in far more aggressively than Quicken.

    Intuit has Quickbooks on a three year forced obsolescence cycle by blocking bank links.

    If your “online banking” needs are not terribly complicated, consider using your bank’s online bill pay, then just entering detail. iBank 4 SHINES at bringing in Qif files from my bank. The only problem is transactions it hasn’t seen before have to be manually edited. No biggie.

    Finally, there is a free trial online of Quickbooks Mac 2011. Just no guarantee it will continue to work if you upgrade to Lion.

23. 73
    Thomas Clapp Says:
    June 23rd, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    Quicken Essentials sucks compared to Quicken 2007. If Essentials is all there is to run on Lion OSX, then I’ll look elsewhere for my financial tools. I am not interested in invoking the Windows operating system just to run my checking accounts, and I need more than the grocery list that Essentials gives you.

24. 74
    gene Says:
    June 28th, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    In anticipation of this I got Quicken Essentials for the Mac to replace my Quicken 2007. Essentials REALLY stinks so now I will be looking for a non-intuit product to replace quicken. I guess they don’t need Mac users so I’m sure they couldn’t care less.

25. 75
    michelle Says:
    June 29th, 2011 at 5:49 pm

    I just called my bank, Chase Bank, inquiring as I know I will have to stop using Quicken 2007 when I move up to Lion some time this summer, once it is released. I have been happy with Q7 even though Chase stopped supporting any downloads 2 years ago. Knowing I would switch up to something, considering ibank, I called Chase to see what my options are. They told me they have recently decided to support only quicken and quick books. They said that the option of downloading any records will not be available to any software programs except quicken or quick books.

    So, since I don\\\’t want to get into buying parallels and quicken for windows, etc,, I will need to change banks too.

    sigh…

26. 76
    scott Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 8:53 am

    michelle, you won’t have to change banks, run parallels, etc. in response to your (or anyone’s) experience in contacting chase (or any bank), two things are worth understanding:

    first, iBank is fully compatible with Chase accounts. if you can download your bank’s transactions for Quicken, that means they are in a standard data format supported by iBank.

    second, when you are talking to customer service people at a bank, they have their standard script (or just limited info). they’ll say, “we don’t support iBank” or “we don’t support Macs” or whatever non-standard thing you ask about… but it’s rarely a definitive technical answer. basically any bank that delivers downloads compatible with MS Money or Quicken will work with iBank.

    i hope that helps.

27. 77
    Michelle Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    Thanks Scott, I appreciate the explanation. Can you or anyone confirm for me what the different file formats arr and which software uses which? I thought I read that bank uses oxf and another local bank replied to my query with this
    Thank you for your email. VerityCU.com allows members to download transaction history to Excel, Money and WebConnect. OFX is not supported by our system.

    So, they don’t tell me what file type they do support, just a software name.

    Thanks for helping me sort out my choices.
    Michelle

28. 78
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    Michelle, QFX is a proprietary format. It is SUPPOSED to be restricted to ONLY Intuit programs, e.g., Quicken. Don’t know about QuickBooks.

    OFX was used by Microsoft Money, which Microsoft no longer makes. With MS Money gone, banks may have dropped OFX which was (unlike Microsoft’s usual tricks) open. Thus your banker may be speaking correctly when saying the bank “only supports Quicken.”

    iBank 4 help SAYS it will import QIF, OFX, QFX, and CSV. I’ve only used it with QIF.

    Moneydance’s user manual (Page 13, or find QFX) also SAYS it will import QFX. Manual here:
    http://s3.amazonaws.com/entp-t....._guide.pdf

    Good luck!

29. 79
    Michelle Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    Thanks for expelling this. I am thinking I will downloadbthe 30 day free trial of Ibank to check it out. I assume I’ll want to move my current info from quicken 2007, which I entered all manually dice chase bank could not work with Q7 and intuit wasn’t keeping it current. So, if I can successfully move my Q7 data and then hook into chase to ge my current data, can you tell me if Ibank will recognizebdata that is there from the Q7 data or will I have to go in and delete a lot of duplicate entries? Any help you can give is appreciated.

30. 80
    TJ Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    Great discussion. Been with Quicken for many years and after trying several alternatives (iBank, MoneyDance, and Mint.com) in preparation for Lion, I settled on SEE Finance. Haven’t seen it mentioned in the comments, but I think it’s definitely worth a look. Seamless import of QIF file from 2007 export and lightning quick bank/brokerage downloads. A very impressive piece of shareware. Use it for a month and buy it if you want to cut the Quicken chord. Only $29.99

    http://scimonocesoftware.com/seefinance/

    Good luck and Good Riddance to Quicken

31. 81
    George from Tulsa Says:
    June 30th, 2011 at 10:21 pm

    NEW SOFTWARE TO TRY!

    I downloaded the new Jumsoft Money4 that was just released. There’s a free trial at: http://www.jumsoft.com/money/

    I’ve only did a very quick test, but I like the interface which puts the transaction entries at the right of the screen instead of the bottom. There’s also a lot of reports.

    Worth a look.

    AND

    While it isn’t financial software, you all might want to try out MOOM, a program that gives you total control of application windows on the Mac. Makes it easy to see your data while you’re working on it.

    Moom is only five bucks (Think combination of move + zoom) and looks to be a real productivity booster.

    http://manytricks.com/moom/

32. 82
    Mike Says:
    July 2nd, 2011 at 12:07 am

    Hi, I’m longtime Quicken user, initially PC, then Mac 2007. Hate it, now loathe it (it has limit to number prices it can store – I’ve data since 1995 – and this causes crash — had to delete price histories to recover, but no longer supports downloads of mutual fund historical prices, so I cannot create investment reports over time). Have been happy to come across all the great info here. I’ve just spent two days trying alternates iBank 4 and See Finance. I cannot make jump to either simply because of lack of investment performance reporting.

    I’m trying to find solution that provides performance reports, nothing fancy, just ROI, annualized returns, and the like over periods of my choosing. All things handily dealt with by Quicken.

    iBank’s ROI calcs don’t match up with Quicken, so I’m unsure of how they calculate it. Quicken’s view is simply % ROI = (Returns/Investments -1) x 100. iBank uses something else, perhaps they are trying for annualized returns which takes into account how long you’ve held investment(s)? Though their ROI calcs neither match Quicken’s annualized return calcs. Anyway, it would help if these packages would just explain the math they are using for investment monitoring.

    Overall I liked See better due to its logical layout, speed, and portfolio view akin to Quicken (iBank only provided Portfolio view in a report that has to be generated each time you look, and it does not allow you to customize view/format of this view). I could go with either of these SW packages, but not w/o decent investment performance monitoring. I have read lots of rave reviews on both these packages but no or little discussion on the aspect of performance monitoring. Am I in a minority for what I thought was a common function desired by many for personal finance SW?

    I’m not far from taking the plunge into Parallels/Win XP or 7/Quicken 2010 or 11 approach. (XP due to better speed, lower cost, Win 7 because of longer term support and built-in virus SW) (Quicken 2010 vs 11 because of annoying ads I hear about in 11, but 11 will be supported longer than 10�.)

    any tips or ideas to hold me back from the precipice?

    thanks for all your views and good info

33. 83
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 2nd, 2011 at 12:15 pm

    A (very) brief report on Jumsoft’s Money 4-

    I spent a day with Money 4. Picked up a few “tips” that would take too much space to post here, unless someone wants them. M4 imports only QIF. Did fine with a year’s Quicken export.

    What I like is its UI. Of the Mac “per fin” programs I’ve tried, this is the easiest to work with, especially after I discovered by trial and error how to make split entries without having to take hands off keyboard.

    Separately, I exported an iBank 4 file via QIF. Money 4 slurped it right in.

    As I’ve commented above, iBank SHINES at imports from my bank which offers OFX export.

    So even though I’ve bought the full Parallels Win 7 Quicken 2010 in multiples, I’m thinking that between Money 4 and iBank 4, it may be possible to use both, keep them congruent via import/export, and NOT have to run Windows just to get Quicken.

    IGG offers a 30 day free trial of iBank on their site. Money at Jumsoft has 15 day trial. Both programs are sold on the Mac App Store while iBank can be purchased in CD form from Amazon.

34. 84
    neilw Says:
    July 3rd, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    iBank lacks the ability to track sales lots for investments. I’ve had no luck finding a Quicken replacement that’ll do that. So I’m headed for the “Quicken inside virtual machine” solution. But I’ll be using VIrtualBox (free). Not happy at all about this but there seems to be no alternative.

35. 85
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 3rd, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    neilw – and ALL

    NEWS TODAY: Apple is going to enable OS X to run OS X machines.

    That would mean Parallels etc. could run a Virtual Snow Leopard Machine inside Lion.

    and that would mean Quicken 2007 and Office 2004 etc live on.

    http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/02...../#comments

36. 86
    mhoney Says:
    July 3rd, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    I am researching options to replace quicken 2007 and see the various issues that are listed. For some it is investment tracking, others the ability to use bill pay, others the detail level of reporting, and also the ability to transfer money between accounts.

    From what I can tell from my q 2007, which I’ve had to do by hand as my bank has not had support or given support for q 2007 for at least 2 years, is that Quicken charges for bill pay. Is this common? I’m not sure it would be worth it to me, to have to pay for this feature. If I had a small business or properties with bills, I could possible see it, as a write off. But for the average person, or as I see it, the average person who wants to track their income and expenditures, and track data to help with taxes, etc., bill paying isn’t a deal breaker. For those who have some kind of FP software, if you use bill pay, does it cost extra?

    Michelle

37. 87
    Jeffc1 Says:
    July 4th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Does anyone know a Webbased alternative to mint?
    I switched over to a Mac, I know for \\\”business\\\” needs I shouldnt have. It was the cool and hip thing to do and I regret it from the Microsoft office suite to Quicken. Lets not even talk about the iphone.
    Anyway what are good online alternatives to mint?

38. 88
    Martha Says:
    July 5th, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    Looking forward to your recommendations for alternative software for those of us not interested in purchasing the Windows version.

39. 89
    neilw Says:
    July 6th, 2011 at 10:36 am

    The OSX-in-virtual-machine solution is by far the best, though the details are still murky. I\\\’m going to try to get a Snow Leopard instance running inside VirtualBox, and see how that goes.

    Regarding the Windows version, I saw this on Quicken\\\’s site:
    [quote]
    You can easily convert your Quicken Mac data with the exception of Investment transaction history. You will need to either re-download your investment transactions or manually enter them.
    This option is ideal if you use Quicken to track investments.
    [/quote]

    They apparently have a different definition of \\\”ideal\\\” from mine. Re-entering my investment transaction data is not my idea of fun.

    So, it looks like Snow Leopard in a VM is the solution of choice, if I can get it to work. I\\\’ll report back.

40. 90
    neilw Says:
    July 7th, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    More on the OSX-in-virtual-machine solution.

    Indications are that the EULA for *Lion* allows running a virtual machine. It is not known if this privilege will be extended to older releases (e.g. Snow Leopard).

    Because it has been against the EULA, none of the existing virtualization products (Parallels, Fusion, VirtualBox) support running Snow Leopard in a VM. You can do it, but it requires Hackintosh-like efforts. There are many tutorials available online if you search. So, if you’re up for it, you can go right ahead and do it now. I am unclear, though, if it’ll work with the system disk that comes with your Mac, or if it’ll *only* work with a retail boxed version.

    Since Lion will officially allow virtualization, I would hope/expect that the virtualization products will add support to make it as easy to create Lion VMs as it is to do any other kind of guest OS. Whether it will ever be “easy” to build a Snow Leopard VM is unknown.

    I actually sent Steve Jobs an email asking if virtualization will be allowed with Snow Leopard, but I’m not expecting a response.

41. 91
    mhoney Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 1:27 am

    George, can you say more on why you are using both money 4 and ibank? I\\\’m trying to choose which way to go and don\\\’t track investments this way. I do have some via TIAA CREF but I don\\\’t know how that will download yet. For now, I\\\’m trying to just get my checking, sav and cc into something that will run on Lion. I\\\’ve been using Q 2007 and while it hasn\\\’t caused me any trouble, since it won\\\’t run on Lion, I want to find a mac friendly PFSP that will meet my needs. So can you clarify why you are running both?

    thanks,
    m

42. 92
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 9:39 am

    MHoney:

    Answering your question, why iBank AND Money.

    Our business still receives a goodly number of paper checks via snail mail. We use “split transactions” to log those checks into one deposit. Money’s split transaction entry form is better than iBank’s, though neither is as good as Quicken’s (sigh)

    iBank’s reports are better than Money’s, so entering in Money then exporting QIF to iBank is what we’re trying.

    Note Splasm Software’s Checkbook 2.2 (new) has the best split entry form of Mac PFfin Software, other than Quicken’s. Doesn’t print checks. Doesn’t create “files” which are self-contained like Quicken. But it might meet the needs of many users. Free trial on Splasm site.

43. 93
    Michelle Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 10:38 am

    Thanks George, this is helpful. I use split transactions in Q07 now, for the category differences for certain purchases. Is that possible in bank? Also, someone recently posted that they did jot like the ibank app for thi iPhone, but others have commented the app was good. Do you, or any one else here have any experience with the ipnhone app, and if so, howndoes it work? I don’t think they have an iPad app yet but I would guess it is coming. I could see myself using the app on my iPad.

    Thanks again for the help!

    Michelle

44. 94
    Pete Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    Great info in this thread!
    Here are my questions – I now download directly from Wells Fargo to 2007 on a weekly basis. It appears that this “syncs” to Wells telling their system that the transaction has been downloaded.
    3 questions
    Do any of the programs support this direct download capability? (even though Wells doesn’t support it)

    Can I experiment with this without hosing up the sync with my 2007 direct downloads?

    Assuming the direct downloads would work, could this get screwed up a Wells continues to update systems in the future?

    Any insight would be appreciated!

    Pete

45. 95
    LagunaBob Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    This thread is the best I’ve found dealing with this issue; thanks to all who have contributed.

    I have been trying to figure out a way to leave Q2007 behind for several years and just began using SEE Finance about a month ago. It performed far better for me than any of the other choices I’ve tried (iBank, MoneyDance, etc.) in bringing in 17 years of data, a BIG factor in my choice. My plan is to continue to keep SEE and Q in parallel for the next few months (yes, a lot of extra work; thanks, Intuit) to see if making the change will work.

    There are missing features in SEE like check printing, which I still use, and I’m not sure if they’ll add billpay, though this is not something I use. I can report that their technical support is the best I’ve used in recent history (20 years), and that they are actively working on adding features like more sophisticated investment tracking. They actively seek user input for new features, too.

    The software is not even a 1.0 release, and I haven’t really had problems but ymmv; it seems quite stable. I am still getting used to the interface and it will probably take some time for me to get used to the way they reconcile accounts, for example. Also, I am not thrilled with having to do manual transfers when I send money from a savings to a checking account, though they make it reasonably painless; perhaps this will become automatic in an upcoming version.

    It has also worked well with my multiple Wells Fargo accounts, as well as investment accounts at several of the big-name brokerage/MF houses. Transactions download easily. The software can emulate Q2007, so as long as those banks accept Q2007 connections, I expect this will continue to work.

    (If you use SEE with Wells Fargo, it’s best not to tell them; they “don’t support” SEE, though it works perfectly fine.)

    The biggest challenge for me will be trying to bring in 7 years of transactions from MacMoney (Survivor Software). I’ve been using Excel 2004 with an add-on that converts a spreadsheet into a QIF file (by Big Red Consulting). It kind of works, but I have to take the QIFs through Q2007 in order for the transfer transactions to connect.

46. 96
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    Michelle re iBank Splits

    Yes, iBank handles splits very well. My problem is the iBank split entry interface requires taking hands off the keyboard and using mouse to click a + box to add a split line. For one or two splits, no big deal. For 30 at a time as we often do, a major annoyance.

    I am not sure why none of the “Mac centric” programs, except possibly QknEssentials (don’t go there!) lets a user advance through a split adding entries by either TAB or ENTER after AMOUNT.

    I’ve no experience with iPhone to offer; I’m an ANDROID guy!

47. 97
    neilw Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    I have to say, I tried SEE and was turned off pretty strongly within the first five minutes. I found entering transactions to be incredibly tedious compared to Quicken. Maybe if I relied on downloading most of my transactions (I don’t) then I wouldn’t notice. Or maybe there’s another way to do it. Once I found out it doesn’t track sales lots, I stopped trying. *sigh*

48. 98
    Seint Says:
    July 8th, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    Why is it that Intuit is seemingly unable to create a successor to Quicken 2007 when all of the substitutes/competitors (iBank, See, etc.) are able to import QIF data and run the data in programs functioning in the new Mac environment? The new Q2007 program would simply need to function in the same way as the old, except with new code, i.e. doing the same thing with the data that its competitor are doing with the data. What am I missing?

49. 99
    Richard Says:
    July 9th, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    If Quicken 2007 is too obsolete to update, why can’t Intuit write a new program with the same functionality that uses QIF data and works on Lion? iBank, See and others can do it, why can’t Intuit? What am I missing?

50. 100
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 9th, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    Michelle; inanimate handles splits fine. Know nothing about iPhone. Earlier response lost in Cyberspace.

    Richard; Intuit has been trying to kill off QIF. They make money by charging banks to link to their software and QIF can be generated free. Intuit’s response was to rewrite all software to block as much QIF as possible while still leaving some function in to let conversion from MS Money, etc,, occur. Unfortunately we users have lots of good uses for QIF, but it isn’t “about” us, but profits for Intuit. Their new model, Mint.com is about making money by flashing ads at you while you manage your money. Theykeep trying that in Quicken.

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