Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?

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

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1. 101
   Ken Says:
   July 11th, 2011 at 2:03 pm

   Great thread about Quicken, very helpful. And based on the info here, I downloaded iBank and converted my Quicken info. So far, even though things are completely different, it looks good. The first problem I’ve encountered that I can’t find a way around is with investments, you enter share price and share quantity and that’s it. Great in an ideal world, but all of my online accounts frequently have different dollar values computed from the share price and share quantity (presumably, round off errors). Since it is the share price that is the only thing that doesn’t really matter, I’d rather be able to enter dollar value and share quantity as I did in Quicken. Any iBank tips on how to make it work? Right now, all my converted accounts are off by a couple of dimes because of all the roundoffs – very messy and very difficult to track. (I’ve submitted a request to their help system but would appreciate any user suggestions too.)

   Also, while it might be neat to keep going with Quicken through some sort of virtual machine, I’m really P.O.’ed with them for not coming through with a Mac solution (Essentials doesn’t count). So the last thing I want to do is give Intuit money for a Quicken Windows license. I suppose I could whine to Intuit to see if I could get a break on it, but being a Quicken 2006 Mac user, I don’t expect much of a break. So if I’m going to spend money on something, I’d rather spend it on tool that is Mac-centric and written by a company that seems invested in continuing a Mac solution.

   The note that George found about Quicken possibly getting Rosetta stuff included is nice. But that seems like too little too late to me. Of course, it’s possible that I won’t even jump into Lion right away which would give Intuit the time to get a working real Quicken for Lion by the time I do. And George’s linked article does hint that it may be possible. But that’s all a lot of if’s. If we were talking about the tool I use to watch movies on a Mac, or view pictures or whatever, I’d be fine with a little bit looser plan for the future. But tracking my money is the one thing I’m going to be very interested in nailing down a plan for and without anything concrete from Intuit, this Quicken user (from 1995) is ready to bail and if I can get past this iBank problem (and whatever next ones I find), then iBank is the easy winner.

2. 102
   Nickel Says:
   July 11th, 2011 at 4:34 pm

   All: A couple of updates…

   First, I’ve posted a list of Quicken alternatives:

   http://www.fivecentnickel.com/.....ernatives/

   Second, I’ve posted a fairly detailed review of iBank vs. Quicken:

   http://www.fivecentnickel.com/.....placement/

   Ken: I had the exact same complaint about rounding issues with investment transactions in iBank.

   Stay tuned… My Moneydance review is just around the corner.

3. 103
   Resident Pixie Says:
   July 12th, 2011 at 10:02 am

   CheckBook Pro is a possible alternative to Quicken and offers a free trial

4. 104
   PFeld Says:
   July 12th, 2011 at 11:11 am

   After reading all the comments I\\\’m almost embarrassed to admit that I like Quicken Essentials for Mac as I only use it for two things: check register and reports for my tax preparer. But now, when I load Lion what are my options? I see from the comments above, that I won\\\’t be able to move all my quicken files into iBank. What are my options? I\\\’ve used Quicken for many years and now all my files are converted to Quicken Essentials. HELLLLP MEEEEEE!

   Please

5. 105
   George From Tulsa Says:
   July 12th, 2011 at 1:21 pm

   Pfeld and EVERYONE!

   1. Just because Apple offers a shiny new OS to download doesn’t mean you have to take the bait. Snow Leopard will be supported for at least two years. Let some other bleeding edge types find out what Lion does to their systems. The most recent Apple OS update 10.6.8 has been reported troublesome all over the ‘net, and much of that update is actually part of Lion.

   2. Intuit may, but probably won’t, fix Quicken to run under Lion. So waiting around won’t hurt.

   3. When you decide to upgrade to Lion, by all means CLONE your current setup before installing Lion. Firewire is best, unless you have an Air. Buy TWO drives and clone it twice. Seriously, once you install Lion, going back may be very difficult, and one drive without a backup is not a backup.

   4. Pfeld’s troubles are real. Both Money 4 and iBank 4 advertise they can import the QXF files Quicken Essentials Exports. NO. THEY. CAN’T.

   Even my Windows install of Qkn 2010 would recognize the QE QXF file. Why? Intuit embeds codes in QXF files to mark they are downloaded from banks that pay Intuit for the codes. No embedded code, no import.

   5. Pfeld, what you need to do is export your Quicken 2007 files to iBank 4, Money 4, etc., before upgrading to Lion. Quicken Essentials just won’t release any data you’ve entered there, other than as a CSV. Oh, you might be able to get a Mac program to import a CSV, but from my attempts at doing that, I’d recommend typing it in first.

   All this trouble is because Intuit wants to force banks to pay, either to be part of their preferred Mint.com or to enable bank customers to download direct from the banks. Intuit’s attitude is just callous. They took a perfectly good program and an in effort to make money, not from selling it, but forever after, crippled its import/export function.

   I’d really truly like to leave Intuit behind. Refer to our host’s (Nickel’s) post # 102 for alternatives and a comparative review of iBank vs. Quicken.

   Sadly, nothing compares, and even though I bought all the “parts” to run Quicken 2010 on Windows, its import / export function is only slightly less crippled than Quicken Essentials . . .

6. 106
   neilw Says:
   July 12th, 2011 at 2:58 pm

   George from Tulsa wrote:
   >Just because Apple offers a shiny new OS to download
   >doesn’t mean you have to take the bait. Snow Leopard
   >will be supported for at least two years.

   Quite true, and I certainly won’t be upgrading right away. I’d probably wait until 10.7.1 anyway. However, it is mighty annoying to be held back from upgrading by an ancient copy of Quicken that we don’t necessarily even like all that much, but are trapped in.

   Anyway, those contemplating purchase of a new machine have no such option. New hardware (starting tomorrow, presumably) will come with Lion pre-installed, and who knows what it will take to downgrade one of those machines back to Snow Leopard.

7. 107
   Ken Says:
   July 12th, 2011 at 4:33 pm

   Nickel, great to know I’m not alone with the investment rounding annoyance. Although you are right in your description in the other post that you could use commission to handle the error, you also could delete the automatically calculated commission and Quicken would accept the transaction the way you wanted it – the way it matches your online account. I liked it that way better because it didn’t effect commission reporting.

   I’m posting my comment here instead of on the other post to follow up on my previous comment and on your comment about Moneydance – looking forward to that review. Thanks again!

8. 108
   Bruce Says:
   July 20th, 2011 at 12:21 pm

   I have found that Moneydance for Mac is a decent alternative to running Quicken in a Windows virtual machine. Should Intuit ever decide to release a full-featured Quicken for Mac I’ll probably switch back. But I’m not holding my breath.

   I did try iBank for a while but found the Reconcile feature to be cludgy, non-intuitive and, for me, unusable.

9. 109
   George from Tulsa Says:
   July 20th, 2011 at 12:50 pm

   Today, Wed. July 20, 2011 is Lion “Release Day.”

   I’m not upgrading, I just decided I couldn’t live with the kludgy UIs for transaction entry in the Mac-centric programs, and couldn’t live without Quicken 2007 for Mac’s open QIF import and export which we use at work to merge financial data maintained by different users in different locations.

   While the Windows Install in Parallels worked, it reminded me of the old Beetle ad, “A Volkswagen will definitely float, but it won’t float indefinitely.” In short, I would not want to rely on Win in a Virtual Machine for everyday workflow.

   AND the import export functions in Quicken for Windows are crippled as part of Intuit’s ongoing effort to collect fees from banks for linking to Quicken through QFX. I’m pretty sure Intuit doesn’t REALLY want to inconvenience its users, but it wants those fees from banks more.

   I would like to be able to deploy Lion’s shiny new features. But it far more important to me NOT to DISRUPT a successful workflow.

10. 110
    Willyjp Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    George: I’m a little curious about what exactly it is that makes you say you wouldn’t rely on Windows running in Parallels for daily workflow?
    In my setup, Quicken’11 runs in my XP virtual machine as fast or faster than it did on my old Toshiba laptop. Most functions are about the same, but (due to a lot more horsepower in my Mac, admittedly) searches, reports etc. in my 18 yr. database (my backup is 73 MB in size) run noticeably faster. And the tax estimator, which searches the database in real time, runs a whole lot better and doesn’t freeze up. I’m sold on switching to Mac for everything else, but I wouldn’t hesitate to rely on any windows program running in this emulation if I needed it.

11. 111
    Michelle Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    I am thinking of running SL on an external drive, with printing capability to just run, store my Q 07 software and data and when I know any bugs have been shaken out, installing lion on my iMac. To me, that is preferable to running windows, q4win , etc. Just too many ‘bandaids’ for me.

    Any one know why that would not work?
    M

12. 112
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    Michelle – You said it right, band-aids.

    I’m hopeful some who install Lion will report on the dual boot option using a clone of Snow Leopard. Of course, you’ll need to clone your clone, to be safe. Sigh.

    I’m also hopeful some who install Lion will report if the “Virtual Machine” ability to run OS X will allow a VM of Snow Leopard. But if my Parallels experience with Windows Quicken on a Mac is any guide, the dual boot option would be preferable. Still, the dual boot would be a serious pain, which is why I just gave up on upgrading. And it may be awhile before Parallels etc even offer the option.

    The Intuit user site now implies Intuit is looking at “improving” Essentials, not attempting to rescue Q2007.

13. 113
    Michelle Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    Hi George,

    Do you have an external drive? From what I’ve been told, and maybe read here too, not sure.. but, if you have an external drive, you could put SL w/Q-07 on that drive and only have Lion on your main computer. then when you click on the external drive in your finder window, I was told you could boot up to that drive. But as I type this, I’m not sure how it works. I expect someone with more knowledge will either say it will work, or correct where I’ve misstated any of it.

    I’ll check out the intuit link.. I just wish it was a cleaner situation. Compromise all around.. such is life, I guess

    michelle

14. 114
    Steve Johnson Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    I have considered:
    - not upgrading to Lion
    - upgrading and
    – converting to Quicken Essentials
    – converting to Moneydance
    (none of the others supports classes properly)
    – converting to Quicken for Windows with Crossover
    – converting to Quicken for Windows with VirtualBox

    Moneydance looks like the best bet. I will need to export data to Excel for the kind of reports I like for taxes, but that is only needed once a year. Just waiting a bit longer to make sure Moneydance is stable under Lion.

15. 115
    George from Tulsa Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    Michelle

    to “boot” from an external drive, you will have to “clone” your current hard drive to an external. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are the usual programs, though there are others that will do it, too,

    Presuming your computer has Firewire 800, you will want a FW 800 external drive LARGER than your internal drive, the larger is a safety factor. It should work on one exactly the same, or maybe less, but . . .

    Carbon Copy Cloner is simple and the one I use. It is donation ware. I donate.

    Once your drive is cloned, there’s an option in System Preferences to choose your “boot drive.”

    You can also change your boot drive from the keyboard as you power up. This isn’t deeply geeky, but something not really suited to this forum.

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

16. 116
    michelle Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 1:30 am

    Thanks George, this is helpful, I have a better understanding about this now. I appreciate your help.

    Michelle

17. 117
    David Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 11:18 am

    I too have been using Quicken 2007 for some time with a mac. I’m peeved they have chosen to neglect this product. I haven’t tried it, but may be onto something. I’m going to partition either my internal hard drive or an external hard drive to run Snowleopard. If you google this, you can learn more. It’s a little more work, but when you boot your machine while holding “option”, you can choose to run the alternate operating system (Snowleopard in this case.) I’m thinking I can run Quicken 2007 a couple of times a week this way until I find a suitable replacement. Reviews on other software is inconsistent.

18. 118
    George Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    VIRTUAL Snow Leopard vs. DUAL BOOT

    A good article here:

    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-1.....g-to-lion/

19. 119
    Steve Johnson Says:
    July 21st, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    Excellent and useful posts. I’m still looking for the ideal solution: keep running Mac Quicken under Lion.
    There is an outside chance Intuit may come up with something that works. Or maybe Apple will relent and make Rosetta available as an optional download. Or maybe someone clever will figure out how to install Rosetta from the Snow Leopard install dvd, into Lion.
    I will hold out as long as I can for such a solution.
    But being a realist, I have done my research on the next best alternative. For me, that is Moneydance (which supports categories and classes, does a good job of importing the old Quicken data, and exports transactions to Excel for the reports I need (and currently get from Mac Quicken). I don’t want to run Windows Quicken in some virtual space, because of cost, complexity, and the fact that it deepens my dependence on the Machiavellian Intuit (the Win version does not easily import QIF data!).

20. 120
    Mark Says:
    July 22nd, 2011 at 11:33 am

    After using Quicken since inception, I was pissed to hear from Intuit that 2006 won’t work with Lion. After a very brief trial with Essential (what a joke…no Bill Pay?), I’ve moved my entire financial records/bill pay to Moneydance — the best alternative that I can see. So far, all is well — perhaps even better in some areas than Quicken 2006. Intuit: You pissed the bed — cya!

21. 121
    Bruce Says:
    July 22nd, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Mac wonk Andy Ihnatko posted a thorough review of Lion yesterday in the Chicago Sun-Times: http://www.suntimes.com/techno.....g-upgrades

    One key paragraph speaks to all of us:

    “Quicken users, let me break two things to you gently: the father whom you haven’t seen since he “just went out for a pack of smokes” when you were 7-years-old is never coming back, and Quicken will never, ever be updated for Intel. It’s time to use something else to manage your finances. The last thing you do before installing Lion is export all of your Quicken data because that’s also the last time you’ll ever be able to use the app.”

22. 122
    Bruno Says:
    July 22nd, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    Mark, you “I’ve moved my entire financial records/bill pay to Moneydance ” is MoneyDance offering direct bill pay?

23. 123
    Molly Says:
    July 23rd, 2011 at 8:36 am

    Has anyone explored web-based solutions (such as Mint)? I’ve been using Mint for a few months now and like certain aspects of it (automatic updates from banks), but am not able to categorize investments and therefore review diversification (even something as simple as % in stocks vs. bonds). I’m curious about other options that aren’t OS dependent.

    thanks,
    Molly
    Quicken 2005 for Mac user

24. 124
    Bob Says:
    July 23rd, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    When faced with a major upgrade such as the Quicken 2007 situation, I usually remove the current system drive (the physical drive), mount it in an external enclosure, and put it on the shelf. That way, I can always have access to exactly where I was at the time of conversion. Plus you can still get to all the original files for conversion, etc.
    Then I put a fresh drive in and start from scratch. If you’re stuck with a Lion only computer, then you’re already halfway there. Just keep the old system as is.
    Your old computer and software will not stop working. Just be careful with it.

25. 125
    Harry VanderVelde Says:
    July 25th, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    Thanks for all the informative posts. You have to choose your own direction and after installing Lion on all of our computer except for one and reading the post letting Quicken die I have started learning iBank4. Remember learning Quicken? I do, it was ions ago and often I would beat my keyboard to death trying to learn it. iBank4 isn’t close to perfect, especially with investments (I may have to go out and buy a new keyboard), but I am liking it more. On the computers that I updated to Lion I am glad I did, it is so much faster, very fast. 99% of my software works fine, even my scanner. For now we will keep the one computer so we can run Quicken through the end of the tax year and by then we should be up and running with iBank4. Good $fortune$ to all of you with what path you decide.

26. 126
    Jared Says:
    July 25th, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    Bob,

    The easiest thing is probably to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive. You can even fit it on a 32GB thumb drive if you want to save some money.

    I’ll try to answer any Apple related questions as best I can — but I speak for myself not for the company.

27. 127
    michelle Says:
    July 25th, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    Thanks for your experience Harry, I’ve been hoping to learn how Lion is working for people. I do plan to upgrade but I am not in a hurry. I have to take my iMac in to apple so I will play with Lion in the apple store when I go this week, just to see how it is and I’ll ask about bugs.

    I am testing out iBank and MoneyDance. I was 50/50 at first, then iBank, then I thought since MD has a free iphone app, I’d try that out but there seem to be a lot of bugs with syncing so I’m not going there. I am downloading to both right now, to keep my accounts current, but as of today, I’m leaning more towards iBank, it seems a bit more ‘flexible’. One feature that I have discovered I like in iBank are the icons on the toolbar for interacting. MoneyDance doesn’t have icons so you have to think which pull down menu has the tool you want. I don’t know about you but sometimes I pull the wrong one and then I have to go to the next. When you are on a computer a LOT, which I am for work, every key stroke makes a difference, in time, energy, etc. I wish MD would allow us to customize with icons but I don’t see a way.

    Also, the categories are easier to apply in iBank. The pull down in categories is a bit finicky, and was not as easy to move through and clicked off the list too easily.

    I agree, learning Q was not simple, and we need to remember that as we take on a new one… change is always a challenge.

    Michelle

28. 128
    TC Says:
    July 26th, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Please let me know what you settle on as a “suitable” replacement for Quicken.

    Thanks,

29. 129
    Scott Says:
    July 27th, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    After installing Essentials for Mac today, I decided I hate this program, and removed the program and all related files. Then to my surprise, my original Quicken 2005 files would not open with Quicken 2005, getting the error message “this file requires a newer version of Quicken”. I had to resort to Time Machine and pull in yesterday’s copies of the Quicken files in order to get them to open. I requested a refund for this program.

30. 130
    Steve Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    You can use the full Windows version of Quicken on a Mac if you install Crossover which is a program that lets you run a good number of mac programs natively on a mac. It has a few minor bugs but for the most part it works really well. I’ve been using it for years.

31. 131
    Steve Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    I of course meant to say windows programs on a mac.

32. 132
    Harry Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 11:29 pm

    Quicken on Windows using crossover just doesn’t jive for me. Intuit left us high and dry for years and I’m sorry but no more. iBank4 is working although I don’t know why they don’t do their investments like Quicken.

33. 133
    Michelle Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    I’ve been using the trial of iBank and Moneydance for the past month. There are features of each that I like but I am pretty sure I will end up choosing iBank. The import is smoother, to me. In MD, there is a list of entries that come up and you choose which to ‘confirm’ or ‘merge’ each time that sort of throws me, in the way of too much visual data to sort. I am sure that I might get used to it, but the same process in ibank is cleaner, for my visual taste.

    In MD, there is not a tool bar, you have to choose one of the pull down menus. I don’t know about others but I’m often doing this at night, after work and having to ‘think’ which pull down menu hold the tool I’m looking for in that moment is a step I’d rather not have to make. Like in Q I like the icons that I can recognize and choose in one step/click.

    Also in iBank, your balances show up under the name of your account in the left colum. in MD, the balance is off to the right of the account name so you have to have that column open wide enough to see them.

    I do like the narrower rows in MD but in iBank, the rows are more clearly defined so when I’m scanning my register looking for something, it is easier to focus in on what I’m looking for.

    I am still using both, to see how they work, and I like them both, but each time I close out my session, I lean towards ibank for the ease of use.

    I have read on the MD forum that there is some trouble with the iphone app, and I don’t know about the iBank app. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think either company has an ipad app yet.

    And while I appreciate the idea, I have NO desire to buy and install windows so I can buy and install Q for W. As others have said Intuit has not cared enough to keep a solid product current for mac users so I do not see the value in giving them more money. I’d rather support a company that has built and is improving a solid product that works happily on our great apple computers.

    Michelle

34. 134
    kuban89 Says:
    July 31st, 2011 at 9:42 am

    It’s really amazing that nobody can come up with a decent alternative to Quicken Mac.
    I’ve migrated to Lion and I’m not as impressed as the advertisements would have you believe, but everything’s working OK so far, except of course anything depending on Rosetta, Quicken among them.
    I tried all the usual suspects and was quite disappointed, MoneyDance, iBank 4…and then I stumbled on to SEE FINANCE, which is not perfect and still has me confused about how some things work, but imported my QIF file almost perfectly, something iBank, etc were unable to do, the portfolio is pretty good, the online downloads are all working and all my accounts are now up to date and I almost don’t miss Quicken any more.

35. 135
    William Says:
    August 3rd, 2011 at 11:33 am

    Screw INTUIT.

    I am a moron for using Quicken as long as I have.

    I’m moving on.

36. 136
    Jim Says:
    August 10th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    “but everything’s working OK so far, except of course anything depending on Rosetta, Quicken among them.”

    And anything depending on gtk-quartz, GnuCash among them. A beta for Lion was released last week, but it is very much still a beta.

37. 137
    Adolfo Cota Says:
    August 18th, 2011 at 8:01 am

    I´m user of Quicken for Mac 2004 and now have Lios OS. My older version of Quicken can´t run. If update to Quicken 2011, can I see and work with my older archive and information?

38. 138
    harry Says:
    August 20th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    THANK YOU KUBAN89 for recommending See Finance: http://www.scimonocesoftware.c.....index.html
    This is a great program and gives you all that Quicken 2007 gave plus more. What I especially like is that it is simple to enter investments and tracks all actions, and gives you a clear idea of share value etc. Plus the program is cheap at 29.99. Kiss Quicken good bye and See Finance hello.

39. 139
    Kuban89 Says:
    August 20th, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    Harry. thanks for your kind words. People are going to think we work for the SEE Finance guys…!
    Exactly like you said, most of the Quicken wannabes can’t seem to get the portfolio function right or at all and SF does a very, very good job. The others are focused on creating a cartoonish interface, supposedly trying to appeal to “the consumer” with budgeting and expense tracking only, but that’s just not enough and why many of us deplore the loss of Quicken….
    I still find the reconcile function a bit weird in SF, but it works.
    Another good thing I’ve found in SF is that I’m able to direct-connect to download transactions from places I used to have to download manually and then import into Quicken like Chase Visa (for free) & ING Direct!
    The $29 price tag is ridiculous and it seems they’re working on improving it further, so what’s not to like?

40. 140
    George from Tulsa Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 10:50 am

    re: SEE FINANCE

    Just know up front that See Finance does not print checks, though check printing is on its list of pending improvements.

41. 141
    Harry Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 12:51 pm

    Good to know about the check printing in See Finance although these days I haven’t used that. There are things that I would like to see improvements in but they are minor. One is auto decimal placement and another is using the return key to record a transaction instead of having to use the lock and unlock button. I guess I’ll have to start making a list but for me all the basics are there.

42. 142
    Guy Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    Goodbye Quicken. Goodbye Turbo Tax. Goodbye Intuit. Customer since 1997.

43. 143
    George from Tulsa Says:
    August 21st, 2011 at 4:41 pm

    re: SEE FINANCE # 2

    I’d never downloaded the See Finance trial because SEE doesn’t print checks.

    Today (Aug 21 2011) I decided to give it a spin.

    Had no trouble exporting data from iBank as QIF, that is, after I went to System Prefs and reset the default short date to mm/dd/yyyy

    Had no trouble importing the QIF file into SEE.

    See, I was really excited about the promise of “mouse free data entry.”

    See, it may not be exactly a lie, but I couldn’t get stuff to work without the rodent.

    See, you have to enter payments as negative numbers. Meaning there’s one “amount” field in data entry, so to tell SEE it is a payment or withdrawal, you must enter – before the ####

    Not necessarily a biggie, but unlike ANY other P/F program I’ve ever tried.

    Then there’s the way SEE does SPLITS. It SHOULD be possible to create splits and enter without a mouse, but I could not navigate from split to split without the mouse, even with the “keyboard shortcuts” open for help right beside the program.

    SEE, here’s where I see SEE being maybe useful. IF you import everything from your bank or broker, then enter any necessary splits. Difficult as it is to believe, the “mouse free” entry screen in SEE seems even more of a kludge than iBank4 or Money 4.

    What’s so difficult about emulating the data entry screens in Quicken? Are they patented or trademarked?

44. 144
    Sigourney Street Says:
    August 25th, 2011 at 10:32 pm

    Thanks, everyone. I upgraded to Lion recently. It is pretty but at this point, I wonder if that is all it is.

    Just tonight I found out Apple/Mac and Intuit/Quicken are no longer compatible. With your remarks, I know I won’t depend on Intuit any longer and I’ve got my new choices narrowed down to two or three options.

    Any help here, though?

    I basically use the Register function (on Quicken) and then Report functions (also on Quicken) for taxes. Which application do you think is best? I’d rather take basic ease over buzzers and bells.

    Thanks!

45. 145
    George from Tulsa Says:
    August 25th, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    To: Sigourney Street

    There’s 143 posts ahead of yours with lots of info, including links to reviews by our host.

    At this point, there’s not much to be said. Hopefully, you kept a backup of Snow Leopard so you can reinstall, as it is August, and if you want to use your Quicken data for 2011 taxes, you’ll need to either extract it, or rebuild your files.

    As to your outline of very basic needs, maybe you don’t even need a personal finance program. Apple’s Numbers nicely imports OFX files from banks. Depending on your bank’s export function, Excel does just fine with CSV files.

46. 146
    nickthedad Says:
    September 24th, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Thank you for the great info on various Mac alternatives to Q for Mac. The one topic I haven’t seen discussed in a current balance calendar. This lack of visual balance data is the primary reason why I gave up on essentials and went with Q-07. Could anyone tell me if any of the Mac alternatives (SEE, iBank, MoneyDance, etc) let you follow your projected balance graphically?

47. 147
    Brad Says:
    October 3rd, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    I discovered this issue when helping a friend research the viability of porting her parents over to a Mac. Quicken seems to be the only sticking point. Before seeing this thread I recommended Moneydance. I run Linux at home and was a long time Quicken user before moving to Linux. Moneydance was the best of the 3 that I tried and I’ve been using it for 8-10 years very happily so I can give that one a thumbs up. I use a Macbook for work plan on treating myself to an iMac for home in the near future and will bring Moneydance along with me when I do.

48. 148
    TammiKatt Says:
    December 3rd, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    WHY on EARTH would I want to run PC software on my MAC? I am tired of seeing comments about running Quicken for Windows under VM/Parallels, etc.

    Do you NOT get the point? INTUIT abandoned the MAC users of Intuit. I still have Quicken 2007, and have been using Quicken since I first starting working and paying bills. I started on a Windows version, and converted over to a MAC. I am NOT going to backwards. I already did that with the Business because our dispatch system didn’t import invoices into QB for Mac, only for Windows, and THIS is because of INTUIT. So, for the business, I got a little laptop.

    I am still looking for the illusive, yet fulfilling QUICKEN 2007 MAC alternative. Maybe Santa’s Elves can make one? So far, the most viable option has been iBank 4, or possible Quicken Essentials. I don’t have investments to track, but I do need to be able to keep track of account transfers and tax stuff.

    My current option is either not upgrading to LION (which means I cannot even use iCloud between my iPhone and my iPad), or use my old iMac G4 and reinstall Quicken 2007 on it. According to my husband it cannot be upgraded to LION. Like a 6 year old really needs LION? But, then I will be working on three computers…

49. 149
    George from Tulsa Says:
    December 3rd, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    Tammicat

    I stuck with Snow Leopard because I needed Quicken and if you read above had tried out all the alternatives, including the “Windows” on Mac install.

    First, Quicken for Windows doesn’t do QIF export / import. So it is pretty useless for me.

    BUT Windows works ok, if you can adjust to it. If you need Quicken for Windows, get a cheap Windows box and don’t mess up your Mac.

    Don’t upgrade to Lion. The Web and Mac Advice Podcasts are filled with people in a world of hurt because upgrading doesn’t seem to go “just right,” then their machine is noticeably slower and less reliable.

    I have a 2011 Air which should blow the doors off the 2010 model, but it doesn’t, and I think the reason is all the overhead of Lion’s hidden versions, saved states, and more Apple has done to hide stuff from the user.

    So just say no to Lion. But be aware that old machines die, and Apple’s new machines (currently the 2011 Air and Mini) can’t be upgraded from the Lion downgrade back to Snow Leopard. Thanks, Apple, for the firmware block generating kernel panics at the attempt. When your old machines die, you won’t be able to replace them.

    In the meantime, you can (probably) still run your old Mini by Remote Desktop. Hardly know it is there. But it is old, and won’t upgrade even to Snow Leopard. So it is not long for the world. In the meantime, if Quicken is really important to you, buy the newest machine you can that will still allow “backgrade” to Snow Leopard. You’ll have at least three years, with Apple Care. There’s still some machines on the Apple Refurb store that ship with Snowy, and MacMall has some, too.

50. 150
    Rob from San Francisco Says:
    December 15th, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    Can anyone help me with this problem? I ran Quicken (last version 2009) on my old Dell for 8+ years. Last week my Dell failed (video card problem?) and I could no longer view anything on the monitor. (Unfortunately, the last time I backed up Quicken was in May 2011, so that was the last QDATA file on my Dell desktop. But my QDATA file in use with the Quicken program itself was of course updated after every use.) Because the Dell was old, I decided to just get a new iMac. I had the Apple Store transfer “all of my files” over from the old Dell to the new iMac, but of course they didn’t/couldn’t transfer the Quicken program itself. Now I need to get a new personal finance program and really don’t want to use Quicken Essentials. But either way, if I purchase iBank or some other program compatible with Macs, what Quicken-related and useable data do I now have on my new iMac for use with iBank and how do I find it and import it into iBank? Am I just stuck with the last QDATA file that was backed up (May 2011) and was on my desktop, or is it likely that some other Quicken file came over that is completely up to date as of my last day using Quicken? I’m just not sure what Quicken data I have on my new iMac that I can import into any new Mac-compatible personal finance software. Can anyone help? Thank you.

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