Comments | dr_memory: dear lazyweb: personal finance software?

dr_memory

dear lazyweb: personal finance software?

Feb 27, 2010 01:37

Dear Lazyweb:

Quicken? Quicken Essentials? Mint? Moneydance? GnuCash? MS Money? Some other thing I haven’t heard of? Pimp your solutions at me, please: go!

In an ideal world, this would:

have an iPhone app interface, so I can quickly add in things like restaurant bills
do bill payment
interface with my various bank/retirement accounts
run on MacOS ( Read more... )

cetera', 'et

Comments 27

ratphooey February 27 2010, 04:09:39 UTC

Mint.

dr_memory February 27 2010, 09:27:14 UTC

Arrrgh. So near and yet so far. Awesome interface. Account linking was instantaneous. Whee, pretty graphs...

...and no way to track cash transactions?!

Seriously, no cash management at all. It notes your ATM withdrawals, and then that's it: any expenses not paid by credit card or check are just a big undifferentiated blob on your monthly chart. The suggested workaround: you can ex-post-facto log in to their website and "split" the ATM transaction into sub-withdrawals, which you then manually assign names/categories to. (I guess you're supposed to carry a notebook around?) Lord knows what you're supposed to do if you make two $100 withdrawals and then buy a $150 dress, but I admit I was too busy collecting my jaw up off the floor to read very carefully at that point.

And actually, this is just a symptom of a larger problem: there's no way to manually enter any transaction. So you can't actually use this to reconcile accounts: mint can't know about an outstanding check until it clears your bank ( ... )

nex0s February 27 2010, 17:53:47 UTC

The cash issue is why I stopped using Mint.

When you pick one, if you pick one, let me know? I'd love all the same things that you want.... if you find a solution, that would be great!

N.

whitebird February 27 2010, 04:56:54 UTC

This thread on Macintouch has a bunch of info on the current state of Quicken for the Mac (sucks rocks through pipettes) and information on alternatives. I've yet to try any of the alternatives, myself, and am using Quicken 2006 for the Mac which deals with my little check registry thingies, and updating online investment quotes downloads. Quicken 2007 will also do at least that.

I do online bill pay via my bank, which isn't too onerous.

If you decide on a Mac-based package, let folks know.

funcrunch February 27 2010, 06:13:34 UTC

I've used Quicken since about '96, but I finally gave in and upgraded my Mac Quicken 2002 to the latest Windoze version, running under Parallels. Intuit is not known for legendary Mac support, sadly.

curioushamster February 27 2010, 06:37:11 UTC

Another vote for Moneydance - been using it since 2003.
I use their talk-to-banks feature to reconcile credit and checking accounts but I do not use their check-printing facilities.

I love, love, love the end of year income-and-expenses report: lets me know at a glance how much I spent on fuel/insurance/dance lessons and lets me know if I've missed any charitable contributions in my taxes.

I think they have an iphone app (in beta), which I've never used.

lil_brown_bat February 28 2010, 02:06:42 UTC

I've been using Quicken roughly since the earth cooled. It's got the chops to handle pretty much any kind of account, from plain-jane bank accounts to investment accounts to various types of loans. You don't have to store your passwords in it, but if you're paranoid that simply entering the password in the program interface means that Quicken is stealing it and sending it off to Quicken Central for printing on hardcopy that will immediately be lost in the nearest dumpster, you don't have to download transactions -- you can simply enter all your transactions manually, whatever. Dunno about iphone or mac ( ... )