[doh123]

iBank does everything Quicken does, and more... its a native OSX app, and is set up nicely and easy to use... what's the point in using Quicken? I'd even use MoneyDance over Quicken and live with the small amount of limitations therein.

[outdo13]

How many times does it have to be said -- IT IS A BETA, IT IS A BETA, IT IS A BETA! As Intuit states, DO NOT USE FOR DAY TO DAY ACTIVITY! This is now an open beta of something that is really somewhere between an ALPHA and a Closed BETA. They are taking a lot of heat, as they should, about features, but it shouldn't be based on this "BETA". Intuit, independent of the "BETA", needs to publicly state what will and won't be in the QFL-Mac, on first release. (Ex; download of banks, AND of Investment Houses; assuming the latter will still be around by then. And cross-platform common format; Hell, even Microsoft and Adobe do that!!!).

At the same time, it is interesting that everyone ignores the elephant in the room -- Intuit "owns" that relationship with the banks and for tax prep, etc.,( just as Google does for search.) Intuit regularly (about every 3 years) changes formats for banks, in order to force people to upgrade -- which will probably be the case with the release of QFL-Mac. I want to be able to automatically download from all my banks and institutions, its my main criteria. So, here's a suggestion -- join the Beta, write your complaints (and also what you like.) Create your own list of what needs to be in the first release, at a minimum. Sent it to Intuit. AND SEND A COPY TO ALL INTUIT'S COMPETITORS IN MAC. All the alternatives for Mac are missing key elements. Maybe this might encourage them to get the funding and create a real competitor. And perhaps someone could create and run a blog/forum to collect, organize and list just that information for Mac Intuit Users. An organized effort may have more effect on Intuit that just individual rants and lists.

Or your immediate (and long-term, probably) alternative is to buy Fusion or Parallels (both very good), a copy of XP (or, maybe, Vista) and Quicken for Windows. (BTW, Crossover doesn't run the most recent Quicken for Windows fully)

[doglesby]

The one issue I have with the version of Quicken I am using is that it can't match transactions worth a damn. Is it too much to hope that QFLfM will stop matching transactions against cleared entries? I have to carefully check my downloaded transactions to make sure it isn't matching 2 transactions against one ledger entry--I've waisted way too much time diagnosing auto-reconcile problems.

[reyespoint]

rfmansfield said:

Jeffrey, I would have liked to have seen a screenshot of the new register. Did they not want you to include that?

Also, will the new Quicken import our old Quicken Mac files? I currently use Quicken 2006.

RFMansfield, I just posted two more screenshots, including one of the ledger, that we didn't use for this article. You'll find them here: http://www.reyespoint.com/?p=1882.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Jeff Battersby

[joelp]

I can't get over this tag cloud of expenses thing. As in, how much time was spent on that, and was there nothing else more critical/useful for a Quicken user that they could've been working on instead?

[macxpress]

The problem will be, Apple isn't going to support PPC apps forever. Maybe even by OS X version 10.7 Rosetta will be totally nixed. I too was just hoping for a simple checkbook app like it is now only for Intel Macs. Now I haven't used it so I can't say whether or not I like it, but from the sounds of this article, its something I'm not gonna be too keen about. I may have to look elsewhere for a solution. iBank anyone?

[BradPDX]

reallycrazy said:

bq. On the other hand, Quicken is the type of tool that makes perfect sense as a web application. I know that Intuit is offering this now, but haven't heard much about it good, bad or otherwise.

Personally, given the number of reported security breaches (and I am under no delusion that they all are being reported) at major, multi-billion dollar financial institutions, I would not trust my personal financial information to any web site, but that is a personal decision.

I understand the fear. But most of the bank breaches have not been due to web hijacking but internal employees trying to cash in on information they hold. I don't think (personally) that it matters much that I am doing banking "over the web", but rather what happens behind the scenes at the financial institutions - and that is difficult to discern.

[JamesG]

iBank does all of that and can import your QIF data from Quicken for Mac or Quicken or Windows. You do need to export the data from Quicken as QIF.

[VoxLocus]

I've been using Quicken from back in DOS.

The genius of Quicken was to take a simple, ordinary, regular task and make it easier.

There's no better metaphor for a checkbook register than a checkbook register. Hey, it isn't even a metaphor, it IS a checkbook register.

TAGS? Just a different name for categories. How about classes: are they in the new program?

QIF import and export is an enormous benefit, available at this time only in Mac versions of Quicken. My bet is that intuit will kill QIF import/export in its new program. True?

I'm a Mac fan because the Macs I use and supervise don't crash (very often). They haven't (yet) sucked in root kits that destroy brand new XP machines (been there, wasn't happy). Quicken 2007 is a stable, useful, program that does as much accounting and tracking of financial data as anyone could possibly need. I use it at work, and to give you a hint of what Quicken CAN do, one limitation I found and worked around is that no transaction can exceed $9,999,999.99.

I've not found Quicken's import of bank and broker info useful. Stuff comes in without useless categories, sometimes scrambled. I also didn't like it passing through Intuit's servers.

I am NOT optimistic about this re-write of Quicken. Intuit needs to make money and instead of improving the problems which do exist in its current programs, it junks them and ultimately forces users to upgrade. As one post indicated, the forced upgrade begins by changing how the banks/brokers send data to you, and if you want to keep getting that data, upgrade you must.

Won't bother me since I'm NOT downloading data from banks/brokers.

But I won't be surprised of Quicken 2007 somehow doesn't run under "Snow Leopard."

Or runs spasmodically like Q 2006 does on Intel Macs.

Don't kill the usefulness of my Quicken. Please?

[jdhayes117]

Saw the question asked several times in this thread and no one has answered it previously. NO, it currently will not import Quicken for Windows files. That's been noted in the QFL forum and, from an email I received recently, they seem to have taken notice and are working on it. As of today however, QFL does not import Quicken Windows files.

[bsuthoff]

Downloaded it, tried it. I know it's early days (although QFL is already late) but I find the new "tag" concept questionable. This is finance and accounting, it's supposed to be structured.

The investment functions are not available for evaluation yet. QFL needs to do investments well; there are too many competitors that also do the basic income and expense stuff.

[CompSciGuy]

This is issue #1 for me -- can it import my Quicken for Windows data files. If not, I can't imagine that any number of new features will entice me.

[mretondo]

Thanks for the reply. This just confirms my suspicions that they aren't doing a complete rewrite. If they were they would be using the Windows data files as its' file formats. There would be no need to convert from Windows to Mac, the files would just work. You would need a Mac to Windows conversion utility. How do you go though all this work and not have the two platforms use the same files is beyond me.

[jdhayes117]

Truthfully, I really don't understand why this isn't job #1 for Intuit. I've been using Quicken for years on Windows. Like others who noted it above, I was forced to upgrade to Quicken 2007 because Intuit quit bank support for my previous version. I'm convinced it was simply to force upgrades.

Now I'm back on a Mac (thankfully!) and the only significant Windows app I still have to hang on to (via Parallels and a Windows XP VM) is Quicken. Many users here, on another blog, and on the QFL forum are complaining because they have years of data invested in Quicken for Windows and Intuit hasn't gotten around to creating a viable conversion tool. If anyone should know how, they should! It's their data file for Heaven's sake! Despite that, you can (supposedly) import into iBank and other Mac finance apps but not into Intuit's own product. If this doesn't get fixed, QFL will be a non-starter for me.