Filed under: Software, Software Update
Cha-ching hits 1.2.1
In the Leopard onslaught, Cha-Ching 1.2 slipped under our radar - however today sees the release of yet another (minor) update: version 1.2.1. For those of you not familiar with Cha-Ching, it's an easy-to-use money-management tool whose import options (such as Quicken and Microsoft Money formats) and slick interface mean that you might not need something such as Quicken to balance your books.Of course, you're all clamouring for the details of what's new and exciting in this update. There's plenty of enhancements, not least of which are a number of Leopard fixes to ensure that Leopard-running folks can start budgeting (for MacWorld San Francisco?) in style with:
- the ability to backup vaults locally (in addition to the existing .Mac backup option)
- the ability to pay bills directly from the Master Vault
- plenty of graphical enhancements for the new big-cat
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt G said 3:52PM on 12-03-2007
Cha-Ching looked so promising, however I just find the small little issues bug me. Like you can't plan a bill in advance and have it not take out of your account until that day, it takes it out right away. So if you have a bill setup, you'll show a huge negative because it takes it out for all future transactions. I might switch back to quicken or look into iBank.
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Sam said 4:03PM on 12-03-2007
Or you might try to give mypiggyb.com a try. It's secure, constantly under development and it's free!
Wim Leers said 4:40PM on 12-03-2007
Cha-Ching sucks. And unfortunately, I'm almost forced to say, the developers don't seem to care.
You'd expect a money application to be able to deal with multiple notations (i.e. commas instead of dots as decimal separators and spaces or dots instead of commas as digit group separators). I was promised in February or so that this would be fixed, so I bought the beta.
Now, 10 months later, there's still no news on this. Two times I received a reply in the style of "Thanks, we're working on it." I even sent them my .qif file and screenshots.
Never did they cooperate to actually work on fixing this.
So basically, if you live in Europe, or just anywhere where not the U.S.-style notation is used, you're screwed.
U.S. citizens: buy this app (although there are several more bugs). Anybody else: DON'T.
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Pascal said 4:50PM on 12-03-2007
I agree: Cha-Ching looks interesting and promising, but after following its (lack of) development since it was available as a beta, and after trying each update they released, it has only been a big disapointment. It has many showstopper bugs, which in itself isn't the worst part: every new software is subject to have bugs. But the lack of response from the dev team is worrying...
So I'm still using my good old MS Money 2004 inside Parallels, until I can find a proper replacement on the Mac.
I am currently evaluating MoneyWell (http://nothirst.com/moneywell/), which looks promising and for which the author is actively releasing updates since the initial release in august. The workflow of the app is a bit different from what I'm used to, but I feel like I could use it. The last version I have tried (1.1) was still missing some key features for my own needs, but the software is evolving from week to week and I am confident that it could be the money management software I have been waiting for on the Mac.
antiorario said 5:10PM on 12-03-2007
#3: About the decimal comma vs. dot – I have Cha-Ching installed on Leopard localized in Italian. Cha-Ching follows system preferences in terms of currency and symbol localization, and it uses commas for decimals. So, check your system preferences to make sure.
About Cha-Ching being only half useful and full of quirks, I can agree. I used it for a while and then I think it was too much work – too many clicks to get stuff done, smart folders not flexible enough (although I see that 1.2.1 fixes some of that), and maybe just not useful it you're not the kind of person who updates the info every day.
But I guess since I paid for it, I'll still follow its evolution.
Wim Leers said 2:17PM on 1-09-2008
@antiorario: Hah. That's possible. Yet silly.
It should be able to import from ANY format (that's not even difficult, using regular expressions), store it in a notation-agnostic format (also simple: store it as an integer, and also save the number of decimals). The display is what should be uniform (i.e. what should be retrieved from the system's preferences).
Pete said 4:50PM on 12-03-2007
Cha-Ching looks nice, but I just can't get it to work for my small business. But Quicken and Quickbooks are outdated, bloated, and look ancient.
I sure wish there was a nice medium somewhere.
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SA said 5:26PM on 12-03-2007
Try http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/ ... it's pretty good.
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seth said 7:03PM on 12-03-2007
Cha Ching is a turd. Unfortunately, so's everything else in the Mac bookkeeping space. The requirements aren't difficult: import files from your bank, sort them by category and do a modicum of analysis. Cha Ching grenades when you try, as does every other program. I got to the point where I was importing flat files, throwing them into Excel, manipulating the cells by hand, exporting text files and manipulating them with Automator just to get data to read into Cha Ching and that's about when I realized that putting up with Quicken was worth it even if it does crash every fourth transaction.
And that's really the problem, isn't it? None of the startups need to make anything even vaguely functional because Quicken for Mac is such a joke... and Quicken doesn't have to debug the bloatware disaster they sell at Office Depot for $70 because their competition is such a joke.
Cha Ching is exactly what windows people hate about Macs - it's pretty and completely non-functional. If they'd spent half the time on functionality that they'd spent on look, it'd be a killer app.
But they didn't.
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Geoff said 9:31PM on 12-03-2007
I like Cha-Ching, and I've been running it since the MacHeist beta days.
With it I keep tabs on my checking and savings accounts, enter my transactions nightly, and balance against my QIF-imported bank statements. I will occasionally browse through my transactions by Tags to see any trends in my spending, and I take iSight pics of expensive purchases for insurance purchases. Then I backup the entire database offsite to .Mac.
For me, Cha-Ching does that better than anything else on the Mac. What was I using before Cha-Ching? Quicken 2007 (and earlier) - the most horrid pieces of software I've ever run. I even ran MS Money through VMware Fusion for a time, just because it was one of the better options. For my admittedly simple needs, Cha-Ching is a breath of fresh air, not unlike switching to Mac in the first place.
I tried Moneydance, iBank, Jumsoft Money, and about 5 others before deciding I liked Cha-Ching the best for my needs.
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Plaid said 11:02AM on 12-04-2007
@10: I, as well, really liked Cha-Ching, and used it right after I got it from MacHeist. However, when I attempted to get my key (which they promised as being compatible with the current updates) updated and functional, I haven't gotten any response from the emails I sent; not just "We're not going to help you" or "We got it, we'll be in touch" - nothing. From what I found on other websites, this is common with Midnight Apps.
Secondly, $40 is way too much for most software I end up buying - especially one in such early development. Panic only charges $30 for Transmit, and that software is up-to-date, the customer service is legendary, and its beautifully designed. I was happy to give them $30 for that program, but I wouldn't pay even $20 for a license for Cha-Ching - especially after the abysmal customer service I got.
Geoff said 12:24PM on 12-04-2007
@11: My key, as well, stopped working when that first update hit. I may have gotten lucky, but I sent them a polite e-mail following all their instructions (including a screenshot of the MacHeist loot page) and got a reply within a couple of days.
My key was added to their activation database and it continues to work through the latest 1.2.1 release. Seems like a big blunder happened somewhere that must have been really hard on their tiny development team. I'm more inclined to blame it on MacHeist not transferring the license info correctly or something.
Justin Williams said 12:35PM on 12-04-2007
I use Cha-Ching to manage my personal finances, and while it has some annoying bugs, it's pretty useful. I looked at iBank, and it seemed to be way too much at the time. Hopefully Cha-Ching's development will pick back up in the future.
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Geoff said 1:44PM on 12-04-2007
@11: My key, as well, stopped working when that first update hit. I may have gotten lucky, but I sent them a polite e-mail following all their instructions (including a screenshot of the MacHeist loot page) and got a reply within a couple of days.
My key was added to their activation database and it continues to work through the latest 1.2.1 release. Seems like a big blunder happened somewhere that must have been really hard on their tiny development team. I'm more inclined to blame it on MacHeist not transferring the license info correctly or something.
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