Filed under: Software, Productivity, Beta Beat
iBank 3 to have iPhone support
A new beta of the personal finance management software iBank 3 has been released and it includes iPhone support. According the developers, you can use your iPhone or iPod touch to view historical transactions or create and edit new ones, but this requires a .Mac account. The download includes a small package that you have to upload to the root directory of your iDisk. You can then access a iBank file you've set to sync with .Mac by going to https://idisk.mac.com/dot-mac username/iBank/index.html on your iPhone. In addition to the iPhone integration, version three offers a large number of new features including direct download of transactions if your financial institution supports the OFX protocol, investment and loan management, as well as export to tax software and more. For those of you looking for a solid Quicken replacement, IGG Software may finally have done the trick.
The iBank 3 beta is available for download now. It appears that it will cost $59.99 when released ($29.99 upgrade), but if you purchase iBank 2 now it will be a free upgrade.
[via MacNN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan Katz said 11:24AM on 2-02-2008
I was thinking of iBank, but I ditched Quicken and have been using Mint.com instead. It does what ANY personal finance app should do: Automatically updates ALL transactions in an account. It's pretty badazz. If iBank really wants to compete, it'll study Mint. Quicken can just die already.
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Big John said 12:03PM on 2-02-2008
Mint has a long, long way to go. If you don't use a major bank, don't expect great support. While they eventually fixed the issue I had with security questions, they never stopped to think that my bank might also issue me loans and credit cards. Several questions to their support yielded nothing.
Now, on to iBank. I'm a little perplexed that as a registered iBank 2 user, *this* is how I find out iBank 3 is entering beta. I don't really get the point of CoverFlow for transactions but I'll give it a try to see if it's worth my $30 (less .EDU discount).
Rob said 11:54AM on 2-02-2008
I am glad to see iBank coming along. IBank is one of the VERY few financial programs for the Mac that supports investments (stocks, bonds, etc).
Mint is an online service. Do you trust all your financial information being stored in the Internet cloud? I don't. In addition, it does not look like Mint supports investments. How can one have a complete picture of one's finances without including investments?
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gar said 1:14PM on 2-02-2008
Catamount is working on a iPhone version of their PocketMoney. It is Jailbreak now, but will be one to watch when the SDK comes out. It was great on the Palm, looking forward to it on the iPhone.
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aelver said 1:54PM on 2-02-2008
$29.95 upgrade vs. free upgrade?
I'm guessing the $29.95 price is for old users of iBank 2? Is there a cut off date for a free upgrade ... I just purchased iBank2 :(
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KevMan said 4:19PM on 2-02-2008
I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.
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DrWho said 6:44PM on 2-02-2008
I was going to do some lame Phil Collins type joke. But I didn't.
I've been waiting for this too, finally an app on the mac that will download from my bank and is not quicken or anything to do with intuit. finally.
I was hoping that Cha-Ching would be first but this is definitely a good sign
Jeremy said 6:17PM on 2-03-2008
Every time this thing gets upgraded I go and try it out again, in the grand hope that, finally, there will be usable financial software on the Mac. Every time, my hopes are shattered.
Oh well. Shattered again. Coverflow? iPhone support? Come on. How about making it usable for, you know, financial accounting?
Get paid on the 15th and last day of the month? Bzzt, iBank can't handle it. Try to itemize your paycheck? It's like fighting a war to get it right.
It lets you choose between FIFO and average cost basis for all investments. What if, like almost everyone in the entire freaking country, you use FIFO for stocks and ETFs, and average cost basis for mutual funds? Bzzt, sorry, out of luck. Equity options? iBank never heard of those.
Every time I poke further it seems more clear that no one on the development team actually knows anything about accounting. Oh, but you can view your transactions in freaking COVERFLOW!!! Are you serious? Oh well, back to that Windows machine I have to keep around for this sort of thing.
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Pauldy said 2:49PM on 2-04-2008
At least they seem to have fixed the speed issues. I ported over to it this weekend and it actually opens in a reasonable amount of time now, 3,4 seconds vs a minute or more on the previous version. The interface looks better and seems to handle my simple accounting without issue. I can't say I don't agree with the iphone and cover flow support though.
Glenn said 4:36PM on 2-04-2008
Just a note that the new version is Leopard-only. Perhaps not surprising, but worth a quick mention if you're a current iBank user and are using Tiger.
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