Filed under: Software
Doin' the Moneydance 2008r2
Moneydance is a full-featured personal finance manager with online banking and bill payment, budget tracking, scheduling of transactions, and investment management tools. It's perfect for older Macs, requiring only 4.8 MB of hard disk space and a thrifty 128 MB of RAM.
The US$39.99 Mac app (upgrade free for existing users) includes a ton of bug fixes and improvements. There's a new popup display of transaction information and splits when you hold down the alt key when hovering over a transaction, plus improved graphs, the ability to store online passwords in the data file (encryption must be enabled), and more. A free trial is available for those who are curious.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Moosegolfr said 3:44PM on 8-08-2008
Doesn't look as good as iBank. Actually - it doesn't look anywhere near iBank.
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dastranger said 4:01PM on 8-08-2008
I wish I had $40K in my checking account. LOL
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Fritz Laurel said 5:27PM on 8-08-2008
I was totally going to say the same thing!
If I had 40k in checking, I'd be taking a month or two off.
Babyfett said 4:15PM on 8-08-2008
A true Quicken killer. Hands down the best finance program I've used on the Mac. Doesn't have a real Mac look or vibe, but who cares? It's easy to use and there's great plug-ins available and the developers listen to your suggestions and implement them. Can't ask for more than that. I loved the earlier version of 2008, but this new one is the tits.
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Jason Smith said 4:43PM on 8-08-2008
Moosegolfr,
The difference is the price and upgrade discounts. Not only is it cheaper, I bought my first license with Moneydance 2004 and am STILL eligible for free upgrades with Moneydance 2008. That's been FOUR free upgrades! That's something iBank can't do, even with all of its eye-candy.
And functionally, iBank it still doesn't come close to what all Moneydance has to offer. The only drawback to Moneydance is it's written in Java which can seem a little sluggish at times. But it gives you cross-platform compatibility which I've used on more than one occasion.
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Moosegolfr said 5:39PM on 8-08-2008
Dude - I bought a Mac for eye candy so you can see why I want software that goes along with that don't you.
Jason Smith said 8:23PM on 8-08-2008
Dude, you buy a Mac to get work done and more efficiently. Eye candy can be a bonus, but most of the time gets in the way of productivity.
south said 10:07AM on 8-09-2008
wtf? a Java app? thanks for warning me before i wasted my time downloading it.
Ed said 5:14PM on 8-08-2008
Now, how about an iPhone app for it?
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David said 8:53PM on 8-08-2008
I started using QuickBank for the iPhone this week. Pretty slick and lets me export my accounts and transactions from my iPhone to Quicken.
http://quickbankapp.com/
Works for me, especially at 99 cents lol!
Randy Harris said 5:21PM on 8-08-2008
Without the ability to download transactions from all the financial institutions this program will never get a serious look from me. I'm still using Quicken 2008 for Windows via Fusion.
My hope is that iBank 4 may be able to work for me. 3 isn't quite there yet.
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Jason Smith said 5:49PM on 8-08-2008
Randy,
Have you taken a look at Crossover Mac? It runs Quicken 2008 beautifully WITHOUT Windows. I've been using it to run Office 2007 and can't quit praising it to everyone. It even has a 30-day free trial to see how well Quicken would work for you. http://www.codeweaver.com.
Randy Harris said 6:02PM on 8-08-2008
Interesting, the last time I checked out Crossover Mac it wasn't fully ready for Quicken yet - nice that they're still making progress.
Any idea if it's 100% with Office 2003 also?
Jason Smith said 8:20PM on 8-08-2008
Yes, it does Office 2003 extraordinarily well too. I'd give it a try and see if you miss baby-sitting Windows or not. :-)
David Fischer said 9:41PM on 8-08-2008
@Jason Smith : CodeWeavers gives Quicken only a Bronze (buggy, don't count on it working) and the Advocate Rank is "known not to work".
That's too bad; I'd consider switching to Quicken / CrossOver from Money / Parallels.
William said 7:37PM on 8-08-2008
Randy,
Have you actually checked Moneydance out? It downloads from any institutions that support OFX, QFX, or QIF files.
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Meromo said 8:13PM on 8-08-2008
"splits when you hold down the alt key when hovering"
Option key, surely?
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Shahryar said 2:05AM on 8-09-2008
I really should look into something like this, but I'm personally looking for a good Browser based online solution. For the personal finance management I do, I've been getting away with Google Spreadsheets for the past year or so and like that I can make updates and keep track of stuff from work, home, anywhere.
I'll try to give this free trial a shot sometime soon though just to see.
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IHE said 11:19PM on 8-09-2008
Why use Quicken with crossover, parallels, or fusion? I've been using the Mac version for years with no complaints.
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waldo said 11:54PM on 8-10-2008
Because Quicken Mac 2007 didn't recognize my bank, but the windows-based Quicken 2007 Basic does?