Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software
Quicken Essentials for Mac available for pre-order
Quicken Essentials for Mac is finally available for pre-order. Too little, too late if you ask me. Its taken three years to get this next version of Quicken for Mac out the door. In that time, worthy alternatives have risen, like iBank and Mint.com.While I won't give it a review until I've tried it, it seems that Intuit should just give up until they want to make a financial software package that the Mac deserves. Here are just a few of my peeves from the Quicken Essentials for Mac FAQ (bold added):
Did you see that? If you want to do anything useful, you have to buy their three year-old product.1. Can I track my investments?
Yes, Quicken Essentials for Mac allows you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of your specific holdings. It will not, however, track investment buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports. If you need more more advanced investment features, try Quicken Mac 2007.
2. Can I export my data to TurboTax?
Quicken Essentials for Mac does not support that capability. If you'd like that functionality, we recommend trying Quicken Mac 2007.
3. Can I pay my bills within Quicken?
While you cannot pay bills within the product itself ("direct bill pay"), you can track your bills and make sure you have enough cash to pay them when they're due. A few alternatives available include using Quicken Mac 2007 or using the bill pay functionality on Quicken Bill Pay.
I ditched Quicken for Mac years ago, moved to iBank, then eventually quit that and moved entirely to Mint which has a great iPhone app [iTunes link]. How good is Mint? Good enough that Intuit has since purchased it. I can only hope they plan to leave it good enough alone.
Thanks Gilbert
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
loup407 said 11:19AM on 12-18-2009
Thanks for the review, which reinforces my feeling about Intuit. Their position regarding the Mac platform is appalling. I use QuickBooks to run my business and they way they dealt with Snow Leopard was just wrong. I've been looking for a decent alternative to QuickBooks, and will migrate as soon as I find one my tax guy can live with.
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Brian Allen said 11:18AM on 12-18-2009
FYI: Mint.com is owned by Intuit.
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Brian Allen said 11:19AM on 12-18-2009
I guess I should read the whole post before commenting. :-!
bsuthoff said 11:19AM on 12-18-2009
Yep, Quicken for Mac is FUBRed. I switched to iBank and encourage others to do the same. The more adventurous, might also give KMyMoney a try.
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Le Big Mac said 12:37PM on 12-18-2009
How is iBank for tracking investments?
mike said 11:22AM on 12-18-2009
excellent proofreading.
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Ed said 11:35AM on 12-18-2009
Some people don't agree that Intuit's purchase of Mint was a good thing:
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1927-the-next-generation-bends-over
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Mickey Sattler said 11:50AM on 12-18-2009
Even more of a slap in the face: Bill Cambell sits on Apple's board and was an early employee.
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Stephen Antonucci said 11:43AM on 12-18-2009
MYOB AccountEdge is a decent alternative to QuickBooks
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Tamara said 11:48AM on 12-18-2009
Yes, after migrating from Quicken for Mac 2006 to Quicken for Windows 2008 I finally gave up on Intuit entirely this fall and switched to MoneyWell. Doesn't have as many features, but I really like the budgeting. And Intuit clearly doesn't care about the Mac platform.
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junebug172 said 1:14PM on 12-18-2009
I hope Apple things about adding a financial app to their iWorks line.
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stwebb said 12:16AM on 1-20-2010
It'd be worth even more than $79 then! I'd pay $99 for it!
Rafe H. said 12:13PM on 12-18-2009
I will happily switch away from Quicken to an alternative if the alternative has a basic check register equal to Quicken's:
1. select the date field, then tap +/- to change the date. Or some other key combo.
2. tab key to the payee field.
3. payee field must auto-complete while typing. auto-complete must be case-insensitive. should be able to delete (backspace) letters and have auto-complete still work. global payee list must be editable (helps tune the auto-complete behavior).
4. tab key to the debt field
5. debt field should take integer numbers and auto-append .00.
6. if not a debt, tab key to the deposit field.
I have yet to find an alternative that let's me enter the week's receipts this blazingly fast.
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Rafe H. said 12:16PM on 12-18-2009
Ugh, TUAW, you do realize that your email confirmation is still completely broken when viewed with me.com, right? Please remove the trailing spaces from your URL!
John Selden said 11:39AM on 12-20-2009
Moneydance does all of these things with ease. It also runs on Windows and Linux for people who lead a cross-platform life. I could be mistaken, but I believe Moneydance is the only personal finance software on Mac (besides Quicken) that supports both investment accounts and online bill pay from within the software.
imref said 1:01PM on 12-18-2009
I still run parallels/windows on my Mac solely to support Quicken for Windows (2008), I've been a Quicken user since 1992. Intuit has never provided any migration path for Windows users, and still won't allow the Mac version open data files from Windows. I keep holding out hope that we'll see feature/data file parity at some point, but I've been holding out hope ever since I got my first Mac in 2003.
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Joel said 1:06PM on 12-18-2009
Same here. I use Fusion to run Quicken 2008. Too much history and comfort with the PC version. I will not take a step back in functionality. If they delivered something comparable, I would love to switch to a native Quicken Application. This is not that time!
davine.harding said 11:00AM on 12-19-2009
imref,
Like you, I started using Quicken in 1993. Bought a Mac this year (the best computer i have ever owned) and had to buy Parallels and a new version of Quicken. Been working great, but now will not open.
Windows does open and Quicken asks for my password--then I get a gray screen! Any suggestions?
Bizzkit said 1:10PM on 12-18-2009
@ RafeH
iBank does all those things except +/- for date. IMO the autofill for Payee & Category are better than Quicken. When you enter Type it will change to amount to debit or credit even if you don't put a - sign before the amount.
I switched to iBank about eight months ago and have never looked back. Not many realize Quicken was one of the original apps written for the Mac in the mid-80's. Quicken 1 came on a 400k floppy for my Mac 512K. Like a lot of apps once the windows version came out development for the Mac version was weak or non existent. It also became a bloated piece of crap like Office.
iBank also has an iPhone app that you can enter transactions.
iBank is at ver 3.x and still needs work. Reports suck. But I'm willing to give the developers time.
Screw Intuit/Quicken and the ugly-ass horse they rode in on. Just my .02¢.
Bev M
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Rafe H. said 2:02PM on 12-18-2009
Thanks Bev M. I will look into iBank again. I am also willing to give developers some slack to polish their apps. But #1 in my book is: I must be able to enter the week's receipts with blazing speed. Without touching my mouse. I wish developers would get this right first, then polish the GUI, reports, etc afterwards.