I have bank accounts, investment accounts, mutual funds, individual. Express Web Connect (Quicken Connect in Quicken for Mac); Direct Connect; Web Connect. I can't find the original email where he said that, but there are two. Are you using Direct Connect to download transactions from Suntrust? Quicken for Mac How can one link to their Mint account using Quicken 2016. Online Banking and Bill Pay with Quicken Access with supported software. Between QuickBooks (or Quicken) and SunTrust; Integrated Direct Connect for. For re-entering information for TSP and I can't get Quicken to read or show TSP in.

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Alex Dent

Is Quicken Mac 2007 (OS X Lion-compatible version) compatible with OS X 10.10 Yosemite? How about the betas of OS X 10.11 El Capitan?

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John Baltutis

Alex Dent inquired:

'Is Quicken Mac 2007 (OS X Lion-compatible version) compatible with OS X 10.10 Yosemite? How about the betas of OS X 10.11 El Capitan?'

Yes to both.

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Robert Sanderson

Quicken 2007 has been working fine for me under Yosemite.

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Wil Nelson

It is compatible with Yosemite.

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John Kehoe

Hi,

Just wanted to share a very good experience I had with Quicken support staff:
I had been watching MacInTouch message threads regarding Quicken and its alternatives and finally chose to upgrade it only to run on my latest Yosemite Mac Mini. All the forum posts in the past were helpful and I have to say I'm pleased with the $14.99 upgrade fee from Quicken / Intuit.
I use the Reports tool in it a lot; it's one of the most important features to me. I used Quicken's online chat tool, got an assistant within minutes, set up my Quicken.com logon account, added a credit card, and then downloaded 'Quicken 2007 for Lion (version 16.2).' It's only about 15 MB. As I was chatting with the online rep, I launched it and got a pop-up for an upgrade patch (16.2.2), which installed very quickly. I then copied the legacy .qdfm file from my old Snow Leopard machine and it opened without a hitch. It has been working fine.
Thank you all for your reports on the limitations of the latest Quicken for Mac; I know I made the right choice based on your help!

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Bill Schroeder

Used Quicken 2007 on Yosemite and on El Capitan beta. Works fine.

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MacInTouch Reader

Intuit to sell Quicken, Quickbooks

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MacInTouch Reader

At 5:36pm Central I received this email from Intuit. I'm part of the Quicken Beta tester group. Looks like yet-another-chapter in the life of Quicken Mac will begin. Hopefully the 'new' entity will be able to fully energize the product.

I'm Eric Dunn, and I'm excited to be the new senior vice president and general manager of Quicken. While my role is new, my affection and familiarity with Quicken is not. I was part of the Quicken business in my early years at Intuit. And I've been using Quicken daily since 1985, logging tens of thousands of transactions over four decades. So I know Quicken.

As a beta tester, you know Quicken as well, playing a vital role in helping us design and improve the Quicken product and services. Because of your important role, I want to share some important news.

After careful consideration, Intuit made Quicken into a separate business unit and has decided to find a new home for the team. We're proud of the Quicken legacy, and are seeking a buyer who shares our mutual dedication to and love of the product and has the resources to make it even better.

Let me assure you, Quicken is not going away. And the beta program you are enrolled in will continue. Today, we are simply announcing our plans to find a new owner. During this search, my team and I are fully committed to provide you with service you expect, and possibly better.

We know you depend on Quicken, and as a separate business, we'll be able to focus solely on providing you with dedicated, uninterrupted service and support. I'm also confident we can make the necessary changes to improve the product and care experience for everyone and make Quicken the best it can be.

As we begin this new chapter together, I want to thank you for you loyalty to Quicken and your participation in the beta program. Today's news is just the beginning. We'll reach out again when we have more to share.

I also invite you to send your questions and concerns about this news directly to us at 888-321-7276. And I'd also recommend that you watch this short video from CEO Brad Smith to hear more on rationale behind this decision, what it means to you, and what it means to the company.

In the meantime, thank you for your ongoing support. We hope you'll find the changes as exciting as we do.

Sincerely,

Eric

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/u59AxD7WKKM

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MacInTouch Reader

While I haven't yet used Quicken over four decades, I have used Quicken over (the course of) four decades, beginning in 1989. IMHO, the Quicken bosses spoke colloquially.

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Carter Burwell

It's not promising if the person in charge of a piece of accounting software thinks four decades have passed since 1985..

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MacInTouch Reader

It's hard to be sure what's behind Intuit's decision to sell off Quicken. It may be stock-related, to focus on growth opportunities that they hope will materialize.

The most interesting news came from VentureBeat, which says Quicken revenues dropped to $51 million in the fiscal year that ended July 31, down from $98 million the previous year. Years of neglect seem to be catching up with sales.

None of the news reports I found said anything about what they're doing with their mobile-oriented online mint.com business, but I would guess they are keeping it for growth potential.

This may be good news if Intuit finds a buyer that will invest time and money in maintaining Quicken. Otherwise it could be a quick downhill spiral like Eudora.

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MacInTouch Reader

Let's hope the new owner keeps this guy on and his assurance that things will better. New owners often have different ideas.

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MacInTouch Reader

So, as it turns out, a while ago the former president of Intuit Canada joined the company I work for and I report to him. I'm keeping this anonymous, but I'm not really going to say anything too secret and if he finds it he'll know it's me, I just don't want to attach a name to it too openly.

In thinking about Quicken and Intuit, I think the easiest way to think of it is this: Intuit is now in the business of servicing small/medium enterprises. They are not in the business of building consumer software, so they are getting rid of that business.

It makes a lot of sense.

A few years ago I managed an ERP called Eclipse. It was a piece of junk in my opinion -- old outdated technology that some industries were clinging to. When I started working with it, it was owned by Intuit, which then sold the product to a company called Activant. Essentially the same thing: Intuit wasn't in the ERP business, and it made not sense for them to keep it.

We don't have to like it. I'm just saying that it makes sense from the perspective of the company.

The reality is that we may be better served in the end. Quicken -- and certainly the Mac product -- has been an afterthought at Intuit for a long time. It's my opinion that they charge too much for it -- it's priced like an early 90s piece of software -- and it's likely that the product management team struggles to find anyone in senior management to pay attention.

If there's a market for it -- and the number of new competitors, all of which are weak in comparison, suggest that there is -- a new home for Quicken might be what we need.

There is absolutely a dedicated type of customer who wants Quicken and not Mint, for reasons we've discussed here. It's clear that they know that. Whether that group is large enough to sustain the product.. well, we'll see, I suppose, won't we?

Funny story: the guy I work for told me today that he discontinued Quicken for Mac in Canada before he left. That means that a few months ago, when I was complaining about not being able to buy it in Canada and having to pay the US$ price and get hit with the exchage rate -- yeah, totally his fault.

Very small world this one.

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Matt Snider

This makes no sense. Quicken and Quickbooks are total cash cows.

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Robert Ball

I want Quicken to live long and prosper, to achieve full parity with the Windows version. But if the quote is correct, I fear for it when a new vice president tells us that 1985 to 2015 amounts to four decades.

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Steve D

The linked Yahoo story and a few others I saw online indicate that Intuit is keeping QuickBooks. The product lines being divested are Quicken, Quickbase, and Demandforce.

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John Baltutis

A MacInTouch reader wrote:

'In thinking about Quicken and Intuit, I think the easiest way to think of it is this: Intuit is now in the business of servicing small/medium enterprises. They are not in the business of building consumer software, so they are getting rid of that business.'

Does that imply that Intuit will also dump TurboTax, which, after all, is consumer software?

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MacInTouch Reader

Re:

This makes no sense. Quicken and Quickbooks are total cash cows.

That, right there, is the false assumption that seems to drive a lot of expectations. Quicken was absolutely not a cash cow for Intuit.

Quickbooks does very well.

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Harold Zeh

A reader wrote:

'The most interesting news came from VentureBeat, which says Quicken revenues dropped to $51 million in the fiscal year that ended July 31, down from $98 million the previous year. Years of neglect seem to be catching up with sales.'

Perhaps not so much neglect as a shift away from check writing in general. For most folks, Quicken is not much more than a check register. From my personal experiences, I have gone from writing dozens to two checks per month. And I could simply eliminate those two if I trusted Hawaiian Electric on-line payments - and that I want them to earn, with live bodies, the monthly 'customer fee.' Hey, the pleasure is all . . . yours!

But along with the paradigm of bank cash cards instead of checks, and web payment sites for credit cards and utilities, maintaining a separate application for a check register is not necessary. Banks have websites that are essentially a constantly updated check register. I stopped using Quicken in 2004 as it was wholly redundant and over a couple of years of checking the checks and deposits, I was off by 23 cents - and it was my entry error.

What about all the fancy investment stuff with charts and graphs, and other ways of sucking up, and spitting out, financial data to manage - all things other than a check register? Well, there are websites for that too, directly from the brokerage houses. And there is Mint (if you trust it.) And there is just entering monthly totals, obtained from the bank and brokerage websites into a homegrown (exactly as you want it) spreadsheet or database. I use FileMaker.

If the numbers from VentureBeat are accurate, and even if not, they do show a remarkable trend. Quicken, and other check register type applications, are mostly useless and redundant for most folks. Intuit knows an anchor when it feels one dragging it down.

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MacInTouch Reader

For me, the real value of Quicken is centralized handling of all accounts at several financial institutions. We bank at a small local bank that is a short walk down the street and gives excellent service. We have a few credit cards elsewhere, and separate retirement accounts at financial companies. We also own rental property and I am self-employed. Quicken is invaluable in helping us integrate that information to manage our finances. It may look scattered, but we've picked the best companies for our needs, and Quicken is the best software we've found to manage it.

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Michael Fryd

Harold Zeh suggested that personal finance programs are unnecessary as banks and brokerage houses provide these services on their web sites.

While this is a reasonable solution for many people, it has the disadvantage of making it difficult to switch banks.

Close your accounts and move to a new bank, and you likely no longer have access to the old bank's web site. This can make it difficult to file taxes, or research old purchases.

I've owned my house a long time. For tax reasons, when I sell my house, I will need access to decades of financial records on various home improvements. I have changed banks at least once since I bought the house. I doubt a bank I left 10 years ago will make it easy for me to get copies of checks. My QuickBooks file has data back to 1991.

With a personal finance program on your computer you have more control over your data.

Yes, there are issues with storing you data locally. However for some people, local data that you control is better than data in a bank's cloud.

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Joel Shurkin

If you bank at a small bank or a credit union, you will note that Quicken for Mac doesn't work. it won't load transactions. The company they all outsource to set up security protocols Quicken (and Mint) can't deal with. Fixes were promised for July, then August, now September. Essentially both Quicken and Mint are useless unless you bank with the big boys. It's not clear Intuit gives a damn.

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Lyman Taylor

I doubt a bank I left 10 years ago will make it easy for me to get copies of checks

Get a copy 12 years after the fact? Yes. Get a copy within 12 months? No. Almost all of these sites have a way of dumping readable electronic record copies. They all have active companies to go paperless. Getting useful archive data and easy Quickbooks data entry format isn't necessary the same thing.

My Quickbooks file has data back to 1991.

You really don't need all of that data. Just a small subset. There are trade-offs to merging a transactional database with one that is really a very part-time data warehouse and primarily just a data archive/backup.

(Note: Intuit isn't peeling off QB customers. It is Quicken personal finance ones. The issue is what are mainstream personal finance moving toward over time, not where the users of QB are going. Those two groups are not necessarily going in the same direction.)

There are issues with storing your data locally. However for some people, local data that you control is better than data in a bank's cloud.

Data that is primarily archive/back-up data shouldn't just be stored in one place. Any reasonable run 'bank cloud' data storage infrastructure isn't going to do that. Storing it on a local active spinning drive isn't only a 'control' issue.

The very small subset of data that is relevant to tracking home capital gains offsets can be kept in a csv file and viewed/updated by any common spreadsheet.

If folks have more than a handful of long term gains/losses/expenses over multiple financial institutions to track, then perhaps has more traction, but those really aren't mainstream folks.

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Lyman Taylor

Does that imply that Intuit will also dump TurboTax, which, after all, is consumer software?

No. Two of the three things Intuit are dropping are oriented toward business.

From the Yahoo finance article above that helped kick off this subthread discussion:

'.. Intuit today announced its intent to divest Demandforce, QuickBase and Quicken to focus on and invest in businesses that strengthen the ecosystem ..'

Demandforce (customer relation management, CRM, tool), QuickBase (database) aren't particularly mainstream consumer products.

What is being dumped is low growth and low synergy (relative to what is targeted growth). It isn't a consumer/non-consumer criteria. There are better positioned cloud CRM tools/services out there. Same with spin-up and deploy in the cloud databases.

Personal finance is more a change in technology users are using. Apple Pay, Android Pay, Credit/Debit, Person-to-Person / Biz-to-Biz funds transfer.. there is a subset writing checks, but it is going down. There are more 'cover everything' finance services companies.

But on top of that the 'Personal Computer' is changing. If the classic PC market growth slows to nothing, then the software sold into that market is also going to stagnate. Especially, if the users 'buy once and squat for as long as possible'. If there is a high influx of new buyers then they can cover R&D, service/support, etc.

I suspect Mint.com (and 'Check', which was merged into Mint.com) have their own issues that are partially masked now by a relatively high rate of influx. How they will do in a more mature market based on getting folks to churn/switch/buy other financial services ('buy' the ad presented) may not work so well.

TurboTax is relatively safe as long as the tax code stays dynamic and bloated beyond single human comprehension. Because 'the game' changes every year, the software need to change. That means a steady flow of customers (people spending money). Basically have a subscription product even if it isn't explicitly sold that way. 'The game' is unlikely to change because for most folks their 'pork'/'tax shelter'/etc is OK, it is those 'other folks' that is the problem. As long as it is an activity primarily focused on weaving and dodging then the game aspects are going to stay.

QuickBooks regulatory and ecosystem coupling isn't quite so dynamic, but it is high enough to not be commodity software.

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Lyman Taylor

For me, the real value of Quicken is centralized handling of all accounts at several financial institutions.

There are two issues present with this value proposition. One is whether that is where the primary value assessment has been placed on Quicken by most of the users. There will be some subset of folks who put a high value on this and another subset that won't. As a business long term if enough folks are in the other category the software could run into viability problems.

The second is that for a long time Quicken was the 'only game in town' for broad financial institution connectivity. They maintained market dominance, because the barriers to entry were high. There are more players now.

Options like Mint.com came along that are also tracking into the larger personal wealth space. A couple listed here:

Of note is one Yodlee, which is a 'free' front end to a much more widely integrated backend web service that (Mint.com previously and others currently) use to provide the same 'breadth of coverage' functionality that used to be more Quicken's strength. Intuit pulled Mint.com off of that backend because they wanted to do it all themselves internally, but that only tweaked their competitors gaining momentum in this area, not fully blunted it.

Quicken has had two big 'hammers'. Data trapped in proprietary data storage format and this broad connectivity. Without those two the long term revenue prospects are likely going to be highly challenged. Just because Quicken had a relatively viable solution 15-20 years ago doesn't mean that it is still the only viable solution out there now.

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Franklin Tessler

Like Harold Zeh, I write few checks these days. However, the number of payments that I make each month for everything from my mortgage to my power company hasn't diminished. The only bills that I pay automatically are to vendors that accept my credit card, a good way to rack up miles on purchases that I have to make regardless.

Sure, I can pay bills online using my bank's website, but it's even more convenient to do the same from my financial application. I also track my credit card expenses and loans in the same program. And having all this data in one easily-searched repository helps when I'm gathering records for my accountant each year.

Still, it may be that Inuit has seen the writing on the wall for personal financial software. Their old model of offering yearly updates with few, if any, meaningful new features may no longer be viable. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, takes over Quicken's reins, and how they approach current and former users. Having switched to and from Quicken more than once over the years, it would take a lot to compel me to go back yet again.

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MacInTouch Reader

All small businesses don't need QuickBooks. Quicken is simpler to use, and adequate for businesses like consulting or managing a single rental property, where you don't have inventory or have to process lots of invoices and track lots of receivables.

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MacInTouch Reader

If you bank at a small bank or a credit union, you will note that Quicken for Mac doesn't work. it won't load transactions. The company they all outsource to set up security protocols Quicken (and Mint) can't deal with. Fixes were promised for July, then August, now September. Essentially both Quicken and Mint are useless unless you bank with the big boys. It's not clear Intuit gives a damn.

The small bank I deal with still offers downloads of account transactions in Quicken Web Connect format. Have you tried that?

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Joel Shurkin

The small bank I deal with still offers downloads of account transactions in Quicken Web Connect format. Have you tried that?

That worked. Thank you. Bit of a pain in the ass, but it works.

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Pete Masterson

Re. press release: Intuit to unload Quicken.. (etc.)

Considering how poorly Intuit has supported Quicken over the past decade, it's probably a positive development -- presumably, the buyer of the Quicken product will have more interest in supporting both Windows and Mac users.

Of course, Intuit has gotten it wrong .. their priorities have been out of whack for 15 or 20 years..

In the late 1980s, I owned a 'small business' that eventually grew to a volume of $50K/month revenue. I started out using a 'check-book based' bookkeeping system (and I also had an accountant handling formal income and asset documents, as well as a variety of tax returns). Unfortunately, the DOS-based 'checkbook' program went belly up whilst Windows 1 was ramping up and my business (in the graphic arts category) had also gravitated to being Mac based (rather than merely Mac aware).

My first step was to 'upgrade' to Quicken-Mac. After passing some initial 'road bumps,' I eventually got Quicken doing an excellent job of tracking income and outgo both for my business and personal accounts (and by careful selection of account names, it was relatively easy to separate business and personal accounts).

Around 1989 or so I decided to migrate to QuickBooks (my accountant was gently pushing me to move from a 'checkbook' centered system (as my former DOS program and Quicken are) to a 'real' double entry accounting program.

I purchased a copy of QuickBooks (Mac) to prepare for a changeover at the first of the next year.. After installing the software and creating a chart of accounts suitable for my business, as the first of the year approached, Intuit announced that they 'would no longer support the QB-Mac product.' At that point, there was no way I could use an unsupported program to manage a business grossing over $1 million per year.

I requested a refund from Intuit and their essential response was 'tough luck' (since I'd already 'activated' the program to get it ready for use, though no 'live' data had been input). I responded with a request to reconsider their decision (I'd purchased QB directly from Intuit) .. and my further communications were simply ignored. (To say the least, I was not an Intuit fan at this point.)

Eventually, I sold the business, and later started a home-based single person business. (Still using Quicken.) I attempted to switch over to a 'well regarded' accounting system (double entry, etc.) but found it rather tedious to use. In my new business, my clients would pay me in two or three payments during the progress on a project. The client would then cease activity, though a few would return after many months (or years) with another project. The 'traditional' accounting system forced me to set up an 'account' for each client, etc. but it was a lot of work for identifying 2 or 3 payments. The work around was to simply use a 'sales' account -- but that lost the connection to the individual clients. Ultimately, I was in a mess as I couldn't tell who'd payed what. Back to Quicken, where the details could be spelled out in the _searchable_ memo field.

Over the years, I established investment accounts -- and Quicken allowed me to monitor and manage these quite conveniently. IRA, 401K (spouse and mine with multiple employers), as well as a taxable investment account. Quicken 2007 had very solid reports that helped analyze and manage these various accounts. Sadly, Quicken 2015 only has a shadow of what Q2007 offered. But Intuit had disabled the stock quote update in 2007, forcing an upgrade to the new, much less well endowed 2014 product.

I actually don't much care about the 'automatic' features that connect with various financial institutions, as I'm fine making manual inputs (there just aren't that many each month, and it allows me to add notes that help my analyze data over time (such as the use in KWH for the electric bill, etc.)

Since Intuit sucked at supporting the Mac version of Quicken (and screwed Mac users on several occasions), I am hopeful that a future owner of the product will make it much better than it currently is. I certainly will be happy to see it no longer being managed by Intuit (regardless of the outcomes).

And, it is their loss in their failure to realize (and exploit) that small businesses users of Quicken are good prospects to upgrade to Quickbooks.

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Robert Sanderson

In a recent post Lyman Taylor mentioned the Yodlee software which banks and credit card companies use to provide their customers with 'personal finance tools'. In early August the Wall Street Journal published a long article about Yodlee with the headline:

'Yodlee's side business shows escalation in race among investors trying to turn data into profits'

Yodlee and their financial institution customers are selling accountholder transaction data to hedge funds and marketers. (Unfortunately the WSJ article is available only to paid subscribers.)

Yodlee's practices reinforce my strongly held conviction that all aggregation of personal financial data should be done locally on one's own computer. The only information I share with a financial institution or retailer is about my account(s) with it.

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Robert Sorrels

I dumped Intuit products long ago. As far as I could tell the Mac line only existed so they could suck blood from Mac users with minimum investment/interest on their part. (In case you can't tell, I really dislike Intuit and pretty much everything about their products and services.)

To everyone concerned about the demise(?) or change in Quicken, let me strongly recommend AccountEdge from Acclivity (www.accountedge.com). While they have a Windows version of their product (quite good), they are first and foremost a Mac oriented company.

I used their pro version for years running simultaneous construction and consulting businesses. It is a full featured, powerful yet accessible program that is constantly being updated. It does inventory control, job costing, subcontractors, payroll, credit cards, POS, etc., and I believe can do interactive work with many banks. At a minimum it can download a selection of transactions many that can be automatically assigned to accounts. Last I checked you could import most Quicken/Quickbooks data.

A couple of years ago, they introduced a pared-down version called AccountEdge Basic that could do personal accounting and smaller/simpler businesses. It's quite affordable.

If you stay on their update regimen you get the yearly update and unlimited support. Some of the best support I've ever had.

So, worried about Quicken? Nope, not for a long time.

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Franklin Tessler

Lyman Taylor asks who has the kind of money that presumably will be required to acquire Quicken from Intuit. Well, Apple does, for one. In some respects, an updated, feature-complete version of Quicken bundled with Macs might be very compelling. And, since some of Quicken's functionality depends on support from financial institutions, Apple's relationship with them for Apple Pay may come in handy.

Of course, this begs many questions, not the least of which is what Apple would do with the current Windows version, which surely constitutes the majority of Quicken's installed base. Apple could support Quicken for Windows for some defined time period, while the new Mac version would entice new and existing Windows users to jump to OS X.

I'm not sure that any of this makes sense, and I don't really expect it to happen. However, as someone who's adopted and abandoned Mac Quicken more than once, it's fun to speculate!

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Colleen Thompson

Like Pete Masterson, I started out on Quicken and switched to QuickBooks as soon as it became available for the Mac, though my memory of the timeline differs from his, and Wikipedia answereth not. I seem to recall that QuickBooks became available for the Mac in the early 90s, and Intuit dropped QuickBooks in the late 90s for at least a couple of years. I kept using it, since it was still working. And then eventually Intuit relented and took up the QuickBooks mantle again, pretty much saving my bacon. When they dropped payroll support for the Mac version it did not affect me, not having any employees.

I'm puzzled about his implication that you can't search the memo field in QB. I don't remember that ever being the case, and I do a lot of those kind of searches.

I really appreciate the recent addition of the ability to attach receipts and other documents to a QB transaction, but the high cost of upgrades with no discount for previous owners has been seriously bumming me out, even though I typically only buy every other version. Per Robert Sorrels, I will check out AccountEdge.

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Lyman Taylor

Re:

.. the Wall Street Journal published a long article about Yodlee..

This article?

.. Yodlee can tell you down to the day how much the water bill was across 25,000 citizens of San Francisco or the daily spending at McDonald's throughout the country ..
..Yodlee says no one can be re-identified from its data set. 'There is no possibility that anyone's identity can be determined,' the company says in a statement..

Course-grained basic economic statistics are not a privacy issue.

If you do all of your water bill payments with one bank, that bank has the same total user aggregation for a town, county, state as Yodlee does. Should people move the bill payment around to random financial institions so their data point doesn't go into any aggregate? No, it is relatively pointless exercise. The water company still has it, even if you want to play hocus pocus games.

If Yodlee was selling 'Fred Munster, of 1313 Mockingbird lanes' info, then that would be a individual privacy issue. But how much people in a zipcode are paying for in mortgage payments or water bills isn't a privacy issue. Utility and mortgage payments at a very high fraction of localized income is an indicator of the health of the local economy. That information has value and some people are going to pay for it in order to make better decisions (epecially if most others are using government collection data that is older/staler, slower, and more inaccurate). That info can easily be used to pop housing bubbles before they get into the ridiculous stage.

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Lyman Taylor

presumably, the buyer of the Quicken product will have more interest in supporting both Windows and Mac users.

The presumption there is that the buyer is acquiring Quicken as a growth asset. There are numerous vulture capital folks who love sucking maximum money out of cash cows.

Depending upon how badly Microsoft got burned with Money, they might be a good match if looking for someone who will take it more multiple platform over time and isn't looking for a very short term return on investment.

Quicken is going to be pretty expensive to acquire. Who has that kind of money?

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Skot Nelson

Of course, Intuit has gotten it wrong .. their priorities have been out of whack for 15 or 20 years.

I suppose that depends on your perspective. A graph of the company's stock chart suggests differently. In particular, look at the last five years.

Intuit has ignored the Mac for over a decade and we can all complain about it, but they've created a highly profitable company in the process -- and that's ultimately the goal of any company.

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Rodney Jenness

AceMoney has a Mac app now -

http://www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/personal-finance-software-quicken-alternative.shtml

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MacInTouch Reader

A few days ago I started getting update notices for Quicken 16.2.2 saying there is a new version 16.2.3 that does something or another that I didn't catch.

Has anybody tried this to see what happens? After past experience, I am wary of being the first to try anything new with Quicken.

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Maurice Kessler

Here I am again, asking about Quicken 2007's newest update, 16.2.3. Has anyone had any untoward experiences with this update? I'm running 10.9.5 on a 2010 Mac Pro, FWIW. Thanks to anyone with feedback!

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Brian Matthews

I've been using it for about 2 weeks without problems, including downloading quotes and transactions (two things that have been problematic in the past). A couple of other people in the quickenmac Yahoo group also reported using it without problems.

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MacInTouch Reader

I tried it and it didn't want to accept new entries right away, but after quitting and restarting it seemed to work fine. I didn't give it a thorough stress test, but I was able to do crucial things like running reports, and I've got over a decade of financial records.

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MacInTouch Reader

I've updated and found no issues with it. All accounts, including my Vanguard downloads are working perfectly.

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Bob Weinstein

I found problems with importing downloaded qfx files. App hangs, and ultimately did not work.

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MacInTouch Reader

Bob Weinstein wrote:

I found problems with importing downloaded qfx files. App hangs, and ultimately did not work.

I just downloaded a qfx (Web Connect) file from Bank of America and had no problem importing it with the new version of Quicken. So these seems to be something where experience may differ.

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Bob Weinstein

Update today to version 2.6.2.

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Robert Shaye

This may be a coincidence but it appears that since I downloaded El Capitan, Quicken 2015 fails to download my banking files. My investment files are not affected. I thought that the arrival of Quicken 2015 2.6.2 would fix the problem but no such luck. Anyone else experience this frustration?

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Ralph Begleiter

The latest update to Quicken 2015 (v 2.6.2) automatically changes a preference setting which could be annoying to some users.
After updating, I began receiving email 'alerts' notifying me of 'unusual spending,' budget limits and other details from Quicken.
A trip to Quicken Preferences - to the 'Mobile & Alerts' tab - revealed that Intuit had programmed new 'alerts' to be turned On by default.
Under the 'Mobile & Alerts' tab, select the 'Alerts' tab to see a list of new alert triggers, which users can switch off in their entirety or selectively.
Note that these settings are independent of whether users have turned on 'Mobile Access,' (which is related to Quicken mobile apps).

item.218125

Jon Ellenbogen

I have read in MacInTouch that the latest updates to Quicken 2007 have made it possible to accomplish direct downloads of credit card statements into Quicken, something I've never managed to do. Instead I just export my transactions from CapitalOne as a QFX file and import that file into Quicken. This has worked fine for years. CapitalOne now tells me they have made some changes that require two steps: first, in Quicken disabling the download capability of any present accounts; and two, restarting the download capability with the choice of Web Connect on the CapitalOne website. When I attempt this, the Web Connect option is absent, and QFX no longer will import into Quicken. CapitalOne tells me they're 'working on this.' Has anyone seen a solution?

item.218187

Todd Wetherwax

I have read in MacInTouch that the latest updates to Quicken 2007 have made it possible to accomplish direct downloads of credit card statements into Quicken, something I've never managed to do. Instead I just export my transactions from CapitalOne as a QFX file and import that file into Quicken. This has worked fine for years. CapitalOne now tells me they have made some changes that require two steps: first, in Quicken disabling the download capability of any present accounts; and two, restarting the download capability with the choice of Web Connect on the CapitalOne website. When I attempt this, the Web Connect option is absent, and QFX no longer will import into Quicken. CapitalOne tells me they're 'working on this.' Has anyone seen a solution?

I had this same issue with Capital One. My workaround was to use a date range beginning no earlier than October 7. Good luck.

item.218245

David Dvore

For those of you still struggling with Quicken 2007, I'd suggest taking a look at MoneyDance. I was a Quicken user for many years and hung in there when Lion came out and Intuit had no solution for years. When they finally came out with the Lion version, I stuck it out through various problems that came up with downloading from my financial institutions. But there was a period of several months when I couldn't download and Quicken had no solution in sight, about a year or two ago. I finally gave up and switched to MoneyDance. It did a good job of importing many years of data exported to a QIF file. Needed a little tweaking, but not a lot. MD has comparable features to Q2007 for tracking accounts and investments, but the interface is not quite as polished. Takes a little getting used to, but didn't take long to adjust. I've had no problems downloading from several different banks and investment firms, and it even has an add-in for directly importing PayPal transactions. It falls a little short on reports, but with some tweaking it produces cash flow, net worth, investment return, etc. reports. I haven't found anything important it can't do that Q2007 can, and it has some great features for searching transaction, multiple selection and batch changing things like categories, tags, etc. When I have found minor bugs or features I'd like, the developer has been responsive. Very different feeling than Intuit who has left Mac customers out on a limb several times.
I have no connection to MoneyDance other than a satisfied customer. Take a look: moneydance.com

item.218236

MacInTouch Reader

I always had to import in the past. Never able to download directly with Capital One.

You have to select Quicken (QFX) to download the file and manually import. However, you most likely will get a OL-221 error. Which Quicken/Cap One is 'working on' but almost a month now and still not working for many.

See this info at Quicken community..

item.218258

Joseph Martines

I started using Quicken when they had a simple checkbook program for the Mac c. 1992. It was simple and amounted to a simple checkbook single entry program with cumbersome reports. Then Intuit caught the rising star of the Windows platform and practically abandoned the Mac platform. Everything they created for the Mac platform since has been a pure mess. Why so many Intuit users insist on a program that does their stock offerings analysis is beyond me and certainly is covered by other offerings from Quicken or by dedicated stock programs.

After the last 'improvement' by Quicken I have decided to totally abandon them and have decided never use Intuit products again. The amount of money spent on their products was a waste.

I have found a program named CheckbookPro by Splasm to be what I need. It is not terribly complex and probably is not enough for power users. The staff responds to questions almost immediately. They constantly listen to the users and keep simple improvements to a minimum.

No simple program is going to have a good reports. I haven't played around with that aspect enough to make a good evaluation but, it certainly is as good as Intuits program.

And yes, I have tried a lot of other accounting programs.

item.218266

MacInTouch Reader

I, too, switched to Moneydance a few years ago. Migration from Quicken was relatively painless. In fact, it found some errors that Quicken never picked up when I had updated Quicken, which I had been using since 1995.
The main advantage that MD has over other Quicken substitutes is the availability of tags. The main disadvantages are that its investment reports are useless and I have to manually prepare data for TurboTax.
Also, FWIW, I have never been able to auto-download Capital One or SunTrust. No problems with Amex or Northern Trust.

item.218273

MacInTouch Reader

David Dvore recommended MoneyDance for frustrated Quicken users.

I've been running MoneyDance in parallel with Quicken 2007 for some months now.

It 'ain't the same,' but I'm running it because Quicken 2007 isn't (in theory) even being sold at present, and 'Quicken 2015,' the current descendant of the appalling Quicken Essentials, is even less the same.

So, if you do want to try MoneyDance, a couple of tips.

1.

It is highly recommended to export all Quicken data into a single QIF file. Doing so makes the import process much smoother. Please use the option in Quicken to export 'all accounts,' if available.

They mean it! You'll find that, and more, in the manual, here:

2. If you want a sorta' fresh start in MoneyDance without every transaction from this and the prior centuries, first use Quicken to make a copy of your Quicken file with the dates you need. Then use that file as your export base to MoneyDance.

3. MoneyDance may create Accounts/Categories with an x in front. e.g., xBankName, xElectricBill. First thing, when you've finished an import, carefully go through your Accounts and Categories lists looking for those and reassign their balances to the right Account/Category. Then delete the xAcct or xCategories.

item.218289

Peter Vámos

Here is another vote fo Moneydance. Satisfied user for over 10 years. Actively maintained, also iOS version.

item.218287

MacInTouch Reader

Another important tip if you're thinking of exporting from Quicken to use MoneyDance:

In MoneyDance, create a new file.

In the second pop-up, choose Minimal.

You'll end up with just two accounts, 'Checking' and 'Savings'

You'll also have pre-configured categories.

Those categories probably don't line up with your Quicken ones if you've been using Quicken some time. If not, delete the ones that don't line up before importing your Quicken QIF export. Deleting, e.g., the top category 'Bills' will delete all its sub-categories in one easy click.

When importing a QIF file it has worked best for me to choose the 'Import into New Account' option which rebuilds your Quicken Structure in MoneyDance. Then delete the unused MoneyDance default 'Checking' and 'Savings.'

item.218293

Bill Schwartz

By pointing to the Calendar icon, peeks allow you to see a preview of your calendar. You can peek at your favorite contacts or your upcoming tasks without changing to that view. You can dock the. Learn how to keep Outlook 2016 Tasks and Calendar always in view by using the Dock the Peek feature. Outlook 2016 has a “Dock the Peek” feature for keeping your tasks and calendar always in view. This can come in handy as you are working on emails, setting other tasks and setting up meetings. Add calendar dock a peek on outlook 2016 for mac. It is not available on the Mac version of the software. If you are using Outlook 2013/2016 for Windows. When you point to Calendar on the navigation bar, the Calendar peek shows your upcoming appointments and meetings. To always be able to see your upcoming items, dock the Calendar peek to the Outlook window. Add calendar 'dock a peek' on Outlook 2016 for Mac 682 votes. Vote Vote Vote. Your email address. Change the new window to the Calendar. I was not the one who found the answer. Please add Dock TO Peek Feature for Outlook on Mac computers for MS Office Outlook. The app for Macbooks resembles the online outlook.

I'm another happy Quicken --> Moneydance convert. It's a Java app, its UI can be a bit clunky, and the reporting does need work. But to me its overwhelming advantage over Quicken is stability. I always battled database corruption in Quicken. MoneyDance has been rock solid. And it downloads transactions and offers bill pay directly to and from financial institutions that support Quicken Direct Connect.

item.218298

H Thorpe

My experience with Capital One Visa and Venture cards and Q2015 is transactions are downloaded with no errors into each respective account using Quicken Connect.

item.218353

Ralph Begleiter

The most recent update of Quicken 2015 for Mac adds a new annoying twist to Intuit's intrusive user interface. Now, Intuit requires a 'fresh' sync for every distinct Quicken data file, linked to the user's Intuit ID. That means if you keep your Quicken data in more than a single file (for instance, separating family members' accounts into distinct Quicken files), Intuit forces a re-sync whenever you open each distinct file, and, importantly, disconnects the Intuit ID from all other files. It means extra time - and a live Internet connection - every time you switch from one Quicken data file to another, to re-establish the link between each file and the user's Intuit ID.
Sheesh!

item.218358

Skot Nelson

Re:

I always battled database corruption in Quicken.

Sure. But which versions? It's been pointed out that Quicken now uses SQL Lite to store its application data, which is far superior to previous methods. I haven't seen a data corruption in Quicken since.. well, I can't remember when but certainly not since switching to Essentials and then Mac 2015 (which I find vastly superior to MoneyDance/SEE Finance and the other attempts at clones.)

item.218366

Johann Beda

Bill Schwartz says

'I'm another happy Quicken --> Moneydance convert. It's a Java app..'

I have been happily using Moneydance since about 2002 and I am, like Bill, also very satisfied with it.

While Moneydance does use Java to provide its cross platform abilities (it runs on Windows and Linux as well as having free helper apps for iOS and Android) on all platforms, the Moneydance app has its own built in version of Java RTE and does not need any other Java software to be installed or maintained.

There is a thread about this on the Moneydance forum:

Since the Java software is part of the application bundle and is only used by Moneydance, none of the security aspects of using Java in a web browser are issues.

item.218700

Lance Agee

I have been using See Finance for an number of years and about a month ago I lost contact to Citibank. I tried to set up the log in instructions, but See Finance will no longer list the available Financial organizations. I have tried to contact Scimonoce Software LLC. and their web page no longer loads. Does anyone know what has happened to them? Any contact point? They are still listed in the App Store, but again their web page does not load.

[I just tried scimonocesoftware.com/seefinance and it loaded fine here (on Verizon FiOS, using OpenDNS name servers). -Ric Ford]

item.219119

Steve D

I've come across a personal-finance application called Moneyspire. The best I can find out through the Web is that they've taken over Fortora's Fresh Finance program after Fortora dropped it / expired / lost interest / whatever. Fortora's Web site now redirects to www.moneyspire.com and a couple of tweets mention that Moneyspire picked up where Fortora left off. Anyone know the story?

item.219131

MacInTouch Reader

In regards to the Fortora Fresh Finance program (Item 219119) ..

Posts on their website last year indicated that serious health issues were interfering with development at that time.

Then on Sept. 18, 2015, I received this email:

We are pleased to announce that the Fortora team and product line have been acquired by Moneyspire Inc. All branding has been moved to the Moneyspire brand, and the software is now called Moneyspire 2016. All Fortora customers will be moved to Moneyspire FREE of charge.

This is great news! Moneyspire is committed to providing the best personal finance software and has already begun enhancing the software and is continuing work on the mobile and tablet versions so that those versions can be released as soon as possible.

Here are just some changes Moneyspire Inc. has already done:

1) The software is no longer offered as a subscription. A new version will be released every year, and you can upgrade if you want, but you won't be required to.

2) Fixed various bugs in the software.

3) Converted the Mac version from a Carbon to Cocoa application. This means the software now supports all the latest Mac features such as full-screen support, faster performance and support for the upcoming OS X El Capitan.

4) Enhanced Windows 10 support for Microsoft Windows customers.

5) Released a Linux version (So now we support all 3 major desktop platforms).

And this is just the beginning!

You can seamlessly move from Fortora Fresh Finance to Moneyspire without losing your data, and you qualify not only to receive Moneyspire 2016, but also Moneyspire 2017 for free when it is released in the 4th quarter of 2016.

To move to Moneyspire, please go to the following page for instructions:

http://www.moneyspire.com/fortora

Thank you,

The Moneyspire team (formerly Fortora)

item.219132

Joseph Martines

http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/moneyspire-2016

This is a review on Moneyspire. It looks interesting, but I would like to know more about it.

It may be too complex, and I think too many accounting programs try to be everything, where only some simple things are needed.

I have yet to find a program that has a decent 'Reports' function that allows for real customization.

I won't touch Intuit's products. Been there, done that, for far too many years.

item.219226

Steve D

Thanks to this anonymous reader for information on Fortora's migration to Moneyspire. As a prospective customer, seeing that letter on the Moneyspire site would help ease the perception that that this is a version 1.0 product with no apparent past and little sense of the future. In fact, I think I will make that very suggestion to Moneyspire.

As for the application itself (trial version, anyway), I don't see that it is 'too complex' (as Mr. Martines opines); it seems no more or less featured than iBank, MoneyDance, SEE Finance, or some other Mac personal-budgeting applications I've reviewed or used. Evaluation continues.

item.221576

Joe O.

I just read MacWorld's review of Quicken 2016 for Mac

http://www.macworld.com/article/3021332/software/quicken-2016-for-mac-review-a-solid-investment-for-tracking-your-finances.html

While it has some good information in certain areas (initial set-up, how to customize some reports), overall I thought the review was lacking in detail. Some items off the top of my head:

- How well does Q16 handle data imports from previous Q versions?

- How does Q16 handle import of income and expense categories from prior versions?

- While there's mention of 'investment income tracking,' how robust is the investment section of Q16?

- With the requirement for a Quicken ID, does Q16 allow for multiple data files?

Are there folks in the MacInTouch community who have used Q16 and who can provide more information?