Part of my recent switch from Windows XP to Mac OS was to get my 12 years of Quicken data moved over. No big deal, I thought. I did that 10 years ago when I switched from Mac OS 9 to Windows 2000.
Yeah, right! I exported my Windows Quicken data as QIF data, and spent $60 to get the overpriced Quicken for Mac 2007 software (they don’t have the cheaper Basic version I like to use on Windows). After importing my data into Quicken for Mac, I notice the balances are off…way, way off…not even close. I thought, WTF, so I did the export and import again. Still OMGWTF! So I go to The Internets and ask The Google about it. There’s a tech note on the Quicken support site about it, which states:
Quicken for Windows and Quicken for Macintosh have different features and data file structure. Due to the differences in the programs, not all data can be converted from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac. The following information shows the data that will NOT convert from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac. This information will need to be re-entered in Quicken for Mac after converting your file.
I’ll translate that for you. “Due to our bad programming, you are shit out of luck if you believe our file formats are anything close to standard or consistent.”
Even though I have WIndows XP running in Parallels on my Mac, I really didn’t want to use it for personal data like my financial accounts. I wanted to move everything back to Mac. So I found a 60-day evaluation for a Mac financial program called Liquid Ledger. I imported my Quicken for Windows QIF export data. Low and behold, the data showed up just fine. All the reconciled and running balances came out to the penny. After I used it for a while, however, I got frustrated with its interface. It’s a bit clunky and difficult to use, and acts quirky at times. For example, I used a filtered view to show just the last two months of transactions, and entered a new transaction with the date in the form mm/dd/yyyy where it expects mm/dd/yy. But it recorded the year 2007 as 2020, and the transaction disappeared from view. I thought it was acting flakey and reentered it, and yet again until I noticed a wildly negative balance. Yikes! It took me a few moments to figure that out and get it corrected. Ultimately I didn’t like it and deleted the software. And it was more expensive then Quicken so I’m glad I didn’t buy it.
Next up was iBank 2. I had some problem importing all my data — it locked up twice before it succeeded, and it flagged all imported transactions as cleared, so my reconciled balances were wrong. The latter was reasonably easy to fix by reversing the cleared status on everything for the past month, plus a few more from late in the previous month. IBank2 has a nicer interface and is easier to use. It also has a Dashboard widget for making quick entries, although it is flawed because there is no field for entering check numbers. I don’t write a lot of checks, but I do sometimes. I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep it, but it seems the most promising now.
I did get my $60 back from Quicken.
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11 Responses to “Quicken is incompatible with itself”
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LOL, I love it… I’m about to go through the same switch… Windows XP Pro on a whitebox to a nice new 24″ iMac and I need a banking application. And Quicken just ain’t it. Saw an ad for iBank in MacLife last night and thought I’d google it and presto, here’s your refreshingly blunt review of how Quicken sucks a cheesy one. Do you have an update on how you like iBank?
I am still using iBank2 and like it. I’m not a financial software power user by any means, but it does a pretty good job making it easy for me to enter, track, and reconcile my checking and savings account. When I send questions to support, I usually have a response within a day. I’m happy with it, and understand version 3 is due by year’s end.
For $50 it’s not a bad choice.
Man, I like your review of iBank. I would have to wait until iBank3 as the automatic download is a must.
But, I’ve been wanting a viable alternative to Quicken for years. It will be interesting to see what the new Quicken really functions like.
I won’ be surprised if the new Quicken is a big bloated pig with lots excess garbage. I’m quite pleased with iBank 2 and look forward to iBank 3. I can’t think of any compelling reason to consider Quicken now or in the future.
Plus, Intuit’s fiasco with deleting people’s Desktop folders with an automatic update for QuickBooks leaves me totally unimpressed. For a company that size to let a bug that destructive get to users is inexcusable. I sense that Mac support is an afterthought with them, and the new Quicken might be just a bunch of Leopard eye-candy to gain a new revenue stream.
I tried iBank 2 and the first showstopper I hit is that it doesn’t support split transactions where each split can have it’s own category and memo/comment. Sorry, no iBank for me. I’m using Quicken 2007 for Mac and have no problems at all. Sure, it doesn’t do near what the pc version did (and I bought every new version for what seems like 50 years), but I still like it better than iBank or Moneydance (which I also have) or several other Mac financial apps I tried.
You can have separate categories on a split, but I see you’re correct you can’t have separate memos for each detail in a split. Maybe iBank 3 changes that. You should email them and ask. They have always been good about responding.
I made the transition from Windows with Quicken Deluxe 2006 to my first Mac about a year ago. Quicken for Mac was the one application that I had to have to make this transition painless. Oh, did I suffer trying to get it to digest my Qd06 data. I failed, miserably; and in the end I went back to Quicken on Windows in VMware Fusion.
I wish I had been smart enough to get my money back on Quicken for Mac! A few weeks ago I acquired Quicken Deluxe 2008 for Windows for FREE thanks to a rebate deal at Staples. I’d have fewer nasty words for QM07, despite it’s many flaws, if it could be had for a similar price.
I think Apple and Intuit really missed the boat here by not working together to build a better product. At least 75% of the Windows users that I know use Quicken and many would be tempted to migrate to a Mac if they could do so without losing functionality. QM07 just doesn’t measure up. My QM07 experience was the single BAD THING about my transition to Mac. I’d love to say I’m 100% satisfied with my migration, but because of Quicken I’m not.
That said, I’ll probably be a fool and buy Intuit’s Quicken for Mac replacement when it debuts this fall. I’m an optimist and I’ve just gotta hope that it can’t be any worse than QM07.
-Fred.
Don’t blame Apple for Intuit’s incompetence. Apple certainly doesn’t get it right all the time, but Intuit is entirely culpable for its own shitty software. There’s no “working with Apple” needed. Intuit chose to make the files non-portable. There’s no technical reason for the Mac OS X to prevent Intuit from doing the right thing. After all, iBank and Liquid Ledger read Quicken Windows files just fine.
So now Intuit will add all kinds of Leopard eye candy and I’ll bet it still won’t read data from the Windows version correctly. My opinion: it’s just Intuit looking for a refresh of revenue from Mac users sucked in by the glitter, and they’ll still have disdain for the Mac platform.
Thought you would be interested to hear this. I have been using Quicken since my DOS days then on to Windows. Back in Nov ‘04, after my PC froze about 5 times doing a backup, I drove to the Apple store and bought my first Mac which came with Quicken 2004. I have used it and recently upgraded to 2007. Three days ago, I was reconciling my account, and have many transactions that need to be added during the reconciliation process and then when I go back it is right where I left off. Well, all of a sudden, one time when I went back it acted like I was starting the reconciliation process from scratch and even though many transactions in the register had the C in the Clr column. It was not recognizing any of the work that I had already done. Quicken has given me different things to try and then they stopped contacting me. So, now I am really trying to find a good replacement on the Mac that will import the register from Quicken.
Sorry for the long note!
I am in the same boat as most of the people here; I used Quicken forever but had to ditch my pc for lots of reasons, bought the Quicken Mac version and I was unprepared for HOW BAD IT IS. Ibank now has Ibank 3 and I’m trying to figure it out on the demo version I downloaded; is it still true that you CAN’T PUT CHECK NUMBERS in there? That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard of. While I don’t pay bills so much with checks anymore, I still need them for lots and lots of things. Also, I’m wondering if it has the “class” feature that Quicken does. It says it has lots of sub-categories, but the Class feature is key to me and all of the data I have that goes back to 1998. Anyone know if it’s there? This demo thing is not very intuitive (no pun intended) or helpful. Thanks!
iBank allows you to enter check numbers. Always has, as far as I know. It’s the Dashboard widget that doesn’t have check numbers, but you don’t need to use that (I never do).
I don’t know what the “class” feature is in Quicken.