MoneyWorks is great as a QuickBooks replacement (and the Cashbook tier is free!), but you have to be OK with not having bank feeds. It’s also a bit stodgy in terms of requiring you to have discipline in terms of coding transactions, closing accounting periods, etc. Very appropriate for business (or club) use, but I think some people might find it a bit too inflexible for personal use.
Money is very much a personal tracker (so it may not do what you need) but it might be worth taking a look. I think I bought it on discount at some stage. Money: Track Expenses & Budget on the App Store
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Well, I have give you some history.
I used Quicken for Mac for years and when Standalone released PocketQuicken for Palm, I got it and happily used both for years, while still having a cellphone. And then Apple released the iPhone in 2007 which I bought. So I was still happy carrying both an iPhone and a Palm PDA until Apple opened up the iPhone to applications in 2008. I expected Standalone to come out with an iPhone OS version of PocketQuicken but Intuit refused to extend the license to do so and thus I had to find something else.
I searched the App Store and found PocketMoney from Catamount Software owned by Hardy Macia. He had written PocketMoney for the Newton, Palm and PocketPC so it was easy to port it to iPhoneOS 2. Once I had PocketMoney for the iPhone, I was able to retire my Palm PDA. Meanwhile, Intuit had depreciated Quicken for Mac after the 2007 version, but it still worked on MacOS Leopard and Snow Leopard but not on Lion when it was released in 2010. Fortunately, Hardy released a desktop version of PocketMoney so I switched to using it with Lion. All was right again. But unfortunately Hardy passed away in May 2013, and his cousin was unable to continue the Catamount Software applications.
So once again, I looked for replacements. I found both iFinance & iCompta but neither are up to Hardy’s PocketMoney in my opinion, but are way better than Quicken. BTW, Intuit had released a patch to Quicken 2007 to make it compatible with Lion and that version, Quicken for Mac 2007 Lion Compatible (Q4M2007LC), works up through High Sierra.
So, my PRIMARY application is PocketMoney Desktop for Mac (PMD) on my mid-2011 iMac running High Sierra. I use Q4M2007LC to convert QIFs from PMD to a QIF that can be imported into both iCompta 6 & iFinance 4 on the iMac. I can sync PMD to PocketMoney on my iPad Mini 5 running iOS 14.4.2 and sync the iCompta & iFinance desktop applications to their iOS versions. Both iCompta & iFinance are fall backs in case I lose PMD.
Yes, it may sound cumbersome, but it beats anything else out there for me. The good news is there is a developer that has the rights to the 2013 version of PocketMoney and he is working on a modern version that will run on current iDevices and eventually on Intel & Apple Silicon Macs. I’m using it on my iDevices via TestFlight.
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G’day Peter
Just in case you’re running a older version, bank feeds came in with V9
Cheers, Gobit
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Only in NZ/AU - I’m US-based, no bank feeds in MoneyWorks for us.
Imagine me that I’m from Mexico, I can’t even buy it because my country/region isn’t listed.
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This won’t help the discussion, but some might find it amusing (or appalling!) that I am still running Quicken 2000 on a Mac 9600 under OS 8.1. A couple of years ago, I tried MoneyDance on one of my newer machines, but found the double-entry bookkeeping method unhelpfully complex for personal finances. I could see how it would be appropriate for business finances, though.
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If you are considering using a separate app for your business, take a look at Manager. Free for single desktop use, in extremely active development, robust online guides, responsive online community, and international in focus.
It’s an accounting program. I’m no accountant but have found it to be perfectly useful and “learnably” manageable for my very small side-business needs. Handles invoicing nicely.
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Thanks for the suggestion, do you mean manager.io?
Yes, that is the URL.
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I switched from Quicken 2007 to the subscription version of Quicken in April 2020. It was not a pleasant transition, but I decided it was the best option.
The main reason for my decision was the number of times I bought software with files that could not be transferred to other software when the company shut down or when MacOS no londer ran it. I had that happen with a word processor, a database I used for keeping my business accounts, and web site software (twice). I really didn’t want to wind up locked out of my old personal and business financial records. I was disappointed that the new Quicken could not import some parts of my investment records, but that may have been due to how I had set up the old records. In the end, I was able to import almost everything else going back to 2000, which is good enough.
What I get from using the subscription Quicken is software that keep up reasonably well with the Mac OS and the banking system, so I can download most transactions and only have to enter a few manually. I don’t use a smartphone, so I don’t care about mobile apps. And I am willing to pay a subscription fee to avoid wasting huge amounts of time manually transferring all my financial files into a different format.
That may not fit other people’s needs, but it fits mine.
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Another strong vote for Moneydance
– over a decade of use, no database corruption
– handles retiring CC and bank accounts graciously
that is they can be taken off the active list but all the data are at hand
– has labels and sublabels that can be used to categorize items
and organize them in data listings or in summary statements
both those outputs are very easy to define, update, and use
– export to Excel is always at hand directly from any listing
– can import Excel and csv files
– now has very robust bank and CC downloads with a small additional fee of ~$2 per month
– very good search function – again accessing your entire db, even the inactive accounts
– I do not use if for investment, foreign currency, or graphs – so can’t speak to those.
– I did use Quicken in the now distant pass – just didn’t work for me.
thanks
Bob
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I did the same exercise a few years back, when I decided to ditch Quicken. I also didn’t need direct bank connectivity. In the end, after trialling four apps in parallel, I chose SEE Finance and I am quite happy with it. Best of all, the developer has been very receptive to my questions and suggestions. I appreciate that it has a companion mobile app allowing me to add transactions on trips. Ah, and unlike Quicken, the multi currency feature works flawlessly. I have accounts in four currencies and three crypto assets. The investments side lacks some features but it does the basic very well.
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I have a few hard requirements for the software I use.
- MUST NOT be subscriptionware but a standalone purchase.
- Must run on MacOS 10.13.6 as I can’t go higher on my iMac.
- Must have an iOS full version.
- Must sync locally via either WiFi or USB cable. No “cloud” storage/syncing allowed.
- Must support QIF (Import minimum, Export preferred)
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I reviewed Manager.io a few years ago (and lived on it in parallel with my other accounting system for about 6 months.) The learning curve is a bit steep and it’s brittle in some weird ways (mostly stemming from its Ozzie heritage I think), but overall I really like it.
This is going to be a tough set of invariants to fulfill. In particular, your need for both an iOS version and Mac software that will perpetually support an older OS are in direct conflict.
People hate to hear this, but the honest truth is that at this point in the accounting software market, the cloud products (in particular Xero) are - generally speaking - more mature, more usable, better supported, and higher quality than anything that is “run local only,” on any and all platforms including Windows.
Referencing the last post, if you have any sort of Linux machine (including a synology - I know it works, because I did it), you could purchase a server license ($490) to run your own manager.io server, which you could then access from both your Mac and your iPad via Safari. It’s a cloud, but it would be YOUR cloud.
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I’m using SEE on a Sierra machine. There is a mobile component but I’ve never used it.
Diane
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Both iCompta 6 & iFinance 4 work fine. They are my backup applications to PocketMoney for Mac Desktop, and Quicken for Mac 2007 Lion Compatible. For iOS I’m using a modern version of PocketMoney 2 for iOS via TestFlight on my iPhone 12 & iPad Minis 5 & 6; in addition, I still can use the 2016 version of PocketMoney 2 on the iPad Mini 5 as long as I stay at iOS 14.4.2 on it.
SEE Finance 2 doesn’t have local sync via WiFi/USB cable.
My Web site at:
Macintosh Accounting Software
http://www.macattorney.com/accounting.html
Is constantly being updated. If you find links or apps that are dead, please let me know. Also if you have any additions that you think should be included on the site, I’d love to hear about those as well.
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iBank is now:
Banktivity ($70)
I’ve heard from a lot of users who swear by it.