I plan to upgrade to Catalina sometime in the near future. I’m going to have to upgrade to 64-bit software across the board. One of the things I’m facing is a two-part issue. I’ve been using Quicken 2007 for many years now. So, I have to upgrade to the latest version of Quicken, which I assume is 64-bit. But I also have to transition to what I believe is a pay only option for Quicken. Has anyone done this? If so, can you please share your experience, advice, etc? Thanks.
Quicken for Mac spent a long time in the wilderness. If you’re upgrading from Quicken 2007, there’s going to be a process for importing your old data and a learning curve for the new software. You might as well review the other options, covered in TidBITs in 2016:
Personally I found Banktivity was the best fit for my needs and successfully imported my Quicken data back to 1993.
I’m working on a Web page listing all of the available Macintosh accounting programs. There are a surprisingly large number of them.
Macintosh Accounting Programs
http://www.macattorney.com/accounting.html
Actually, Quicken is technically a personal finance application.
I’ve indicated on the page the programs that seem to be the most popular currently.
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Lance, Quicken for Mac 2007 Lion compatible is a 32-bit program. Unfortunately Intuit never updated it to 64-bit. Intuit did create a new version of Quicken for Mac that was 64-bit but it was a pale shadow of 2007 and extremely overpriced. Intuit then sold their Quicken line to someone else. Unfortunately, this company has done away with the standalone Quicken and is only subscription - don’t renew and you can no longer use Quicken. I suggest that after moving to Catalina, you install a virtual machine and install High Sierra or Mojave along with Quicken for Mac 2007LC.
Randy, regarding PocketMoney here is some info: the desktop version hasn’t been updated in over 6 years since the passing of Hardy Macia. PocketMoney is now owned by Guiseppe Tondini and he has a Swiss company named “PocketMoney GmbH”. He recently rebranded a version of iCompta as “PocketMoney” for the iOS App Store (supposedly that is against Apple’s rules).
While that would allow continuing using 2007 (and something I considered), they recently (sometime in November) turned off downloading stock quotes, and many companies are dropping support for whatever form of transaction download 2007 uses, so those will be lost regardless. Maybe that’s not something essential, in which case the VM should work fine, but I use both stock and transaction download a lot, so it wasn’t an option for me.
Thanks. I’ll keep an eye on the situation and update my Web site as needed.
That makes sense if the feature you use has been disabled. I don’t use the stock features or transaction download (the downloads don’t have the information I want to see); it looks like the only transaction download Quicken for Mac 2007 LC uses is either Direct Connect or Web Connect. Open Financial Exchange (OFX) seems to be the default now.
James Mitchell, I wondering how you converted “successfully” to Banktivity. I had a terrible time with it. My first year’s conversion reported that I had $5 million in uncatagorized monies.
Perhaps you had a single file for all years and corrected all uncategorized items successfully.
But, I cannot recommend Banktivity for many reasons which I can discuss offline at mrnoonan at yahoo.
I’d be interested in your efforts.
MIke
It was some years ago and I don’t remember the details. I had two Quicken 2007 files, one covering ten years of $US transactions and one covering about twenty years of $A transactions including stocks.
As I recall it required exporting to QIF and then importing into what was then iBank. I needed to make sure that the categories and accounts all lined up correctly and there were some manual corrections to make but it was no worse than transferring the data into SEE or Quicken Essentials which were the other alternatives I looked at.
I’m sure I would have tried a few experiments importing a small subset of the data to figure out the pitfalls before taking a plunge with tens of thousands of transactions, but I really don’t recall.
James Mitchell
I’m running Quicken 2007 on Mojave and I can still download stocks quotes via the Online -> Updated Security Prices… command.
James, Thanks for the quick reply. As I suspected, my conversions are far more difficult. Like you, Quicken Essentials was not viable for me and I chose BT iBank 4.
I have 10+ years of Quicken files from multiple versions spread over Macs and Windows and these files broken into year-end backups. I encountered all the issues you mentioned and then some. [Note: According to Quicken forums even Quicken cannot put Humpty Dumpty (these backups files) back together again.]
I also have 10 years of Managing Your Money (MYM) that I am converting to BT. The MYM conversion tools do not support split and stock transactions and nor do .cvs files.
Using Excel I have resorted to building a .qif conversion tool. It’s working but I continue to encounter BT bugs.
I have reported 10 bugs (and have many 15 to go) to BT Support. That was one year ago and there has been zero feedback. BT has not issued release notes on the last two updates nor has the manual been updated (at least I have not been notified of its availability).
The stock transaction reports are obscure as to how these (some times outrageous) numbers are derived. For example, I have some tickers that are incomplete that are missing the Buy or the Sell component and yet an ROI is calculated. I wish the calculated four-digit gains were true. I could go on, but I’ll stop here.
In the big picture, I could recommend BT if you are starting anew or performing a relatively “simple” conversion as discussed here. BT has nifty features and some that need work as with many other products.
Your statement that Quicken is no longer available as a standalone product and if your subscription expires you can no longer use it is confusing and contradicts the Data Access Guarantee statement on their web page. If you subscribe to the Deluxe version or higher (not the Starter) and you let your subscription expire you can still run your copy in manual mode. So it appears all you loose is the ability to download transactions, and as far as I’ve been able to determine the program and all your data are stored locally on your computer. The only time your data goes into their Cloud is if you enable the feature that sync’s data across multiple devices which does require a subscription. So it is still a standalone program and you can continue to use it.
@bobinmurphy, thanks for that info. I didn’t see that as I was just looking for a standalone version but kept being told I had to buy a subscription. I tried the first iteration (pre-subscription requirement) of the current version but found out the mobile app was read-only and I couldn’t enter transactions there for syncing back to the desktop Quicken. In addition the new Quicken for Mac had way fewer features than Q4M2007LC, plus you had to buy a full price version every year. I had hopes that when Intuit sold Quicken, it would become a better and cheaper application; unfortunately it hasn’t and the new owners seem to be even greedier than was Intuit.
Bottomline, there are many better and lower cost alternatives with more features now available than Quicken for Mac. For my purposes I use PocketMoney (yes, I know it hasn’t been updated since Hardy died) as my primary with iCompta and iFianance as parallel backups.
bobinmurphy,
I’m confused when you said “manual mode” and “…lose the ability to download”.
Did you mean to say that after your subscription expires you can continue to use the Quicken without further updates (sometimes security updates do occur with some products)? or not.
And did mean to say that you can manually down download transactions from financial sites with OFX or what ever format that site offers and
which Quicken supports? or not.
If the answers are both are not, then Quicken is one mean provider. I’d dump it too.
Using Q2007 for many years, MacMoney before that to clue you in on how old I am! Still on Sierra but contemplating OS upgrade so started with annual paid Quicken in November of 2018 and have run both systems since. Flawless “conversion” of Q2007 into current Quicken. I have used Quicken Direct Connect for many years including Direct Connect Bill Pay. I have witnessed steady improvement with substantive and frequent updates (not just bug fixes) since 11/18 and can now say current Quicken is worth every penny and is easier to use than ever.
I tried Quicken 2016 and was NOT impressed. (I’ve been using Quicken since the late 80s? Pretty early)
Is Quicken 2019 the first “new” one you’ve used?
Diane
Yeah, it is confusing but when I researched it (haven’t upgraded from 2007LC myself) what I found is you buy a 1 year subscription for the Deluxe version, don’t activate the on-line services and let the subscription expire. You can’t sync with your other devices without the on-line services and you loose the ability to download bank transactions when your subscription expires, but you do have a full functioning app on your computer (minus the download capability). It’s a shame the current version still isn’t up-to-date with the features of 2007LC, but for slackers like me still running on Mavericks 2007LC is still functional. Someday when I’m forced to finally upgrade hopefully Quicken will be more full featured.
I tried Q2016. Not only not impressed but not workable for my needs. Skipped trying until whatever version I started in 11/2018 and proceeded with great suspicion yet appreciation as things improved over the year. Years of experience using Q2007 reporting feature yet I can honestly say that current version is on par if not better. Q2019 just had a update within the last 2 weeks and now today again another update…
(from Quicken update description panel)
- NEW QuickFill will improve auto-categorization of downloaded and manually entered transactions. Changing a category will automatically create a QuickFill rule that will be applied the next time that payee is entered. Click the checkbox above the category to control whether a rule is automatically created.
- NEW 5.14 will no longer automatically save the transaction’s tags, memo, or amounts because these tend to be specific to a particular transaction. However, if you want a tag, memo, or amount to always be associated with a payee you can add this to the QuickFill rule using Payees & Rules under the Window menu.
- NEW Refined the payee menu that appears as you type a payee name. Now you will see both the best payee matches as well as QuickFill items for the payees.
- NEW Quickly create new manual transactions by selecting a QuickFill item to automatically enter all the relevant transaction fields with one click. For example, you can define different QuickFill rules for the different types of items you always purchase at stores such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Costco. You can define whether that’s groceries, electronics, clothing, or any other items typically purchased at each store.
Improved reports
- NEW Added transaction report time intervals. Previously, a time transaction report would be grouped in one giant bucket for the entire report period. Now, you can define reports grouped by week, month, quarter, or other time interval.
- NEW Added Cash Flow and advanced transfer and adjustment capabilities to transaction reports.
So, my opinion is, it at the very least worth a try for existing Q2007 users though I cannot speak to investment management features and functionality. I would love to hear back (and be surprised) if you are not pleased after moving through the expected initial learning curve.
Well, I don’t use downloading from my bank and the new Quicken still doesn’t meet my minimum requirement for local WiFi sync to my iDevices, so the whole thing is moot for me: I’ll never go back to Quicken. I currently use PocketMoney by the late Hardy Macia as my primary with iCompta and iFinance as parallel secondaries. All three use local WiFi Sync and are much cheaper than Quicken. I mainly use Q4MLC to create QIF that iFinance can read; for some reason it can’t handle QIFs created by PocketMoney (iCompta can handle them just fine). iCompta 6 requires MacOS 10.9, while iFinance 4 requires 10.10 (iFinance 3 requires 10.8 - 10.10).