Good-Bye, Microsoft Money! 16 Powerful Personal Finance Programs
Published on - July 1st, 2009 (Modified on - February 12th, 2013) (by J.D. Roth) As of today, Microsoft Money is no longer available for purchase. Microsoft has essentially conceded that there’s no demand for the product. From the website:
With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. After suspending annual updates of Money Plus in 2008, Microsoft is announcing today that we will no longer offer Microsoft Money Plus for purchase after June 30, 2009.
Now that Microsoft has thrown in the towel, where does that leave existing users of Money and Money Plus? Some of them are worried. I’ve received several e-mails about this recently, including this one from Lee G.: “Microsoft just left us in a lurch by killing Money. Any suggestions on finance software? I’m not really a fan of Quicken, but would entertain it.”
First, it’s important to note that Microsoft intends to support Money Plus at least through 31 January 2011. Until then, you can still get stock quotes and use the software’s billpay feature. After that time, the online functions may (read: “probably will”) expire. If you’re a Microsoft Money user, you still have 18 months to find a replacement. The Money FAQ offers this helpful advice to guide you:
A number of online personal finance management and planning tools are available, many for free, on the Web. Other software solutions may be for sale from companies other than Microsoft. For general account information and transactions, your bank Web site may provide the best solution.
It would have been nice if Microsoft had provided a list of these “personal finance management and planning tools”. Since they didn’t, I spent a couple of hours surveying the current options. Here are 16 powerful personal finance programs to take the place of Microsoft Money:
AceMoney is a Windows desktop app that offers all the features you’d expect: downloadable transactions, budgeting, investment tracking, and more. AceMoney costs $30, but a free “lite” version is available.
Budgetpulse is a free “upbeat” way to manage your money. It offers standard budgeting and tracking features, as well as international compatibility. One of this program’s stated goals is simplicity; it doesn’t try to do a whole lot other than track your core accounts.
Buxfer started as simple tool for tracking debts and has grown into a more comprehensive financial management tool. It allows users to import data from their bank and credit card accounts, set spending limits, track shared expenses, and more. iPhone app available.
ClearCheckbook is “an extremely easy to use tool that helps you balance your checkbook and manage your money. Think of us as an online checkbook register with the added bonus of viewing reports, setting budgets, creating reminders and more.” A premium version adds features. iPhone app available.
Expensr seems to be similar to Budgetpulse. It too offers simple account tracking. Expensr includes some social networking components, allowing you to compare your money habits with other broad groups that you select.
Geezeo allows users to create and manage a budget while obtaining support from other members. According to the intro video, Geezeo also has the ability to track investments. Mrs. Micah tried Geezeo and liked the goal-setting and community aspects of the tool.
Mint has become the Big Daddy of online personal-finance apps, with almost a million registered users. Mint offers support for investment accounts, which is cool, and allows users to create personal budgets. I’ve heard both praise and complaints from Mint users, so it sounds like something you’ll need to try to see if it’s right for you. (Here’s an early Mint review from a GRS user.) iPhone app available.
Moneydance is a full-featured desktop personal-finance manager. It’s available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Moneydance offers budgeting tools, investment tracking, and many built-in reports. Because I prefer a desktop money app, I’m very tempted to try this.
moneyStrands is the new kid on the block. Based in part on a financial management tool from Spain, moneyStrands offers all of the features you’d expect (though no investment-management yet). This tool offers lots of budgeting goals with highly-configurable alerts (“let me know when I’ve spent $30 on coffee this month!”). It also allows you to compare your finances with other demographics (not individual users, but groups of users). If you prefer Spanish, this app is for you. iPhone app available.
Mvelopes is a web-based version of the envelope budgeting system. It automatically connects with most banks and offers a free billpay service. This looks like a slick product, but it’s by far the most expensive program on this list. At a minimum, it costs $7.90 per month.
Quicken is perhaps the most popular personal-finance software available today. It’s fairly comprehensive and well-supported, but not without problems. Old versions are “sunset-ed” at regular intervals, forcing users to upgrade if they want to continue using certain features. I use Quicken for Mac, which supposedly updates investment portfolios automatically. Supposedly. My copy is broken though, and I can’t get it to update correctly. There’s an online version of Quicken, but to be honest, I haven’t heard good things about it. iPhone app available (though users don’t like it).
Rudder sounds like a tool for those who don’t want a lot of extras. As with all of these programs, it allows you to connect to all of your accounts. It also helps you schedule upcoming bill payments. Rudder claims that its “secret sauce” is a widget to help predict your future cashflow. iPhone app available.
Thrive is another online tool similar to Mint. It offers a budgeting component, as well as prompts for when to pay bills and how much to pay. It also encourages users to save. (This feature sounds neat.) Thrive features tools to help users plan for the future.
Wesabe was one of the first online personal-finance apps. It sports a dedicated base of hardcore users. In fact, one of Wesabe’s strengths is its active community — users draw support from each other, sharing tips and ideas. Here’s my review of Wesabe from 2006. (Disclosure: I am on the Wesabe advisory board.) iPhone app available.
YNAB is popular among GRS users, especially those for whom budgeting is important. I haven’t used this software myself, but I know that it allows you to import bank transactions, pay bills, etc. YNAB isn’t for users who want to track investment accounts, but is good for those who want to emphasize budgeting.
Yodlee is the grandpappy of online money-management software. It’s the platform on which many tools, including Mint, are based. But Yodlee also offers its own personal-finance product called MoneyCenter. As you’d expect, it provides the same account-tracking functionality that most of these applications have, but it doesn’t feature budgeting as prominently. Yodlee offers tight integration with most banks, and also has a billpay feature. iPhone app available.
From what I’ve seen, these apps are a lot alike: the desktop programs offer similar feature sets, and the online tools are all close cousins. There’s not a lot to differentiate them. Wesabe has a great community, Mint tracks investment accounts, and moneyStrands offers a Spanish-language option. Each program offers something unique. But is there any one app that knocks it out of the park? I don’t know. What do you think? Which option would you recommend for refugees from Microsoft Money?
For myself, I’ll continue to use the desktop version of Quicken on my Mac. It’s not perfect, but I know its quirks.
Addendum: Many commenters also recommend gnucash, a free Open Source money-management tool. I considered listing gnucash, but discarded the idea because the software is billed as an “accounting” package. GRS readers report that it’s actually very suitable for personal finances.Note: There are many other specialized personal-finance apps out there: PearBudget for budgeting, Fuelly for tracking gas mileage, etc. I’ll do a run-down of these in the future.
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@Rajan I’m sure those are not the only options. I’m actually surprised at the number of foreign users using Inzolo.com. I have quite a few users from overseas. Looking at my stats from just this month I have visitors from Canada, UK, Germany, Russian Federation, Australia, Turkey, Honk Kong, India, & New Zealand among others. It is fun to watch. I didn’t realize it would gain popularity in other countries. I’ve now had to consider removing all $ to make it more applicable to everyone.
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@Rajan Another option is http://www.moneyStrands.com. We support a limited number of UK banks however we also offer manual accounts. With a manual account, you can import your information in GBP. We have a free iPhone app available on the UK App Store that allows you to enter in transactions to your manual account from your phone.
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@Donna: I absolutely agree that at any given time, you should be able to log in to a PFM and know exactly where you are with regard to your budget. Frankly, I’m surprised at any option that doesn’t do that: Thrive does. Mint does. Mvelopes does.
@Jill: If I understand the situation correctly, there is actually a way to work this into Thrive, although it will result in one small oddity that I can think of.
Basically, track your expenses as normal. Then, when your parents pay off the special credit card, mark that payment as “allowance income”. That should actually balance out the issue and help you to budget effectively. The one note is that the site may give you reminders about paying off the credit card, since it won’t see the payment (since we retagged it as allowance income) and won’t know that you’ve paid. But other than that small warning message, you should be in the clear and on your way to financial health!
Feel free to let me know if that doesn’t work for you at matt@justthrive.com and I’ll see what we can figure out for your situation.
@Ranjan: Thrive supports the UK (and all countries); the only actual issue is trying to support the individual banks within them. We have many of the major UK banks already in the system, and if yours isn’t in there, feel free to let me know and we’ll reach out to them to work on getting them connected.
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Although I’ve learned a lot from this article and the comments, I still haven’t seen evidence of any alternative that has an adequate replacement of MS Money’s “Cash Flow” view. I need a 12-month forecast (ideally both graphical and a table grid showing individual transactions) that shows recurring bills and deposits as well as one-time entries for a specific account. It must allow me to edit individual instances of recurring items (date and or amount), and it must reconcile transactions that are downloaded from my financial institution (although MS Money is terrible at matching transactions correctly). My wife refers to this as the “scary orange chart” because it easily shows when (in the next 12 months) our cash runs out. Knowing that, we can move money from savings, tweak payment dates as necessary, etc.
Does anything out there do this??? I want software that lets me manage one year out, not just a few weeks.
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What does the envelope system mean? And why is it so good?
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Does anyone have recommendations for a budget tool that allows you to add your student loan accounts? This is a HUGE part of my budget, but Quicken doesn’t seem to support these types of accounts…
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@Vicky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelope_System
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“What is the Envelope Method.” As I understand it, you allocate your income (paycheck) into various “envelopes” to cover your anticipated expenses. For example, you might allocate $500 of your paycheck to a “rent” envelope, $300 to a “food envelope” and so forth. Then you pay the expenses out of the envelope. If the envelope runs dry, you don’t eat (unless you have an “emergency” envelope).
In the electronic world, it’s really just a budget by which you track your espenditures. The software, I guess, creates virtual envelopes for people who like the metaphor.
“Student Loans in Quicken”: You can create a liability account for any debts, including student loans, and you can create a recurring transaction for any payment, including a student loan payment. There should be no problem tracking your student loans if you understand what you’re doing.
First, you owe the principal amount of your student loan debt. Let’s say for example that this is currently $20,000. You would create a liability account with an opening balance of $20,000.
Your monthly payment consists of a principal and interest component. In the early years the payment is mostly interest, and in the later years the payment is mostly principal. You can use a loan amortization calculator to print an amortization schedule showing what portion of each payment is principal and what portion is interest if you don’t get a bill from the lender allocating the payments (and if you do get a bill, it’s not a bad idea to verify that they are calculating things correctly).
When you write a check for the student loan, you would split the transaction and “charge” the principal amount to the liability account that you created, and “charge” the interest portion to an interest expense account.
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That way you can always see how much is your principal balance, and how much you have paid in interest (which may be deductible up to $2,500 per year, subject to income phaseouts as provided in section 221 of the Internal Revenue Code.)
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Hello, thanks for the information detailing MSMoney alternatives.
There is one thing I think you missed [unless I did not read your reviews thouroughly] and that is the ability of the alternatives to import MS Money files.
I am not sold on the online security of the web based apps, so a desktop app that I could export my Money files to would be the way I would like to go.
Thx-N-Advnc
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I just opened Microsoft Money and was presented the following website for $10 off Quicken 2010. I guess it makes sense for them to make money through advertising, but it just felt wrong seeing a Quicken ad in MS Money.
http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/transfer-from-microsoft-money.jsp?priorityCode=5301360928&cid=sta_msft_lp
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@Erik:
…and it’s not even a great deal…with the coupon, they’re offering Quicken Deluxe 2010 for $49.99 when you can buy it on Amazon for $34.99 without a coupon!
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Clearcheckbook is by far the best personal finance site i have ever seen or used. In the past i have used MS Money, Quicken, Wesabi, Buxfer, Mint (a friend recommended it) and expensr.
Clearcheckbook allows you to manually enter transaction into the checkbook. Also has capability of updatating your acct via AOL, SMS, ICQ, Yahoo!msngr or Google Talk. Forums are comparable to your local public library, reports are awesome, can set a budget, plus much much more.
The creator/owner of the site is a wealth of knowledge and is willing to help with any issue. He actually personally answers a lot of memeber questions you may post.
Highly suggest atleast trying Clearcheckbook.com
I still use Mint because it is linked to all my bank and CC accts…gives me an accurate total at all times
Oh best of all: It is free with a premium option that has a few added feat
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I am coming into this late but just found out about MS ending Money. I have been using Money for years…but I don’t use any of the functions except the check register, electronic bill pay, and account balance for forcasting. I have my income and bills (some direct withdrawal like mortgage and others that I use EPAY for a few days before the due date) registered and I always know my lowest balance into the future.
I have started investigating options for replacing Money and have not seen any that do these basic functions or than Quicken who charges $10/month for bill pay. Many show balances and let you know bills are due…but I don’t want to know when they are due, I want them to be paid on the date that I set in the future.
To me this is the most common function for finance management but I can’t find one that does it other than Quicken and who wants to pay $120/year to Quicken and then $72 per year ($6/month) to your financial institution for the electronic data transfer into Quicken (I pay that for the data coming into Money now)…so almost $200/year just to pay bills electronically. I have used Money for so long and nothing else that I just assumed Quicken and others did the same thing…or atleast the same thing without an additional fee to use bill pay.
Any suggestions on a software that will do this?
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Carl: I am surprised that Microsoft Money let you pay bills for free from your desktop software. Many years ago, this was a free feature in Quicken. I really liked it. Then they started charging, so I stopped using it. I now use free on line banking from my bank to pay bills. I have to re-enter the transactions in Quicken, but most are on my scheduled transactions list so it doesn’t take long. Yodlee and Checkfree allow me to charge some bills to my credit card, which is nice because of the cash back. But only select billers participate. Still, bill payment from the off-line software was a real nice feature when it was free.
I’ve now stopped paying for quicken updates. I have to download stock quotes by hand. I just won’t support Quicken any more.
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I pay US Bank $5.95/month for electronic bill pay and that is it. I haven’t paid MS anything since I upgraded to 2007 in 2007.
I just installed the Quicken Starter Edition to see how it looks and feels…and it isn’t as nice as the register in Money, but that could be just because I am used to it.
The sad part is that I installed Quicken on another machine, than the one that has MS Money, because it newer and in the kitchen..thinking that I could use the MS Money backup file to load into Quicken but when I tried to import the file, it says the MS Money 2007 or 2008 has to be on the same machine as Quicken. So……more work to do.
The interesting thing is that this came up when I wanted to upgrade my XP box to 7 and have to re-install all of the software. I had MS Money 2005 but when I upgraded to 2007, I just downloaded it from the MS website….and didn’t make a back up file for the install. So if I want to go to Windows 7, I need to reinstall Money but don’t have the 2007 disk and it isn’t being supported or sold any longer. Life is so fun……
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Carl: None of the banks and credit unions I use charge for bill pay. And I suspect I earn a higher rate of interest on checking than the majors pay as well. You might want to consider a better banking deal.
I hope your data converts cleanly from money to quicken. I have so much quicken data that conversion attempts have not been pretty.
I really like the accounting theory behind GNU Cash, but it’s not as finished feeling as quicken or money. There is no perfect solution yet.
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They don’t charge for bill pay online, just the bill pay option through Money, Quicken, or Quick books. I will look at GNU Cash to see if that fits my needs.
I think there is a really good opportunity for a enterprising entrepreneur. I would think if some one built just the check register portion similar to Money with the bill pay function (without the monthly bill for using it other than from the bank), they would have a successful product. I suspect that the majority of Money users mainly, or in my case only, use that part.
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I am desperately searching for another program that will do Cash Flow like MS Money does. No luck so far.
Quicken impresses me greatly. Moneydance looks fairly good, too. The trouble is that for projection of cash flow, the best I can find is a graph, which does me absolutely no good.
I need a list-style cash flow projector that shows what the balance will be after the transaction is completed, just like Money.
Is there any hope for me?
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Mr Bear: I don’t understand the problem.
If you enter a transaction in your check register to pay at a future date, quicken (and I assume any other off-line program) will show the transaction and the balance in the account on the date of the transaction (it would only be accurate, of course, if the transaction cleared on that date, but that is what you should assume).
You can also schedule automatic transactions to enter (either automatically or by prompting you) whenever you want. For example, you could say, in essence “on the 20th of each month enter a $300 payment for my rent to be deducted on the 1st of the following month.” On the 20th of each month it would enter the transaction, and you could look up your account balance any time after that and it would show the balance both before and after that deduction. Before the 1st (the “cleared date”), it would show up shaded to reflect the fact that it should not have cleared yet. Is that what you want to do?
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Carl: I don’t understand this “who wants to pay $120/year to Quicken and then $72 per year ($6/month) to your financial institution for the electronic data transfer into Quicken” What is the $120 per year plus $72 per month?
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Thank you for your attempt, Classicalguy. You’re right, you not getting what I’m driving at.
Are you familiar with MS Money? There is a feature called Cash Flow, which is actually a report that projects how much much the balance will be after each transaction. The time period is customizable. Since I get paid every two weeks, I generally set the report to project for the next two weeks.
The Cash Flow projection pulls its information from the Bills & Deposits, a feature that is common to the other programs available, using such names as Scheduled Transactions, for example.
The problem is that MS Money seems to be the only program that projects new balances in dollars and cents. The rest all do it with a graph, which is of no use to me. I do my planning based on knowing more or less what’s going to happening in the next 2-4 weeks.
Does that make it more clear? I’m really quite desperate to find a program that duplicates this feature.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
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I have yet to find any equivalent to MSMoney – I’ve been looking since this article came out because I knew my copy would expire in October ’09. I’ve tried just about everything and haven’t yet found anything that works as well. The other thing to note is that I had to change computers due to a crash and because my copy expired, I can’t activate it now, so I’ll lose all functionality in 60 days and won’t be able to use it at all. I contacted them to see if they could provide a code that will still allow me to use the basic program without the online functionality and am still waiting. If not, then I’ll have no choice but to change programs, but I have no idea to what… nothing so far does what I need it to wrt forecasting, register and online ability. It’s sad, really, that it’s so hard to find something that will work the way you want it to.
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Folks: I’ve never used Microsoft Money, and don’t know about the cash flow projection feature that you are so enamored of. However, from the sound of it, any modern system can be made to do what you are describing – show the balance of an account after future bills are paid. I don’t know whether the format will be as pleasing to you as the system you’re used to, but change is always difficult. I still remember fondly Quicken for dos…
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Classicalguy – I’m fine with change – I work with computers for a living and am always trying new or upgraded software, but I would like something that works as well or better than the program I’m switching from. I bought quicken early in the summer and used it for 2 months before I gave up on it for a number of reasons. I’ve also downloaded and tried several other programs mentioned here. I really like Mint and think it’s better than Money in many ways and if they had a register built in, I’d go with that in a heartbeat. I’d also stick with Money, even without the online services, if I can get them to give me a code that will unlock it. It seems to me, that many of us here want the same type of tools from our financial software, and can’t find it outside of Money… it can’t just be because we’re all resistant to change. For me, I want one stop shopping like I had with Money before it expired.. now I have to go to several places to get the same information.
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BreezeMoney provides a simple and intuitive way to manage your money. You may try it for free.
Download it:
http://www.breezemind.com/breezemoney/download.html
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I know MS Money is gone but mint is here is stay…even intuit realised it….by the way I also saw a interesting site in India called Perfios (www.perfios.com) – its supposed to mean PERsonal FInance One Stop….hence the name…interesting huh
it does more than what mint does….give it a try…in Indian context !!
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tried many of these only to revert back to our excel spreadsheet of 8+ years. Wish I could store it online and acces it from work or my Droid. Google apps loses some of the features we put in our spreadsheet.
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Try out FAssistant (Personal Finance Assistant) which has lots of feature like income, expense, stocks, mutual funds, bank accounts, loan or policy accounts, personal address book, reminder messages, password manager, and various reports.
Check it out at:
http://sites.google.com/site/fassistanttool/home
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I am a MS Money user for many years and since I procrastinated I am now in the lurch. Is there anyone out there who was a MS Money user that has successfully transferred Money files onto a new personal financial program successfully, and with relative ease? To me that is the key question; I don’t want to start from scratch building a whole new data base for a new financial software program Thanks
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@Jon –
No, I was never able to find anything that would do what I needed (and that Money already does), but I bought a new computer in October (just after my copy expired) and because it had expired, I couldn’t get it installed to even use it without the on-line access.. apparently it needs the key to get it installed and if it’s expired, too bad. So I called tech support and told them that I couldn’t even get the product installed because it had expired and that I just wanted to use it locally without the online part (as they stated on their website that you could do – use without the online peice) and after many back and forth emails, they finally sent me a new key and low and behold it ended up being a renewal key that’s good until next year.. I was thrilled since the online stuff works as well! One lesson learned, though, is that once it’s expired you can’t install it at all. If it’s already installed, you can keep using it, though, after it expires. Anyway, you might want to contact them and see what they can do. I’m hoping that in another year, there will be something out there that does what I need it to do…
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I have used Quicken for Windows for a few years and recently have moved to using a Mac. I no longer use a PC (though I still have my PC Quicken file) and have not yet chosen a Mac-compatible program/service to use. Could I ask for suggestions as to which program(s) might work best for me.
What I require/desire (in no particular order):
1. Prefer a desktop program rather than web-based
2. Want to be able to import my old Quicken data
3. Want to be able to download data from bank, brokerage, and credit card accounts
4. Do not require budgeting capabilities
5. I use personal finance software to track my assets/liabilities and to identify and track spending by category and vendor/store.
6. Not opposed to paying for the service
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I’ve been a Microsoft Money user for at least 15 years. The latest version that I used was the Plus issued in 2007. I had procrastinated and finally broke down and bought Quicken Premier 2010.
Last week, I installed and transferred my data. It was a relatively painless conversion and online updating of accounts.
I did have a problem re-opening the file the next day and ended up reinstalling the program. I left it alone until this past Sunday and ran into the same problem. I did an online chat session with their tech support and got the problems ironed out. (It was as simple as copying the file, renaming and running their validation feature.)
Yesterday, I ran all of the reports I needed to do my taxes and am happy as a clam with the ease that they ran. I am disappointed that the program does not let you create custom reports from scratch, but that is remedied by customizing existing.
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Is there a website that compares these apps based on features. I’m looking for: 1) web access & iPhone app, 2) ability to enter future (one time or repeating) & uncleared transactions to project cash flow, 3) allows me to categorize and split transactions between multiple categories for reporting purposes (mostly tax-related), 4) pulls transactions automatically from banks yet allows me to RECONCILE and 5) allows me to manually set up accounts for which I can’t connect to an existing bank and for CASH. Bill pay would be nice. I don’t need investment tracking.
I currently use Quicken Home & Business 2007 but that doesn’t allow the iPhone or web access. I’ve tried Mint but without the Cash feature, it’s a disappointment. I’m using Quicken Online now, but just discovered a MAJOR BUG that is sending me packing immediately if not sooner. I’m a Bank of America customer, so am eyeing their “MyPortfolio” which is a Yodlee app.
I’m quite familiar with accounting software, so GnuCash looks promising, but they don’t seem to have an iPhone app. I need a way for my husband to view balances and transactions so he knows where the finances are. That’s where something like Mint is very helpful.
I have many many accounts to track, so I hope to just do this switch one time. It’s very time intensive! Does anyone know of a single app that has the features I need? Or of a website that compares all of these by feature sets?
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I haven’t seen anyone mention classifications. We use to call them divisions. Money offers two class boxes and suggests “family members, properties, projects, hobbies, vacations, job expenses, other.”
This is one of the fun things for me in MS Money. I have the standard categories and I use the two provided classification boxes. One is set up for properties..expenses for my cabin rental, summer camp, house, etc. I use the other for family..kids, mother, personal, business.
Quickbooks and Quickbooks online have one classification box as I recall (it costs more with the online version). But I haven’t found anything else with this feature.
I am fascinated by Yodlee. I travel a great deal and don’t always have internet access. Online accounting is therefore a problem, but having something working even when I can’t is great. But then I had a password problem and got locked out. Solving that has been truly awful. I don’t think I’ve been able to get in for a couple of months now. It’s fixable, I just have to be in one place for a while. I plan next to look at MoneyDance and Thrive.
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So many to choose from! I like the idea of not having to enter the transactions myself with the online sites like Mint, Buxfer, Strands, etc.. But at the same time, I know if I do that, I’ll get lazy and not keep a hard copy register. So the question is, which of these sites allow you to export everything so in case they fold, I will still have all my data? It looks like Strands offers this but can’t really tell how useful it is…..
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Thrive is fun to use but I don’t see that I can get the category break downs that I want for taxes and information. Although it does a lot. Budgets might be a very strong area, but I don’t use them.
Maybe I’m working myself back to spreadsheets.
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I tried a bunch of the above listed today and I’m liking Moneydance the best now. It’s simple, simple is what we need these days. The data is on your computer and it’s safe.
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Well, I fixed my Yodlee login issue. No problems there.
And in MoneyDance I have found ‘tags’ which look they will work like Money’s ‘Classifications.’ I am in this in between area of Windows / OSX and curious about Linux. It looks like MoneyDance is a winner for me for desktop applications.
I can’t believe have much time it has taken to find a good application and without this forum I feel like I would still be wandering.
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Well, Mint is/was useless as it shows my car loan and mortgage held at my CU as credit card accounts.
Can anyone recommend a financial software that works from the get-go with a CU that shows future cashflow (like Money did)? Thanks.
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I tried probably at least 10 of the options on this list, but in the end decided on Yodlee. I’ve been using Yodlee for about 3 months now and can’t complain at all. Chase charges $10/month to download your statements, so a desktop option was out of the question. I also wanted something to track my spending automatically. Yodlee isn’t as flashy as Mint or a few of the other sites, but it WORKS. Mint seems to be a pretty website with financial management software. Yodlee IS financial management software without worrying about how pretty everything is. Their customer service is great, especially considering that there is no monthly charge. I love their “Expense Analysis” section, which shows my expenses for any time period. I mainly use that to ensure that I stay within my monthly budget. I also have about a dozen different accounts setup in Yodlee, and have never had a problem accessing any of my banks, including investment sites like Sharebuilder and Prosper, and a few student loan providers. It even tells me how much my cable bill is!
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Can anybody recommend a personal finance software which allows you to manage multiple international investment and bank accounts (namely, US, Canada, UK and Netherlands?
Stephen
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I’ve tried a bunch on the list but still haven’t found what I”m looking for which is a very simple, easy on the eyes, easy to use program that makes it easy to set up a budget, visually see what you’ve spent in a nice pie graph, color coded way, and plan for future expenses. We use Mint currently, but it duplicates data from our credit card,, I spend way too much time cleaning up my account. I’ve tried buxfer, wesabe, same types of problems w/ categories and such not working, or duplicating, or deleting info, can’t ever get an accurate budget set up. I’m on a Mac, don’t have the latest OS (I’m at OSX 10.4), definitely need something that lets you import transactions from bank accounts.
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Moneydance is awsome!. It takes a little work to import the data, but well worth it. The development team is really active at improving the product, and the support is amazing. I asked a support question and had a reply in 15 minutes!
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@Jon
I successfully imported 15 years of data, covering around 50 accounts in multiple currencies from MS Money to Quicken 2010 (Windows). This would have involved thousands, if not tens of thousands of transactions. There were some cleanup issues afterwards and I spent a couple hours getting Quicken configured the way I wanted, but it was not too bad. I can fully report on all the historical data, so that is working pretty well.
However many other people have had reported crashes and other problems with Quicken, so maybe I just got lucky. Also I really, truly hate Intuit and their obsolescence policies, and the fact the product has not improved in so many years (I switched from Quicken to MS Money in 2000 and the current product has virtually no new features.) But it is now the only product which does most of what I need.
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@Stephen
I have the same requirement of US and international banks and investments. MS Money did handle international stock price updates, but that is being discontinued.
I have been very impressed with moneyStrands because it is the first system I have ever found which supports automatically downloading Australian bank transactions (as well as US banks). Also they seem very responsive about adding important features, while Mint has oddly refused for years to add incredibly basic things like manual accounts, which could relieve many issues.
However until moneyStrands adds support for investment accounts (supposedly underway), it will not replace Quicken for me. I do hope when they add investment accounts, they support updating stock prices from overseas exchanges (which MS Money handled, but Quicken does not.)
So for now I use Quicken, and have to manually update foreign transactions and stock prices, while watching hopefully for moneyStrands or others to fill the gap.
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I’m looking for a tool to use for keeping books for a small non-profit corp. I just need basic income and expense, budgeting and simple reports. I don’t like the idea of giving out banking info and passwords to anyone though. Is Quicken the best option?
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It is interesting to read all the feedback from those who’ve tried the different programs. I’m still searching for a non-Money option, and am hoping for a follow-up post from JD or April, who started using Mint last winter.
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Does anybody know anything about SplashMoney?
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I have recently started trying out some of the new personal finance/budgeting software options that are now on the market. I have tried YNAB and for the most part like its simplicity, but for some I could understand that the program is a bit too simple. It is primarily a budgeting program and, unless I have over looked the feature, I do not believe it offers the more advance options, such as online bill pay, that other programs use. One thing about YNAB that really bothers me is the lack of password protection. I am still looking into trying out Mint.com and iBank, so as of now my search continues.
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I know this was written a long time ago, but I’d like to point out that I have been using Microsoft Money 99 since it came out and to this day it is the best program for me, even better than later versions of Money, Mint, Moneydance, and GNUGash. It does everything I need, with some complex transactions, including home purchases and refinances. I have set up custom reports that export to text files and automatically update eXcel spreadsheets when I open them. Also, the .ofx file format is still used by my banks and is read flawlessly by Money, so I can download statements. The online stock quotes also work. You can buy a copy of Money 99 for about $15,though Money 07 is available as a free download called the ‘sunset’ version. I keep trying to find a replacement, but I don’t really know why. I keep coming back to Money 99!
Side note, Microsoft is a partner with the site http://www.bundle.com , which is much like Mint.
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