Money, money, mon-ey. Mo-ney. (on a Mac and iPhone?)
August 15, 2013 12:11 PM Subscribe
I’m looking for a money management app for Mac that also syncs with iPhone. What do you use and why? (I’ve looked here on Metafilter and found little to nothing that’s recent).
I’m a former Quicken user. Intuit has borked Quicken for Mac making it ridiculously basic and the iPhone app only works with Quicken for Windows. I suppose I could always run Quicken Deluxe for Premier for Windows through Parallels though I’d much rather avoid that.
Mint, more often than not, has trouble connecting with my credit union. Manilla, obviously, isn’t quite robust enough to be a full on money management system. Besides, I feel a little skeeved out by the amount of data I’d be giving them.
I’ve read up on potential apps (Money (from Jumsoft), Moneywiz (Silverwiz), iBank (IGG Software). You Need a Budget (You Need a Budget). I’ve read a lot and just can’t decide as none seem to hold much over the others.
Syncing between a Mac OS X client and an iPhone app is a must. Billpay would be a nice plus (Intuit suggests those Mac users who want that should find and use Quicken 2007 which looks like hell on a modern Mac and doesn’t sync with an iPhone app - thx guys).
What do we want to track? We have a credit union with savings and checking, a mortgage at another credit union, the (almost) usual credit cards, and some retirement accounts.
What do you use and why? What do you manage with it? Any workflow suggestions?
I’m a former Quicken user. Intuit has borked Quicken for Mac making it ridiculously basic and the iPhone app only works with Quicken for Windows. I suppose I could always run Quicken Deluxe for Premier for Windows through Parallels though I’d much rather avoid that.
Mint, more often than not, has trouble connecting with my credit union. Manilla, obviously, isn’t quite robust enough to be a full on money management system. Besides, I feel a little skeeved out by the amount of data I’d be giving them.
I’ve read up on potential apps (Money (from Jumsoft), Moneywiz (Silverwiz), iBank (IGG Software). You Need a Budget (You Need a Budget). I’ve read a lot and just can’t decide as none seem to hold much over the others.
Syncing between a Mac OS X client and an iPhone app is a must. Billpay would be a nice plus (Intuit suggests those Mac users who want that should find and use Quicken 2007 which looks like hell on a modern Mac and doesn’t sync with an iPhone app - thx guys).
What do we want to track? We have a credit union with savings and checking, a mortgage at another credit union, the (almost) usual credit cards, and some retirement accounts.
What do you use and why? What do you manage with it? Any workflow suggestions?
Ever since Intuit bought Cha-Ching and killed it, I've pretty much given up on the holy grail of a quality desktop and mobile app all rolled in together.
I now use Account Tracker on the iPhone and iPad, and don't miss the desktop at all. The developer of it is apparently working on a Mac desktop version though, so whilst that might not be a solution now, it could be in six months down the line.
posted by sektah at 1:01 PM on August 15, 2013
I now use Account Tracker on the iPhone and iPad, and don't miss the desktop at all. The developer of it is apparently working on a Mac desktop version though, so whilst that might not be a solution now, it could be in six months down the line.
posted by sektah at 1:01 PM on August 15, 2013
My husband has transitioned us to using iBank. He likes it better than the other options he's tried. Syncing is possible, sort of, but the iPhone has to be on the same network as the computer (no remote syncing for you!) and iBank has to be running on said computer.
We've got a number of different accounts (bsnk, cc, loans, etc) that we keep track of, along with recurring transactions, etc.
We wanted:
-sync with phone
-non-cloud-based (so we are not the product!)
-allows active reconciliation of statements (rather than trusting the bank)
So far iBank is the only one we've found that does all these things, although it's not perfect.
posted by leahwrenn at 1:03 PM on August 15, 2013
We've got a number of different accounts (bsnk, cc, loans, etc) that we keep track of, along with recurring transactions, etc.
We wanted:
-sync with phone
-non-cloud-based (so we are not the product!)
-allows active reconciliation of statements (rather than trusting the bank)
So far iBank is the only one we've found that does all these things, although it's not perfect.
posted by leahwrenn at 1:03 PM on August 15, 2013
I use You Need A Budget, and have found it to be easy to use, intuitive, well-designed, and super helpful. The forums are excellent, and it syncs Mac/iPhone glitchlessly. I love it.
posted by jennyjenny at 1:21 PM on August 15, 2013
posted by jennyjenny at 1:21 PM on August 15, 2013
Seconding YNAB. Syncing is great. But it's more a budgeting software than tracking.
posted by supercres at 3:48 PM on August 15, 2013
posted by supercres at 3:48 PM on August 15, 2013
Chronicle (for bill tracking and reminderers) + Mint seems to work pretty well for me.
posted by Brent Parker at 6:18 PM on August 15, 2013
posted by Brent Parker at 6:18 PM on August 15, 2013
I just switched to YNAB just last week and am very happy. And although their main premise is budgeting, and not tracking, I haven't had any issues importing my data. It won't hook up automatically to your bank accounts like Quicken might, but you can manually import data files.
posted by snowymorninblues at 8:41 PM on August 15, 2013
posted by snowymorninblues at 8:41 PM on August 15, 2013
My husband and I have been using MoneyWell for a few years. It definitely handles syncing from iPhone to Mac pretty well. I understand that it can pull in your bank data, but the last I checked it didn't work with Australian banks so I just add in transactions manually. I haven't upgraded to the latest version, but it's supposed to be really slick!
posted by web-goddess at 4:33 AM on August 16, 2013
posted by web-goddess at 4:33 AM on August 16, 2013
leahwrenn said most of what I would as a several-year iBank user.
Note about workflow: I balance as-I-go, once or twice a week, looking at the bank website for their balance & recent transactions. That's all I used to do, but I found I propagated errors for several months. Now I reconcile with the bank's statement once a month by updating the as-I-go reconciliation and starting a new one.
The rules for auto-assigning categories works pretty well. I'm pretty scrupulous about categorizing expenses even though I didn't know how I'd use it, but when looking at the kid's clothing expenses or bicycle vs. car expenses over the last year & some, it was really helpful.
I don't bother with iPhone syncing, but I'm rarely away from home for more than a day. Sometimes when I've tried it, I had to delete the "connection" and re-make it. The app is kind of klunky, but...
My as-I-go balance is toughest when I eat out & leave a tip. I don't keep receipts, but believe the bank when they report the debit without the tip, then delete that transaction & accept the new one when the tip is reported. If I used the iPhone app, this might be easier.
posted by morganw at 11:12 AM on August 16, 2013
Note about workflow: I balance as-I-go, once or twice a week, looking at the bank website for their balance & recent transactions. That's all I used to do, but I found I propagated errors for several months. Now I reconcile with the bank's statement once a month by updating the as-I-go reconciliation and starting a new one.
The rules for auto-assigning categories works pretty well. I'm pretty scrupulous about categorizing expenses even though I didn't know how I'd use it, but when looking at the kid's clothing expenses or bicycle vs. car expenses over the last year & some, it was really helpful.
I don't bother with iPhone syncing, but I'm rarely away from home for more than a day. Sometimes when I've tried it, I had to delete the "connection" and re-make it. The app is kind of klunky, but...
My as-I-go balance is toughest when I eat out & leave a tip. I don't keep receipts, but believe the bank when they report the debit without the tip, then delete that transaction & accept the new one when the tip is reported. If I used the iPhone app, this might be easier.
posted by morganw at 11:12 AM on August 16, 2013
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I know this doesn't meet your mobile requirement, but the Lion-patched Quicken is not the same as Quicken Essentials for Mac (which is shit).
I've been using Quicken for 15 years. I've periodically tried to jump ship, but I'm too locked in. Their Mac product is appalling--and I've read that they're screwing up the PC version now, too.
Why Apple doesn't make a Quicken competitor as part of iLife is completely beyond me.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:40 PM on August 15, 2013