I’m pretty, ahem, dedicated to keeping our finances up to date and accounted for, and traditionally have used MS Money on Windows for this purpose. Say what you like about Microsoft (I’m not their biggest fan, to say the least) but Money is an app that works well and is pretty simple to use. I started with Money 98 in 1998, then upgraded to Money 2000 two years later.
The thing is that we now use our iMac for 99.99% of our computer work, and it would be really handy to have a finance app on the Mac that works, conceptually at least, like Money. There is no shortage of accounting software for the Mac, of varying quality, but no big players are in the market. Intuit pulled out of the UK Mac market a few years ago (pre-OS X) and have just recently pulled Quicken out of the UK Windows (and therefore the UK as a whole) market as well.
I can’t believe that I’m the only one who needs personal financial software as a Mac user. I know there’s MYOB, and I’ve downloaded a trial version, but it seems much more business- than personal-focused.
Over the course of the next few weeks I am aiming to do a group test of various OS X personal finance apps, both freeware and shareware, that I have discovered.
So far my list consists of:
- Accounts by Nano Software
- Budget by Snowmint Creative Solutions
- Cashbox by Whitney Young
- Checkbook by Splasm Software
- Cocoa Account Plus by Tony S Wu
- Conto by Nicola Vitacolonna
- Economix X by Yannick Callaud
- Finance (if I can get a non-corrupt .sit archive)
- Gnucash (downloading via Fink as I type this)
- Grisbi (if I can discover how to install the .deb under OS X – anyone help?)
- iBal
- iBank
- iCash
- KuConta by Kualo Software
- Money by Jumsoft
- Phobos
I’m confident that I can whittle these down pretty quickly to a much shorter list, as I have quite particular requirements:
- Categories, not accounts, for income & expense categorisation. I’m not a trained accountant – all that double-entry stuff leaves me a bit cold…
- Similar look and feel to MS Money/Quicken.
- Easy setup of accounts.
- Loan amortisation functionality: input the interest rate, length of term, payment etc and have it work out the missing info.
- Support for investments, credit cards and liabilities as well as regular current/savings accounts.
- Budgeting.
- Something like Money’s Debt Planner.
- Reporting.
Not much to ask, is it? I just want Microsoft to port Money to the Mac, really. I imagine that would be one step too far for the Mac Business Unit, though 
December 19th, 2007 at 2:17 am
I am using Quicken 2007 with VMWare Fusion and have had no problems at all with it. VWMare works great.
But I’d really like to get a Mac personal finance program — like everyone else here, I’m still looking because I want to get away from Quicken.
December 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
I truly enjoyed this write up. I am just curious why everyone is staying away from Quicken?
I was looking at Ibank. Although, I think I will check out moneydance. Again, I appreciate the information.
December 27th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
There are so many replies I can’t find the solution to the original subject of the post. What is the best personal finance software for Mac OS X?
December 28th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Only seen one mention of Accountz here - has anyone else tried it? Macworld gave it a decent enough review. It also enables you to download bank statements, providing your bank supports the Open Financial eXchange format which mine apparently does.
The downloading statements bit has been my big frustration but I’m now at the point where we’d like to bin the pc’s in the house all together and ruddy Money is the only thing stopping us! Got a free copy of parallels with my imac earlier this year, but I really don’t want to infect it with windows. It’s running so beautifully!!
Would like to register my disgruntlement to someone about the lack of decent personal finance software but I’m not sure who to do that to. Any ideas?
December 28th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=2332
December 29th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Nearly two years has passed and we seem to have made very little progress on which package to replace msmoney for use on a mac. How annoying as its the only thing holding me back from dumping windows. Better luck next year.
December 31st, 2007 at 3:21 am
I am in the same position. I LIVE on my MacBook Pro at home.
I’ve been using MS Money on my (work-supplied) ThinkPad since 1999, but since buying my Mac for personal use, I find that I just don’t spend the same amount of time on MS Money.
I thought Parallels / WinXP / Money might be a solution, but it’s just too slow.
Like all of you, I’ll keep looking
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
I’ve followed this blog with interest for a while - I’m in the same boat, ie long-time MS Money user, recently switched to Mac and am reluctant to put MS cr*p onto my new machine (so not keen on Parallels + Win XP Home). I’m having a lot of success now with MoneyWell (you can get it from Apple Downloads or http://nothirst.com/moneywell/). Pretty simple app, great customer support - I got a reply within a few hours on New Year’s Day! Might be too simple for some people but I only need basic reconcilation functions (I export to Numbers for charts etc) so this works for me. Usual disclaimer - I have no personal connection with the firm etc etc.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I migrated to Mac from Windows about 4 years ago and am very familiar with the problem of leaving MS Money behind. I tried quite a few Mac applications and found them all lacking in some way with the exception of Moneydance which I’ve been using for about 3 years. It’s not as polished as MS Money but I’m still happy with it. Incidentally I also run iBank (for my mother’s banking) and Moneydance is ahead of that. I’m trying to recall all the others I tried: Liquid Ledger was a waste of money I remember.
Of course the other problem is accounting software. There’s no replacement for Sage Line 50. I’ve run MYOB for a while. It’s good but not in the same league as Sage. For that program alone I had to get Parallels/XP. But I’ll still stay with Moneydance for the personal stuff.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thanks everyone for this blog - I was wondering whether I am mad and there was no good finance programme available.
Seems like Money Dance gets the most positive responses so I will give that a try. I am also curious about Mvelopes though .. I have only my fairly simple personal accounts to do. Can anyone give me some pros and cons about it ?
Thanks
Tobi
January 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
WOW! This has been my struggle for months now after migrating to a Mac. Happy to have found this blog on my first search. Things could be looking up. I’m not a huge MS fan myself, but Money was the best. Intuit has a great small business package, but doesn’t address the needs of personal banking. I will also try this Money Dance a try. Thank you!
January 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I am also looking for a MS Money equivalent on Mac OS X. I tried iBank, iCash, Liquid Ledger, Money, Moneywell, Moneydance and many more… I finally decided to try Money with Crossover. It works quite great !
I have Mac OS X 10.5.1, Crossover 6.2.0 and MS Money 2004 which was installed in a new Win98 bottle.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
i have used mac since the early 90’s. Quicken as well, i am so frustrated with quicken right now i could scream. all the catogories are in the wrong places and and the payees names don’t exist.
when i tried to call one now has to fill out a form for a call back, however even after filling out the form and trying to send it,” there is an error in the program and we can’t send your message”
somebody asked what was wrong with quicken, that is one example!!!!
thank you for this sight so that i can vent and also join all of you in our prayer for
help.
terre
January 16th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Glad I found this blog… same position as many others, long term satisfied MS Money user, recently seen the light and am now a happy iMac user. I really liked the function of Money and was disappointed there was not similar personal finance package for Leopard. I’ll do some more research but it looks as though Moneydance is my best option.
BTW, it is interesting how many folks are deserting the MS platforms in favour of MAC OS X
January 19th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Quicken on a PC was was and is one of the best programs I have ever used. As noted, Quicken on the Mac is one of the worst programs I have ever tried. And no really satisfactory other option after switching to the Mac. Why can’t someone write a proper personal finance program for the Mac? NOW I FEEL BETTER but still frustrated.
January 20th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Ok, I think we may have something to really look forward to. iBank 3 which is coming out as beta shortly seems to me like the one personal software that I have always wanted in my iMac. It received runners up for the Apple design award. Check it out!
http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php#ibank3_nav
I am really crossing my fingers here - I hope my search is over and I can get off Quicken!
January 21st, 2008 at 3:09 am
I, too, am looking for a replacement for MS Money (2004). Cannot believe that a) Microsoft doesn’t make it for Mac, and b) that Apple doesn’t include one in iLife or iWorks. So far, I’ve tried Cashbox, Moneywell, and today Moneydance, importing one account at a time. Don’t ask me why, but it left out the dates and now sorts items in alpha order. I left 2007’s items active to use in budgeting. I’ll keep trying, but I may just get a copy of XP and use , but of course, no OS cd’s. That’s a Microsoft pain, too, since we have 3 legal XP machines in the house! I’m going to try Liquid Ledger as well. I have also used MYM in the past and would be very happy with it. Maybe I should get a copy of Tiger so I could use my old Mac software. (I thought I’d be able to since my Dad uses his, but he has Tiger.)
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
Thanks mainly to Michael Elliott’s instructions, I just got gnucash up and running.
It took a lot longer than 30 minutes on a Mac Mini - more like several hours, but it is running.
I ran gnucash on a linux box for several years before I got the mac. I used Moneydance last year. I’m very happy to have gnucash back.
January 24th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Also a new switcher looking for a Mac based product to replace Quicken. Tried Quicken for Mac, asked for refund after two days. Could not transfer data for PC to Mac. Just started to use Crossover with Quicken 2005. Looking good so far. Do not need Win OS with Crossover.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
[...] found this ridiculous thread on another blog (200+ comments long) that details other people’s trials in this similar [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Any comments on iBank 3 beta?
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Thanks for all the information. I am a new Mac user, misinformed about being able to use Quicken on the Mac and have it work. I haven’t seen anyone address the issue of business functions in a finance software program for the Mac, specifically the ability to create invoices. Moneydance doesn’t appear able to create invoices. Does anyone know a program that does?
February 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I have downloaded and installed iBank 3 Beta - it did import my accounts from MS Money via a QIF. All the data seems to be in order. This is a good first step, now I need to spend some time working out how to use the software.
So far so good, nice screen layout too but quite a different approach from Money so will take some effort to switch.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I am trying to work with Splashmoney on my Mac and it is awful! They just rolled it out and it is not ready! I have used Splashmoney on my Dell with my Palm and loved it! But I too do most of my work on a mac and want to switch everything over and am having a heck of a time. Good luck!
February 8th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
as happy as i am that something like this exists, it’s a shame that intuit has not clued into the fact that 200+ comments on one blog signifies thousands of mac users who would gladly use their software - if it was competent.
that said, i would not use quicken for mac if it came out, simply for this completely backwards slight.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Wow….. I am your 229th response…..pretty good…
I feel exactly the same way about the lack of “good” personal finance that is available for the mac.
I recently bought a new computer, because my old one S*hit the bed, and my lovely beautiful bride decided that our next expenditure would be a MacBook, cuz she wanted a laptop…ok…. and she heard from a friend, who heard from thier cousins friend, secondhand that the mac was the best to buy cause it doesn’t get “THE VIRUS“.. Better get that one, huh?
Anyway moral of the story is…
We do have a great $1600 laptop computer. The problem is I don’t know how you use it…. “safari, what?”, isn’t it Internet “Explorer?”. I can’t figure out “drag ‘n drop”. It came loaded with some cool stuff, but nothing that I actually use, minus i-tunes. It did not come with any “money” software, and the options are limited. I bought Quicken, but I hate it. Seems difficult to set up, even though I guess the tutorial would make it easier…. if you want to watch 20 minutes of “do this, click left, hold the control button” …you get the point.
I have tried a couple “free trial” downloads, not the quality I’m looking for.
What I’m missing….. Microsoft Money
Have you, or anyone found or know where I can get the equivant that will run on that damn Mac?
I hope you appreciated my rant,
I hope you can help me, or atleast point me in the right direction?
I am going to leave my e-mail for all to see, and I would like ALL correspondance to be delivered to MichaelDLucas@yahoo.com.
Thanks for your time..
Michael D Lucas
February 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Look at iCompta - haven’t tried it yet, but it’s free…
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/33254
February 12th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
If you read through the 298 response before yours, you could have deducted that there is no replacement for MS Money on the Mac. Try iBank and then Moneydance. If you are still not happy, buy a cheap XT machine and continue with MS Money 2004 until somebody here reports: “Eureka”!
February 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I too was a Money user under Windows and sought desperately for a Mac-based solution. My advice to others is the following: give up trying to import whatever you were doing under Money and start again from scratch using Moneydance.
It’s not that hard to start all over again, just take your bank statements from December and type in your transactions from January. Sometimes it’s good to make a clean start: it took me a couple of hours but now I have everything running fine.
Moneydance is the nearest I could find to Money. It takes a minute to adjust to the interface (not very Mac-like) but then it’s fine. I tried iBank but it is really crap at reconciling the ledger to the bank statement, something which is critical to my mind. Moneydance works just like Money in this regard.
In summary, pretty much anything you did on Money can be done with Moneydance, but make it easy on yourself and start from scratch. It worked for me, anyway!
February 17th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Wow! A lot of replies!
I too am looking for a personal finance application that can track my wages with bonuses / deductions as well as savings accounts and managed funds rather than individual stocks and shares.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned Kmymoney2 - it’s a linux application but should run on os X via X11.
I aim to trial a few of the applications short listed here and then try and install Kmymoney2 if none of them meet my needs.
-Kieren
February 21st, 2008 at 6:36 am
I’m a recent adopter of ibank.
so far i prefer it to my last encounter with ms money. neat, straightforward. very very easy download from bank.
just exactly why is it not sufficient for Jaap (or anyone else) to let the PC go?
February 27th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I have exactly the same problem that was identified here 2 years ago. I been running MS Money since 1999, have switched everything else to Macbook and iMac, and still have to boot up a PC to run my financial software. Apart from the usual Windows crashes,which caused my migration in the first place, this is so, so annoying. Have tried some of freeware stuff,but it just doesn’t do it. I need a programme which will allow me toset up multiple accounts, some in euros & some in sterling, track assets and assetrelated loans, etc - everything MS Money does so well.
I had a brief look at Moneydance last year,but wasn’t convinced. Should I be?
February 27th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Hi,
Well, boy I am glad I have found this blog!!
I am UK based, and so far, no software (except Quicken) can download transactions from HSBC!!! And we are in the 21st Century??? Come on, there must be something or someone out there thinking of doing MS Money on Mac?? No, shame I haven’t got the knowledge and ressources……I will carry on MS Money on windows as I am prepared to pay for s8&^%&ty software!
February 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
[...] suited me. What I really want is a Mac version of Microsoft Money (and I’m not the only one - this blog post has over 230 comments regarding the difficulties of finding decent Mac personal finance software). [...]
March 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
After 15+ hours attempting to migrate ten years of data from MS Money to Quicken for Mac, I’ve given up. I’m keeping this site bookmarked in hopes that someday I can uninstall Parallels - a $90 expense solely for the purpose of running MS Money. I would have easily have spent that much for a comparable program for Mac. Mac software developers - you’ve got a hungry market.
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:18 am
Hi there, I have just spent the morning trying to find decent Mac Finance Software that I can link to my UK bank account but have failed!
I look forward to reading your review.
Simon -HK
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Graham M, yes, go back to Moneydance. It can do all the things you state.
I’m honestly surprised that so many people are in a quandary about this. I’m perfectly happy now with Moneydance, and don’t feel nostalgic about MS Money at all. It was just bloatware.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Parralels is the sloution! I konw it shouldn’t have to be, but the fact is it works, I can use Money, Quicken or any of the others and functionality isn’t compromised. I just can’t be doing with waiting for something else just for my Mac. If it eventually comes, I hope I’ll be able to transition my old stuff accross. I need to do my sums, so its Windows and parralels for now!!! After all, this isn’t the only programme I have to run in parallels to be able to use. If Steve Jobs is reading this…’Stevie, get your finger out and help us stop having to keep going back to Bill Gates to bail us out’!!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Hi
I was wondering if any of these programs for mac for personal use are freeware… I need a program that is free to use and satisfactory to use.
Do you know of any?
March 26th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I bank with First Direct and they have an Internet Banking Plus facility which is a basic version of MS Money. However, at present it only works with a PC. Start lobbying…
Go to http://www.firstdirect.com and click on Internet Banking Plus then demo and then please send customer services a message asking them to become Mac compatible.
Thanks
Lastly there is a whole host of personal finanace software listed at the apple store:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/business_finance/
Are any of these new and improved?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
iBank 2.0 is very slow. For those who have upgraded to 3.0, does the program run any faster?
March 27th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
iBank 3.0 runs fine, though I’m on a Core Duo MacBook Pro… so your system may be an issue. I’ve recently become well acquainted with the forums for iBank, and I remember someone citing an issue that as your file gets larger and larger, the program gets slower. I’m not sure what the fix for that is, since presumably you WANT to maintain as much history as you feel you need.
In my case, I’m out here searching up and down for a Mac personal finance software that just gets it right. iBank 3.0 fails… and at $60, it fails badly.
Wait, let me revise that: If the ‘bugs’ that it has were simply well-crafted code that butts heads with other well-crafted code from time to time… then I’d actually be PRAISING it! However, I’m finding flaws in the usability of its user interface, and worse, in some of its calculations that just tell me they’re pushing the product out the door too quick.
Example: Setting up a loan, with remaining payments at some number other than 12, 24, 36, (a multiple of 12). iBank sets your monthly payment based on the nearest multiple of 12. You type 28 months, the payment is calculated at 24 months. You type 35 months, you’re getting 36. I complained, and they fixed it rapidly (version 3.0.3)… my confidence restored!
Next, after typing in my 28 month loan details, and getting the correct payment calculation, I initiated a ’scheduled transaction’ for that loan. Now, post a couple months data, and what happens? Month 1 records principle and interest correctly. Month 2 records it like month 1, without cycling the principle and interest amounts in their respective directions. Post month 3, iBank cycles the amounts, but only to what they were supposed to be for month #2.
Mind you, ‘Loan tracking and monitoring’ is one of the NEW features of iBank 3.0… They just didn’t say it was one of the broken ones…
For anything over $50, I think we should get automatic bank downloads. iBank has it for many banks, and for a few of mine, it worked flawlessly. But I tried playing with Liquid Ledger, and it doesn’t have it.
It makes me think Money Dance may be the right and only way to go… except for Fusion + Win XP + Money/Quicken for windows.
Frustrating is a beautiful word when we consider how efficiently it can encapsulate the collective experience described in all these posts.
Good Luck… and please, if you find a great solution… SCREAM IT OUT TO THE WORLD, on every forum you can.
Cheers!
March 27th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
iBank 3 runs very well. I too was a Mac convert and lamented the lack of an MS Money equivalent. I used Moneydance reluctantly but was never impressed with it. When iBank 3 came out with direct downloads from my bank I tried it and never looked back. It is much more advanced and user friendly than Moneydance (including Moneydance 08 beta).
March 31st, 2008 at 9:36 pm
OMG. So many people with the same problem.
The reason we are finding it so hard to come across a good MAC like personal finance software, is that the world is run by M.S. & big business will not buy expensive Macs for their office’s
If we are all in desperate need, then way don’t we find a developer to make the application we want. ie Panic.com they make very good Mac software. I am going to email with this request.
If enough people ask them they may come up with something.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:26 am
Hi,
If you want to migrate MS Money file to Mac check out MTH My Money. We started the company 2 years ago because we wanted to do exactly that but could not find anything suitable in the market place. I personally migrated over 12 years worth of my financial records and couldn’t be happier.
Please note that My Money runs best on a fairly fast Mac with a recent OS (read we like Leopard
There are some known issues with QIF imports on mac, we are addressing those in the next build.
My Money is at
http://www.mthbuilt.com
All comments and feedback is very much appreciated,
Thanks,
Tim
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I’m in the same boat as others here. There’s no review of Check Book Pro - from their own website it looks OK, and My Money 2.0 isn’t out yet. But their website has no details about My Money 1.0. Neither seems to tell me how many accounts you can open in the program. I’m currently using Parallels -> MS Money 99, and I’d like to do the equivalent, just as easily, in a program on my Intel Mac OS X Tiger. Any comments on these 2 programs in particular?
Thanks,
Richard
April 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Well, I came here looking for some budgeting software recommendations, but while I’m here I’ll comment on Nano Accounts, which I have been using for a number of years. Very simple, almost pencil and paperm, and it has been excellent. We run two businesses from it and have customised the accounts to match our IR tax forms. Customer support has been first rate and the only chink in the reliability I found was what appears to be a conflict with another program mentioned here–liquid ledger–which somehow seems to have destroyed my Nano Accounts data when both programs were up at the same time. The LL accounts also corrupted. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen and it’s never happened on my Mac in six years. Anyway, I highly recommend Nano Accounts if you are not interested in bells and whistles, just a reasonable way to keep accounts.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
A beta version My Money 2 of MTH is now available and I must say that, although buggy, it looks promising. Maybe more people can test it and publish their experiences.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Jaap,
Can I ask you a favor, you mind filing your issue at
http://bugzilla.mthbuilt.com
Please explain the steps how to recreate your problem,
We will have it fixed in a jiffy
Many thanks
Tim
April 7th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I’ve set up a forum to carry on the conversation:
http://www.timandkathy.co.uk/forum/forum.php?id=1
Come on over and chat about what you want to see in your ideal finance software on the Mac, or discuss specific packages.