In my quest to find a finance package for the Mac, I finally capitulated and bought a (genuine) copy of Virtual PC 7 from eBay. I just don’t have the time to learn a new software package’s way of working – I’ve got my work cut out just getting the accounts up to date!
Respect to those who’ve made the jump to Moneydance and other packages; I guess I’m not that brave.
June 10th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
I suppose it’s the easiest way to get what you want! Which version of Money are you using? Still 2000? (Theres some merit in keeping that version, as it was before they changed the budget).
June 10th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Hi Glyn,
Yes – I’m still using Money 2000. I’ve considered upgrading to Money 2006, but 2000 is fine for what I need.
What were the budget changes you refer to?
June 21st, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Hi, I am also seeking for a good alternative for ms money on osx, I just got an ibook with G4 1.33ghz processor,
May I ask how is the performance of the ms money on vpc?
is it too slow?
June 21st, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Hi Donato,
The performance of Money under VPC is acceptable, as long as you have plenty of RAM and you don’t run much else within VPC at the same time as Money.
I only use Windows/VPC for Money, so that’s fine for me (though I have the obligatory anti-virus program installed just to be on the safe side).
June 29th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Has anyone tried MSMoney on an intel based MAC using Bootcamp?
July 7th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
I, having gone through the same route over the course of one year, am about to end up with the same decision as you. It’s a crying shame to have to run windows on this pristine mac.
Here’s a little tip to make it a little friendlier. Within VirtualPC, check the box under PC Settings to show Windows applications in the dock. When MSMoney shows up after launching, right-click and select the option to “keep in dock”. I found that this way MSMoney is less than a minute away – perhaps about 30secs.
To take it further, change the icon for the app – using any one of a number of tools like Finder Icon – to change the icon to something pretty. I couldn’t resist.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
The budget model was changed quite a lot. Difficult to describe (and use), so probably you’d need to see it to get an idea. 2000 still is a reasonably good version.
March 30th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
When I found your original article and your planned research into Financial software for OS X, I was elated.
Then to see this as the solution… well.. I was almost heartbroken.
See, I just finally stopped using VirtualPC and Windows (I had finally had enough) and previous to this, was using MS Money 2004.
I stopped using it because:
My copy of MS Money 2004 stopped working automatically in January insofar as connecting to Chase, Fifth Third, and other banks to “download” my statements automatically. Apparently, when you purchase Money, you get TWO YEARS ONLY of this functionality. Then it’s gone, even though you bought the software and the functionality still works (tested by altering my computer’s calendar).
Since I think that’s a load of crap, I abandoned Money 2004 dead in the water. Not going to touch it or its successors again.
Since that was really my only reason for ever even touching windows, I backed up my last money file, and with a smile on my face dragged the Virtual PC instance and the application into the trash bin, and emptied it. I think I even celebrated with a beer that evening.
I looked briefly at Quicken, but there’s only ONE version for mac and several for PC. Since I’ve used none of these, I’m really not sure what to expect.
I had quickly looked around before all of this, and iBank caught my attention, but it looked cheesy (and lacked account types like LOAN – and since I went to college, i have PLENTY of LOAN accounts that I owe on) and everything else I found was crap. Fast-forward a year or so, and iBank2 actually looks decent. iBiz(current) looks neat as well, and their package for both is less than $70! (contrast this to $69.95 for Quicken and more than $180 for Quickbooks).
I hadn’t really considered a need for small-business applications before this, but began contracting recently, and I have 5 more uses of Quickbooks NUE (New User Edition – came with my mac) before it locks and I need to buy it. So i’ve been launching it sparingly. I have a suspicion I can launch it 8 more times if i create a user account and try that, but why bother tempting fate.
Based on quickbooks’ enormous price tag, and quicken’s lack of options for OS X, the pair seem quite unattractive to me at this point – I mean, when I send an invoice, it’s for (usually) FAR less than the cost of an Audio CD! I can’t even pay for Quickbooks with my profit from my contracting over the course of a year, probably. So, that is scratched. Back to the personal-finance-only realm.
But then iBank and iBiz caught my eye. I think it will be worth the $70 if it works for me for a year, but I really wish I had some comparison to base things off of. Did you try these before?
The only other thing I saw that came sort-of close was LiquidLedger, but then again, it kinda looked sparse as well.
Oh, and for the person above asking about their expected VPC/Money performance -
I have two powerbooks and a dual-867 G4. powerbooks are 1.5ghz and 1.67 ghz. everything has 1gig ram.
Vitrual PC runs XP Pro slower than XP Pro on my IBM P-233 64Meg StinkPad Laptop than on any of my PPC Macs. Basically, Virtual PC sucked a lot from my experience, and I was glad to be able to send it to the trash can.
In the long term, even if iBank and iBiz don’t offer everything I need now, maybe my $70 will help them develop more, and turn out a better and better product over time, and at least this way I know MS and Intuit aren’t getting money from me that, quite honestly, they really don’t need.
-jre