Way back in May of 1998, when Apple was at the depths of the death knell era, Intuit abruptly discontinued Quicken for the Macintosh. Intuit, as you probably know, has no love for Mac users. •Automated Late Fees.I love managing my finances on my Mac, but I have never liked depending upon Intuit or its Quicken for Mac products. •CAM Tracking & Reconciliation Extended Access to Data Plus Quicken also has a QIF Export feature, so that any account data currently residing in Quicken can easily be exported out and imported into TradeLog using the QuickenQIF import utility.
![]() Can You Import Quicken Into Quicken? Upgrade My MainAnd the reason I’m not ready is that at least one application I consider mission critical — Quicken for Mac 2007 — will cease to function after I install Lion. Sadly, I never found anything that came close to meeting my needs.Fast-forward 14 years and Intuit/Quicken was still a thorn in my side, as I ranted in an August, 2011 column:The second and far more significant reason is that I’m not ready to upgrade my main Mac. And trust me, since I had to import 10 or more years of financial data into each program for testing, I’d have been delighted to never open Quicken again. I know…but I tried at least a dozen programs over the years, and I didn’t find a single one that worked for me.For one thing, I don’t trust Intuit, which has shown a remarkable lack of respect for Mac users over the years. Did that make me happy? Here’s what I said in January 2012:I know I ought to be thrilled that Intuit will provide a Lion-compatible version Quicken 2007 sometime in 2012, but I’m not. So, as soon as I install Lion I lose the ability to use Quicken as well as a couple of hundred other PowerPC apps on my hard disk (but none of which I consider mission critical).Four months later Intuit updated Quicken to run on Macs with Intel processors. The problem is that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion doesn’t include support for Rosetta.On one hand, this means iBank costs me a bit more than $59.99 for the app. The solution is a subscription to IGG’s Direct Access service for $39.99 a year. Which brings me to my only gripe about iBank: While it’s possible to pay bills and download data directly from many banks at no additional cost, my bank wasn’t one of them. After testing close to a dozen programs that didn’t meet my requirements, I found iBank, from IGG Software, which not only imported my Quicken data flawlessly, it also lets me pay any bill electronically with just a few keystrokes.And that’s my favorite feature — paying any bill by typing a few characters and clicking the “send payment” button.You provide Payee Details the first time you make a payment to someone…After that, just fill in the blanks and click Continue to send a paymentPaying bills this way rocks – no printing, no paper, no envelopes, no stamps, just a few clicks and I’m done. Without writing or printing checks). And it has discontinued the Mac version at least twice since I’ve been a user.Next: I Found It - iBank 5 - I Found It - iBank 5I had but two criteria for a replacement: my new personal finance program had to import Quicken data, and it had to let me pay bills electronically (i.e. This should come as no surprise considering IGG Software is an Apple-only developer that doesn’t even make Windows or Android software.One last thing: Speaking of other operating systems, there are Quicken and iBank apps for iOS. IBank looks and feels like it was made for the Mac, with everything you need in one cleanly-designed window and far fewer dialog boxes. To me, Quicken always looked and felt like a bad Windows port with its confusing mess of windows, palettes, and crowded dialog boxes. These reports make it easy to determine my current financial situation with just a couple of clicks, which is a lot easier than trying to create a report in Quicken.The overview screen displays my most important financial data on a single pageI’ve been using iBank to pay my bills twice a month for over a year and I like it better than Quicken in every way. So while I resent paying extra for Direct Access, it’s a small price to pay to be free of Intuit.Next: More iBank Features - More iBank FeaturesThe other features I use regularly are the overview dashboard, which contains all of my account balances, upcoming bills, recent deposits, and much more, and the individual account summary pages, which provide additional details for each account. On the other hand, it means I don’t have to use Quicken or deal with Intuit anymore. Mac column for May 1, 1998I received a disturbing letter from Intuit, the publisher of Quicken. Mac column for - Full text of Dr. Fortunately, Igg Software offers a 30-day free trial at If you hate Quicken as much as I do, or are just looking for an easy-to-use personal finance program that doesn’t suck, I think you’ll find a lot to like in iBank.Next: Full text of Dr. What works for me may not work for you. They do cost a bit extra ($9.99 and $19.99 respectively), but it’s a small price to pay if you like having all of your financial data at your fingertips at all times.I realize that personal finance software is a very personal choice. Does he think the Mac community doesn't remember back in 1996 when Intuit discontinued MacInTax Pro for the Mac? At that time the company denied the decision would affect development of the standard version of MacInTax, Quicken, QuickBooks or QuickBooks Pro. But if he expects us to swallow this hokum, he's got another thing coming. There's even a possibility of new Quicken versions in the future if Apple makes inroads into the consumer market.I know Adam, and he's a nice guy. Plus, Intuit CEO Bill Campbell is on Apple's board of directors, yet continues to remove his company from undisputedly profitable Macintosh markets while paying lip service to the importance of the platform."In an interview with MacCentral (), Adam Samuels, an Intuit spokesperson and former Apple employee, said the company is not abandoning the Mac platform. "I'm confident, however, that this business decision will enable us to better serve all our customers - including Mac users - with innovative enhancements to our products and services."Have you ever heard a bigger load of BS? My favorite electronic newsletter, MWJ, The Weekly Journal for Serious Macintosh Users ( ), summed it up thusly: "The move is especially galling because Intuit completely dominates the Macintosh personal finance market, having used its resources to squash the competition. "Instead of developing another desktop release for Macintosh, we've decided to assign our Macintosh development resources to the important task of implementing expanded personal finance capabilities on the Web," wrote Mark Goines, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's consumer division. E-mail comments to Copyright © 1998 Bob LeVitusNext: Full text of Dr. But I wouldn't hold my breath.Bob LeVitus is a leading authority on the Mac OS and the author of 27 books, including Mac OS 8 For Dummies. 85706-7180.If enough of us make our displeasure known, perhaps they'll reconsider. Elvira Road, Suite 100, Tucson, Ariz. Now, they've killed Quicken.If Intuit's outrageous behavior ticks you off as much as it's ticked me, I suggest you write to: Mark Goines, senior vice president and general manager, consumer division, Intuit, 2650 E. At that time they denied the decision would affect development of Quicken or MacInTax. Word for mac with sierraMac column for August 9, 2011Thoughts on Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 LionApple released Mac OS X 10.
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