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Financial software suggestions?

alfaniner

Penultimate Amazing
alfaniner
Joined
Aug 27, 2001
Messages
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Sorth Dakonsin
Looking for something just to summarize my accounts.

I've had Quicken for several years, and my "subscription" just expired after three years even though I thought I'd bought the software and license.

I would only use it to check my financial totals about once a week. What was pulled in almost never matched the exact bank/investment accounts but it was ballpark close.

I'm not sure I'd trust a free software that does the same thing. I've also considered writing a script to just log on to the institutions and give me the totals. It would have to as for the password every time as I don't want to store that info in the computer or script anywhere.
 
Quicken has recently been spun back out of Intuit as an independent company again. At the start of this year I finally upgraded from Quicken 2013 to Quicken 2017 which is back to the non-subscription & no need for internet data model of older versions.

So far I'm loving it and I was very pleased that they offered free access to older versions so that I could directly import all my financial data without exporting to QXF. No conversion to QXF prevented loosing the details in my data set that dates back to the first Quicken for Windows (1994?).

During the years when I didn't upgrade I looked at many other packages and the only one that almost tempted me away was GNU Cash. The one feature that GNU Cash was missing that kept me from moving over is the calendar with account balance projection based on scheduled transactions.
 
I used Quicken many years ago, but now I just use (LibreOffice) spreadsheets for things I want to track -- budgets, spending, dividends, major purchases like real estate, and even computer builds. Each spreadsheet is designed by me to provide the information I want to know. I also prefer OS-agnostic software for the main things I do, so there's that, too.
 
I used to use Quicken, but switched to Ace Money several years ago. It's similar in some respects, can do the online banking, multiple accounts,etc, but not so crapped up with sales offers and once you own it, you get free upgrades which are backwards compatible. For basic accounting, I find it very good. They have both a trial and a free Lite version (I think free is limited to two accounts). http://www.mechcad.net/
 
Seeing that you want to buy something I assume you are running a small business. I suggest Xero. That is about the best.

If my assumption is incorrect then Excel is good. You can have one tab per bank account. One tab for notes.
 
alfaniner said:
Looking for something just to summarize my accounts.

I've had Quicken for several years, and my "subscription" just expired after three years even though I thought I'd bought the software and license.

I would only use it to check my financial totals about once a week. What was pulled in almost never matched the exact bank/investment accounts but it was ballpark close.
I'm not sure I'd trust a free software that does the same thing. I've also considered writing a script to just log on to the institutions and give me the totals. It would have to as for the password every time as I don't want to store that info in the computer or script anywhere.
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This doesn't make sense to me. Do you not reconcile your accounts? Your bank statement balance should match your computer records (after accounting for unrecorded transactions) to the cent. If it doesn't and your software doesn't help you locate any discrepancies then I would say it was useless.

I have always found that simple is best. I use Ledger myself and have never looked back. You simply enter transactions into a file using your favourite text editor then run ledger to generate any desired reports.

Of course, if you expect the software to login to your bank account and extract bank reports for you then expect to have updating issues on a regular basis (how else would the vendor keep making money out of you?)
 
psionl0 said:
This doesn't make sense to me. Do you not reconcile your accounts? Your bank statement balance should match your computer records (after accounting for unrecorded transactions) to the cent. If it doesn't and your software doesn't help you locate any discrepancies then I would say it was useless.
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The discrepancy I find is that sometimes transactions appear in the bank's web site before they are downloaded into Quicken, so the statements or the online activity at the bank's site are always slightly out of sync with what Quicken downloads.


I, too, am in the same state as the OP. as far as I know, the license isn't truly expiring. Quicken still works, but it will not download account information, which is what makes it truly useful.

I haven't decided yet whether to pay the fee for continued access to the accounts, or switch to a free online service. (e.g. Mint) Am I ready to "pay" for software by allowing them to access and data mine my checkbook?
 
Meadmaker said:
The discrepancy I find is that sometimes transactions appear in the bank's web site before they are downloaded into Quicken, so the statements or the online activity at the bank's site are always slightly out of sync with what Quicken downloads.
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That makes Quicken ******* useless. You are better off reconciling your transactions manually than using an automatic feature that doesn't work.
 
Meadmaker said:
The discrepancy I find is that sometimes transactions appear in the bank's web site before they are downloaded into Quicken, so the statements or the online activity at the bank's site are always slightly out of sync with what Quicken downloads.


I, too, am in the same state as the OP. as far as I know, the license isn't truly expiring. Quicken still works, but it will not download account information, which is what makes it truly useful.

I haven't decided yet whether to pay the fee for continued access to the accounts, or switch to a free online service. (e.g. Mint) Am I ready to "pay" for software by allowing them to access and data mine my checkbook?
Click to expand...

If you're considering switching anyway, I feel obliged to second the free/opensource GnuCashWP. You can check it out before making any final decisions to see if it has the features you want/need. It uses the same communication channels that the major vendors like Quicken use to synchronize with your bank, and from what I see compared to my father (Quicken user), GnucashWP is actually less likely to freeze for no apparent reason or suddenly crash.

If it meets you needs, great. If not, you've used it as a practice run for migrating to whatever platform you end up using, without spending a dime.
 
Yeah, it might be worth taking another look at GnuCash. It's been several years since I tried it last.
 
eerok said:
Yeah, it might be worth taking another look at GnuCash. It's been several years since I tried it last.
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That makes three of us recommending GNU Cash. If they had added balance projection to the calendar I'd have switched over (it's been a requested feature for nearly a decade now).

I find it silly to use a program and have it download it's data from the financial services computers, you might just as well read the data on the web sites. I like double-entry bookkeeping and independent record keeping with reconciliation to the penny. It takes very little time to enter my transactions and then once a month compare them to the monthly statements from the financial services. With totally independent books it's certain any errors by any party of any size are caught quickly.
 
I actually work with a Business Solutions package called Harmoniq which IMO is way better than Xero, other than it's not an Online platform, it does require a server or standalone (it can run on a laptop). It is far more customisable and grows with the business that it's in from small to huge, it has fully inbuilt accounting, POS, banking, inventory control, project management, CRM, and Marketing systems all in one package.

It's probably a lot more powerful than you are wanting though.
 
I tried GNU Cash. It crashed immediately when I tried to set up online banking.
 
Well, time to bump this thread. An update.

I was unemployed for a few months, and didn't feel any need to keep track of or plan spending. I just looked on my banking site to see how much money I had, and withdrew some from savings if it got low. Simple. Not really long term effective, but very simple.


So, yesterday, I got my first, full, real paycheck since the end of June, and felt compelled to get back to planning. The computer where my copy of quicken existed is an old beat up thing, and the keyboard has become unusable and.....it's toast. Lots of things wrong with it. Goodbye laptop.

So, I go to the quicken site and......what? It's been sold and....$49.99...PER YEAR!!!!!

Nope. That isn't happening. I tried getting a copy that I had downloaded before (paid for) to work, and there's no one answering the phone (i.e. I tried to set up online banking, and the methods changed, and it's dead. The server doesn't respond. )Presumably the new owners aren't recognizing software from 2014 that they don't make any money off of.

So, alas, poor Quicken. After 25 years or so, it's time to part ways. So, what to replace it with? Any recommendations?

My needs are pretty simple, really. The fact is there are only two features of Quicken that I actually used. I want to download all my checking account transactions, and I want to use savings goals. That's it.

Other features are sort of cool. When I was single I used to use the budgeting features, but ever since I got married, 20 years ago, it was just an exercise in frustration. Now I just want to keep track of the money. I specifically don't want to use it for investments. Other bank accounts like loans and mortgages would be kind of cool, but not important. Really, though, it's just show me my checking account, and let me set up savings goals.

Other features are fine, if they don't get in the way.

If I could download transactions, I would just write my own. I doubt that's a publicly available API, though.

Two years ago, as the thread indicates, I tried out gnuCash, but it didn't work. I'll give that another try and see if the new computer works better.

In terms of what sort of program I would like, my first choice would be something that you download and install, and the only thing it ever goes online for would be to grab transactions from your bank. I have a feeling, though, that there will be an awful lot of "better" online programs, which are completely FREE! (Oh, by the way, sign the following lack of privacy agreement which gives us the right to sell your checkbook to advertisers....more or less.) I might bite the bullet and accept that, much as it pains me, but I would rather pay 20 bucks, or 50 bucks, and just never pay again. A guy can dream, right?

I tried googling for alternatives, and reviews really annoy me. Especially when it comes to software, more features are always better, according to the reviews. In so many different situations, I disagree, vehemently. I like programs that do their core function really well, and don't add bells and whistles I don't need and won't use.
 
rjh01 said:
Seeing that you want to buy something I assume you are running a small business. I suggest Xero. That is about the best.

If my assumption is incorrect then Excel is good. You can have one tab per bank account. One tab for notes.
Click to expand...

+1 for Xero if you're running a business. Been very happy with it.
 
If you are prepared to go really old school, I still use Ledger-cli for my accounting needs. This is a text based system so not everybody's cup of tea. But it is free.

You would have to reconcile your bank statements manually but even if your financial package includes bank feeds, you still have to go through each entry line by line and mark them as "reconciled".

I doubt that you will find an accounting package that features bank feeds and doesn't charge you a monthly fee for the privilege.
 
I would love to move my small business off of Quickbooks online edition (or whatever they call it). The problem is, good luck with QB-centric CPAs.
 
I might as well update since I started the thread. Nothing's changed, really. I log on to all my accounts and check my balances and credit card statements, then put that info into an Open Office spreadsheet. As long as x > y, I'm ok.
 
You guys might want to check out https://kmymoney.org/

It's KDE software so likely pretty good (I don't know, not into money ;), but into KDE, saw on the newsfeed that they are busy fixing it for some new German banking regulations so it seems to have connecting tools). Of course FOSS, but also available for lesser operating systems, just not in the very latest version.
 
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