Fed Up of Quicken, Moving to Moneydance 2021 in the New Year.

[bobandsherry]

I know Quicken is very popular here, and I even bought it a few years ago after I learned that, to see if I might like it too.

Sadly, I hated it. It seemed so inflexible to me. I would probably hate Moneydance too, for the same reasons. I am the type who prefers to do these things in Excel, instead. But each to his own, and good luck with Moneydance!

I can't say I'm fond of the reporting directly out of Quicken, but the ability to source and aggregate the data it does great. I then have a series of spreadsheets that I use for my analysis. Things like tracking balances and changes over time, spending as well, and even reports to let me quickly summarize my income/tax situation -- got to stay below that ACA you know But the reporting out of Quicken is very good for that, easy copy and paste into Excel, standard format each time is great.

 

[tulak]

Looks like porting from Quicken is becoming more of a distant dream. Not worth the effort. The issue seems to be with the linked accounts. For example; if you pay a CC from Checking, it automatically appears in both accounts as such.

So after my initial review as a complete novice to MD. It is only feasible for me to start a new in 2021 with a clean slate. Although I have managed to transfer accounts that are standalone, like CDs or foreign bank accounts with no links. As my Quicken subscription runs out in June 2021, I will have plenty of time to get used to MD.

I appreciated starting with a clean slate. I've done this numerous times and I find that I really don't need old data. I still have copies of MS Money/Quicken that I can load if I need to check something, which I think I've done once over the last 20 years.

The only thing I care about tracking in detail are my investments and I use spreadsheets for that. Otherwise, I use income/expense reports in Moneydance to track monthly/yearly spending, but that's about it. And beyond 2-3 years back, those reports aren't that helpful.

 

[neihn]

I tried Money Dance yesterday and was able to import Quicken file with some clean up at the end.

My only grief is that it does not support transactions download for my credit union. Also there may be issue with Costco city card download (I am still trying to set that up, quick check in the KB does not look promising )

My quicken subscription will expire in 04/2021, I have sometime to play with MD before I decide to switch. However, early verdict ... Is to stay with Quicken which is working well for me over 20 years.

 

[tulak]

I download Citi Costco transactions into MD without any issues. If a financial institution supports Quicken, then it should work for MD too.

 

[pb4uski]

I renewed Quicken Deluxe for 12 months the other day for $31.18... $51.99 less $20.80 in coupon savings... now I had to also buy a $10 Amazon gift card to get that deal but the Amazon gift card will be used in short order.

Not worth messing with for $31.18 a year... especially as I have mine set up just the way I like it... almost all financial accounts linked and in One-Step Update (except 5 accounts with ~1-2 transactions a month... Navy Federal retirement CDs, a whole life policy and a couple others) and I have all my bills and income defined so I can use the Projected Balances feature for cash management.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I download Citi Costco transactions into MD without any issues. If a financial institution supports Quicken, then it should work for MD too.

Tulak: I cannot seem to find the DL to QIF or QFX on the Costco Citi visa, it only downloads PDF for me. I must be missing something?

Update: I found it. I have not used the card for over a month, there were no transactions. I went back a month and Bingo!

 

[tulak]

Glad you got it to work. I have MD configured to auto download transactions from all sites that support it. For the few that don’t, I manually download the transactions from their websites, but I find that to be a pain.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Glad you got it to work. I have MD configured to auto download transactions from all sites that support it. For the few that don’t, I manually download the transactions from their websites, but I find that to be a pain.

I think you need to go to your profile when logged into the Costco Visa Website to setup automatic downloads. It activates the setup for 10 minutes.

It is under; Profile > More Settings > Manage Desktop Apps.

 

[bobandsherry]

I renewed Quicken Deluxe for 12 months the other day for $31.18... $51.99 less $20.80 in coupon savings... now I had to also buy a $10 Amazon gift card to get that deal but the Amazon gift card will be used in short order.

Not worth messing with for $31.18 a year... especially as I have mine set up just the way I like it... almost all financial accounts linked and in One-Step Update (except 5 accounts with ~1-2 transactions a month... Navy Federal retirement CDs, a whole life policy and a couple others) and I have all my bills and income defined so I can use the Projected Balances feature for cash management.

I'm in the same camp, everything is working as I want it, my reports are set-up to easily paste into Excel. For $35-40/yr, I'm OK with that.

 

[tulak]

I think you need to go to your profile when logged into the Costco Visa Website to setup automatic downloads. It activates the setup for 10 minutes.

It is under; Profile > More Settings > Manage Desktop Apps.

I forgot about that. Now that you mention it, I remember that I did have to go through some steps to make it work. It’s been awhile since I set this up.

 

[tulak]

I'm in the same camp, everything is working as I want it, my reports are set-up to easily paste into Excel. For $35-40/yr, I'm OK with that.

For me this wasn’t an option because the Mac version of Quicken was bad. If it was equivalent to the PC version, then I probably would have stayed with Quicken.

One reason I went with Moneydance is that it supports all platforms equally. I have no regrets either, since their customer support is excellent (they’ve fixed issues I’ve found quickly) and the ability to use python is a great feature. I’ve generated a small collections of custom python scripts that I use regularly.

I’m also happy I’m not forced to upgrade, but I still do every couple of years. I paid $25 last month for the latest version. I have no issues paying for services that give me value. On the flip-side, I want to pay for them so they can be sustainable long-term.

 

[LarryMelman]

I renewed Quicken Deluxe for 12 months the other day for $31.18... $51.99 less $20.80 in coupon savings... now I had to also buy a $10 Amazon gift card to get that deal but the Amazon gift card will be used in short order.

Is this deal still available? I don't see it right now. If you can find it, please post a link, thanks.

edited: On this page, Deluxe is 51.99 (it doesn't explicitly say "new subscribers" vs. "renewal") and it says there's a 40% off coupon applied at checkout... however I took the order all the way up to "Place This Order" and it didn't take anything off. This is also the CD version, I'd prefer to get a download code since I'm just renewing my subscription...
https://www.amazon.com/Quicken-Deluxe-Personal-Finance-Subscription/dp/B082DNHYL3

edited again: The Q-and-A on the Amazon page has a message from Quicken Support: "Excellent question! You can use this to extend your current subscription. The new subscription time will be added onto the time you have remaining on your current Quicken subscription. To enter the activation code, in Quicken click Help> Enter activation code. If you would like further details or assistance with the process, you can reach out to us at quicken.com/contact-support. I hope this helps! -CL"

edited again: quicken.com has a 40% off deal but the fine print says it's for new users only: "† Limited time offer of 40% off the list price applies only to the purchase of Quicken Deluxe, Premier, Home, Business & Rental Property for the first year only when you order directly from Quicken by December 30, 2020, 11:59 PM PST. Offer good for new memberships only. Subscription billed annually. Offer listed above cannot be combined with any other offers. Terms, conditions, pricing, features, offers and service options subject to change without notice."

 

[pb4uski]

I had a devil of a time figuring out that 40% coupon... it doesn't seem to show up now... probably since I have already purchased it... on each page hit Ctrl-F and search for 40% and perhaps you'll find it... as I recall it was a small, obscure "button" to click.

They'll probably hoping that people will give up and just pay the full price.

ETA: Just found it... see right hand side of pic below when in cart that says Save 40%, Clip Coupon just under the $51.99 and click on that button.

I see what you wrote above but I bought it and use the code and it extended my subscription by 12 months.

 

[EnricoPallazzo]

Is this deal still available? I don't see it right now. If you can find it, please post a link, thanks.

edited: On this page, Deluxe is 51.99 (it doesn't explicitly say "new subscribers" vs. "renewal") and it says there's a 40% off coupon applied at checkout... however I took the order all the way up to "Place This Order" and it didn't take anything off. This is also the CD version, I'd prefer to get a download code since I'm just renewing my subscription...
https://www.amazon.com/Quicken-Deluxe-Personal-Finance-Subscription/dp/B082DNHYL3

My experience regarding the 40% off: When looking at the shopping cart, there's a little box/link that says "Clip Coupon" (or something similar) below the Quicken price. Clicking that, it changed to say "Coupon Clipped", and when going to the Checkout screen it included the 40% coupon as a discount to the price.

 

[pb4uski]

Below are the terms and conditions for the 40% coupon... I think that the terms and conditions that you quoted don't apply to me because I bought it from Amazon and not Quicken:

 

[LarryMelman]

pb4uski and EnricoPallazzo, thanks very much for the info. I totally missed the "clip coupon" button.

Looks like Amazon's 40% off is from Amazon, and would apply to renewals. And I used my $10 gift card I got from buying TurboTax.

OK, I've found a deal on TT, and I've found a deal on Quicken. Next up: my annual battle with the cable company...

edited: pb4uski mentioned also having to buy a $10 gift card with Quicken. I didn't have to do that. However I did have to back on the 26th when I bought TT. I wonder if that was a quirk of buying various deals only on the 26th.

 

[pb4uski]

Actually Larry, the $10 was from buying TT same as you, not Quicken... I was confused because the purchases happened so near to each other.

On the second part, can you get the major stations (ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS and NBC) via OTA? If so, I think an antenna and a Fire TV Recast OTA DVR is a nice set up and monthly cost is $0 and upfront cost is $230 for the Recast and $30 for a Fire Stick for each TV if you don't already have one. If no OTA then YTTV is the best of the streaming with live TV services IMO and is "only" $65/month.

 

[indiajust]

I had good luck converting the last full mac version from 07 directly to 2020 beta. I have my entire life in here back to pass book savings accounts in the 70's. can't help myself.

I'm working on breaking the ex wife out of the database into a separate database just for her.

I did a Moneydance test and conversion also. That worked fine for a girlfriend I was helping. I had her set up on quicken old version but it was too much for her limited time to do the conversion. So she just manages the credit card from moneydance now. The rest is linked to brokerage

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I quit Quicken in 2017. I have Excel spreadsheets that do everything I need. Export transactions from my bank into a spreadsheet and paste into mine. Ymmv.

 

[hmango]

Thanks for the info on Full View. I am going to take a look at that. I have been using Mint for tracking categories and then download the data to MS Access. One thing I really like with Access is being able to print PDF reports.

 

[rathail]

Went to Bankivity for Mac when quicken tried to get me into the cloud. Did not want that and am very happy with Banktivity by IGG software.

 

[Done]

I missed this the first time around, but the Quicken 40%-off deal is back per this post at Slickdeals. Your current subscription can only be extended within 6 months of your end date, but you can buy the retail copy now from Amazon and apply the code later.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

OP Here, I managed to port all our quicken data and accounts into Moneydance vis QIF. Once one gets use to MD's quirks, it was all good. Just make sure you make backups of each stage of the conversion. I found doing the whole lot in one go was best, then going back to fix the discrepancies, comparing with quicken as I went.

Linked accounts were the hold up, but just adjusting the starting amount of an account seemed to fix the discrepancies.

 

[jollystomper]

I just tried the initial import of my Quicken data. Some accounts were fine, others were not. The most confusing thing I have to figure out is the import created a number of "X" accounts that seem to be related to transfers. e.g. I have Fidelity IRA account, then a Fidelity IRA(X) account. I am trying to figure out why some transfers are in these "X" accounts and some are not. Deleting them throws the regular account totals off, and trying to duplicate the transactions back into the primary account throws the totals off. Will have to set aside some time to crawl through and figure it out .

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I just tried the initial import of my Quicken data. Some accounts were fine, others were not. The most confusing thing I have to figure out is the import created a number of "X" accounts that seem to be related to transfers. e.g. I have Fidelity IRA account, then a Fidelity IRA(X) account. I am trying to figure out why some transfers are in these "X" accounts and some are not. Deleting them throws the regular account totals off, and trying to duplicate the transactions back into the primary account throws the totals off. Will have to set aside some time to crawl through and figure it out .

I just deleted the X Accounts, then compared the Real accounts with quicken and compensated by inputting an initial balance to offset the difference. Being as my history goes back to 2003, it is not really that important.