OK I am Officially Fed Up with Quicken - Moneydance anyone?

[bobandsherry]

You need to ask yourself, what type of improvements could they possibly make to a personal software management package? Why go through the hassle of annual upgrades and extortion by Intuit when you can spend that money on other things. It's not a lot of money, but there is absolutely no reason to upgrade so frequently. MS Money was far ahead of Quicken in terms of features back in late 2011 when the Sunset edition was released. In addition to bank account management, I needed a tool for investment portfolio management (Bonds, Stocks, CDs, funds, etc...). MS Money was far better at it. Also the report generation was far better in MS Money. I upgraded MS Money every 8-10 years or so. Right now I see no need to upgrade for a long time unless banks fundamentally change how we do business. The package in its current state has more functions than I use.

I had been down the path with MS Money and having Microsoft just abandoning their base of users. I know, they gave a "sunset" release (I had already moved to Quicken by then), but the sunset lacks such a basic feature to automatically download and update your transactions. With Quicken, oh how easy it is to just click on "Update" each time I run the program and have it automatically update and reconcile my accounts. That's worth the price of admission (about $30-40/yr to pay Quicken to continue to develop and support the software).

There are other features in Quicken that MS Money doesn't have. For example, having the ability to access your account info on your mobile device is also nice option, you won't see that in MS Money ever. Perhaps you find no value in that, and that's cool, but I do find that to be useful to me.

If you are happy with MS Money, that's great, but it's not for me. If paying Quicken $30-40/yr keeps Quicken in business then that's good for me too. What a total pain it would be to move to something else, especially when I've found there is NOTHING ELSE today that could replace Quicken. And even if there was, I'd spend HOURS upon HOURS converting my historical data, learning a new program and coming up with my new monthly process that I now do so easily to manage my investments and finances. And in the end I'd have nothing better than what I have today.

 

[Gotadimple]

You need to ask yourself, what type of improvements could they possibly make to a personal software management package? Why go through the hassle of annual upgrades and extortion by Intuit when you can spend that money on other things. It's not a lot of money, but there is absolutely no reason to upgrade so frequently.

You are absolutely correct that for most people they don't need to upgrade each year - unless there is some key reason such as security updates that protect the data, or a new feature you want to use. Quicken's policy of removing functionality to encourage upgrades was the killer for mek , i.e., stock quotes, bank downloads, etc.

That said, no one referenced Moneydance's upgrade policy. They don't release upgrades annually. Sometimes not for 2 or 3 years. If you purchased the most recent release, the upgrade is free. If you are using an older release, the upgrade is 50% off - doesn't matter how long ago. So there is a known cost for future upgrades.

Community forums are full of help, from staff, extension developers, and more experienced users.

- Rita

 

[ShokWaveRider]

MS Money (Downgrade) from Quicken. All done more of a learning curve really rather than errors. Best to create all the accounts first just like they were in Quicken. Then create QIF exports from Quicken accounts one at a time include Categories & Transactions only. Import using "Downloaded Transactions NOT "Recover Accounts"). Reconcile everything and that is it.

Then export updated transactions from you financial institutions with either QIF (or QFX then rename to QIF). Then import as above. All Good. NO ANNOYING MESSAGES.... Priceless.

 

[kgtest]

I am so fed up of Quicken asking me to upgrade EVERY time I start it (after a day) regardless of me telling it to go away and not remind me ever again, it is such invasive marketing.

I do not and will not use a cloud based system, IMHO it is simply an unsafe place for MY personal financial data. I worked in IT for 40 years the last 10 involved cloud based systems and services. I could share so many stories about the cloud, but this is not the forum. So please do not comment on my decision not to use it, or turn this post into a cloud discussion. I turn off any cloud based utilities offered such a MS Cloud products etc. To me a 1tb high speed SSD does the job fine and fits in my safe. I would rather use an Abacus than the cloud.

OK 'nuff said about that. The reason for this post is the that only REAL alternative for for ME on a PC (Sorry no Macs) is Moneydance. Does anyone have any info or opinions on it? It seems to support OFX and QFX.

I work for a large financial firm and we do not allow cloud services in our org. If the bank doesn't do it, its for good reason. Too many data breaches and data copies/stores...I like to keep mine in a locked safe next to my S&W.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I work for a large financial firm and we do not allow cloud services in our org. If the bank doesn't do it, its for good reason. Too many data breaches and data copies/stores...

I worked in Nuclear Utility Document Management for eons and when the cloud was promoted by their currently installed Document Management System, they dumped it and moved to a server based environment. Same for Oil and Gas Mission Critical info.

 

[walkinwood]

I'll spend that on a single trip to Jim Boys Tacos for the wife and I and not blink an eye and this has much more value to me than freeing us from cooking and dishes for one night.

That's how I look at the cost aspect. I just wish it was more stable and there was a standard to download banking & investment transaction. I think it is past time for the industry to do something about that, but they don't have much of an incentive.

 

[bobandsherry]

MS Money (Downgrade) from Quicken. All done more of a learning curve really rather than errors. Best to create all the accounts first just like they were in Quicken. Then create QIF exports from Quicken accounts one at a time include Categories & Transactions only. Import using "Downloaded Transactions NOT "Recover Accounts"). Reconcile everything and that is it.

Then export updated transactions from you financial institutions with either QIF (or QFX then rename to QIF). Then import as above. All Good. NO ANNOYING MESSAGES.... Priceless.

If the "ad" message was the driver in you seeking another program, you could have tried this suggestion:

Edit the QUSER.INI files, look for line that starts with ExecNum, set that to -999. Close and reopen. Others have reported this removed the annoyance.

BTW, why did you give up on MoneyDance (the original topic)?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

If the "ad" message was the driver in you seeking another program, you could have tried this suggestion:

Edit the QUSER.INI files, look for line that starts with ExecNum, set that to -999. Close and reopen. Others have reported this removed the annoyance.

BTW, why did you give up on MoneyDance (the original topic)?

Thanks.

Not completely. I could not edit the title to add MS Money Sunset or I would have. A friend just gave me a registered copy of MD to try. She ended up not using it. So I can play with that a bit.

PS Thanks for the tip.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I just loaded moneydance to play with it. There are a few things that I do not like. But ths biggest one that I cannot seem to find a solution for is:

I Cannot resize columns in an account pane. (Is there something I am missing here?)

 

[tulak]

I just loaded moneydance to play with it. There are a few things that I do not like. But ths biggest one that I cannot seem to find a solution for is:

I Cannot resize columns in an account pane. (Is there something I am missing here?)

Can you click/hold on the vertical line and resize the column?

The mouse icon doesn’t change when you hover the line, which can be confusing. I just tried it and it worked for me.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Can you click/hold on the vertical line and resize the column?

The mouse icon doesn’t change when you hover the line, which can be confusing. I just tried it and it worked for me.

Not much success with importing from Quicken either. Seems to need too much massaging for my liking. I tried 4 accounts and all had the same issues, that did not occur with MS Money Plus Sunset.

Bear in mind I do not need any investment/stock management. So as long as Quicken Import works, life is good for me.

 

[braumeister]

As tulak pointed out, you just drag the vertical line between column headings to resize the column. It works perfectly.

 

[tulak]

I’ve never had much luck importing data when I migrated from any program. Each one has it’s own quirks, which I find that you need to spend a few hours to days to figure out. That’s part of the reason I start over with each new program. I really don’t need my spending history from ten years ago and in the rare occasions I need this data, I can load up my old copy of MS Money/Quicken. I probably should look at extracting this data to a spreadsheet at some point to make it future proof.

If you had a clean import to MS Money, that’s great. It sounds like that might be a better solution for you.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

MoneyDance seems to be a lot worse than some others I have tired. I will give it a go when I have more patience. Currently still on Quicken 2017 and just experimenting with others. I did a mod as suggested above and have not seen the annoying upgrade prompts, so it is a little better. I am still going to look though. So far MS Money Plus sunset does all I need and imports VERY easily, now I know how.

 

[bobandsherry]

MoneyDance seems to be a lot worse than some others I have tired. I will give it a go when I have more patience.

I had tried MD a while ago, found it failed miserably with importing my Quicken data as well. I experimented a while longer with the free version and then just decided it wasn't for me.

 

[Rustward]

It’s been awhile since I used Quicken, but in general, big software companies are moving to collecting more data about their customers. This includes forced (or annoying) registration pop ups, the feature to store your info in the cloud, etc.

MS with Win10 is a great example. They want to collect data on their users because its an opportunity to monetize their customers in
other ways.

I’m not saying that Quicken is currently doing this, but with the move to subscription, it makes it a lot easier for them to track their customers. I’m a bit old school and like the old software model. You buy the product and have minimal data sharing with the company that sold you the product.

Moneydance fits that profile nicely and in reading all the angst people have with Quicken, I’m glad I bailed a few years ago.

If you don't like the business practices, then maybe you should not use the product.

Also, if you read the fine print, in all likelyhood you are not buying the product -- you are buying a license to use their product per the owners' terms. Try writing a clone of this product yourself -- or try hiring someone to write it.

 

[OldShooter]

A couple of things I saw:

Transfers between accounts got entered twice. Two entries on the same date with exactly the same text except only one of them had the transfer account name. Keep that one and delete the other.

My split transactions on Visa payments got entered as a list of individual transactions. No real problem, just clutter. But the Visa payment amount also got entered. So you have to delete that one.

The way Moneydance handles downloaded transactions is kind of quirky when the account detail already has the transactions. I have not totally figured that one out, but as they say "be careful out there."...

OK, to update this post, enough time has passed that my painful memory of hours fixing import issues has faded. I have now been parallel running Quicken and Moneydance for a couple of weeks with no glitches. This includes downloading investment and bank account details. (Edit: I plan to parallel run at least through the end of the year.)

Overall, I think MD will be an acceptable replacement for Quicken. To be sure, the UI is not as polished and some handy little features are missing but I am sure a lot of this will come as Quicken hands them a revenue windfall and their ability to invest in the product is increased.

As an example of being "unpolished," there is a plug-in for manually entering stock prices that lists every single issue I have held in the past 25 years and there is no way to suppress display of any of it. Also, the column-width question in previous posts arose because the programmer did not remember to display the left/right arrow when the mouse point is hovered over a column division. Not a big deal, but also "unpolished" IMO.

One issue, though, is that currently MD cannot automatically download stock prices. Apparently they were relying on a Yahoo API feature that has been turned off on Yahoo's end. User comments here: Downloading Quotes / Investments / Discussion Area - Infinite Kind Support This is not a show stopper for me because I only have about ten tickers and I only update once a month. Importantly, too, I am sure they will have to fix this because it is so central to the product. So I'm willing to have a little patience. YMMV, though.

 

[bobandsherry]

One issue, though, is that currently MD cannot automatically download stock prices. Apparently they were relying on a Yahoo API feature that has been turned off on Yahoo's end.

Let's be sure it's clear, companies like MoneyDance were abusing the service (apparently in violation of TOS). As such, Yahoo terminated the service.

Yahoo Finance API disabled.

The API has been disabled for a month now, and Yahoo made it clear the service was being discontinued months prior. So one has to wonder why MD didn't address this gap prior to the service being disabled. In their own support forum MD announced on 11/3 that " Our lead developer is working on a solution now and we hope to have an update available for the extension within a day or two". It's been a month now and still hasn't been fixed. Perhaps a bit telling on their abilities and skillset.

Also interesting that MoneyDance continues to sell their product noting that the program has the ability to download stock prices when it doesn't and hasn't for a month.

"Follow your investments and bring your portfolio into focus with support for stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds, and more. View the total value of your investment accounts or the performance of individual stocks and mutual funds over time. Stock splits and cost basis computations are a snap, and current prices can be downloaded automatically."

Not sure how much revenue MD will be getting from people who want to pay $50 for MD after seeing such poor support and urgency to address this long known issue. If Quicken did this I can only imagine how much people would be slamming them.

 

[OldShooter]

Let's be sure it's clear ...

As you like. I focus on the glass being at least half full and am optimistic about a small software house being able to grow a pretty-good product into a better one. Sorry to see you're focused on the half-empty part and the short term.

 

[bobandsherry]

As you like. I focus on the glass being at least half full and am optimistic about a small software house being able to grow a pretty-good product into a better one. Sorry to see you're focused on the half-empty part and the short term.

If that's what you took away form my post, then so be it.

 

[JoeWras]

Wow. Looking around a bit, it does look like Moneydance was one of the abusers of the Yahoo service, confirming what bobandsherry pointed out.

That abuse enough to get MD off my list. I'm no fan of Yahoo, but I'm starting to understand why they took away this service. You wouldn't believe what kind of infrastructure it takes to support these kind of queries from a large user base. MD was basically using Yahoo's equipment for free. And then they ruin the party for us little guys.

 

[cathy63]

Let's be sure it's clear, companies like MoneyDance were abusing the service (apparently in violation of TOS). As such, Yahoo terminated the service.

Yahoo Finance API disabled.

The API has been disabled for a month now, and Yahoo made it clear the service was being discontinued months prior. So one has to wonder why MD didn't address this gap prior to the service being disabled. In their own support forum MD announced on 11/3 that " Our lead developer is working on a solution now and we hope to have an update available for the extension within a day or two". It's been a month now and still hasn't been fixed. Perhaps a bit telling on their abilities and skillset.

Also interesting that MoneyDance continues to sell their product noting that the program has the ability to download stock prices when it doesn't and hasn't for a month.



Not sure how much revenue MD will be getting from people who want to pay $50 for MD after seeing such poor support and urgency to address this long known issue. If Quicken did this I can only imagine how much people would be slamming them.

It will be very interesting to see what they do about this. The market-wide data is not available for free. I suspect there's some negotiation going on to pay for access, but then they'll have recurring costs and they'll have to find a way to pass those along to their customers, which logically leads to something like a forced upgrade or subscription model ... and then they are in the same boat as Quicken but with fewer users among whom to spread the costs.

 

[cranberryjoe]

Wow. Looking around a bit, it does look like Moneydance was one of the abusers of the Yahoo service, confirming what bobandsherry pointed out.

That abuse enough to get MD off my list. I'm no fan of Yahoo, but I'm starting to understand why they took away this service. You wouldn't believe what kind of infrastructure it takes to support these kind of queries from a large user base. MD was basically using Yahoo's equipment for free. And then they ruin the party for us little guys.

GnuCash also used Yahoo for quotes, so you'll have to take GnuCash off your list.

 

[bobandsherry]

GnuCash also used Yahoo for quotes, so you'll have to take GnuCash off your list.

Not quite the same thing.... GnuCash is free, were not making a profit off the back of Yahoo. Looks like MD has made some progress, having found an alternative (yet still free) option for downloads, but from the comments it seems a bit of a hack at the moment with problems and errors in the downloaded quotes. Seems people aren't real happy. I'm sure they'll eventually get this worked out.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I just purchased TurboTax with a decent coupon code and I noticed that 1 year of 2018 was offered free with it. shame I will not be using it.