I think the bigger reason many people are still running Quicken under Windows is that Quicken for the Mac is a big ball of hurt. It remains to be seen whether the new Quicken for the Mac has the bugs worked out and key features of our Windows counterpart, or if the development team is still focusing on fully integrating cover flow into the Quicken interface.
Update 4/12/2010:
Stumble here from Google? Be sure to check out our ongoing blow-by-blow review of Quicken Essentials for Mac.
Update 4/25/2010:
I've taken a look at the Quicken File Exchange Utility, the separate application that's used to convert data files for use in Quicken Essentials for Mac. Read all about it!
Update 4/12/2010:
Stumble here from Google? Be sure to check out our ongoing blow-by-blow review of Quicken Essentials for Mac.
Update 4/25/2010:
I've taken a look at the Quicken File Exchange Utility, the separate application that's used to convert data files for use in Quicken Essentials for Mac. Read all about it!
16 comments:
Wow, this is incredibly white of Intuit.
What I'd really like to see is a version of Mac Quicken that will support migration of data from an earlier version of Mac Quicken.
I have upgraded Mac Quicken either four or five times in my life. Every time, WITHOUT FAIL, the new version of Quicken looks at my current accounts file and says, "Unable to read file." Days of income-less drudgery follow.
Last time this happened I got peeved enough to call Intuit. The phone tech said, "That means your accounts file is corrupt." However, my previous version of Quicken never had any problem opening it, and still doesn't. I could continue on using that version, except that Intuit routinely shuts off online service for old versions so they can force us to buy so-called "upgrades."
Instead, every time I have to upgrade, I end up having to export every ledger file and re-import it into the new version. You lose LOTS of data when you do this. All your saved reports, all your scheduled and periodic transactions, the current state of your loans and mortgages, any transaction with a zero dollar value (like the settlement of an expired option), and lots more. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I owned thousands of shares of antique options because Quicken had discarded my expiration transactions for a certain number of shares at a zero price. You don't lose your budgets, but they mysteriously cease to balance (categories suddenly spawn budget figures that don't match the sum of their subcategories' budget figures, and there is no way to edit them).
In addition, when importing old data, it arbitrarily discards any transaction to (from) the same party for the same amount on the same day. Did you go to Ace twice in the same day to buy a single can of black spray paint? Did you and your spouse make two identical doctor co-payments on the same trip? Did you renew your licenses on the same day? Did you get two identical rebate checks in the mail from the same merchant? One of each of those transactions will mysteriously disappear. Then watch stuff not balance. This is precisely the sort of crap that an accounting package, of all things, should not do.
I use this package to run a business and track my investments. But I can't put up with the artificial upgrade crisis every three years.
Same boat. I am INCREDIBLY angry over the amount of time I've wasted trying to get Quicken 07 for Mac to work. You can't select more than one transaction; you can't sort by the field that contains check numbers, even though your downloads often enter characters into them; the list is just about endless, the things you can't do that seem necessary on a regular basis. Even the data entry is vexatious - with what, about a 15-character limit? Ever have notes you'd like to attach to a transaction? Quicken laughs at you.
Worse, every now and then one of my downloads goes into the wrong account and corrupts my data. Since I can't sort by very many fields, and I can't select more than one transaction, I have to sit and delete each transaction one at a time - yes, there's a keyboard shortcut, but I can't turn off the nag screen "Are you sure you want to delete the transaction" which doubles my keystrokes and efforts.
Maybe we frustrated Mac users should pool together and hire programmers to design some halfway functional software for the Mac. It surely couldn't be as painful as trying to continue using a product that's rife with bugs, completely counterintuitive, and insanely frustrating to use.
How hard is it to hire a developer or 3 to fix the existing product? If they were really interested in keeping their existing customers, they would show a little love and actually address the issues in the existing product, rather than promising some make believe software that should have been the original product for Mac.
I switched from PC to Mac. I'm now looking for alternatives. I don't have time to wait on some vaporware that's been promised for how long? I also don't have the patience to buy yet another piece of software that allows me to fuel the mediocrity that is Intuit by running Windows just for my finance software.
I thought I'd check out 2010 at Quicken's web site. Of course, it's not ready yet, but there are promises: let's see... Quicken for Mac 2010 won't track investment buys, sells, or performance; it won't work with TurboTax; it won't do direct bill pay.... but oh, yeah: it looks pretty! Wow! I can hardly wait!
What conceivable reason would any Mac user have for migrating to Quicken for Mac 2010? Because you want LESS functionality?!? What, exactly is it that it is actually supposed to do BETTER?
Fortunately, old Windows versions of Quicken run just fine on the Mac under a VM like VirtualBox, the free VM manager from Sun. I run the Windows version of Quicken 2009 under VirtualBox practically every day and it works great.
Mac Quicken 2007
Having trouble entering sale/short shows up when it is not so even after 10 days SELL order won't go through
Error -36 show up and can't transfer from my lap top to desk top via USB
"no file exists"
I just bought a MAC and tried to migrate my 2009 Windows into Mac. OH! Some things transferred and some things did not. I waisted my money on the MAC 2010. I was warned by the MAC people not to do it. 2007 had it's problems and 2010 is a mess. I used Windows versions on my PC for years with no problems. This is so disappointing. I switched to a MAC because I was tired of the PC problems. Love my MAC, hate Quicken 2010 for MAC. I pay my bills on-line with my bank and I want to be able to download my registers to Quicken like I did before. No luck! If I can't get help and get it to work then Quicken 2010 is hitting the "trash" can and I'm going to try and get my money back.
A big pile of crap! I had used quicken for Mac for 10 years almost, and 2007 wasn't that bad, but this update is total crap. It didn't upload properly, it couldn't find my Quicken data file to import, once I called tech support and got help, it imported the files but in several accounts, including my checking the balances were incorrect. The layout is NOT an improvement. I think I am DONE with Quicken at this point
I switched to a Mac a year ago and had been waiting anxiously for Quicken Essentials 2010 for Mac. Finally, it arrived and I set about importing my Quicken 2008 (PC) data. The data transferred in OK, but all my balances were over $176,000 off. I tried the import at least six times with a similar result. So, I returned Quicken Essentials for a refund.
I then tried a Mac program called “Money.” It imported my Quicken 2008 data with absolutely no problem. This proves that Intuit could do it if they really wanted to provide a decent program for the Mac. I didn’t stay with “Money,” however, because it is just too feature limited.
Now I’m back using a BootCamp partition and VMWare Fusion with Windows 7 and Quicken 2008.
Besides the new Mac Quicken not importing properly, it didn’t have any more features than “Money.” It just looked slicker. And heaven help you if you need any support from Intuit. They have to be the least responsive software company in existance.
I just got my Mac and was planning to go total immersion and not run any windows-based programs…that is until I tried using Entourage instead of Outlook and Quicken Essentials versus the PC version.
So I installed VM Ware and both are working fine except when I open Quicken it always asks me if I am a new or existing user and to select a data file. If anyone has a fix for this please let me know.
I switched to a Mac a couple of years ago. I've been running Parallels Desktop ever since just to use Quicken 2007. Now Intuit is requiring all Quicken 2007 users to switch to a new version by the end of April.
It looks like I'll have to shell out $70 for a lousy Mac program or pay $40 for the PC version and keep running Parallels Desktop for nothing but Quicken. This is outrageous. Why hasn't anyone developed a serious alternative to Quicken? This would be a lucrative business!
There's an alternative: Excel.
No, it won't talk to your bank account. Yes, you have to manually enter each transfer in two spreadsheets.
Yes, it's worth the hassle to be free of the migraine that is Quicken for Mac.
Our quicken PC-MAc converted the accounts, but left all of them empty. After reading some of the blogs we solved our issue by fixing two entries dated in year 1907. The transactions import in date order so those wrong entries blocked everything. Finally after 6 hours of troubleshooting it was a simpel fix. Thanks to the commenter who mentioned something about bad data--not sure which blog I saw that on. Intuit also gave really great customer support.
Post a Comment