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Mac Money Management

My switch from MS Money to Quicken (for Windows)

by Philip Sellers January 5, 2010

I have chronicled my search for a Mac money management replacement for Microsoft Money. Unfortunately, after trials and testing, I have not found a suitable Mac solution that works fully for me. So, after searching, Quicken for Windows 2010 is my new solution and so far, its working pretty well. There were a few requirements that the software needed, although, I didn’t realize what I needed when I began my search.

Seemless integration with online banking service to pull down transactions
Ability to import my transaction history from Microsoft Money (and import it pretty easily)

Ability to preserve my categories after import
Ability to preserve my transfer transactions (for reporting purposes) between accounts
Ability to setup recurring transactions for bills, paychecks and things that recur.
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January 5, 2010 2 comments

Moneywell, I’ve all but abandoned thee

by Philip Sellers July 20, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

Yeah, seems like today is a day of #fail for me. I realize today scanning over my blog content that I’ve all but abandoned my new buddy Moneywell. Its very close to a month since I used it last and although I really like the software, its different and I’m having troubles with that. I am still finding myself relying on Microsoft Money and its darned running balances. Habit is hard to break.

Now, a month later, I have a lot of reconciliation to do to catch up in Moneywell. The thing I am struggling with most in the software are duplicate transactions and how to easily find them. Running balance is how I’ve always been able to check and make sure everything is on track from day to day, and although the daily totals are in Moneywell, I’m finding it hard to find errors.

And, part of this is self-inflicted (see, really sensing a theme here). I like to prepopulate my transactions in my financial program and so there are transactions for up to a month in advance in Moneywell. So when the real transaction downloads and the dollar amounts don’t match from my guestimate transaction, my balances go wonky.

The other thing I miss from Microsoft Money is my bill reminders – my recurring transactions in Quickbooks speak. I’ve used these to remind me of annual and quarterly bills, plus my monthly transactions. Its kept me honest with the trash company and even helped me make sure I never overdraw the account on a month-to-month basis.

So, back to the drawing board. I need to carve out some time this week in the evening to get things caught up in Moneywell. I really believe the software has a lot of promise for me and for my family’s finances. I need to give it an honest try!

July 20, 2009 3 comments

Home Tech

Switching to Moneywell is hard to do (for me anyways)

by Philip Sellers June 23, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I know that I should be switching from Money and making Moneywell my primary finance software, but I’m having a tough time. I can’t seem to ensure that my checkbook balances to the accounts and that procedure is harder for someone who is so tied to online banking, like myself. Let me explain.

I’ve covered before how Moneywell handles running balances and accounts. Something that I haven’t mentioned is that Moneywell has some really good, powerful reconciliation workflows integrated in it. The Reconcile screens are great for someone who is paper based and who reconciles the checkbook with the printed statements at the end of the month. But, that’s not me – those aren’t my habits. And it has to be a system that works with me, else I have to change and the chances of success decrease.

The reconcile functionality appears to be their solution for keeping your checkbook in balance. For that type of system, I’m sure that it works well and the daily balances make much more sense — see, you’ll have a statement balance to match to every month in that style system.

But, what about someone who uses online banking – particularly someone who does it daily and whose reconciliation process occurs almost as often? I guess that I could begin matching the running balance online with the daily balance in Moneywell and marking the transactions as reconciled once they hit the online account and clear. That, I assume, is the same net outcome as reconciling to a paper statement. So, that is what I am resolving today to attempt for the next week. I’m going to try and modify my actions and see if I may be able to adopt a better way of accounting my personal finances.

In the meantime, I have been relying too heavily upon Microsoft Money. I know this and I have paid money for a software which seems to be better long term. I have to keep this in my mind and remind myself daily to do it.

June 23, 2009 1 comment

Apple Datacenter Home Tech Software

Moving from MS Money to Moneywell

by Philip Sellers June 12, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I think that I have settled on Moneywell as my software of choice for Mac money management. I really like how this software is setup for an envelope system style of managing your money. I also like that it imported my QIF exports, although there is no way for it to preserve transfer transactions between accounts.

I initially had problems and had dimissed Moneywell because I could not connect to my primary bank. After perusing the Quicken Financial Life forums (I was a beta tester), I found the issue – I was not using the correct username and password. To work with my bank, I needed to provide my member number and PIN to authenticate – not my website username and password. Worked that out, and now automatic updates are all set.

June 12, 2009 1 comment