What app / software do you use?

[gwendolyn]

I try to keep my finances as complex as humanly possible. !Splat! Used Quickbooks because it allowed me to track multiple lines of business across categories (as a sole proprietor, I could use the same file to track personal and various business income sources, etc.) Ah, but then I switched to Mac and have been hunting around for a new system ever since. I'm thinking this might be a great place to get recommendations from people who actually care about their finances for something other than just not bouncing checks. I know there are many people here who probably don't use an app to track their investments and finances -- this is not a thread about NOT using software -- that is SO not an option for me! :laff: I'm shouting out to all the other pf geeks out there...

What do you use? What are the bells and whistles that make it worth it for you? Do you interface directly with financial institutions to download your transactions? Etc. etc. Inquiring minds want to know...

[Kestra]

I just use Excel. I like that I can modify everything to be exactly what I want. I love coming up with new spreadsheet ideas. It's a hobby for me so I don't mind spending time manually entering transactions, splitting receipts etc. Actually, I only want a business so I have a reason to do more spreadsheets and math.

[ToomuchStuff]

I use Gnucash: Gnucash.org . It is a cross platform (I run it on Linux and have on Windows as well), business clash accounting software package, that has WAY more features then I would ever use. I do NOT do online banking, but that is by choice. (I tried it for a while, with a bootable OS, that only did the banking and nothing else. I've dealt with some computer security stuff before) It will do the bank linking thing and some more (seen at there site), I am just old fashioned.
There are also some free documents/how to's on the site, as well as a non free small business accounting book on it.

[bUU]

Financial tracking software is the main reason why I've excluded Mac computers from consideration each time we've been in the market for a new computer. I've just recently discovered how useful Quicken Lifetime Planner is, and that's firmly ensconced in a Windows-only application, unfortunately. And Quicken's ability to pull holdings and transactions in from practically anywhere combined with its user-friendly tools for slicing and dicing the data (holding, performance, asset allocation, etc.) is going to be hard to beat.

I recently bought an Android tablet, and got a little worried about how this would distance me from Quicken. I found that I can easily remote into my Windows computer to access Quicken. Perhaps that's the best suggestion I have for my Mac and Android friends: Buy a cheap, used, decently-powered old Windows computer; put Quicken on it; and access it through Remote Desktop software.

[catherine]

I use YNAB for budgeting and money tracking
I use Mint.com for an overall big picture of my accounts
I use my own Excel "rolling budget" to help me project cash flow on a month to month basis, since I'm a freelancer with a variable income
I also use my own Excel debt reduction tracking tool.

[SteveinMN]

For the family finances, I'm using See Finance (http://www.scimonocesoftware.com/) (Mac only; no affiliation, yada yada). Despite its 0.9 release status, it's at least as stable as any other Mac financial software I've tried (which includes Quicken, which does not see much Mac love from Intuit).

For my rental property and my business, I'm using templated Excel worksheets. See feeds these as necessary. Just easier on me than building a custom report in See.

I looked at several packages before choosing See. To narrow down your choices, you need to make some decisions:

- What kind of financial software do you want? I don't need/want an envelope-based budgeting system, so there was no point in selecting YNAB or other software that relied heavily on the budget-over-under approach. I did want to track equities, which knocked out some other packages.
- Do you want the same software to run on your smartphone (if you have one), because it's out there with you when you're making purchases? That was not a deal-breaker for me.
- If you already have records in a Quicken-compatible format, or to future-proof your choice, you'll want software that does a good job of importing/exporting usable Quicken-compatible files. This was one factor that tipped me in favor of See Finance; its import is excellent and its ability to write a proper file meant if I didn't like it or the developer went south, I wasn't trapped by a proprietary format or having to re-enter history.
- I also checked out the version history of the apps. If an app hadn't been updated in umpty-ump, I dropped it from consideration. Even though See is not at 1.0 yet, it is being developed actively. Some apps (*cough* Quicken Essentials *cough*) and some smaller packages really are sub-par and not worth what you'll pay for them.

By the time you do all this, you'll be down to a handful of applications. Almost all of them offer some sort of trial, so see which one fits your style best. I've looked at a few apps since I settled on See (iBank, MoneyDance), but I always come back to See. It's what works for me.

[softweave]

I also switched to SEE Finance after having to retire my trusty Quicken 2007 due to a Mac OS upgrade. It has it's quirks (doesn't automatically create corresponding transfer records like Quicken did). However, SEE Finance was the only Mac finance app that did a good job importing years of Quicken data. It's more than adequate for the financial tracking I do.

[pcooley]

I use a Mac, and for a long time I used Moneywell (http://nothirst.com/moneywell). I liked its simple envelope style budgeting. Then they upgraded it, and it stopped working as well. I use Moneydance (http://www.moneydance.com) to keep track of the mortgage and to watch how my extra payments knock the length of time down, using an add-on extension called "Payoff!" Moneydance is the most Quicken-like of the programs I use. Once Moneywell seemed less useful, I bought YNAB (http://ynab.com). I like YNAB quite a bit, and if it were not for the mortgage tracking properties of Moneydance, I might use YNAB as my only program.

I have also used Gnucash in the past. It's serviceable, and it's part of the open source, free software movement, so I like it on those grounds, but it didn't really impress me for what I want financial software for.

Then, a couple of months ago, I found that Moneywell was working better again, and I could download my ING (now Capital One) debit card transactions, which I can't do with any other program.

So now I'm running all three, Moneywell, YNAB, and Moneydance. If I had to pick one . . .? Clearly I have a problem with that.

[maryellen]

I use Macs and track everything with Quickbooks Pro (chosen for the time tracking/ invoice feature which I need for the business). I basically use this to track several business and personal checking accounts where I need categorized reports for customized dates. I am no fan of Intuit (is anyone?) but it works for me.