Financial Software: Mind Your Money On Your Mac.

For many Mac users, Intuit’s popular Quicken and Quick Books are the cat’s meow. Except for Quicken being about 12 generations behind the Windows version of Quicken. What else is available for the Mac?

Remarkably, plenty. Mac developers know their way around a checkbook and it doesn’t take long to find a few applications that can do what Quicken can’t.

Head to MacUpdate and enter ‘money’ in the search field. That gives you a list of Mac financial, accounting, and check book applications to keep you busy for a week.

If Quicken’s not for you, or you’re disgusted that Intuit can’t keep parity with the Windows version, then check the Mac360 short list of Mac financial applications.

For simple check book balancing (what most of us who’ve used Quicken end up doing), there’s Splasm Software’s appropriately named CheckBook.

Of course, the name ‘Splasm’ doesn’t deliver an inherent secure feeling for financial software but you’ll probably like CheckBook.

CheckBook is Mac-friendly in a brushed aluminum sort of way. Write checks, set up multiple accounts, customize account summaries, and print.

For $17.95 and a free try out, it’s tough to beat unless you love the free version of Quicken but hate the upgrade costs.

Since we’re really discussing personal finance, what more creative name could you come up with than Finance 5 from Yenko.

$20 gets you a straightforward, easy-to-learn check book application; for checking account, savings account, and credit card account management. Hmmm. Isn’t that what you’d expect from Quicken?

What I like about Finance 5 are the basics. Every change you make is automatically saved. You get a list and detail view all in one window, but there’s a sidebar which displays account balances.

Finance sorts records by date and has an integrated search function and simple pop-up menus for data entry. It’s basic and seems to work well.

Coolest logo for a Mac financial application goes to IGG Software’s iBank. See? Someone had to use the “i” in their product’s name. It’s a Mac rule.

iBank 2 works great on Tiger and has a list of features, including check printing, and data importing. For $40 you get more. There’s charts, account types, mixed currencies, even scheduled transactions.

Also nice is the ability to forecast balances and a portfolio function that lets you track investments and download stock quotes. If you use iCal, you’ll like the ability to track scheduled transactions. If you use .Mac, there’s a way to automatically backup your data.

Not to be out done when using the “i” metaphor, there’s MaxProg’s iCash which runs on Mac Classic, OS X, and Windows. $30 gets you a mature financial application for the Mac.

Documents can be shared between Mac and Windows. Set up unlimited accounts, contacts, categlroies and standard account classifications by category and type.

If the dollar isn’t your currency, try one of the others as multiples are supported.

Reports are usually important in financial applications, even those of a personal nature and you’ll find a list of reports in iCash.

The word ‘My’ seems to be all the rage these days. There’s MyAOL, My Yahoo, MyMSN, and, oh my gawd, there’s MyCheckBook. $20 gets you a Mac or Windows application, a straightforward interface, automatic data saving and balance, multiple accounts, and the usual fare of personal check book goodies.

My, my, my $12.50 will get you the latest version of MyMoneyMinder, a very Mac-like application with all the basics; categories, expenses, income, account balances, groups, and more.

A little less attractive but the first Mac application with a piggy bank logo is, my again, My Money, which says you can ‘Look good on paper.

The MyMoney web site doesn’t look so good as there’s almost no documentation. A ‘focus’ on financial needs is thin as other software by the developer includes GolfXpress, and the Incredibles (yes, Pixar’s Incredibles).

There’s probably another dozen or so Mac applications which purport ot handling your money; including one called PigMoney, but that hasn’t been updated since 2003, so I’ll pass on a mini-review.

How do you handle your money on the Mac? Quicken forever? Or, something else?

Summary
There’s no shortage of basic financial applications for the Mac. Despite of intestinal fortitude to develop a healthier version of Quicken, it remains the top dog on the Mac.

Jack Miller
Quicken is the top dog, for sure. But it’s still a dog. It’s remarkable that Intuit still charges for the yearly upgrade fee for a product that clearly doesn’t count very well.

Bambi Hambi
I’m a Quicken user and have been for years. I haven’t upgraded to the 2006 version because 2005 seems to work fine and there’s not many new features. I also use QuickBooks Pro for the Mac and love it.

That said, there’s plenty of financial tracking and stock tracking applications for the Mac, though it takes some work to find the best.