So you’re tired of Quicken, can’t handle the frequent bugs, and the overall lack of feature parity with Quicken on Windows, right?
Is there an iAlternative, a good iFinancial application for your Mac? Try iBank. It’s iFabulous.
Software to manage your money seems to be as varied as the ways we spend our money. If you spend it all, or spend it faster than you make it, is it necessary to track it?
Some people just like to track things, including money. Take my husband. Please. He tracks everything on his Mac. Not just money. He has PDFs which he pulled off the ‘net that explain how to change a baby’s diaper. With one struggling to get out of her diaper all the time, and another struggling to get out of me, that’s too much of the wrong kind of help.
The right kind of help is something that both tracks and manages my money. Our money. Mostly his money, which may be the reason he devotes so much time tracking it. What does my husband use? iBank.
Not only does iBank have the niftiest logo of any Mac financial utility (in and of itself a good reason for some people to buy iBank), it actually does what I want it to do. Track money. Manage money. As my husband is fond of telling me, “They’re not the same thing, Alexis. Trust me.” iDo.
iBank bills itself as a full-featured personal and small business financial manager. This is not the same as a financial manager from Smith Barney or American Express or PriceWaterhouse. If you need those guys to manage your assets, then iBank is probably underkill.
Then again, having too much money is overkill. Maybe Mac360 needs to start taking donations.
iBank manages what you think you need to manage regarding your money. Bank accounts, both checking and savings. Credit cards. All of them. Even the ones with hoards of Nordic marauders banging on your car’s windshield when you’re trying to leave home.
Toss in tools for tracking expenses, managing your monthly schedule for bill paying, and then tracking every freakin’ red cent a husband ever made. Mine has a frame around the first dollar he made mowing lawns as a kid. We live in San Diego. How hard can that be?
Like Quicken, iBank is loaded with features that make your head swoon, then hurt, just before your eyes get all blurry. The single most important feature for me was the import of my Quicken files. After that, it was all easy.
iBank sets up account types, Smart Accounts, and can handle multiple currencies via updated exchange rates. I’m not so sure on the “multiple currency” thing. There’s “his” money. There’s “my” money. That’s multiple currencies, right?
The key to any successful financial tool is budgets, sometimes known as the key to an unhappy marriage. Expenses vs. Income in black and white just isn’t playing fair. Still, every month, my husband shows me exactly what went out and what came in. Black and white. And red sometimes.
The Budget Monitor tracks how close you stick to a budget. iBank also forecasts future balances based on budgets and scheduled transactions. As if I need something telling me I’ll be overdrawn, again, next month, and the month after, ad nauseum.
Better yet is iBank’s Scheduled Transactions feature, the one that shows you trouble on the horizon via the Budget Monitor and Forecast. iBank takes on repeating transactions and planned transactions, remembers both, tracks both.
The Mac is a graphical computing device and iBank features some nifty charts that update automagically as you enter transactions and income. My husband tells me the color “red” is not good on the charts.
Check printing for the Kayhill household is a love hate relationship. iBank prints checks, but our checks are to pay things. Credit cards are to buy things. Unfortunately, iBank tracks them both and reconciles the differences with monthly Statements. It’s like evidence on CSI San Diego sometimes.
The Mac is also into integration, and iBank wouldn’t be a popular iFinancial iApp if it didn’t integrate with something. It does. iCal. And .Mac for backups. The one area of iBank I’m not allowed to get into, hence no review of how cool the feature set can be for those of us genetically disposed to spending instead of making, is the Portfolio section.
My husband says this will save our bacon. As if. Portfolio tracks investments in various accounts, including stocks. Entries are updated with downloaded stock market information.
The Mac is also about ease-of-use, which is more than I can say about using Quicken for 10 years. iBank counters the complexity of money matters with a couple of Dashboard Widgets. The Transaction Widget for, duh, transactions. It’s actually easier than opening up iBank. There’s also the Budget Widget which I don’t bother with because it reminds me how far off budget I can get.
There’s just too much month left at the end of my money and I don’t need some Widget barking at me.
iBank is iNice and worth an iTry. Talk Back to me at Mac360 and let all our readers know what you use to manage your money via the Comments section below.
