Personal accounting software

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I hope this is the correct place to post this question.  I currently use MS Money which was abandoned long ago.  I need to find a suitable replacement.  What suggestions do you have?

Thank you for your help.

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I use Homebank
http://homebank.free.fr/en/index.php

Works just as good as Money and Quicken, but much cheaper. 😉

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Nathan Parker, cellsee6

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Kirsty wrote:

Have you heard of Wave? They have a FREE accounting software platform, where you pay for payroll and certain merchant payment charges, should you choose to use them:

What’s the catch? How does Wave make money?

Wave makes money from financial services that make running your business faster. We offer payroll services in Canada and the U.S. at a super affordable price. We also allow businesses to accept payments online so you can get invoices paid faster; we charge a competitive 2.9% + 30¢ fee to process credit cards, and 1% for bank payments (where available).

You might like to check them out:
https://www.waveapps.com/accounting/
https://www.waveapps.com/pricing
(do check the correct flag is showing, so it gives you the correct offers and pricing)
🙂

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Nathan Parker, cellsee6

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BeanBalance is another free online one.

cheers, Paul

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cellsee6

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It looks like BeanBalance is UK-aimed, rather than international – it references Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. It also has a rather limited range of features.

What is extremely scary is that their website, in this day and age, is HTTP! It goes to secure when you want to start an account, but until then, not.

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cellsee6

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I used MS Money for years, and switched to KMyMoney, and it’s free.

Easy to export accounts from MS Money to KMyMoney.

Versions for Windows and Linux.

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cellsee6

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I’m still using MSMoney, and it still works just fine for me.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Zero, cellsee6

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I am still using Quicken 2002 (upgraded from Quicken 98).

It works a treat although all of the whizzy on-line bits stopped working when Quicken quit the UK.

25 years worth of data…

I am tempting fate, aren’t I?

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Zero, cellsee6

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You and me both. I’m still using Quicken 98. Although I am keeping backups offline and a Win7 laptop in the cupboard if Win10 refuses to run it.

Win10 22H2 Pro, MBAM Premium, Firefox, OpenOffice, Sumatra PDF.

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Zero

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Glad to meet a member of the Quicken 2002 forever club. I started in 1991 and stopped updating to new versions with the 2002 version. All the online bits stopped working over here in the US when they changed the file format but I use only the prices which I can enter by hand easily enough.

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Zero

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Like,  bbearren I still use MS Money and it works fine on all my 1903 machines, even in a Virtual Box w/Win 8.1. Unless you have need of online features I can see no reason to change. The only inconvenience for me is loading stock prices at the end of each month but that’s not a big problem for free reliable software that just does what you want it to with no spying! 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Zero, cellsee6

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I still use Quicken 2000. I have never used the online functions, so don’t miss them. It runs quite well on Win 7 x64. If it ever stops working I’ll go to MS Money Sunset.

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Zero, cellsee6, wavy

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I still use Quicken 2002, and it still works fine on Win 10 Pro v 1903.  My personal “risk register” includes that it might stop working on a future upgrade of Win 10.  As an alternative to being forced on to some form of Intuit subscription ware, my first port of call might be GNUcash.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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cellsee6

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I’m using the very last UK version of Quicken – 2004, but currently shadowing it with Kmymoney.

The both do some things better than the other but there must come a time when all the tweaking doesn’t keep Quicken running.

So, for now, just shadowing.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7640 Core Ultra 7 155H 32GB Win 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.5039)
Dell Inspiron 15 7580 i7 16GB Win 11 pro 24H2 (26100.3476),
Microsoft 365 Version 2502 (18526.20168)
Location: UK

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Zero, cellsee6

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In the UK, Jsoft works well as an MsMoney replacement, but you pay once for it (I think about £40)

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I’m still using Quicken 2004.  Tried many others, none of them can match it even in it’s out-of-date state.

 

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Zero

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I use a current version of Quicken. I really rely on its being able to download my credit card transactions and my bank account transactions. Years ago, Quicken was the only accounting package that could do that. And since I’ve used quicken since Quicken 98 it has been basically pretty clear sailing from year to year.

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Zero

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Hi @berniec I go back to Quicken in April 1993, and, yes it has been a good friend over the years. Excellent!

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7640 Core Ultra 7 155H 32GB Win 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.5039)
Dell Inspiron 15 7580 i7 16GB Win 11 pro 24H2 (26100.3476),
Microsoft 365 Version 2502 (18526.20168)
Location: UK

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Zero

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MoneyDance Personal Finance. Found at Infinitekind website. Free trial available. I’ve used it for about 15 years. Never a glitch.

eckisredux

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cellsee6

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Thank you for the information.  I run a small business so I need to invoice people.  I don’t see any invoicing capability and there is no contact link on their web site.

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I had Quicken once; I never could bring myself to let it access my bank account online, so I quit using it.

But that wasn’t the question you asked, so I digress.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I have been doing the Quicken update dance for a few (too many) years, but because I am frugal (okay cheap) I have been buying a year behind version on eBay which cuts the cost somewhat more than 50% since the seller is now holding a year behind product and wants to at least get their money back. Right now I run 2017.

What I want to clarify for myself is the separation of the “online” services that supposed stop working if you aren’t on a support version. Is it just the bill pay function or does that include the account downloads as well? I know I can manually download form each site but with a few credit cards and bank accounts, it will be tedious to log on to each, do the download and then the import into Quicken.

I pretty much just do basic work, I enter transactions into the register,m then use the download transaction function to clear them and then reconcile at the end of the month.

So question for those who have left Quicken,what free programs are you using that can import all my Quicken data and do the transaction downloads?

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Zero

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As noted above by bbearren and RetiredGeek, Microsoft Money still works fine and is free.

As for quotes, there is a utility:

https://gaiersoftware.com/Money

that can download investment prices directly into Money.  It works for any securities that are supported by the Money app, – i.e. US and UK for sure, and some others.

There is also a free utility:

https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/ofx-automation

that allows downloads of bank, investment, and credit card account transactions into Money.  It requires some setup but the instructions are very good.

Also, the Microsoft Money forum:

https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=money

is a good source of help it you are just getting started with Microsoft Money or it you run into any snags.

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cellsee6, sgayner, RetiredGeek

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Bill,

Thanks for the link to the quotes downloader. I’ve been testing the Trial version and it seems to work ok with one exception. It is now 21:35 EDT on 10/28 (Monday) and it is still downloading quotes for 10/25 (Friday)? Have you experienced this?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks, the quotes add-in will come in handy!

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+1 for MS Money. Been using it since the beginning of time. As others have said, if you don’t need automated online downloads or updates, works like a champ. I also find that most of my banks still support transaction downloads as either OFX files (native to MS Money) or QFX (which, with very few occasional issues, can simply be renamed to OFX). Yes, it’s a manual download, but once a month for a couple of institutions is something I can handle.

Go Money!

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cellsee6

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barcud,

ah yes! the good ole days. i srtarted using quicken 2. can’t remember the year, but i believe back then it was made by parsons technology. liked it so well, i brought it into my office and my office manager started using it in the business. simple and easy. can’t say the same for quicken today. don’t care for the subscription formaqt or the sunsetting. we now use moneydance. not nearly as refined as quicken but does well enough.

 

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wavy, John

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RetiredGeek,

Gaier’s program gets its quotes from the Microsoft’s Quote Web Services.  These quotes are usually timely for things like the Dow and S&P500 indexes but are sometimes a day or two behind for individual securities.  It’s a widely reported problem and (IMHO) Microsoft is unlikely to fix it.  So if you need dependably current quotes, Gaier’s software won’t work for you.

You can see that this is the problem by looking up an investment using the the Money app (Windows 10 only?) which also uses the Microsoft’s Quote Web Services.  This evening, when I look at some of my Vanguard funds, the latest prices are as of 10/25.  Maybe it will update later tonight, – or maybe not until tomorrow, or, rarely, another day or two.

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Bill,

Tried it first thing this morning (10/29) and it picked up the 10/28 quotes.

I only load quotes once a month so I purchase the program and just try to remember to load them before the trading day begins on the 1st of the month to get the previous month’s ending quotes. 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I’ve been using QuickBooks Online for my personal accounting and to invoice the weather company I work for once a month. I’m likely dumping it at the end of the year, since the cost continues to increase (I’m up to $25/month on the base plan), and there are still “ads” in the program and feature tweaks that have been annoying.

Previously I have looked into FreshBooks and Wave. I wouldn’t mind paying $15/month for FreshBooks due to their excellent support, but I can likely get by on free options and eliminate the expense completely.

For invoicing, I’m heavily leaning toward Billings Pro. Since I use a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, Billings Pro interfaces with all of them with native apps. They have a free plan that allows one invoice per month, which is all I invoice for the weather company I work for. I’m evaluating it more, but so far, it looks like it’ll handle my needs and give me native invoicing apps that sync, all for no monthly expense.

For personal accounting, I’m leaning toward Mint. Mint would be a somewhat easy transition from QuickBooks Online in terms of using it, and would still allow me to eliminate the monthly fee. Their iOS apps look solid, and I can use Flotato to pin the web app to my desktop similar to how QuickBooks Online’s Mac app works. I can evaluate it future and see if it meets my needs or if I want something else.

At least with these few free solutions, I could try multiple ones without worrying about forking over any credit cards to have to cancel subscriptions.

Nathan Parker

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Zero

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I still use M$ Money 2004. It is running as well as the I first installed it on Windows XP (or on earlier Windows. 🙂 and is now running on Windows 7 Home Premium x64. Never a hiccup and still serves me. FYI I don’t have shares any longer so just use it for my household budget.

 

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cellsee6

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It sounds like Money is a good option. However, I still haven’t heard anything about the download capabilities. I don’t do anything with investments I just want it to be able to download transactions from my bank and credit card accounts the same as Quicken.

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I am still using Money V12.0, (Money 2004 Standard) and have never had any issues with it in all these years.  I am able to download statements directly from my South African bank in .OFX format.  Investments/Unit trusts have to be updated manually, but it is really not a hassle for me.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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JTinLV,

If your bank or credit card allows you to download transactions in OFX of QFX format you can import the downloaded file into Money.  I do this with Discover, Chase Visa, and AMEX credit cards.

One caveat is that financial institutions are pretty sloppy about conforming to the OFX or QFX standards and occasionally will make a change that results in a corrupted file.  Some Chase downloads were broken awhile back and, recently, AMEX downloads needed to be edited in Notepad to successfully import them into Money.  These issues eventually get fixed, – especially when they also affect Quicken users, – but it may take awhile.

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A Caveat to folks who want to start using Quicken 2004.  In 2010 we needed a low-cost bookkeeping system for a small local charity and so purchased a new, legal Quicken 2004 on  eBay for just a few dollars.  It installed and ran okay at first, but I kept finding bugs in it — nothing I couldn’t work around, but I lost some functionality and it was *$#?*!! annoying.  The problem was, I think, the DVD (or was it a CD — I forget) was the initial release and when I tried find fixes  there was nothing out there.  So do your homework if you are thinking of switching to an old Quicken release (or any old release.)  I suffered that year .  .  . 2011 I switched to MS Money.  I wished MS Money had had better custom reports, but was able to port data to Excel and set up special reports there.  Today I use  a simple bookkeeping system set up in Excel.

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cellsee6

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So far my experience with Mint for personal finances and Billing Pro for invoicing have been excellent. I should be able to shut down QuickBooks Online and completely move to both by the end of the year or early next year.

Nathan Parker

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Kirsty

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Used this one for years. Excellent program and easy to use.

https://www.moneymanagerex.org/?utm_campaign=Application_Desktop&utm_source=Website&utm_medium=MMEX_v1.3.3

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cellsee6

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