I have been using Quicken for years to track transactions in all my accounts. I can keep track of money coming in and going out. It allows me to look at everything in one place, see my balances, manage a budget, pay bills, etc. I have used Quicken for such a long time, I wonder if I am simply used to my method of doing things or is there something better.
What other programs are being used by the community? I think I would like to consider options.
I use countabout and manually upload my accounts. The cost is just $10 per year with manual upload.
I’m old-fashioned and don’t want to give permission to any accounting program to have access to my accounts. Countabout is one of the few programs that permits manual upload.
Yes. A Libre Office speadsheet.
I use an Excel spreadsheet that I created. I used to use quicken, but about 8ish years ago I began having more and more difficulties with it. Eventually I gave up, saying, at least in my mind, “you obviously do not want my business, and are trying to destroy the program.”
As a project manager many years ago in a large mfg plant, the existing company software just did not cover the things I needed.
Took an all day business Excel course at the local JC. WOW…!!
I had no idea. Before long, I could make projections, pivot tables, % of high or low data, multi layered charts, even cells that would blink RED when the data was getting risky, based on my preset limits. Amazing.
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I switched from Mint online when it was discontinued to Monarch online. There’s a fee but not too much. I mainly use it to aggregate my accounts (banks, brokerages, credit cards). I check it every day or two or three and categorize my transactions. Usually that’s automatic but sometimes a store or vendor isn’t recognized by the program.
I know that Clark and others say to check your monthly credit card statements for fraudulent charges but in my opinion it’s much easier to do that every few days. That way it’s fresh in your mind. If I waited a month, I’d probably forget why there’s a charge for an unrecognized shop or online vendor. It takes time to investigate whether it’s real or not, so in order to save time I just do that process frequently.
You can use many other advanced features on Monarch like budgeting but I stick to the account view and transactions view. No need for me to use everything that’s offered.
I have used Quicken for many years and it meets my needs.
I like being able to scan the reciepts into the transactions which makes reconciliation easier.
I have used Quicken for decades, but got tired of having to buy new versions every 3 years as they would change the format for connecting to bank accounts trying to force you to “upgrade”. And the new versions had the same defects as the old. So, I use Quicken 2008 and manually enter everything. I found I pay more attention when I have to manually enter stuff anyway.
Not free but I am very happy with Tiller:
Collects info from your financial accounts and puts them into a google or excel spreadsheet that you control. They don’t hold the data. Can be a little involved to set up but very powerful.
I too have been using Windows based Quicken (Classic) for decades. Despite its occasional hiccups, I believe it the best product out there to keep track of our finances. I am shocked that cheap Clark doesn’t use it also. I have 40-50 bank accounts, credit cards and brokerage accounts (way too many but please don’t judge). I’ve also loaded aLl other asset and liability accounts like cars and home and home mortgage which allows me to see our net worth any time. I download transactions daily using one step update for all of the accounts and categorize expenditures. The process takes minutes and gives me piece of mind d better control over our finances. If a transaction is unfamiliar, I can investigate immediately. Account reconciliation is a breeze. I don’t utilize the budgeting features but I do generate expenditure reports periodically to see where we spend our money compared with the prior period. At the end of each year, I generate an itemized transaction report for my wife who prepares our taxes. This gives her an opportunity to “audit” our expenses and is how she learned I spend more money on wine than groceries!
I am so glad a new owner continued Quicken for Mac. For a while the Mac version was abandoned. It is better than ever. Cannot keep up with all the features. But it costs an annual fee now. Wish I could figure out how to sync my brokerage accounts with it.
Hey, I’ve been using Quicken for years too, and it work well for tracking all my transactions, bills, and budget. It’s become a bit of a routine, so I totally get what you mean about being used to it. That said, there are a few other options out there that some people in the community really like.
I’m a former Mint user who now uses Empower to track/analyze spending and gnucash to balance/reconcile my checking account.
Empower is really great. It has an excellent retirement planning tool, where you can test many scenarios.
With gnucash, I set up a single account called “Checking” with just 2 spending categories: “Income” and “Expenses”. It’s sole purpose is to manage the checking account balance.
I’m not missing Mint it at all. Empower+gnucash is way better.
I don’t believe you will find a free solution where you can enter transactions, but I also think that’s totally unnecessary (and even better to have it separated out).