Best Personal Finance Software

[bumski]

Hello Fellow Bogleheads!
My wife has used Quicken for years but the older version is now old and clunky. I read previous posts about the following software:
Mint (tech support said there is no reconciliation feature); MoneyDance, YNAB, New Quicken ($90 annual subscription). We file jointly, have a small S Corp. and fewer and fewer deductions now that the kids are out of the home.

After reviewing the features of these solutions we could still use some advise from the Boglehead community.
Could we get some recommendations from fellow Bogleheads.
Here is what DW would like

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I Have used quicken for years and like it's features of financial reports and easily searching for categories and who I made payments to. I also like how I can set aside money in savings goals and each account can be seen separately. However it takes so much time to enter everything in manually.

Would like:
Accounts (bank, cc, etc.) to be seen separately with the means to balance them with statements, identifying which transactions had been reconciled this far. (reconciliation features)

To enter my existing savings in a variety of goals and continue to add funds to them. Also to be able to 'hide' those funds so they don't appear as part of my available funds.

Ability to create itemized category spending reports along with profit and loss statements.

Ability to see how much I'd paid to a certain person or company over a specified period of time.

Ability to see how much I'd spent in a specific category over a specified period of time.

Transactions to be entered automatically into each account as they clear.

The ability to alter categories to my specifications.

The ability to set up paying bills.

Reminders of bills coming due.

Backups to local drive and offload for year end transaction detail and summaries. Can be standard CSV format

** It would be really nice too if data could be uploaded to Turbo or HR tax forms. This year I have purchased HR to try my hand at doing my own taxes.

[DJZ]

I think quicken is great. It’s a little cheaper than $90/yr:

https://www.quicken.com/compare

[daw007]

If you want the ability to be able to pay bills, I'm not sure what products are out there beyond Quicken.

I actually bought quicken this year planning on using it, but there are quirks of the Mac vs Windows version. (Mac version is slightly worse) and I ultimately didn't like the interface. It has a lot of features, probably the best is being able to track investments such as mutual funds, etc.

However, after using quicken for a few months I settled on YNAB because I didnt like the quicken style of doing things. Comparing the two, Quicken Connect is better at getting transactions from banks, etc. YNAB can never pull transactions from Schwab. (they use Plaid as their backend). I like YNAB's envelope style of budgeting which is why I am staying with them.

Another interesting thing, Quicken is no longer owned by Intuit. Some company in Florida I believe owns them and runs them now...

[JBTX]

Hello Fellow Bogleheads!
My wife has used Quicken for years but the older version is now old and clunky. I read previous posts about the following software:
Mint (tech support said there is no reconciliation feature); MoneyDance, YNAB, New Quicken ($90 annual subscription). We file jointly, have a small S Corp. and fewer and fewer deductions now that the kids are out of the home.

After reviewing the features of these solutions we could still use some advise from the Boglehead community.
Could we get some recommendations from fellow Bogleheads.
Here is what DW would like

--------------------------------------------

I Have used quicken for years and like it's features of financial reports and easily searching for categories and who I made payments to. I also like how I can set aside money in savings goals and each account can be seen separately. However it takes so much time to enter everything in manually.

Would like:
Accounts (bank, cc, etc.) to be seen separately with the means to balance them with statements, identifying which transactions had been reconciled this far. (reconciliation features)

To enter my existing savings in a variety of goals and continue to add funds to them. Also to be able to 'hide' those funds so they don't appear as part of my available funds.

Ability to create itemized category spending reports along with profit and loss statements.

Ability to see how much I'd paid to a certain person or company over a specified period of time.

Ability to see how much I'd spent in a specific category over a specified period of time.

Transactions to be entered automatically into each account as they clear.

The ability to alter categories to my specifications.

The ability to set up paying bills.

Reminders of bills coming due.

Backups to local drive and offload for year end transaction detail and summaries. Can be standard CSV format

** It would be really nice too if data could be uploaded to Turbo or HR tax forms. This year I have purchased HR to try my hand at doing my own taxes.

You mention entering quicken data manually. You can download it from most financial institutions. For the most part it works pretty well. I've done for years for dozens of accounts.

Of course some people perceive security issues with this approach and prefer manual entry.

[MarkVH0518]

I'm sticking to Quicken 2017 and have no intention of changing; it works just fine.
I do use ImportQIF from http://www.quicknperlwiz.com (note the missing 'e') to import credit card transactions
and brokerage transactions.

I don't want my any more of my information in the cloud than is already there.
I'm not willing to pay Quicken's new service charges.

Mark

[DetroitRick]

Going through your list, I can say that Quicken will handle everything you cited. Two qualifications. First, I'm basing this statement on the PC version, and have not kept track of what the Mac version does.

Second, on the backup and export needs, it's close but not exactly what you asked for:
A full and fast backup can be done in Quicken's proprietary file format
Individual registers now can be exported in Excel format, which you can then translate to csv or other. Except investment registers.
Reports themselves can be exported in any of 3 formats - Excel, PDF, text

Whether you like the new subscription model and online connectivity depends on you. I prefer this subscription model, and actually would not use Quicken without the connectivity (too much input for me). Overall, I'm happier with the product now than I was 5 years ago. I can get everything you asked for with minimal input and minimal maintenance. For point of reference, I'm using Quicken Premier (because of investment tracking).

[bumski]

Thanks for everyone's input. We'll be sticking with Quicken. We are having some issues connecting to some accounts. Amex worked great, chase Visa we're having some issues. One credit union works fine the other has issues. Is this just user error or does anyone else have account connect challenges?

[randyharris]

I used Quicken for over 20 years, then on the Mac I switched to iBank which was later renamed to Banktivity for many years. However, I switched to Personal Capital back in 2017 and couldn't be happier.

[Barsoom]

You might want to check with your banking institution to see if they offer a built-in solution on their on-line portal that is already linked to your accounts. Poke around on their website and you may find it with a name like "where your money goes" or other financial review features.

My credit union has one, and it lets me add external accounts for my credit cards, too. It automatically reconciles cleared transactions, has filters for viewing transactions, goals, cash flow projections, etc.

You may already have this and not even know it.

-B

[softwaregeek]

Have had tremendous problems myself, quicken is the most powerful but can’t handle Merrill edge. Personal capital can’t handle ally invest.