Incompatible Backup Files between Mac and Windows versions?

g.mazel

Quicken Home & Business Canada 2019 does not include two accounting essentials, a Profit and Loss Statement or a Balance Sheet! As a result, I found I would have to migrate to Windows version. I was willing to do so, as I had been using the Quicken Windows version for a very long time anyway. Found out that Quicken support is not very reliable. I was told by a Quicken Customer support rep that I could backup 6 months of Mac entered data to a standard Quicken Backup file and import it into Windows. FOUND OUT THIS IS NOT COMPATIBLE W WINDOWS! The only way I could get data over is to use their Quicken Windows Transfer File mechanism, .QXF, which missed some accounts and renamed categories. At least a log file of errors was generated. When will this bug be fixed?

g.mazel

Quicken Home & Business Canada 2019 does not include the accounting essentials, a Profit and Loss Statement or a Balance Sheet! Without these two reports, this version of the product is just a paperweight.

jacobs

Well, let me say three things:

(1) There is actually no real Home & Business version for Quicken Mac. If you pay for a Home & Business subscription to Quicken, you get the Quicken Mac application, and the "About" box will say "Home & Business", but none of the added features from the Windows Home & Business version exist for Quicken Mac. Quicken Mac functionality basically stops at the Quicken Deluxe level, as you can see on this page on the Quicken.com website.

(2) You definitely cannot move Quicken Mac data to Quicken Windows. As it seems you found, you can try and get partway there, but none of the investment data comes over, and there may be some other issues. This is widely documented in other threads on this website. While we could quibble over whether this is properly termed a "bug" or a "missing feature", the fact is that this has not worked since the modern generation of Quicken Mac came out in fall 2014. The developers at Quicken focused on people wanting to migrate from Windows to Mac; there's a much smaller stream of people wanting to go the other way. Whether they will eventually decide to invest time in building this functionality or not is not a question anyone on this website -- fellow users or Quicken moderators -- can answer.

(3) The lack of an Income Statement and Balance sheet in Quicken Mac is frustrating, and I suspect they will get implemented as they work to finish development of a new reports engine that has been evolving over the past two years. But currently, there are some workarounds that can get you reasonably close, so I wouldn't characterize the program as a "paperweight". For instance, if you build a New Report (Transaction or Summary) report based on Categories, you end up with a report of Income, Expenses and a Total that is pretty much an Income Statement. Customize the time range to suit your needs, and if there are any categories or accounts which should not be included for an Income Statement, Customize the report to exclude them -- and you end up with a pretty functional Income Statement.

g.mazel

(1) Really? OK, then I guess I am definitely due a refund and maybe a little extra for pain and suffering from believing in the product as sold to me by a Quicken sales rep for the last several months.
(2) Step up the game. The universal backup file is key. Without a universal cross-platform file for backup, your users will quickly abandon ship.
(3) You're right about using the word "paperweight." Not heavy enough. Change it please to "door stop." Again, not being harsh, but please I encourage your team to step up their game. Fundamental to all bookkeeping are the  widely used terms "Income Statement (AKA P&L AKA Profit & Loss)" and "Balance Sheet." Please let me know when these basic features are available again and I may return to Quicken MAC. For now I'm moving on.
Sincerely,
Gregg Mazel

BOOKKEEPING, the only English word that has three double letters in a row.

Greg_the_Geek

AFAIK, Quicken doesn't have any sales reps. Who did you speak to?

jacobs

@g.mazel You're writing your message as if you're writing to Quicken management. You're not. This forum is mostly just fellow Quicken users (like me) trying to help each other out. There are a handful of Quicken moderators here who mostly help keep the forum organized and sometimes offer support help. This site is also not Quicken Support, which offers one-to-one help to Quicken users via chat or phone.

(1) There are many people who would like to see Quicken develop a Home & Business venison for Mac. There has never been one in the past, and they haven't said whether there will be one in the future. But it's not likely to happen until the underlying "Quicken Deluxe" offers relative parity with Quicken Windows; only then can they build the added Home and Business functionality on top of the core product. 

As for a refund months after you made your purchase, form what other users have reported here, I think it's unlikely they will comply; they seem pretty strict about the 30-day cutoff for refunds. But you can try contacting Quicken Support.

(2) A universal backup file means a universal data file, and that's not anywhere close to current reality. Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows use different databases and have different features. Would a single file format the is usable on both platforms be useful and desirable? Yes. But it would require major reworking of one or both programs. You say without it users will quickly jump ship. Well, Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows have never been interoperable over the past three decades, so that's just not true. It may be a wish, but it's not reality.

(3) Quicken is mostly designed as personal finance software, not professional accounting software. The Home & Business version on Windows somewhat bridges that gap for very small businesses, but it's not professional bookkeeping software. If it doesn't suit your needs, then move on to something suited for business bookkeeping. But that doesn't mean the program is a "paperweight" or "door stop"; it's useful for hundreds of thousands of users to manage their personal finances. As I noted above, you can get a functional Income Statement out of it, but if it's not what you want right now, Quicken Mac doesn't meet your needs.