Has anyone converted from using Quicken for Windows to Quicken on the MAC, if so, what issues?

hdbabt3

I have been a Quicken for Windows user for 15 years and I am wanting to get off Parallels as I no longer have a need to use the platform on my Mac. What are the differences for Mac and were there any file issues and converting as years ago I tried and the account transactions got intermixed with wrong accounts.

Snowman

The MAC version is lacking many of the features that the Windows version has.  That alone would have kept me using Parallels but I abandoned the MAC platform after a disastrous trial from 2006-2010.  During that time I used Parallels on the Mac and that was all I used Parallels for. 

Chris_QPW

Note I'm Windows user, but this is how I see the "problem".

With Quicken Subscription you get both Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac for the same price.

Quicken Mac has made a lot of progress in the last few years from what I see on this forum and the conversion from Windows to Mac has been done a ton of times by many users.  There some problems in the conversion because of the different support, but from what I can tell it "mostly works".  So that leaves have they improved the feature set enough?  Well that depends on what a given user uses (plus learning how to do somethings a bit differently in some cases).

So if you are using Quicken Subscription what do you have to lose to install Quicken Mac and do the conversion?  You can still use Quicken Windows at the same time (independently updating them) and see if it is right for you.

jacobs

@hdbabt3  The differences in the appearance are jarring at first, but that's mostly because it's different and not what you're used to, not because the user interface is actually worse. It takes time to retain your eyes and fingers and brain to be used to a new version like this, and I'd guess that if you used it for a month or two, you'd find it becoming much more natural.

That said, there are certainly many features where Quicken Windows is more robust than Quicken Mac, so I'm certainly not trying to convince you that you should choose Quicken Mac over Quicken Windows. If there are features that are just different, you can relearn how to do them; if there are features that you use which are simply missing in Quicken Mac, then going back to Windows may make the best sense. 

I think if you took time to scan this forum and read comments by many hundreds of Quicken Windows users who started the switch to Quicken Mac, you'd see those who find Quicken Mac fine and are happy with it, those who find it "good enough" despite some annoyances or omissions, and those who find it inadequate and went back to Quicken Windows. There's no one-size-fits-all answer because we all use Quicken quite differently.

Chris_QPW

The comments I like the most in the forums is when the people that have used the new Quicken Mac for quite some time or it has been the only version they have used and then switch to Quicken Windows for one reason or another.

Their remarks are like.  What do you mean I can't use drag and drop for that?

You mean I can't rearrange the columns in the register how I like?

Why is this GUI so "dated"?

People tend to believe that all this should be "intuitive", but in reality there is no such thing.  It is all learned.  If you were use to Windows and then switch to Mac you won't find it "intuitive" no matter what the adds say.  The same goes the other way.  And that goes for individual programs like Quicken too.

And also there is the belief that if you have done something one way for a long time no other way is "valid".  One such example is automatic transaction entry mode.

Old Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows didn't have such modes until it was first introduced in Quicken Essentials (and that was the only mode it had, and that continues into "new Quicken Mac").

If you would listen to the Quicken Window SuperUsers you would believe that every mismatched download or wrong category or what not is caused by that nasty unusable automatic transaction entry mode and you need to turn it off immediately.

But current Quicken Mac doesn't have the option to turn it off, and new users for Quicken Windows have it on by default, but some how they are still able to successfully manage this process.  Note I'm probably the only long time Windows user that uses automatic transaction entry mode. 

This one of the most voted on features to Quicken Mac users want (to be able to review the transactions before accepting them into the register), which isn't surprising given that most users are either long time Quicken Mac or Quicken Windows user that converted over.

So why do I use automatic entry mode?

Because it is better than what is currently available in the non automatic entry mode flow.

With the transactions put in the register I have the full use of all of its features like sorting, multiple select, and such.  So for instance dealing with removing a lot of duplicate transactions from a "reset connection" is quite easy to deal with.

The Downloaded Transactions tab on the other hand is quite limiting.  There isn't any multiple select, so they have to delete one transaction at a time, or accept them all into the register where they can then be selected and deleted.

Also I can see what categories have been assigned to all the new transactions downloaded all at once.  In the Downloaded Transactions tab, you select one transaction and then it shows you it in the register and only then can you tell what category it is going to get.  This is much slower than me being able to quickly scan my transactions for the correct categories and mark them reviewed.   Or what I have actually done lately instead of marking them reviewed is to immediately reconcile to the online balance, and once that is done the transactions are already marked reviewed.

Snowman

The MAC version is lacking many of the features that the Windows version has.  That alone would have kept me using Parallels but I abandoned the MAC platform after a disastrous trial from 2006-2010.  During that time I used Parallels on the Mac and that was all I used Parallels for. 

hdbabt3

Are you still using Parallels and Windows version of Quickem?

Chris_QPW

Note I'm Windows user, but this is how I see the "problem".

With Quicken Subscription you get both Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac for the same price.

Quicken Mac has made a lot of progress in the last few years from what I see on this forum and the conversion from Windows to Mac has been done a ton of times by many users.  There some problems in the conversion because of the different support, but from what I can tell it "mostly works".  So that leaves have they improved the feature set enough?  Well that depends on what a given user uses (plus learning how to do somethings a bit differently in some cases).

So if you are using Quicken Subscription what do you have to lose to install Quicken Mac and do the conversion?  You can still use Quicken Windows at the same time (independently updating them) and see if it is right for you.

hdbabt3

That is is exactly what I did. I think the windows version is much better, so I think I will use windows, the Mac version is very different and and not as flexible along with the appearance being so different, makes you uncomfortable with each transaction.

hdbabt3

Thanks again.

jacobs

@hdbabt3  The differences in the appearance are jarring at first, but that's mostly because it's different and not what you're used to, not because the user interface is actually worse. It takes time to retain your eyes and fingers and brain to be used to a new version like this, and I'd guess that if you used it for a month or two, you'd find it becoming much more natural.

That said, there are certainly many features where Quicken Windows is more robust than Quicken Mac, so I'm certainly not trying to convince you that you should choose Quicken Mac over Quicken Windows. If there are features that are just different, you can relearn how to do them; if there are features that you use which are simply missing in Quicken Mac, then going back to Windows may make the best sense. 

I think if you took time to scan this forum and read comments by many hundreds of Quicken Windows users who started the switch to Quicken Mac, you'd see those who find Quicken Mac fine and are happy with it, those who find it "good enough" despite some annoyances or omissions, and those who find it inadequate and went back to Quicken Windows. There's no one-size-fits-all answer because we all use Quicken quite differently.

Chris_QPW

The comments I like the most in the forums is when the people that have used the new Quicken Mac for quite some time or it has been the only version they have used and then switch to Quicken Windows for one reason or another.

Their remarks are like.  What do you mean I can't use drag and drop for that?

You mean I can't rearrange the columns in the register how I like?

Why is this GUI so "dated"?

People tend to believe that all this should be "intuitive", but in reality there is no such thing.  It is all learned.  If you were use to Windows and then switch to Mac you won't find it "intuitive" no matter what the adds say.  The same goes the other way.  And that goes for individual programs like Quicken too.

And also there is the belief that if you have done something one way for a long time no other way is "valid".  One such example is automatic transaction entry mode.

Old Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows didn't have such modes until it was first introduced in Quicken Essentials (and that was the only mode it had, and that continues into "new Quicken Mac").

If you would listen to the Quicken Window SuperUsers you would believe that every mismatched download or wrong category or what not is caused by that nasty unusable automatic transaction entry mode and you need to turn it off immediately.

But current Quicken Mac doesn't have the option to turn it off, and new users for Quicken Windows have it on by default, but some how they are still able to successfully manage this process.  Note I'm probably the only long time Windows user that uses automatic transaction entry mode. 

This one of the most voted on features to Quicken Mac users want (to be able to review the transactions before accepting them into the register), which isn't surprising given that most users are either long time Quicken Mac or Quicken Windows user that converted over.

So why do I use automatic entry mode?

Because it is better than what is currently available in the non automatic entry mode flow.

With the transactions put in the register I have the full use of all of its features like sorting, multiple select, and such.  So for instance dealing with removing a lot of duplicate transactions from a "reset connection" is quite easy to deal with.

The Downloaded Transactions tab on the other hand is quite limiting.  There isn't any multiple select, so they have to delete one transaction at a time, or accept them all into the register where they can then be selected and deleted.

Also I can see what categories have been assigned to all the new transactions downloaded all at once.  In the Downloaded Transactions tab, you select one transaction and then it shows you it in the register and only then can you tell what category it is going to get.  This is much slower than me being able to quickly scan my transactions for the correct categories and mark them reviewed.   Or what I have actually done lately instead of marking them reviewed is to immediately reconcile to the online balance, and once that is done the transactions are already marked reviewed.

hdbabt3

Thanks very helpful.