Quicken 2007 for Mac Lion Compatible & Quicken 2021 for Mac data files

romad

OK, first I'm running MacOS 10.13.6 on my Mid-2011 iMac which is as far as I can go. I currently use the following: PocketMoney Desktop, iCompta 6, and iFinance 4 with Quicken 2007 Lion Compatible (Q2007LC) for "translating" PMD QIFs into ones readable by iFinance & iCompta.

I'd like to try out Quicken 2021 (Q2021) but have a question regarding data files. Currently, Q2007LC saves and automatically backs up the data file using "Quicken Data.qdfm" and "#Quicken Data.qdfm" (where # denotes a number) respectively. Can I have Q2021 use a different file name as long as it keeps the qdfm extension? I want to continue to use Q2007LC until I decide if I want to replace it as "translator" with Q2021. If not, will Q2021 overwrite my Q2007LC data file?

MontanaKarl

Quicken 2021 Mac uses the file extension ".quicken", so there will be no conflict with your old files.  It will not modify your old file, rather you will Import the ".qdfm" file into a new ".quicken" file.  It can be named whatever you'd like - and renamed at any time as well.  Running both in parallel is a smart way to evaluate Q2021Mac - and there will be no file conflicts.

MontanaKarl

Quicken 2021 Mac uses the file extension ".quicken", so there will be no conflict with your old files.  It will not modify your old file, rather you will Import the ".qdfm" file into a new ".quicken" file.  It can be named whatever you'd like - and renamed at any time as well.  Running both in parallel is a smart way to evaluate Q2021Mac - and there will be no file conflicts.

romad

Thanks! That is exactly what I needed to know.

nutbrain

How's it going so far, romad? I'm thinking of doing the same thing to maybe convert for 2021 anticipating TurboTax's need for upgraded MacOS. Thoughts so far on conversion and running both versions?

romad

Actually, I haven't had time to get to it as I'm prepping my house + acreage for sale, along with getting ready to go to AZ for the holidays. Each time I see the icon, I think "Oh, yeah, I need to get back to that!"

jacobs

@nutbrain  I ran modern Quicken Mac and Quicken 2007 side by side for five years. I wasn't always keeping up in modern Quicken Mac because I didn't want to do all my work in duplicate; Quicken 2007 was my true "live" data. I finally switched this year for good -- but I still have Quicken 2007 on my Mac should I wish to fire it up to look back at something. (Since everything imported into modern Quicken, I haven't needed to refer back to the old QM2007 for anything; the only times I've launched it in recent months have been to help a fellow user with a Quicken 2007 question on this forum.) I've run both programs on different Macs running Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave without any problem.

My conversion went smoothly. The log file revealed a number of "orphaned" transfers -- meaning the transactions where there, but not linked between the two accounts. But I checked in Quicken 2007, and the problem existed there! Quicken 2007's database was good, but it was prone to occasional corruption over the years and years of upgrades and periodic crashes. These "orphaned" transfers were one problem in my QM2007 data, as was a chunk of transactions in one account (fortunately a not-very-important petty cash account for my wife) which had disappeared somewhere along the way. (I have a backup from which I could get the missing transactions, but I decided it wasn't critical to know how many trips to get Dunkin Donuts coffee she made in 1996! ) Again, neither of these problems occurred in the import into modern Quicken Mac; I just became aware of them and found the problems existed in my Quicken 2007 data unbeknownst to me.

If you want, you can keep using Quicken 2007, along with the new TurboTax 2020, by upgrading your Mac to Mojave. Quicken 2007 runs fine, other than automatic backups not working and creating the need to manually create backups periodically. Of course, Mojave is the absolute end of the line for Quicken 2007, so if TurboTax requires Catalina next year, you'll need to upgrade. Seeing that writing on the wall, you might might to make the jump forward this year. If you upgrade your Mac to Mojave in order to run TurboTax, then you can purchase Quicken Mac and give it a try -- without being locked out of Quicken 2007. Quicken allows a refund within 30 days of purchase, so you could install the new Quicken, import your data, and spend a few weeks poking around the new program to see if you encounter any showstopper issues. Meanwhile, you could continue using Quicken 2007, and if you decide to return the new Quicken, you'd be set to continue with 2007 and TurboTax 2020 for this next year.

I'd note that the new Quicken has a different user interface, and a large number of Quicken 2007 converts have an initial knee-jerk negative reaction because it's, well, different. There's a definite learning curve, but some things I disliked at first I grew to like better than Quicken 2007. Some things are different, but neither better nor worse, just different. And some things are missing or not as capable or easy, and I keep hoping to see them added to the modern program in the future. For me, with the improvements they've made in the program over the past several years, the current Quicken Mac is a viable replacement for Quicken 2007. Many other Quicken 2007 users have found the same thing. But some users have found some particular missing feature enough of an obstacle that they've stayed on Quicken 2007. Because we all use Quicken so differently, there's no good way to tell you how it will be for you without you just trying it for yourself. Just give yourself some time to explore and get questions answered before you make a decision on whether the new version will work for you. 

romad

> @romad said:
> Actually, I haven't had time to get to it as I'm prepping my house + acreage for sale, along with getting ready to go to AZ for the holidays. Each time I see the icon, I think "Oh, yeah, I need to get back to that!"

OK, I FINALLY did the import. I actually had to do it twice because the first time, Quicken 2021 screwed up ONE account and I could not find a way to delete and replace just it discovering the first problem with Q2021: it can't import QIF files (Q2007LC can't export OFX files).

I find the UI extremely ugly compared to PocketMoney Desktop, iCompta 6, iFinance 4, or even Q2007LC. I'd like to be able to add account icons in the sidebar.

jacobs

romad said:

I find the UI extremely ugly compared to [others].

I really missed the two-line register when I first started using the new Quicken. Over time, I came to really like the smooth, infinite scrolling (compared to the clunky page-at-a-time in Quicken 2007), and I find it faster to scan a screen of Payees or Memos now because I don't have to mentally screen out every other row. Of course, this and other facets of the design are subjective, so different people will perceive it differently.  And you opinions on some elements might change once using the new interface is second-nature, as Quicken 2007 was for many of us for so long.

romad said:

I'd like to be able to add account icons in the sidebar.

I actually prefer a word or two to a bunch of icons that aren't instantly discernable -- but I know a lot of people like icons over words. What I really wish they would do is add the list of accounts as a View or Transactions sub-menu, so we could assign command keys to them to make switching between accounts easy to do from the keyboard; I miss that from Quicken 2007.

romad

Well, I'm primarily comparing the Q2021 UI to my primary, secondary, and tertiary finance applications (the 3 non-Q2007LC ones) as those 3 have UI elements very similar to what Q2021 is trying to do. In the sidebars on those 3, the positive balances are in green with negative in red. Those colors along with color account icons (mostly bank logos) make the individual accounts really stand out.

Where did you assign command keys to accounts in Q2007LC? I can't find it.

smayer97

BTW you can still run QM2007 on Catalina and beyond via a VM like VMWare Fusion, Parallels or VirtualBox.

see Running Quicken for Mac 2007 in a Virtual Machine (VM)

To add command key to QM2007 accounts, press and hold the Command key, then click the List menu, then navigate to the account list and choose an account. A dialogue box pops up (see attached image) where you can assign a command key.

romad

> @smayer97 said:
> BTW you can still run QM2007 on Catalina and beyond via a VM like VMWare Fusion, Parallels or VirtualBox.see Running Quicken for Mac 2007 in a Virtual Machine (VM)

I've toyed with the idea.

> @smayer97 said:
> To add command key to QM2007 accounts, press and hold the Command key, then click the List menu, then navigate to the account list and choose an account. A dialogue box pops up (see attached image) where you can assign a command key.

Thanks!

Lauren Hutton

I have a similar situation and need your help. I've been using Quicken since 1987 and often had problems but continued to use it. I have a 2011? MacBook running SnowLeopard (10.6.8) and used Q2007LC to manually enter data since I could no longer import data from my Financial Institution's website for the last few years (yes-I read about a workaround using TextEdit to modify the downloaded QFX file but I was afraid I'd screw something up - also I faintly remember a conversion from Excel to QFX but didn't think I could manage that). Intermediate versions of Quicken didn't seem to offer anything great so I never upgraded.

Now, I have purchased a new iMac running Catalina. Quicken support said Q2020 would not import files from Q2007LC. Their only suggestion was to buy Q2020 and see if it can be installed on my MacBook. If that works, I could convert the Q data files on the MacBook to Q2020 and then Export/Import them to the iMac. They said the problem is the MacBook is 32-bit and the iMac Catalina is 64-bit.

Will this work or is there an alternate solution?

Also, from their website it appears that the Premium version of Q2020 supports online BillPay just like older versions did. Is that correct?

jacobs

Support gave you incorrect information. Quicken Mac 2020 WILL import your Quicken 2007 data. Because the converter software (which is actually a modified version of Quicken 2007) will not run on a 64-bit operating system like Catalina, they devised a way to send your data to a cloud-based server, convert it, and then send it back — all seamlessly to you. All you need to do in Quicken Mac 2020 is go to File > New, select Start from a Quicken Mac 2007 file, select your 2007 data file, and away you go!

The current bill payment system is different than the one you used to use, but yes, it is included for Quicken Deluxe users. There is more information about this on the Quicken website or in other posts on this forum.

Lauren Hutton

Thanks for your quick reply. I posted here because I suspected people here would know more than Quicken support.

nutbrain

Thank you jacobs and smayer97- two long time users who really know the issues of Quicken Mac Lion 2007 conversion. And Lauren Hutton, you are correct... these two probably do know more than Quicken support about this.
I'm going to try converting while I'm still in High Sierra, run both a bit, then if files seem to transfer well, upgrade everything to Mojave for TurboTax's new requirement. Otherwise I'll be using two computers for tax time this year! OR a virtual machine in another window. Superb community. Thank you so much.
-Nut

nutbrain

Hi- Need help with new Quicken Mac after converting from QM07Lion.
What's the best way to track rental income and expenses for several schedule E properties/units without completely screwing up bank and credit card registers by using transfers or moving transactions?

I do not have a separate bank account for each rental property (yes, I know I should.)

There are separate quicken accounts for each rental unit to track cash flow and capital improvements/basis. In old QML07 I'd move categorized transactions from imported credit card transaction files monthly to the proper rental property file. (Much easier to do this in new Quicken Mac with drag and drop!) I manually entered the lesser numbers of checks and electronic transactions in rental accounts for payments as they went to or from bank accounts. In old version I never tracked bank account balances--it was easy to just check accounts periodically online or with phone apps. It is nice having all accounts in one place, though.

Can I harness the good of the new Quicken aggregator and constant balance tracking or do I need to just ignore it and still use old method of transaction moving without having to constantly adjust bank/credit card balances for moved or transferred transactions? Or use tags or subcategories and run reports including the bank and credit card transactions- in which case, why have cash flow accounts for each rental unit?

I can hardly wait trying to set up reports in new version. (Tongue in cheek.)
Downloaded VMware fusion today just in case.
-Nut

jacobs

I'm not an expert on this since I don't have rental properties, so my first suggestion is that you might want to re-port your question in a a new thread with an appropriate title line like "How to track rental income and expense in QMac". You'll get more eyes on it than posting in this thread about Quicken 2007 which only a few of us die hards will ever read.

That said… I believe the best method may be to not have separate accounts in Quicken for your properties. Generally, it's best to try to have Quicken mirror the real world, so if you have one checking account, you probably want to have one checking account in Quicken. So how to deal with the different rental properties: Tags. If you create a Tag for each rental property, and apply it to your income and expenses for the rental properties, then you can create reports by tags to see your itemized expenses and income. This would allow you to download your checking account transactions if you wish, or you could enter them manually. In either case, you'd open the transactions fro editing and create split lines to apply the income or expense to one or more of the rental properties with a Tag.

nutbrain

Thank you, jacobs... I'll look in to how to generate reports with tags. That may indeed be the solution and i can track basis only in each rental property account. Supposedly all this change and learning is good for my aging brain.
Nut