Quicken for a Mac compared to the Windows version !! [Edited]

Bill O'Neil

Please tell me I'm missing something and I'm wrong. Just bought a new Imac 24 and I'm so disappointed with Quicken on it. Only solution seems to be is to do a partition on the iMac with Windows which seems to defeat the purpose of buying the Mac.

UKR

How about you tell us a little more about the "compared to Windows, Q Mac doesn't or can't do the features I need" - situation. Maybe the Mac experts in the Community can help you find how to make it work on the Mac.

Are you new to Quicken Mac (2015 and newer)?

Welcome.

Getting Started with Quicken for Mac
https://www.quicken.com/complete-guide-getting-started-quicken-2018-mac https://www.quicken.com/quicken-tips with links to more information and videos

If you haven't done so already, please review these videos for more information about Quicken Mac
https://www.youtube.com/user/QuickenMac/videos

 

Help! (Quicken Mac)

Click Help / Quicken Help for additional help on Quicken functions and features.
A browser-based version is available here: https://help.quicken.com/display/MAC/Quicken+for+Mac+Help

jacobs

I've only ever used Quicken Mac, so as far as I'm concerned, it's not terrible!  

Yes, Quicken Mac lacks some features in Quicken Windows. For some users, these differences may be showstoppers. But in many cases, you can do thing sin Quicken Mac that you could do in Quicken Windows, just somewhat differently. Without knowing what you're finding difficult or impossible to do, no one here can really offer much advice. But if you do want help, take a deep breath and try to calmly discuss one or more of the issues you've run into.

And yes, running virtual machine software in order to run Windows on a Mac for the purpose of running Quicken Windows is a solution that works best for some people. 

Bill O'Neil

Thanks for responding to my post. Biggest problem is I didn't do my research. I read a couple articles about the differences and how easy it was to transition and bought the Mac. Second big problem is I've had Quicken for over 10 years with I don't know how many investment transactions plus a number of rental properties. I've tried to backup and bring over with no success. When I download from Fidelity it doesn't bring over the cost.
Other issues are so far I can't find Portfolio X-Ray, Performance, Allocations and the Dashboard is limited. Also the available columns are severally limited compared to the Windows version.
Was hoping to get away from Windows totally but maybe I can't. I would have thought Quicken would have both versions the same by now.

jacobs

Quicken Mac was re-launched as an all new coding effort in 2014 after the legacy program hit multiple dead-ends with the evolution of the Mac operating system. It had gaping holes in 2014, and over the past 7 years, many of them have been plugged or shrunk in size. But the process has gone much slower than we customers anticipated, and I believe much slower than the development and management teams at Quicken anticipated. (Quicken CEO Eric Dunn said he thought relative parity between Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac might take about more two years -- back in 2016!) I'm assuming the developers are reasonably competent at their job, and I think this just illustrates that Quicken is a surprisingly complex program, and it is hard and slow work to expand its functionality without breaking existing functionality. (I always love when some perturbed user posts "this is simple; a high school student could do this in half a day!" )

That's the bad news -- that there are still missing features, and that development of new features progresses slowly. But the good news is that if you take a step back and look at Quicken Mac today versus seven years ago, or even three years ago, you can appreciate that a huge amount of progress actually has been achieved. And the company appears to be on sound enough footing to continue investing in improving the product, even though the progress is slower than we'd wish.

Moving the specific things you mentioned: the import from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac should bring across all your transactions, complete with cost basis. I was confused that you wrote that downloading from Fidelity doesn't bring over the cost; don't you have that in the file you imported from Quicken Windows? (Downloads from financial institutions will rarely go all the way back in time to capture the full financial history you have in your Quicken Windows data file.)

Portfolio X-Ray is a feature in Quicken Windows which doesn't yet exist in Quicken Mac. The infrastructure for it wasn't there, but the recent introduction of Dashboards 1.0 has created some of the necessary infrastructure. The product manager has said that the current Dashboard is just the start, and they have much more planned, but they wanted to release the current incomplete and imperfect implementation which some may find useful to use as a starting point to build additional functionality over future iterations. We have no idea if they are going to add the Portfolio X-Ray feature to Quicken Mac, but we have confirmed that improvements to managing and viewing asset allocations are forthcoming. 

I don't know what limitations you find in the investment portfolio columns -- more time ranges for performance calculations, perhaps? -- but I think we'll see additional improvements there as well.

As I mentioned above, some people continue to run Quicken Windows in a VM on a Mac in order to take advantage of features they consider indispensable. Some day, that will hopefully not be needed, but Quicken Windows has about a 2-decade head start on development, so it will take more time for Quicken Mac to catch up. Because we all use Quicken very differently, anyone coming from Quicken Windows has to determine for themselves whether any of the limitations in Quicken Mac are annoyances you can live with or showstoppers which prevent you from leaving Quicken Windows. 

Bill O'Neil

Thanks so much for your explanation. That explains a lot. Thanks for everyone's response !!

Bill O'Neil

Update on my Quicken Mac issues. I ended up getting Parallels for my iMac 24. Fantastic product that was very easy to install. Followed the instructions and installed Windows11 through their insider program. Don't get impatient it takes awhile to download. Brought over my data and it works better than on my old Dell. Thanks for all the info and posts!!

jacobs

I haven't seen any significant impact on Quicken from the two ownership changes, except (a) they have more resources since they were sold by Intuit, which has resulted in a new product line (Simplifi) and more programmers to work on Quicken Mac, and (b) they charge more under the subscription pricing scheme, both to pay for the added staff and to pay a return to the two companies which have bought them. I'd say Quicken is likely much better positioned now than when Intuit sold them; the latest sale will probably bring about some new synergies in the future aimed at driving new sources of revenue, but I've seen no sign on it adversely affecting Quicken (company or product) at this point. There hasn't been "a lot of turnover"; the staff stayed remarkably whole in the transition when Intuit sold the company, and the recent change of ownership didn't create turnover or change. 

Quicken is more than 10 times larger than IGG Software, the company which develops Banktivity. Quicken is for Mac and Windows, and has the separate Simplify product for web-one users; Banktivity is Mac only, and had a much smaller customer base. Which one is best poised for the next decade and beyond is anyone's guess, but Quicken certainly has more money and staff behind the company.