Asset Allocation - Actual v Target

Carefree

I just moved from Windows to Mac. Windows Deluxe showed me asset allocation - actual to target. Don't think that is in Deluxe. Is it in Premier for Mac or not their either? Very surprised this most basic feature is not there.

jacobs

(a) There is no functional difference between the Mac versions of Deluxe and Premier. 

(b) Asset allocation has only existed in a rudimentary form in Quicken Mac as the developers have been building out the features as they've rebuilt Quicken Mac from scratch over the past decade. In a recent update, we received a first step in what will eventually be more robust asset allocation functionality. This new feature is the asset allocation card in the investing Dashboard view. Although it pulls in data from Quicken's third-party provider about the actual make-up of securities (e.g. a mutual fund or ETF which is 60% stocks and 40% bonds) and uses that in the Dashboard, you can't see or edit that data as you can in Quicken Windows. Since the data already exists in the Quicken Mac database, the heavy lifting has already been done, but the developers haven't yet built the user interface to make this data accessible. We've been promised by the product manager that this functionality is coming in a future update. He's also promised they will fix the Portfolio view to use the same asset allocation breakdown of securities now used in the Dashboard, which will make printing a report of asset allocation possible. After those changes are complete, they could potentially tackle additional tools and reporting, such as being able to create a target allocation in order to see actual versus target.

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Everyone thinks features they would find helpful are "basic" needs and can't understand how the developers haven't addressed them. The reality is that very little is "basic"; everything requires work to implement, and there are hundreds of ideas/wishes/needs all competing for the developers' time. For instance, just off the top of my head, and just in the area of investments, some user-requested features/enhancements include:

• Stock spin-offs/acquisitions
• Linked brokerage checking/investment accounts
• Average cost basis
• ESOP tracking
• Saved investment reports
• Custom asset classes
• Various improvements to investment graphs, such as user-set date ranges and control over y-axis
• Including stock indexes in graph or performance reports
• Portfolio X-Ray like in Windows
• Historical/performance charts for individual securities
• Reconciling share balances
• Better options trading support, and support for crypto trading

There are more, but that's just to illustrate the scope of the needs; I guarantee that there are fellow Quicken users who consider each of these a "basic" feature any investor would want. And for the developers, each of these is a project which might require weeks or months of work. Little by little, they're checking them off the master list of feature requests -- but it will take years to tackle them all. 

jacobs

(a) There is no functional difference between the Mac versions of Deluxe and Premier. 

(b) Asset allocation has only existed in a rudimentary form in Quicken Mac as the developers have been building out the features as they've rebuilt Quicken Mac from scratch over the past decade. In a recent update, we received a first step in what will eventually be more robust asset allocation functionality. This new feature is the asset allocation card in the investing Dashboard view. Although it pulls in data from Quicken's third-party provider about the actual make-up of securities (e.g. a mutual fund or ETF which is 60% stocks and 40% bonds) and uses that in the Dashboard, you can't see or edit that data as you can in Quicken Windows. Since the data already exists in the Quicken Mac database, the heavy lifting has already been done, but the developers haven't yet built the user interface to make this data accessible. We've been promised by the product manager that this functionality is coming in a future update. He's also promised they will fix the Portfolio view to use the same asset allocation breakdown of securities now used in the Dashboard, which will make printing a report of asset allocation possible. After those changes are complete, they could potentially tackle additional tools and reporting, such as being able to create a target allocation in order to see actual versus target.

---

Everyone thinks features they would find helpful are "basic" needs and can't understand how the developers haven't addressed them. The reality is that very little is "basic"; everything requires work to implement, and there are hundreds of ideas/wishes/needs all competing for the developers' time. For instance, just off the top of my head, and just in the area of investments, some user-requested features/enhancements include:

• Stock spin-offs/acquisitions
• Linked brokerage checking/investment accounts
• Average cost basis
• ESOP tracking
• Saved investment reports
• Custom asset classes
• Various improvements to investment graphs, such as user-set date ranges and control over y-axis
• Including stock indexes in graph or performance reports
• Portfolio X-Ray like in Windows
• Historical/performance charts for individual securities
• Reconciling share balances
• Better options trading support, and support for crypto trading

There are more, but that's just to illustrate the scope of the needs; I guarantee that there are fellow Quicken users who consider each of these a "basic" feature any investor would want. And for the developers, each of these is a project which might require weeks or months of work. Little by little, they're checking them off the master list of feature requests -- but it will take years to tackle them all. 

Carefree

@jacobs Thanks for the clarity in your response. My comment on most basic wasn't directed at developers. I am not clear if you work for Quicken or not but let me clarify. It was in reference to advice given by investment managers, as well as what has been in the Windows version. I think there is a lack of transparency on the Quicken sales site when features like this are not in both versions. Also in reference to what most users of the software would use to check on advice they were given by an investment advisor. I suppose the workaround is to convert my data back to Windows once in a while if I have access to a Windows computer. That's not a long term solution for me so I hope these features are added.

jacobs

@Carefree I don't work for Quicken; I'm a fellow Quicken Mac user.

You said your comment wasn't directed at developers, but in a sense, it was. Any feature which doesn't exist in Quicken Mac and is desirable is a request for the developers to create it. You're correct that the Quicken website doesn't provide any real detail on what specific features exist in Quicken Windows versus Quicken Mac. The problem is that there are hundreds and hundreds of features in Quicken -- some large, some small -- and a website chart of every feature would be a nightmare to create, to maintain, and to search. For most Quicken users, the most practical way to discover the differences is to try Quicken Mac to see if it fits their needs or not. Many who have converted from Quicken Windows find features missing or lacking in Quicken Mac, but each user has different criteria for how critical or non-critical those difference are. 

You mention converting your data back to Windows periodically, but I'd just like to note that you cannot transfer data from Quicken Mac to Quicken Windows. Quicken Windows will import banking data, but not investment data, which is what you're after. The developers of Quicken Windows have never invested the time in building a complete importer for Quicken Mac data. 

As for comparing your actual asset allocation to your target asset allocation, that's pretty easy to accomplish in a spreadsheet if you wish -- assuming you can get a report from Quicken Mac of your current asset allocation. As I explained above, you can't currently get such a report (because the Portfolio view asset allocation got broken by the implementation of the new Dashboard asset allocation), but this functionality should be coming in the near future, I believe. I was saying that once they get the basic asset allocation functionality complete in Quicken Mac, a subsequent enhancement could be the ability to enter your target allocation to get a report comparing them -- but that's likely further in the future. 

And yes, there are any number of features we all hope to see in the near future to meet our personal needs. Unfortunately, the list of feature requests is so long that it will take some time for the developers to tackle the list of our needs and desires. 

Carefree

@jacobs Thank again for the thorough reply. I will wait it out with you. I understand what you are saying. I guess since I support a coffee roasting software company as the non-engineer, I see things from the user standpoint, not the developer standpoint. It would be interesting if we could know their priority.

jacobs

Carefree said:

It would be interesting if we could know their priority.

Indeed it would! But they never share that information, and likely never will.

Some of that is due to competitive reasons -- to not tell their competitors what they're working on or plan to work on. and some is because development schedules are fluid. Something which starts out as a simple, quick project can turn into an unexected many-monthlong rewrite of a section of the program's code -- so when certain features will appear is often unknown even to the developers.  

In the case of asset allocation, we're fortunate to know this is something they're actively working on, and they have promised to address some of the current shortcomings in an upcoming release. That's about as much information as we ever get!