Has anyone converted from MoneyDance to Quicken successfully?

amg1957

I am a long time MoneyDance user who is thinking about converting to Quicken. But before I buy it and try to convert my files, I want to know Quicken does a good job at it. I used to have quicken for mac and converted to quicken for windows and it was a horrible experience. Quicken to MoneyDance was seamless. So I am hoping Quicken has significantly improved its import process

Boatnmaniac

@amg1957 - Your best bet for figuring out if Quicken is something that will work for you and that you will like is to try it out.  You can order your subscription, download and install the program and play around with it for a while.  If within 30 days you decide you do not like it, you can cancel your subscription for a full refund.

Sherlock

Quicken has not improved it's import process.  If you haven't already, you may want to review: https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-import-data-quicken-windows

amg1957

Thanks. That is not good news. I guess I need to stay on MoneyDance. I have done Quicken for Mac to Quicken for Windows then back to Quicken for Mac in the days they said they weren't going to support Mac and then when they said they were going to support it again and it was a horrible experience. Quicken to MoneyDance (MD) worked pretty well, but MD stopped working with Schwab. I don't understand why Quicken would not make this a better experience. The article you sent me sounds like it doesn't convert most accounts:

QIF import is available only for asset and liability accounts (including house and vehicle) and cash accounts. If you have purchased Quicken Home & Business, you can use QIF to import transactions into accounts payable accounts and invoice accounts as well. QIF import is also available for any exported list, but the file you want to import the list into must already include a valid account. QIF import isn't available for checking, savings, or credit card accounts, or for 401(k) or any other brokerage accounts, although some financial institutions offer price history download via QIF.

Chris_QPW

amg1957 said:

QIF import is available only for asset and liability accounts (including house and vehicle) and cash accounts. If you have purchased Quicken Home & Business, you can use QIF to import transactions into accounts payable accounts and invoice accounts as well. QIF import is also available for any exported list, but the file you want to import the list into must already include a valid account. QIF import isn't available for checking, savings, or credit card accounts, or for 401(k) or any other brokerage accounts, although some financial institutions offer price history download via QIF.

This information is way old.  Quicken Subscription doesn't restrict what accounts can be imported using QIF.  What's more in the case of Quicken before 2018 you could get around this restriction by just putting the account names and types in the QIF file.

But what hasn't changed is the fact that Quicken QIF importing hasn't been improved in all these years (as far as Quicken Inc is concerned and Intuit before them) they really just want to format to die.

amg1957

Thanks Chris. interesting. that information was from their site. So if I move from MD to Quicken, I am in for a long manual process it sounds like. Is Quicken worth it? Are you happy with it?

Sherlock

amg1957 said:

Thanks Chris. interesting. that information was from their site. So if I move from MD to Quicken, I am in for a long manual process it sounds like. Is Quicken worth it? Are you happy with it?

If we were not happy with it, we wouldn't be using it.

We all use Quicken differently so it's difficult to say whether you will find the transition worth the effort.  As you didn't like Quicken before, I suspect you will not like it now.

Boatnmaniac

@amg1957 - Your best bet for figuring out if Quicken is something that will work for you and that you will like is to try it out.  You can order your subscription, download and install the program and play around with it for a while.  If within 30 days you decide you do not like it, you can cancel your subscription for a full refund.

Chris_QPW

Sherlock said:

If we were not happy with it, we wouldn't be using it.

I would phrase it differently.  From what I see most people have a love/hate relationship with Quicken.  Somethings it does great and somethings it is terrible at.  From my perspective I think the people that have the best success with happen to line (or purposely choose) up with the features that it does well and avoid the ones it doesn't.

amg1957 said:

Thanks Chris. interesting. that information was from their site. So if I move from MD to Quicken, I am in for a long manual process it sounds like. Is Quicken worth it? Are you happy with it?

No one can really tell you how hard the conversion is going to be when importing QIF files.
One might have a fairly simple account setup and it goes almost perfect.  Other it might be a massive job to get things to be correct.

Chris_QPW

BTW even though Quicken "works" with the new Schwab connection method, it hasn't gone smoothly, and people are still reporting many problems with it.