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Mac vs Windows Functionality

Flaps55

For a variety of reasons I've been forced to move away from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac. It is a deeply disappointing experience even after hearing the CEO talk about all the improvements they have made to the Mac version. I can no longer archive a year-end copy to keep my file sizes reasonable, no auto fill after reconciliation, no two line ledger format, no font adjustment of note, unable to move a transaction, no recognition of a duplicate check number, etc. etc. I hope the development team reads this. Do I REALLY have to go out and buy a stand alone Windows laptop just to have reasonable functionality on quicken?

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Flaps55

Wow. Many thanks all for your insightful and encouraging comments and recommendations. And yes, my poorly worded "autofill after reconciliation" referred to automatically entering the payment. As a rather new user of Mac the loss of these features was initially frustrating, but I am settling into a new routine using many of your suggestions. So, thank you again.

smayer97

...a two-line register format similar to Quicken Windows.... I like being able to arrange which columns are visible, what order they're in, how wide they are, and have those things different for different accounts.

Of course, being able to arrange columns as you like is not limited to one-line registers. Even QM2007 started to implement the ability to do this with two-line register format... It all comes down to the effort for Quicken to implement this.

If you still desire to see the 2-line register as an option, add your vote to

Add option for 2-line/row display in Quicken For Mac

Chris_QPW

@MontanaKarl thanks, I think you are right on the mark with that one. I also remember turning that off because I reconcile now daily, and as such don't have a payment to enter every time I reconcile.

MontanaKarl

Oh... I think by autofill after reconciliation the OP means automatically enter the payment. This stumped me initially in QMac as well, @Flaps55, but all you do is set up a scheduled bill. Weird and different, but the bill is linked to your online banking/credit card and updates to be the amount due...and autopaid from the account you specify. Net result is identical to QWin.

File size - my QWin data file is over 186 MB with over 56,000 transactions. I've never done a year end copy as I like the ability to search for anything. Speed is instant. I just converted to QMac, and the same data occupies only 26 MB in QMac and also provide instant access.

The single line registers take a while to get used to after QWin 2-line. But, hopefully you've found out that you can drag the column headings around to put the columns in the order you want, as well as to right click the headings to choose what fields you want to see or not see. It only took me a few days to get used to it. Now, splits are another matter. It drives me insane in QMac that when I split an expense, which shows as a positive amount that the split entries are negative.

Not detecting duplicate check numbers seems like an oversight, since it would be such a simple thing to implement. Add your vote for this feature here:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7857313/warn-for-duplicate-check-numbers

Chris_QPW

For what it's worth, there isn't a Windows Quicken SuperUser that recommends using year end copy.

And as a Quicken Windows user of about 26 years, I also have no idea what "no auto fill after reconciliation" means.

jacobs

Flaps55 said:

I can no longer archive a year-end copy to keep my file sizes reasonable, no auto fill after reconciliation...

The key question is whether you actually need this functionality. In Quicken Windows, the database is quite old, and prone to various forms of corruption (thus various Validate processes to fix things). Quicken Mac uses a modern SQL database which can achieve massive size without significant degradation in speed (assuming the code is written correctly), and which isn't prone to the types of corruption which afflict older databases. I have all my data from the mid 1990s through today in my Quicken Mac data file, and don't have a need for separating out old years. In fact, one of the features I like most about Quicken Mac is that I have my entire financial history in one place. (When did we replace the hot water heater? How old is the roof on our house? When was the first time we went to that restaurant? Which year was that vacation. All answers are a simple few clicks away.

)

I do understand people whose lives have significantly changed — divorced/widowed, remarried, retired, kids grown — who want to leave behind a lot of old accounts/categories/tags from a prior phase of life, so I do think the developers should add the capability to archive older data for this reason. If that's you, then I encourage you to add your vote for this feature request here. But just to keep a small file because that's what you've done in Quicken Windows in the past? You might find you don't really need that.

Flaps55 said:

no auto fill after reconciliation

Not sure what this refers to? Reconciling an account is marking which transactions have cleared. Are you referring to making an adjusting entry to correct your account balance? You can do that in the Quicken Mac reconcile screen. But hopefully shouldn't need to do that too often!

.

If this refers to something else, please fill me in on what you mean by this to see if there's some way to do something similar in Quicken Mac.

Flaps55 said:

no two line ledger format

When I first switched from the legacy Quicken Mac 2007, which used a two-line register format similar to Quicken Windows, I found the one-line register of the modern Quicken Mac jarring. I didn't like it. But after working with it for a few months, I came around and for several years now I have actually preferred the interface of Quicken Mac. I like being able to arrange which columns are visible, what order they're in, how wide they are, and have those things different for different accounts. Most importantly, I find scrolling and skimming the register looking for something to be much easier on the eyes and brain with all the data in each row matching the row above, instead of having alternating rows of different data.

I think many other converts from the old Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows have experienced the same change in thinking I did. But everyone doesn't agree on everything, so I can't tell you your personal preference is wrong. But if you've only recently switched to Quicken Mac, my advice is to not fight it and keep telling yourself how much it isn't like Quicken Windows; work with it for awhile as your brain-eye-hand muscle memory adapts to working differently, and you might find, like I did, that after a few months you actually don't miss that old two-line interface.

Flaps55 said:

no font adjustment of note

You can adjust the font size and line spacing of registers onscreen in the View menu. There are other things you can't change, like the font size in reports. What, specifically, are you finding problematic?

Flaps55 said:

unable to move a transaction

From one account to another? Sure you can: just drag the transaction(s) to another account in the left sidebar. It's simple and efficient. (It's easier than the way the old Quicken Mac worked, which required a dialog box to pull down a destination account name; I'm not sure how it works in Quicken Windows.) If you are referring to something else, please elaborate.

Flaps55 said:

no recognition of a duplicate check number

That's true. You can add your vote for this functionality in this Idea thread. I suppose I write so many fewer checks than I used to that this hasn't been a problem for me. Just FYI if you weren't aware of this, if you click on the Check # column heading, your register will sort by check number order, so you can quickly skim the past month or quarter or year for any duplicate check numbers; then click back on the Date column heading to restore your normal register order.

Flaps55 said:

I hope the development team reads this.

Sorry to tell you they almost certainly don't.

They sometime read Idea thread posts, if they're considering implementing some new feature. They may read some posts if there's some specific new problem affecting a lot of users which is blowing up here. But otherwise, they aren't reading all the posts here.

Flaps55 said:

Do I REALLY have to go out and buy a stand alone Windows laptop just to have reasonable functionality on quicken?

Well, you could run virtual machine software, like Parallels, so you can run Quicken Windows on your Mac if you want to. That's a lot less expensive than buying a separate computer.

But as I wrote above,e if you've only recently converted to Quicken Mac, I'd encourage you to give it some time to get used to using it. There are most certainly features in Quicken Windows which are missing from Quicken Mac, but most of the issues you've mentioned here shouldn't prove to be showstoppers for most users.

Best wishes, whatever route you decide to pursue.

Jon

You can move transactions to a different account via drag & drop.

As for the rest of it, if you can't live without that stuff then you either buy a Windows computer or you run Quicken for Windows on your Mac using something like Parallels or Crossover. Personally I don't miss any of the features you mentioned - probably wouldn't use most of them even if QMac had them.