Home & Business version of Quicken Mac

Quicken Victoria

Greetings Quicken Mac users!

We've received numerous requests for a Home & Business version of Quicken Mac in recent years, but most of these requests simply express the need for its creation.

If you have an interest in this version, we would appreciate it if you could share the most critical features you require in Quicken to effectively manage your business finances.

Thank you!

Quicken Mac Product Team

Dea Badami

I have used Quicken for Mac forever and love it. I have used QuickBooks for our businesses and hate it (desktop and online-only versions) because it is too complicated for a small biz owner. When I worked with a big corporation, it was okay, but now we are truly a "small business" and I year for uncomplicated, easy to use, with good end-of-year reporting to make preparation of tax returns for BOTH business and personal easier.

Features I would love: accountant access; ease of entering expenses (phone app or ?). All I want is to enter expenses, see all my accounts in one spot, see health of business finances at a glance. All the things that I can see in Quicken for Mac for our personal lives.

MOST importantly, I need to be able to manage 2-3 businesses in ONE Quicken Mac home & business version. This is because I, and many entrepreneur families, have at least 2 different small businesses - the husband may have one, the wife another, a son or daughter may have a small business too !!!

jacobs

I've used Quicken to manage the finances for a small business (my wife's) and a national non-profit association. I no longer do either one, but what I really needed was the ability to generate and send invoices, and to track payments and outstanding accounts receivable. In both prior cases, I used a separate FileMaker Pro database for creating, sending, and recording payments against invoices. (Back a couple decades ago, FileMaker Pro was inexpensive software average users could use to create simple or powerful custom databases; now, it's very expensive subscription software targeting a higher-end software developer market.) Using a separate database meant redundant data entry and more chances for errors. I would love to see a version of Quicken which allowed building invoice forms populated with data from the Quicken database, and capabilities in the database to enter payments against those invoices in order to track what bills remain outstanding. 

Quicken Victoria

Dea Badami ! This is very helpful!  Could you please provide more details about the type of businesses you have?  Please feel free to message me directly if it's more convenient.

Thank you!
-victoria 

MontanaKarl

I've used (and been a tester for) QMac, QWin, QB Mac and QB Win with payroll for multiple small businesses.

I think a Home & Business version of QMac should focus on small businesses that use cash accounting and don't carry inventory.  It would be unreasonably complicated to add accrual accounting to Quicken, or all of the other features of bookkeeping software such as inventory, payroll, etc - as it would be at the hindrance of completing the many requested base features of Quicken for personal use.

But so many people have small businesses that file (possibly multiple) Schedule C on their 1040 and would need the ability to invoice and track receivables as @jacobs notes.  Income/expenses would need to be tracked per business (by tags?) to go onto the right Schedule C - if it were all included in the same file as personal finances... which would make sense for the smallest businesses so that the one Quicken file could produce the full tax report, including allocating utilities etc to a home office for a home office expense.

Should there be time tracking so that time can be invoiced for service-based businesses?  Car mileage?  etc. Asset depreciation schedules?

A nonprofit or small corporate entitity (e.g., S-Corp) could use a standalone file with different tax lines ... so the program would need to let the user choose their organization so that the proper set of tax lines got loaded.

Questions to ponder:  how would Customers and Vendors be distinguished from Payees (in terms of the current Payee list)?  If a business involves real estate rental, would it be possible for customers to be identified as Tenants in the forms/reports?

If someone has several small rental properties... say Building1 with units A, B and C and Building2 with units A, B and C ... how would they get reports with columns per unit per building if only tags were available to organize transactions?

Like with Quicken itself, if we're given something, people will always want more
So, the hardest part would be deciding not just what is the most essential first step (1040 filers with Schedule C only?)... but where to stop because a more mature product already does it so well?

[PS For what it's worth, I absolutely love QB Mac... except for online-only payroll.  But, most of what I do in QB Mac these days could be done in a 1040 Form C-oriented Quicken Mac if we had invoicing and time tracking.]

stacyflatt33

Im so confused. I have a macbook air and use deluxe now and want to upgrade to home and business. will home and business work on my MacBook air?

Greg_the_Geek

stacyflatt33 said:

Im so confused. I have a macbook air and use deluxe now and want to upgrade to home and business. will home and business work on my MacBook air?

No, currently Quicken Home & Business is only available in the Windows version of Quicken. Quicken is looking to develop a version for the Mac and asking for suggestions about what to include.

MontanaKarl

Another thought/addition to my post above - focusing on Schedule C type businesses (and Schedule E rentals) - is that I forgot about farms/agriculture which file on Schedule F.  Mostly the same issues, just more tax lines need to be available.

All of these form 1040 small businesses also need the ability to depreciate assets. While so many assets can be written off under Section 179 (things that in decades past had to be amortized/depreciated), there are still large capital assets that either must be, or make tax-sense to be, depreciated.  E.g., buildings, large pieces of equipment, etc.

So, the ability to set up an asset account with a depreciation method that automatically creates a reducing depreciation entry each year would be useful - and/or  a separate depreciable asset module so that the chart of accounts doesn't fill up with a lot of one-asset asset accounts.

Greydog9928

Allow business setup for S-corp and to allow depreciations tracking and reporting for small business.
Allow bill pay through ACH or some other electronic method where the payee cannot receive an EFT through quicken.  Most of my vendors cannot receive payment through current electronic methods in Quicken.

smac

Have used Home, Business & Rental Property since 2006. I run 9 accounts in my file, some business, some personal. The only reason I have a PC is to run Quicken. My business is an S-Corp and I use an extensive chart of accounts.

Would want the same functionality as the PC version: groups, categories, sub categories, manage bills and income, etc.

New features:
- An additional feature that would be super helpful would be a Draw Account. This can't be done currently. I've created a work around but it doesn't flow correctly for my accountant.
- On Bills and Income Reminders have the list show reminders for the accounts chosen in the graphic below: "For account: Multiple accounts or one account."

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to ditch the PC.

Lorita

Would love to have it on a Mac, I would not require Parallels anymore!

jacobs

@Lorita Please post more detials about what features you would be looking for in a Mac Home & Business version. The top post in this thread, from the Quicken Mac product manager, indicates that the developers are interested in learning the specific business functions users are looking for. Invoiving? Time tracking & billing? Real estate unit income and expense tracking? Tracking reivables and payables? Separating tracking/reporting for multiple businesses? They're not likely to simply replicate the Quicken Windows version entirely, nor are they likely to build the features all at once, so the more they understand about what users would find most essential to move off Quicken Windows H&B to Quicken Mac will help them refine their plan of attack.

Cooper's Dad

I converted from QH&B (Windows) to Qmac early last year. At the time, my motivation was to get rid of all of the cloud sync issues and many many data glitches that my 30+ years of Quicken data had accumulated, so I did not even notice (nor did the Quicken version screen indicate) that I actually had downgraded to QPremier for Mac. That said, here's what I now have come to miss:

1. Inventory tracking (my wife is a style consultant and makes clothing purchases (consigned) for personal shopping clients--which they may end up purchasing from her or she ends up returning--and maintains a stock of cosmetics and skin care products to sell during client consults. We're cash basis, so we report all inventory purchases as expenses, but would be nice to have reports of what is on hand for stock management purposes, not for financial reports or taxes.
2. Since it's both home AND business, the ability toggle between a personal list of categories and a business list, to save a little scrolling or accidental choice of "Auto:Fuel" when we wanted "Business Expense: Auto:Fuel" at month-end when I do all the Business data entry.
Tax reporting for a complete Schedule C, Form 8829 (Home Office expenses), and Schedule E (rental properties).
3. Make it easy to track separate businesses (she has her thing, and I do some consulting work, also from home), each with its own custom list of categories. Tags work (sort of), but are easily missed in data entry.
4. Ensure that tax schedule reports can be copied to a spreadsheet (excel, Google Sheets) *without requiring major reformatting* before it can be sorted, or alphabetized by category or otherwise manipulated.
5. Mileage tracking, perhaps within a given transaction. Example: when I enter a business meal transaction, also enter the mileage to that restaurant right there (similar to attaching receipt images).
6. Play nice with Square, and vice versa. Currently there is not data imports/exports between with those guys and Quicken.

Regarding Invoicing, I would posit that unless Quicken offers some kind of payment processing feature where an invoice can be paid immediately through a Quicken-affiliated payment processor, most business owners choose their payment processor (Square, for example) and accept the invoicing that comes with that service. In other words, it's a payments-driven choice. So I suggest invoicing is low on the priorities list for many of us who would otherwise love to have QH&B for Mac.

BizzV

Core function requests for first iteration of QH&B MAC:

1. Setup for S-corp.
2. Reports for business: Profit/Loss (Income Statement) and Balance Sheet at a minimum.
3. Separate tracking / reporting for multiple businesses.
4. Liability account tracking.
5. Bill Pay through Quicken.
6. Rich chart of accounts with Tax line integration.
7. Payroll.

Multiple Companies is important to me but not sure I would ask for that out of the gate.

Levanah10

I'm pretty much w/BizzV, above. I've managed a *very* small private nonprofit for several decades, and up until last year was still using Windows Quicken H&B 2001 via Parallels, even though for my personal account, I had switched (happily) to Quicken Mac about 4 years ago.

The nonprofit's accounting needs are simple, BUT missing in QMac are:
->Invoicing (we did sell educational materials, though we don't any more)
->Year-end reports suitable for our accountant's needs in filing 990PF's (Especialy P&L, Cash Flow, and Balance Sheet).
->Easily customizable report function, for info on (e.g.) donations broken down by donation-type. (Can be done in QMac, I think, but it's not readily obvious how.)
->Payroll. (Q-Win H&B 2001 didn't have that either; instead it had instructions on how to set up specialized Payroll categories, and create a template transaction that would automatically track tax reserves, calculate net from gross, create payroll reports, etc. --Lack of payroll features was another reason for my nonprofit staying w/ QWin 2001, while we had payroll.)

*Elsewhere on the Forum, a senior member posted workarounds for creating all three of these year-end reports(I think) using QMac, but it would be very helpful if these were built-in in the first place.

jacobs

I once would have been, but no longer am, in the target market for a Mac version of Home & Business, so I'll tread lightly on this thread. Just two quick comments…

For reports: The existing Category Summary by Year report is a P&L report: it lists each category of income, each category of expenses, and the bottom line. And the existing Net Worth report is (basically) a Balance Sheet report (except for lacking a separate section for Equity or Net Worth); it lists all assets, then all liabilities, and a net worth bottom line. (You can export the report and tweak it a little if you need to separate things like current- and non-current assets and current-and non-current liabilities, or need to break down capital or retained earnings in an equity section.) I agree that Quicken should build a proper balance sheet report; it wouldn't take much of a change from the existing Net Worth report.

Regarding payroll: I really question whether this is an area Quicken should dive into, because doing it right is a big lift. This moves away from small home-based business into more full-fledged small business software category. Payroll tax rates and withholding rates change annually, and laws change constantly, so payroll software needs constant updating. Some people will want to print checks, which Quicken does, and some will want to direct deposit payroll, which Quicken doesn't do. Then there's tax deposits and tax returns for federal, state and local governments, W-2s, and probably 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC. Quicken can't offer to do all that, but it would need a variety of reports to allow business to do it on their own. But are a lot of companies which offer online payroll services for small businesses; most include such features as direct deposit, tax deposits and tax filings.

I did payroll manually for a business with two employees, and it was a pain even for just two people. I used an online service for a business with a handful of employees, and it was simple, fast, and not terribly expensive. For anyone with payroll needs beyond a small, self-owned home/consulting business, I think using an online payroll service is hands down the way to go. Quicken could concentrate on building a good input screen for entering summary payroll data from third-party services rather than trying to build out full payroll capabilities. Just my 2¢…

BizzV

@jacobs Thank you for pointing out the reports. I was able to customize a report for my needs.

"Quicken could concentrate on building a good input screen for entering summary payroll data from third-party services rather than trying to build out full payroll capabilities. "

Terrific suggestion. That would suit my needs. While I agree payroll is a pain in the patootie, I built a spreadsheet so I can can do it myself; and I concur there are several payroll processor options.

Greydog9928

With a Home & Business version, there is a need to be able to create rules to allow categorization from the same payee to more than one category. For example for Target, I may want to create a rule that if the payment was made from my business credit card, to put it under a category of Business Supply Expense where if it is made with my home credit card, it is automatically created as a home expense. Otherwise the user has to either set Quicken to not categorize any transaction from Target or the user will have to manually change one set of transactions or the other. I would like to be able to create more complex rules like this for categorization.

Scott-k

Allow for the management of rental properties, but redesign it because the windows version is also aweful

MeInUSA

I'm with MontanaKarl above on the features. I just dumped quickbooks Desktop Pro because they doubled the subscription price after quietly not telling you that you can no longer use the desktop version without a subscription. I went to quicken because it is what i used personaly, and was sorely disappointed after upgrading my quicken subscription to find i have no business components on the mac. My fault for not understanding the subscription model first. Now i'm back to running a virtual windows machine for my accounting again. Ugh. I hate windows… :(

jacobs

@MeInUSA The developers are looking for feedback in this thread about what business features you want/need. For example, do you need invoicing? And if so, what functionality would you expect? Do you just need to generate invoices to print and mail? Do you want to be able to send invoices via email from within the program? Do you need to keep track of the payment status of the invoices (e.g. receivables tracking)? Do you need to accept payments online via credit card as part of the program?

The more details, the better, so they don't build a set of features which you look at and find isn't useful enough.

Greydog9928

No invoicing needed. Really really need to pay vendors through ACH/electronic method which cannot be done under current bill payment methods. I do not want a manual check generated… this takes way too long.

SulliT3

As a NEW small business owner, I think @Dea Badami and @Greydog9928 have hit the nail on the head. My personal opinions, in addition to what they have said:

• Invoicing might be nice, but nothing fancy; it can be as simple as generating a PDF document with a payment link within Quicken that we email separately since most people have their business email accounts anyways. But this isn't necessary since most business banking accounts offer invoicing.
• Solid categorization of income/expense categories
• Synchronization between mobile apps
• Ability to create separate business accounts within one account (Personal / Business 1 (ex: rentals) / Business 2 (ex: consulting) with cash flow, budgeting, etc. for EACH.

Can't wait to see this come to fruition.

mukgup

I understand that many users have requested various features for the Quicken Mac version. I would like to add my own feature request, with the hope that it will receive more attention if more people vote for it. Specifically, I would like to see support for Rental properties in the Mac version, along with Schedule E and Zillow property value updates. It would also be greatly appreciated if the Quicken Mac Product Team could provide updates on the project timeline, as this would be very helpful for the waiting community.

jacobs

I've never seen the development team post a timeline for future features, so I wouldn't expect one here. Sorry.

BScoBee

I want to echo what @mukgup posted above: rental property support, please!

MarkyBCus

I was SO pleased to get a reasonably functioning version of Quicken for Mac, so I could retire the PC version and a virtual machine. I use to run H&B, but found I didn't really need the functionality. Recently I started doing some small hourly consulting gigs, and came across my old invoices for the service. I looked everywhere for the template, until I remembered I use to track my clients in H&B and it had an invoice feature, with a customizable template. Would love to be able to do that again with Quicken for Mac. I recall it was easy. I could enter a client, track what they owed me, generate an invoice, know what was outstanding, and then mark them as paid when it came through.

So the bare minimum request for me is:

• Generate Client Invoices
• Track Payment Status
• Track Earnings by Client
• Track Total Earnings

For reference, attached is an old invoice I use to generate from H&B. I think I exported it as PDF from H&B, and then just emailed it to the client. If I recall the "PAID" stamp was done in Acrobat as a follow up. Super basic and simple. I don't even think this justifies a whole new version of Quicken H&B for Mac. Otherwise, honestly I think people should invest in proper business management software. But for a basic side hustle, H&B worked great.

It would be nice to included payment options, but not a deal breaker. My current Excel invoice template includes Zelle and Venmo QR codes and instructions.

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jacobs

@Spin So you're asking for them to start over again on Quicken Mac and/or start over with Quicken Windows, using a new database? Even though after 10 years they are still working to build features in Quicken Mac from the older Quicken Mac product and Quicken Windows? I just don't think that's a realistic expectation. A home & business version of Quicken Mac will build on top of the existing Quicken Mac product.

Yes, it would be possible to build a cross-platform database product (see Apple's Filemaker Pro). But Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows are complex applications which in their current forms are tightly tied to their host operating systems as well as their databases, and getting to a cross-platform product would require extensive reworking, if not starting over, for both.

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jennheinzmann

We farm. I would like it to have that in mind.