My wife and I are Mac Users. Which Quicken app to buy?
I am a cancer researcher retired this Jan from 60 years in a tough specialty. In the past my wife used Quicken 2009 for Windows because our accountant was a PC user. She had to do her Quicken inputting using Cross-Over Mac. Now, we will do our own taxes and wish to only use a Mac app. Should it be Quicken Classic v. 7.6 or something else? Goals: taxes, track investments (stock, retirement plans, cash, land), perhaps budget creation, be able to create graphs of our investments for analysis. Suggestions please.
Best Answers
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First, congratulations on your retirement. Hopefully you're finding the transition to a less-structured and slower-paced lifestyle enjoyable!
Quicken Classic for Mac — the "Classic" name was added in the past year as part of a marketing branding effort, but did not otherwise change the programs — should be well-suited for your needs. You're already familiar with the basic functionality of Quicken, and although Quicken Mac does some things differently than Quicken Windows, they fundamentally work the same.
Quicken is sold on a subscription basis, like a lot of software nowadays. You buy a subscription and renew it annually, even though most of Quicken's marketing quotes the monthly price (I guess to make it seem less expensive, as if users won't multiply the monthly price by 12!). There are four levels of subscription which give you access to different features in the program: Starter, Deluxe, Premier, and Business & Personal. Deluxe is the right choice for most Quicken Mac users. You don't need Business & Personal because you didn't describe running a business. Starter doesn't meet your needs, because it doesn't include use of investment accounts. The difference between Deluxe and Premier on the Mac side is very minimal; unless you will be extensively using Quicken's internal bill payment system (which many would recommend against because of reliability issues) or think you will be calling Quicken Support frequently (Premier gets you a priority dial-in phone number), there's no reason most people need to pay more for Premier.
I should note that Quicken Mac was re-written from the ground up starting over a decade ago, and it still doesn't have all the functionality and features as its older sibling, Quicken Windows. Most people find this livable, and the Mac development team is slowly but surely adding requested features, but you should be aware in case something you previously used in Quicken Windows doesn't exist in Quicken Mac. For instance, you mentioned investment graphs, and that's an area which is somewhat limited in Quicken Mac at this point.
If you've maintained your data in the Quicken 2009 version for Windows, you should be able to migrate it to Quicken Mac. You would need to install Quicken 2013 for Windows (free download), and assuming that works correctly with Crossover, you'd update your data file to Quicken 2013 format. Then Quicken Mac will be able to read the Quicken Windows data file and convert it into a Quicken Mac data file. You'll need to check your accounts and holdings after the conversion and it's not unusual to have to track down some minor issues and clean them up. Read these two Quicken documents for more information about Quicken 2013 and converting to Quicken Mac.
Since you don't have a current Quicken subscription, do a little shopping around, as there are often good deals (up to 40% off) the purchase prices for new users. You can buy directly from Quicken, and when you visit Quicken.com, it will somewhat randomly show you discounted prices, or you can buy from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, NewEgg (which currently has a great sale price), etc. You don't need to buy a boxed copy, and since Macs no longer have CD drives, all you need is an activation code; no matter where you buy, you'll be connected to Quicken's servers to install the current version of the program (version 7.6.1 as of this writing). All updates are done online in a very seamless process. (There are typically version updates — e.g. 7.6 to 7.7 — roughly every other month, and bug fix updates — e.g. 7.6.0 to 7.6.1 — in the days and weeks after each new version release.)
What else would you like to know before you plunge in? 😀
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
That said, it appears that on my wife's iMac are Quicken Windows 2017 data files, not 2009. I believe I can download from NewEgg Quicken Classic Deluxe and convert those Quicken Windows '17 files into Mac format. Yes?
Yes, if you have Quicken Windows 2017 data file(s), Quicken Mac should be able to read and import them directly. And Quicken Deluxe for $36 is a great price. (Just be prepared that in future years, you may not find pricing as inexpensive as that, depending on what sales may be available.)
However, if both wife and I wish to share in the financial work, the app only is good for one user/one computer.
Yes and no. Quicken is designed to be used as a database with a local file. But there are ways to share…
If you and your wife won't be working at your respective computers at the same time, the easiest approach is to use a screen-sharing utility. That is, if Quicken is on your Mac, on her Mac she can open screen sharing to your Mac and use Quicken remotely on your Mac.
But if you both want to be at your computers at the same time, then you move on to alternatives #2 and #3. Alternative #2 is to use Quicken's cloud syncing capabilities. If Quicken resides on your Mac, you allow it to sync to Quicken Cloud; on her computer, she'd log into the Quicken web interface to Quicken Cloud. She'd be able to see data, enter data, but not have access to the full gamut of reports and features in the desktop program. Although Quicken offers and promotes this solution, there are many of us here who have seen users get dinged by problems with proper bidirectional syncing between the desktop and cloud data, so we recommend steering clear of this alternative unless you find you really need it. I leave sync turned off on my Quicken, and even though remote access would be helpful at times, I am unwilling to risk the types of data corruption (generally older data overwriting newer data) I see reported on this forum with some frequency.
Which brings us to option #3: moving the data file to share it between two computers. This is a little clunky and involves a few extra steps on the part of both users, but done correctly, it's a safe and secure way to work. Move only a protected copy of your data file: either a backup you create in Quicken (e.g. a file ending in ".quickenbackup") or a copy of your live data file which you make into a compressed (.zip) file in the Finder using File > Compress. You can move such a file via a cloud service like iCloud or Dropbox, via file sharing enabled on one of the Macs, via email, via thumb drive, or possibly via Airdrop if the computers are near each other.
If you move back and forth between the two computers regularly, a good system is to have one spot -- say Dropbox or iCloud -- where you always store the zip/backup file after each use, 100% of the time. And each time either of you use Quicken, 100% of the time, you download the compressed/backup file from DropBox/iCloud. This insures you're always using the latest file, irrespective of where it was last used. If you use Dropbox or iCloud, you can set a folder there are your Quicken backup folder location, so your backup at the end of each session is automatically and safely saved to the cloud service. Then the next time either of you uses Quicken, you just go to the cloud folder, drag it to your desktop, and double-click it to restore/decompress it. After each session, and a new backup is generated on the cloud service, delete the local copy you just used to avoid confusion.Option #1 and Option #3 preclude thew two of you from working in Quicken at the same time; option #2 allows it, but as I said, I don't fully trust it.
Is Quicken for Mac (any version) the only option we have for not only future taxes but for investment analytics?
No, there are many platforms and products for tracking investments, for budgeting, for tracking expenses, etc. (For actually doing your taxes, there are several viable options as well, like TurboTax, TaxCut, H&R Block and others.) For personal finance, Quicken seems to win out for many people as the most well-rounded product, but depending what you're wanting to track, you can certainly find other options out there which may suit your needs. Since I and most of the long-time users here have settled on Quicken as our choice, you'll probably want to search elsewhere on the Internet for others who might offer the best insights into other programs/services. (And since this is a Quicken forum, they don't allow discussion of competing products here, anyway. 😉)
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
It seems you're still conflating files and accounts. A file has a .qdf file extension. A file can (and typically does) contain multiple accounts. If I understand you correctly, you had four different data files.
Typically, your retirement account, her retirement account, and her/your personal finances would all be contained within a single Quicken data file, while your business would be in a separate file. Your retirement account might be a single account with a financial institution, or more than one, such as an IRA account, a 401k account, and a Roth IRA account. One of the great features of Quicken is bringing all your finances together in one place, where you can view things both separately and together. (My wife and I have a single Quicken data file with 2 checking accounts 3 cash accounts, 9 credit card accounts, 2 non-retirement brokerage accounts, and 6 retirement accounts.) However, if you have a desire to keep each of these separate, you definitely can.
If you want your four independent Quicken Windows files to become four independent Quicken Mac files, you must create a new file for each one. That is, go to File > New, select to start from a Quicken Windows file, select the .qdf file, and Quicken Mac will convert it to a Quicken Mac file. Then do the same for the next file, and so on.
On the other hand, if you want to merge your personal finances together in one Quicken Mac data file, you would first start with one file as described above, but then do File > Import to bring in the subsequent data files.
If you indeed did File > Import for each of the .qdf files, that's why you ended up with them under one roof; doing File > New for each .qdf file would keep them separate.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930
Answers
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First, congratulations on your retirement. Hopefully you're finding the transition to a less-structured and slower-paced lifestyle enjoyable!
Quicken Classic for Mac — the "Classic" name was added in the past year as part of a marketing branding effort, but did not otherwise change the programs — should be well-suited for your needs. You're already familiar with the basic functionality of Quicken, and although Quicken Mac does some things differently than Quicken Windows, they fundamentally work the same.
Quicken is sold on a subscription basis, like a lot of software nowadays. You buy a subscription and renew it annually, even though most of Quicken's marketing quotes the monthly price (I guess to make it seem less expensive, as if users won't multiply the monthly price by 12!). There are four levels of subscription which give you access to different features in the program: Starter, Deluxe, Premier, and Business & Personal. Deluxe is the right choice for most Quicken Mac users. You don't need Business & Personal because you didn't describe running a business. Starter doesn't meet your needs, because it doesn't include use of investment accounts. The difference between Deluxe and Premier on the Mac side is very minimal; unless you will be extensively using Quicken's internal bill payment system (which many would recommend against because of reliability issues) or think you will be calling Quicken Support frequently (Premier gets you a priority dial-in phone number), there's no reason most people need to pay more for Premier.
I should note that Quicken Mac was re-written from the ground up starting over a decade ago, and it still doesn't have all the functionality and features as its older sibling, Quicken Windows. Most people find this livable, and the Mac development team is slowly but surely adding requested features, but you should be aware in case something you previously used in Quicken Windows doesn't exist in Quicken Mac. For instance, you mentioned investment graphs, and that's an area which is somewhat limited in Quicken Mac at this point.
If you've maintained your data in the Quicken 2009 version for Windows, you should be able to migrate it to Quicken Mac. You would need to install Quicken 2013 for Windows (free download), and assuming that works correctly with Crossover, you'd update your data file to Quicken 2013 format. Then Quicken Mac will be able to read the Quicken Windows data file and convert it into a Quicken Mac data file. You'll need to check your accounts and holdings after the conversion and it's not unusual to have to track down some minor issues and clean them up. Read these two Quicken documents for more information about Quicken 2013 and converting to Quicken Mac.
Since you don't have a current Quicken subscription, do a little shopping around, as there are often good deals (up to 40% off) the purchase prices for new users. You can buy directly from Quicken, and when you visit Quicken.com, it will somewhat randomly show you discounted prices, or you can buy from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, NewEgg (which currently has a great sale price), etc. You don't need to buy a boxed copy, and since Macs no longer have CD drives, all you need is an activation code; no matter where you buy, you'll be connected to Quicken's servers to install the current version of the program (version 7.6.1 as of this writing). All updates are done online in a very seamless process. (There are typically version updates — e.g. 7.6 to 7.7 — roughly every other month, and bug fix updates — e.g. 7.6.0 to 7.6.1 — in the days and weeks after each new version release.)
What else would you like to know before you plunge in? 😀
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Howdy, sbstrum:
I suspect the Quicken Classic subscription would be best. You can choose the tier based on your needs, but all tiers come both offerings for Mac and PC. You no longer have to choose the platform as you can download both.
I suggest sticking with the Mac version-the developers spent the last 10 years catching up to the Windows version and is a much more modern and intuitive program. And since your both Mac users, this makes sense. You won't be able to share or network the file between you and your wife as Quicken isn't designed for that. One of you will have to keep it dedicated on his/her machine.
I think you will be able to do most of what you want. The only thing I don't see are investment graphs as QMac has few. Quicken isn't really designed to track land ownership by design, but you can certainly set properties up as assets which might be what you mean.
You will still need tax software; Quicken will merely help you gather the data to input into it. (You can export tax reports to TurboTax, etc.)
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First, the quality of info you have provided is really great. Too often I will pose a question and get the most absurd responses. So thank you both. A confession. I was a real physician— focusing most of my time on patient care. I did not like working on financial issues, despite their importance, so I relegated this to my spouse and accountant. Now, I feel the stress of such a task. As the younger generation says, "my bad."
That said, it appears that on my wife's iMac are Quicken Windows 2017 data files, not 2009. I believe I can download from NewEgg Quicken Classic Deluxe and convert those Quicken Windows '17 files into Mac format. Yes? Newegg has the above for $36 for one year. Staples also sells the same thing for same price. However, if both wife and I wish to share in the financial work, the app only is good for one user/one computer.
Questions for both of you:
Is Quicken for Mac (any version) the only option we have for not only future taxes but for investment analytics?
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That said, it appears that on my wife's iMac are Quicken Windows 2017 data files, not 2009. I believe I can download from NewEgg Quicken Classic Deluxe and convert those Quicken Windows '17 files into Mac format. Yes?
Yes, if you have Quicken Windows 2017 data file(s), Quicken Mac should be able to read and import them directly. And Quicken Deluxe for $36 is a great price. (Just be prepared that in future years, you may not find pricing as inexpensive as that, depending on what sales may be available.)
However, if both wife and I wish to share in the financial work, the app only is good for one user/one computer.
Yes and no. Quicken is designed to be used as a database with a local file. But there are ways to share…
If you and your wife won't be working at your respective computers at the same time, the easiest approach is to use a screen-sharing utility. That is, if Quicken is on your Mac, on her Mac she can open screen sharing to your Mac and use Quicken remotely on your Mac.
But if you both want to be at your computers at the same time, then you move on to alternatives #2 and #3. Alternative #2 is to use Quicken's cloud syncing capabilities. If Quicken resides on your Mac, you allow it to sync to Quicken Cloud; on her computer, she'd log into the Quicken web interface to Quicken Cloud. She'd be able to see data, enter data, but not have access to the full gamut of reports and features in the desktop program. Although Quicken offers and promotes this solution, there are many of us here who have seen users get dinged by problems with proper bidirectional syncing between the desktop and cloud data, so we recommend steering clear of this alternative unless you find you really need it. I leave sync turned off on my Quicken, and even though remote access would be helpful at times, I am unwilling to risk the types of data corruption (generally older data overwriting newer data) I see reported on this forum with some frequency.
Which brings us to option #3: moving the data file to share it between two computers. This is a little clunky and involves a few extra steps on the part of both users, but done correctly, it's a safe and secure way to work. Move only a protected copy of your data file: either a backup you create in Quicken (e.g. a file ending in ".quickenbackup") or a copy of your live data file which you make into a compressed (.zip) file in the Finder using File > Compress. You can move such a file via a cloud service like iCloud or Dropbox, via file sharing enabled on one of the Macs, via email, via thumb drive, or possibly via Airdrop if the computers are near each other.
If you move back and forth between the two computers regularly, a good system is to have one spot -- say Dropbox or iCloud -- where you always store the zip/backup file after each use, 100% of the time. And each time either of you use Quicken, 100% of the time, you download the compressed/backup file from DropBox/iCloud. This insures you're always using the latest file, irrespective of where it was last used. If you use Dropbox or iCloud, you can set a folder there are your Quicken backup folder location, so your backup at the end of each session is automatically and safely saved to the cloud service. Then the next time either of you uses Quicken, you just go to the cloud folder, drag it to your desktop, and double-click it to restore/decompress it. After each session, and a new backup is generated on the cloud service, delete the local copy you just used to avoid confusion.Option #1 and Option #3 preclude thew two of you from working in Quicken at the same time; option #2 allows it, but as I said, I don't fully trust it.
Is Quicken for Mac (any version) the only option we have for not only future taxes but for investment analytics?
No, there are many platforms and products for tracking investments, for budgeting, for tracking expenses, etc. (For actually doing your taxes, there are several viable options as well, like TurboTax, TaxCut, H&R Block and others.) For personal finance, Quicken seems to win out for many people as the most well-rounded product, but depending what you're wanting to track, you can certainly find other options out there which may suit your needs. Since I and most of the long-time users here have settled on Quicken as our choice, you'll probably want to search elsewhere on the Internet for others who might offer the best insights into other programs/services. (And since this is a Quicken forum, they don't allow discussion of competing products here, anyway. 😉)
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Perhaps, just thinking out loud, as I have now downloaded Quicken 7.6.1 for Mac and imported the 2017 qdf files, the best part of Quicken appears to be the helpfulness of the Quicken Community. Thank you, sincerely, for your great input. In my profession, I was and continue to be a huge proponent for collaboration and collegiality, but that has become endangered in our modern world, in medicine. Here collegiality still thrives, so thank you.
I think I escaped from much computer-trauma letting my wife work with Quicken for Windows on the Mac using Cross-Over Mac to facilitate our accountant. I would never have put up with that, but it's past history now. I was happy with the first .qdf file for my wife's person accounting that we imported into 7.6.1. I was shocked, unpleasantly, when the retirement plan .qdf (quicken windows) files was imported and merged into the wife's data. Perhaps I am just accounting-wise stupid, but I would have thought these would be kept separate, as they are separate accounts. Where did I go wrong on this?
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I was shocked, unpleasantly, when the retirement plan .qdf (quicken windows) files was imported and merged into the wife's data. Perhaps I am just accounting-wise stupid, but I would have thought these would be kept separate, as they are separate accounts. Where did I go wrong on this?
Let's clarify some terminology to make sure we're speaking the same language and then figure it out. A Quicken data file contains a whole set of financial data, consisting of multiple accounts. Quicken accounts should parallel real-world accounts: checking account, each credit card account, brokerage (non-retirement) account, RIA account, 401k account, Roth IRA account etc.
Typically for a married couple, there would be one Quicken data file, consisting of both joint accounts and individual accounts. But you might have a reason for having one data file for yourself and one for your wife, if you keep completely separate accounts. So my question is with your sentence that "the retirement plan .qdf (quicken windows) files was imported and merged into the wife's data". Did your wife have a separate data file for her retirement plan and one for her other accounts? Or do you mean that her retirement account was merged into a data file with other accounts?
If you can clarify how your data was previously organized on the Windows side, we can talk about the best ways to migrate that data to Quicken Mac.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
My wife had 4 quicken accounts, each named separately and with the file extension .qdf.
One was for her personal finances, a second with a different name.qdf was for my corporation, a third for my retirement plan and a fourth for her retirement plan.
Since each qdf file is imported separately, should they not remain separate in the data that is in the original "container" labeled "account".qdf?
I look at these accounts as I would a computer Folder containing data in files within that folder. If I shared with you Folder A containing files of separate treatments for a specific disease, I would not expect sharing Folder B containing files of the cost of those treatments to somehow become incorporated into Folder A. Yet, this is what occurred with the importing of the separate QDF files. My plan is to call and hopefully speak to a human at Quicken tomorrow.
Thanks for getting back to me on a Sunday night.
Stephen
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It seems you're still conflating files and accounts. A file has a .qdf file extension. A file can (and typically does) contain multiple accounts. If I understand you correctly, you had four different data files.
Typically, your retirement account, her retirement account, and her/your personal finances would all be contained within a single Quicken data file, while your business would be in a separate file. Your retirement account might be a single account with a financial institution, or more than one, such as an IRA account, a 401k account, and a Roth IRA account. One of the great features of Quicken is bringing all your finances together in one place, where you can view things both separately and together. (My wife and I have a single Quicken data file with 2 checking accounts 3 cash accounts, 9 credit card accounts, 2 non-retirement brokerage accounts, and 6 retirement accounts.) However, if you have a desire to keep each of these separate, you definitely can.
If you want your four independent Quicken Windows files to become four independent Quicken Mac files, you must create a new file for each one. That is, go to File > New, select to start from a Quicken Windows file, select the .qdf file, and Quicken Mac will convert it to a Quicken Mac file. Then do the same for the next file, and so on.
On the other hand, if you want to merge your personal finances together in one Quicken Mac data file, you would first start with one file as described above, but then do File > Import to bring in the subsequent data files.
If you indeed did File > Import for each of the .qdf files, that's why you ended up with them under one roof; doing File > New for each .qdf file would keep them separate.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930
