Microsoft Money and a Mac

Saturday July 26, 2008

Money for the MacWarning! Do not be fooled by what you might read anywhere on the Internet. If you have been using Microsoft Money and you switch to a Mac, you are screwed. There is nothing comparable for the Mac. No … Quicken is not an option. No, there is no version of Microsoft Money in development for the Mac. No, there are no other software programs available which are even remotely similar. No, none of the other potential financial software programs will allow you to successfully import your MSMoney data. No, you are not going to find another financial software application that is freeware or shareware or open source that comes close to Microsoft Money. No, you should not believe any website that attempts to explain how to convert your Microsoft Money file(s) for use in any Macintosh program.


And, no, you are not going to be able to return the $49.99 copy of the Mac version of Quicken 2007 once you’ve installed it and seen what a pathetic piece of crap it is.

No matter how in love you are with your new Mac, you are going to have to keep a Windows machine in your life so you can continue to use Microsoft Money. (Or, at the very least, you’re going to have to use Bootcamp, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels to use XP on your Mac.)

Just in case you think that this is a case of me simply not doing my homework, here is a quick, short list of other Mac users complaining about the same issue:

If you have just converted from Windows to Mac and are looking for a replacement for Microsoft Money, I’ve gone to the trouble of compiling a list of financial software applications that will not impress you. None of these will make you happy. Epic fail.

  1. Moneydance
  2. My Money Minder
  3. Jumsoft’s Money3
  4. iCash
  5. Budget
  6. Cashbox
  7. Cha-Ching
  8. Checkbook
  9. Finance
  10. iBank
  11. Liquid Ledger
  12. Fortora Fresh Finance
  13. MyMoney
  14. Flowing Pennies
  15. Squirrel
  16. MoneyWell
  17. Personal Finance
  18. Horizon
  19. Buddi
  20. prospects
  21. onTrack!
  22. iCompta
  23. Balance
  24. FinanceToGo
  25. iFinance
  26. Accounts
  27. EasyMoney
  28. SpendThrift

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Sunday January 18, 2009 at 1:36 am

{ 127 comments… read them below or add one }

1 jim m. Saturday July 26, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Told ya.

2 Graham Brember Wednesday August 20, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Thanks for the wise up. It looks like I’ll be keeping the xp for some time yet. I was told that the iwork would handle my finances just as well as money, but that is just not of any use to me other than the pages grrrrrrrrrr

3 mikem Monday September 1, 2008 at 8:11 pm

Thanks a bunch for this post. You just saved me a ton of time and effort getting frustrated looking for an MS Money equivalent on the Mac. I bet Microsoft never thought Money would be the app to keep Windows alive! ;)

4 emma Thursday September 11, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Thanks for the help. I have been looking for Money for Mac for years. Quicken truly stinks after Money. Anyone know why are they not making it for Mac? I guess I can’t toss the ol’ PC just yet. Bummer.

5 Andrew Terry Wednesday September 17, 2008 at 3:25 am

Useful post; it’s saved me from what was stacking up to be a fruitless search (and, for what it’s worth, trying to find *working* software that syncs iCal/Address Book with Windows Mobile is equally frustrating)

6 Kate Monday September 22, 2008 at 4:51 am

Oh thanks for putting this information together; I was just about to go through all those pseudo Mac Money’s! Access and Money are why I’ll keep my PC running…

7 Joss Tuesday September 23, 2008 at 12:07 am

This has been going on way to long! It is absolutely unbelievable! They have got to come up with a personal finance software program for the mac that is easy to use, and works well. Is that to much to ask? I have read blog after blog searching for the answer – I am stuck – I will not go back to PC so I guess I just keep on waiting for something decent – maybe another 2 years. Excuse my ranting, I am just tired of waiting.

8 Reckless Thursday September 25, 2008 at 6:25 am

Agree, been using MS money for donkeys years. now use it on Parallel system. It’s been ace, however this week it started not accepting my password….. but that’s a different story, if I could though find a similar quality piece of software that’s mac specific, I would be buying it without hesitation.

9 Steve Wednesday October 1, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Why is microsoft not producing a version of money for the MAC, there is clearly a market for it?

10 Crakker-T Wednesday October 1, 2008 at 9:31 pm

I would pay out the ass for Money or equivalent personal finance software solution for the Mac.

11 Steve Thursday October 2, 2008 at 1:17 pm

I have posted the question to the marketing department of apple and am still waiting for a reply. if MAC is so good why cant they develop their own money software? and I agree with Cracker-T, I would pay for it!, maybe not out but ass, but I would pay.

12 Pam Thursday October 9, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Thank-you for this information. My husband and I are extremely computer-illiterate, have been using XP for 7 years now & are ready to make the jump to Mac. Money is what is holding us out. What are these Bootcamp, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels things that you are speaking of, and if they make Money accessible, can we just get one of the three installed when we purchase a Mac? Curious to know what Reckless’ problem was with the password- anything we should be concerned about?
Thanks.

13 Steve Friday October 10, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Bootcamp should come pre installed in all new macs, this will allow you to install windows software, VMWare Fusion seems get the best write ups at present. you can run these on your mac and still access microsoft money from that but, somewhat defeats the purpose of having a MAC. we should all email apple demanding they create, develop and release a software program to rival microsoft money.

14 David Wang Tuesday October 14, 2008 at 7:06 am

I have to agree, Quicken 2007 on the mac is a pretty pathetic piece of crap, and thats me being nice. The interface is horrible and makes absolutely no sense. The calculations of value are constantly wrong and everything is so hard to find. I’ve been struggling with it for over 3 months and have finally given up.

15 Gwen Thursday October 16, 2008 at 4:41 pm

We were able to return the Quicken for Mac that we bought, even though we downloaded it from the Internet. Customer support was actually quite nice about it. I am still disappointed to have to switch to Bootcamp every time I want to work with Quicken, and I was hoping to find another alternative. Maybe the forthcoming Quicken Financial Life for Mac?

16 T Litio Saturday October 18, 2008 at 2:13 pm

would converting from money to an online version of quicken or quickbooks could be an option?

has anyone swithced first from Mmoney to quicken for pc and then to quicken for mac?

17 shane Thursday October 23, 2008 at 4:58 pm

@pam … fwiw, Parallels runs on the Mac so that you are able to run Windows directly as a Mac app, and it also comes with a migration assistant that can actually create a copy of your current windows machine with software etc. I find Parallels an ok solution to run the odd Windows software I need.

18 Lissa Wednesday October 29, 2008 at 10:15 am

I’m glad I found this post! I just got a MacBook Pro last week. After using Windows for 14+ years (and being a developer of 8 of those years), I just had to install VMWare Fusion and XP. So far, the one application I use daily via VMWare is MS Money. I’ve been using it since ‘99 and I don’t like the other options.

So, thank you for this post with the definitive answer. I wish they would come out with it for Mac, but seeing as how it is only going to be available via download now, I don’t see it happening.

19 Laura Saturday November 1, 2008 at 10:01 am

Thanks for this info…I was in the midst of doing all this research myself and downloading trial after trial of software that just doesn’t work for me. I hadn’t wanted to dual-boot, but I guess I experiment with that.

20 Laura Saturday November 1, 2008 at 10:02 am

I have one question … if I install Parallels, do I then also need to get a copy of Windows XP or Vista? Ugh…

21 Dave Monday November 10, 2008 at 12:36 am

SO how would Quicken 2009 for MAC work? is that also a arbage?

22 Rachel Thursday November 13, 2008 at 12:21 pm

To ANYONE that has had an issue with their MSmoney password not working, it happens when you shut your instance of parallels off before closing out of MSmoney completely.

The only way your MSmoney file will work again is if you restore from a previous working back up file.

If you don’t back up your file (which should be weekly, or for me, every time I close) then you are completely screwed.

23 Alex Friday November 14, 2008 at 8:44 pm

to Laura : yes you need a license of XP . Microsoft is nice enough(:)) to provide an option to purchase it during the activation ($149) if you install from your old disk. I just installed it in my new MacBook Pro. When you install Win XP at first it asks for it , but you can skip that. When you done it will prompt you for activation of your copy.

24 donald Sunday November 16, 2008 at 3:47 pm

So if XP was bundled on my PC and I don’t have a disc I’m assuming that I need to by a full-blown ver$ion of XP??

25 John Monday December 1, 2008 at 4:31 am

I wish I would have seen this article before I bought my Mac. I purchased a Mac and Quicken at the same time and the author of the article is absolutely right. Quicken for Mac is absolutely awful. The user experience is terrible and many financial institutions that will work for Quicken for PC do not work on Quicken for Mac. I finally resolved to do just what the author said. I have a PC that I do nothing but use MS money.

26 Sam Monday December 1, 2008 at 4:54 pm

I admire David’s bold statement and I completely agree with him, I switched back to Mac about 2 years ago and I’m still searching for a way to replace my LAST windows app, Microsoft Money.

I am the eternal optimist and I continue to revisit this topic hoping something new came up but to no avail!

But taking this argument a step further I would like to focus on what I and other mac users really want from the ‘Microsoft Money Mac Clone’, lets call it MMMC. My biggest problem with Money (besides having to use Fusion) is that it is way too bloated and I wish I can eliminate all the extra stuff I don’t use/need. So I guess if we can come up with what 80% of what users want from MMMC it may a) make it easier to compare it to other Mac offerings, and/or b) inspire some creative developer to design the new MMMC.

Thoughts?

27 Al Koller Wednesday December 3, 2008 at 4:02 pm

I’ve used both Windows and Mac for many years; now use my iMac for ALL my work. To do that, I run Parallels, which requires Windows XP with SP 2 installed. That allows me to run Windows just like any other application on my Mac, including all the programs I need. Right now I have only two programs not matched by Mac programs: MS Money, and MS FrontPage. I use iWeb for some web development, but FP is much better for managing my existing sites. For MS Money, there is no good Mac program. So a couple of times a month I fire up XP under Parallels and do my thing.

Someday those two programs will be superceded by native Mac stuff and I will ditch Windows completely. For now, it’s good enough to let me sell or give away ALL my other computer junk, and I am a pretty happy Mac user. Cheers!

28 Trace Sunday December 7, 2008 at 4:57 pm

A big thank you to this blog and its comments – I’ve just started looking myself and found this. Just bought my imac 5 days ago and I love it’s style, performance and especially start up speed. Using it is such a joy to behold ;)
But alas it seems I shall have to keep my vista pc along side it to run ms money and windows live messenger (the mac version doesn’t touch it) and after searching and trying many found a clone amsn to work best, but the isight built in cam just isn’t up to the mark of my logitech one on windows.
Come an apple please make us a ms money equivalent for the mac and a full working messenger.

29 Bob Thursday December 11, 2008 at 10:50 am

Very true.. but what an arrogant pompus way of expressing it

30 Ray Friday December 12, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Thanks for saving me the time – I was just about to embark on a search and glad to learn from your experience. I’ll just leave it on the Windows machine upstairs and continue managing my money as a once-a-week-chore.

Best,

Ray

31 Trish Sunday December 14, 2008 at 12:24 am

Does anyone have experience with QuickBooks for Mac? I use QuickBooks for Windows and love it, but I’m trying to help someone find a simple bookkeeping system she can run on her Mac.

Thanks!

32 Emma Monday December 15, 2008 at 1:55 pm

I use Quickbooks for Mac – came from Windows. Its just great. I use it for my business.

33 Trish Monday December 15, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Have you used the windows version? I’m wondering if the bulk of complains are coming from people who are former Windows QuickBooks users and are expecting Quickbooks for Mac to do everything the Windows version does.

Are you able to import your banking info into Quickbooks for Mac?

Thanks so much for your help!

34 Emma Tuesday December 16, 2008 at 5:21 pm

I came from Windows to to Mac on QB. I think the Mac version is perfect. I don’t import my banking because its too messy for me and I prefer to do in manually. So I can’t help you there.

Good Luck.

35 liz Sunday December 21, 2008 at 9:27 pm

I just found a site http://www.fotora.com that seems to be promising….it works with mac and pcs and is able to direct connect to your bank. The only hang up that I am working on is that my bank is not listed. Their help section suggests calling your bank to verify that they have “direct connect” so I am hoping that will work. It is $45…i am assuming for good but not sure…this could be a lifesaver!

36 liz Sunday December 21, 2008 at 9:29 pm

the site is http://www.fortora.com….the first post has the wrong address

37 David Thursday December 25, 2008 at 3:00 pm

OK . . . so after buying a new iMac (first time Apple guy), I keep my current PC loaded with XP and Money 2002 until that blows up. Then what?
Seriously, someone could make some serious cash selling a Money conversion into a really good iMac financial program. Where is the free enterpirxe system when we really need it? (I’ll be waiting, patiently)

38 Christie Saturday December 27, 2008 at 12:31 am

Mint.com looks really good. There’s even an iPhone app, and it’s all free. I’ve been trying it out today, and other than the fact that one of my banks is not supported (the bank’s fault, they don’t allow it), I like it a lot.

39 jackie Saturday December 27, 2008 at 12:51 pm

don’t be too quick with mint.com… i just looked up comments and not sure if that’s the answer. Bummer.

40 liz Wednesday December 31, 2008 at 12:35 pm

mint.com does not allow you to add your own transactions, it is simply a central location for all accounts that you have access to online.
I have been using Fortora Fresh Finance and like it so far. I am bummed by the fact that I can only either add my own transactions or download them but not both. I tried and the entire spreadsheet was messed up. I called them and was told that this may be changed/updated in the near future.
There are also free excel downloads that i have not tried as I have no installed excel yet.
good luck

41 Trace Friday January 2, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Has anyone tried crossover office or crossover games to run money on the mac – It lists some versions of money in it’s compatability table?? Just wondering if anyone has tried it already??

42 dvg Friday January 2, 2009 at 4:57 pm

I’ve tried Crossover and it doesn’t work at all. Sorry.

43 Rachel Saturday January 3, 2009 at 7:15 pm

I second, third, and fourth everything you just said! Finally called it quits and set up the Boot Camp/VMWare Fusion workaround to run MS Money and QuickBooks Simple Start. Finding this post gave me the confirmation I needed to stop searching already, and for that: THANK YOU.

http://www.bothisbetter.com/blog/post/resolution-fusion.

44 Michael Sunday January 4, 2009 at 4:47 am

FWIW – most of your referred articles & forum threads are from 2005, and some of the applications you then list weren’t even around back then. Not saying your conclusion isn’t valid, though – I can’t comment on that as have never used MS Money. (I’m in the middle of trying to switch from Gnucash to something friendlier.)

45 dvg Monday January 5, 2009 at 3:11 pm

Michael,
Yes, I know that most of the links are from pre-2008. I was trying to show that this has been an issue for quite some time. I have personally reviewed and / or installed and tested all of the options in the list and found them all to be grossly inferior to MS Money.

46 MEl Wednesday January 7, 2009 at 10:07 pm

Would just like to post that i was able to install msmoney 2004 and 2001 in crossover games7.1.1 today works 100%.tried just crossover would not work but for some reason worked in crossovergames. need to use win98 bottle and might have to try a couple times with 2001 but did work.

47 Bob Moreno Thursday January 8, 2009 at 9:57 am

I have been using Moneydance for about a year and true it is not as useful as MS Money but it does work ok and I did convert my MS Money data files to work with Moneydance.

48 Trace Friday January 9, 2009 at 4:00 am

Can I ask what Moneydance doesn’t do exactly to make it not as useful as money please??

49 Rachel Friday January 9, 2009 at 6:58 am

Right off the top of my head: Moneydance has nothing close to Money’s reporting and budgeting features. In fact, Moneydance’s “budget manager” is so un-helpful–it in no way interacts with your regular use of the program, entering transactions–that I’m not sure why it’s in there at all. And I personally found Moneydance the most adequate of all the Mac programs I tried…but after a year I grew frustrated.

50 hac Saturday January 10, 2009 at 7:34 pm

golly, this is so frustrating!

51 Trace Sunday January 11, 2009 at 5:53 am

Has anybody tried ibank recently?? It reads as being really good – it’s features seem to have all the things I would want especially after the latest update ie import ms money, tax, budget etc – think I might try the trial – just wondered if any others had any experience with it?

52 Rodrigo Rebouças Friday January 23, 2009 at 11:13 am

I just tried iBank. It is really good! Finally I found a software to replace MS Money. One of the best things: it interacts with Yahoo Finance to get stock prices.

53 Taryn Monday February 9, 2009 at 1:48 pm

I have tried iBank, Fotora and a whole heap of other pathetic attempts. They are barely adequate, and in leui of running Fusion/Parallels will possibly work, but none are up to scratch. Watch this space. I am going to write a MS Money for Mac equivalent. I have had it to the back teeth with pathetic half a*****d attempts to deliver. If it looks good, it has no substance. If it has any substance it looks like rubbish. What are the 25 or so companies who are developing finance software for Mac doing? Have the never even seen MS Money. Here is a tip- go and buy yourself a copy!

54 dano Monday February 9, 2009 at 10:47 pm

I switched to the Mac two years ago and went from MS Money 2001 to Quicken for Mac 2007. I was appalled how pathetic the 2007 version of Quicken for Mac was compared to my 2001 Money. But I love my Mac in all other respects, so I settled for Quicken and just learned to make do. Personal finance SW is not that important that I would let it stop me from owning a Mac.

I was just out at the Quicken website reading about their new, Quicken Financial Life for Mac which comes out later this year. This is one of the things they say about it:

Yes, we are constantly working on adding more features to Quicken Financial Life for Mac. If you need more advanced investment, reporting and personal finance features now, check out Quicken Mac 2007.

So, their new product isn’t up to speed with their current product? WTF?

Sometimes I do think about installing a Windows partition on my iMac so I can go back to Money. I just haven’t go around to it. Seems like kind of a hassle.

55 Millie Sunday February 15, 2009 at 11:52 am

I just switched to Mac and am in the same boat as everyone else that has MsMoney. Thank goodness I read all these comments before loosing money with Quicken .

So then there is this comment from Dave – “No matter how in love you are with your new Mac, you are going to have to keep a Windows machine in your life so you can continue to use Microsoft Money. (Or, at the very least, you’re going to have to use Bootcamp, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels to use XP on your Mac.)” Since I’ve never used any of these solutions and I will only use MsMoney and one other Windows software not available for MAC, can anyone give me any advice ? Should I use Boot Camp, Fusion or Parallels?

56 Simon Sunday February 15, 2009 at 7:30 pm

We expect to release Quicken Financial Life for Mac in summer 2009. If you have an immediate need for a Quicken product for the Mac, we would encourage you to check out our current Mac offering, Quicken for Mac 2007.

RIGHT

57 Millie Monday February 16, 2009 at 7:17 am

With Quicken 2007 will I be able to import QIF files from my bank and credit cards? I read from others complaints that this is not possible. I need to do this routinely.

58 liz Monday February 16, 2009 at 7:22 am

Millie,
you can do that with fortora fresh finance but you cannot enter your own transactions as well. i called the company and they claim to be working on the function.

59 Jessy Monday February 23, 2009 at 12:19 pm

His entire criteria on the best money program is wether it can import MS Money format. Thats it. Only if it can import the one format of another program. Who the hell works with those files anymore anyways. The rest of the world use QIF or CSV… and CSV is imported by everything.
I’m not hating – I am a Mac user, and I loved MS Money while I had a PC. But I have never seen a more useless review.

60 liz Monday February 23, 2009 at 12:55 pm

jesse- i am looking for a program that will allow for manual entry of debits and credits and then also the ability to download and cross-check bank statements….do you currently use a money program on a mac? can it do this?

61 mari Tuesday February 24, 2009 at 1:17 am

http://www.mthbuilt.com/ has anyone looked into this?

62 dvg Tuesday February 24, 2009 at 1:43 am

Yes, I gave that one a shot a week or two ago. I really didn’t like the interface for adding new transactions; I didn’t bother to see if it would properly import MS Money data because I felt like the interface was just really clunky. (No offense to the designers…)

63 Jonathan Friday February 27, 2009 at 2:57 pm

This article is just not true. Now if you are in love with a particular piece of software then no you will never find a replacement that will satisfy you. I used Microsoft Money Business to manage my small home business and i switched to a mac for several reasons that i will not go into here. I got Quickbooks for mac which does everything i need business wise so i am sure that quicken would too alhtough i have not used it. As with everything, when you first switch to a mac there is a detox period to get windows out of your system but once you learn the interface you will be fine. Oh i also develop web sites so i had to find web editors, image editors and a slew of other software and have managed to find what i need and still love my mac.

64 Sean Sunday March 1, 2009 at 9:02 pm

WOW – After four pointless months of being unable to balance my checkbook using Quicken 2007, I stumbled upon this link… It’s the truth people. I had the most recent edition of MS Money on my Vista and it worked great. Here’s why I couldn’t balance my checkbook on MacQuicken:
https://quickenonline.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quickenonline.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7161&p_created=1224289347
This was updated less than three weeks ago, and I swear I am not making this up:
“Some Quicken Online customers may find that some Account Activity transactions are missing. We have identified the issue and are working on a release to resolve this soon.”
GIMME A G.D. Break already. My Chase bank updates worked A-OK on Money from over five years ago up until the most recent version. It’s PATHETIC that Intuit can release, let alone charge, for this atrocity. Anyone had any luck with the online version?

65 Carol Tuesday March 3, 2009 at 3:07 am

Has anyone tried My Money for Mac OS X 2.0.40?

Any info would be appreciated.

Carol
Sydney, Australia

66 Don Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 5:03 pm

I’m sure I’m not the only person out here who uses automatic linking of account balances between Money and Excel (UltraSoft Moneylink: excellent product: free). I’m with the author on this one; there is absolutely NO replacement available. Quicken has stopped supporting OLE in all of its products and Numbers has no support that I can find for OLE. I have some experience in being able to expose Quickens inner-format. In the early 90s, I wrote a small utility that extracted account balances from Quicken for automatic updating in Excel. To date, I have not been able to find any such facilities in the latest Quicken or Numbers products. I tried keeping Windows in a VM just for Money and Excel. It’s so much a pain, I’ve decided to keep a Windows machine handy. It just isn’t worth the grief.

67 Millie Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 7:58 pm

Don,
Have you tried Quick Books? There was a comment that this would be a solution. Have you or anyone out there installed Parallels and run MS Money from there?
Millie

68 Trace Thursday March 12, 2009 at 2:26 am

I too have now decided to call it quits and give in – I am going out today to buy a copy of Windows Vista, (I have already downloaded VMWare fusion) so that I can run MS money, Publisher and a few others that I miss. I had hoped with all the pc’s I have bought over the years that one of the recovery disks would work – but unfortunately not – good ol’ microsoft strikes again – it seems I have got to go and purchase a stand alone retail copy :(
But after having my mac for over 3 months, hopying and praying for alternatives to come out and be good enough – I’m afraid it’s the only way to go for me and our business. I feel like I’ll be infecting my mac but I have to trust that all will be well.

Any others already doing this having any problems at all???

69 liz Thursday March 12, 2009 at 5:20 am

Don’t buy vista!!!! I would just try to find a copy of XP…vista is terrible and i would hate to see it on a wonderful MAC!!!

70 Jessy Thursday March 12, 2009 at 2:13 pm

to Liz:
Since moving to a Mac I have not found a suitable replacement for MS Money. There’s none. Period. I started looking for the “basics” and now I just keep a straight up checkbook on my iphone. I don’t have the nifty bells and whistles but I know how much $ I have at all times . I cross-check my iphone checkbook (app called Balance) and my bank account online and make “notes” in the iphone checkbook just in case (like the check number), it’s not “cool”, no. But it’s very accurate and very simple. Yes, I miss my budgets, and my categories and my backups , and my pie charts, and the bad-ass recurring bill option. All I can do is hope that Microsoft feels like making MS Money for MAC.

71 liz Thursday March 12, 2009 at 2:18 pm

thanks Jesse.
I have been using fortora fresh finance and it seems to be working. They claim they are working on the ability to cross check automatically. I think they do charts and all but I haven’t gotten that far. Thanks!

72 Jessy Thursday March 12, 2009 at 2:45 pm

to Liz:
That looks pretty promising! Thanks!

73 Don Thursday March 12, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Millie – I have not tried QuickBooks on the MAC. I used QuickBooks a couple of years ago and just wasn’t impressed with it. As for Parallels, yes, I did try it with Money and Excel. It works and is straight-forward to install and set up. I just prefer VMWare; probably just because I have more experience with it. It seemed to be more compatible with the Linux OS VMs as well. If all you plan to run is a Windows virtual machine on the MAC, Parallels is a good choice. Keep in mind you also have the option of installing Windows in Bootcamp. Bootcamp will give you the best performance since you won’t have all the overhead of the virtual machine.
Liz suggested not putting Vista on a MAC. I’m not a huge fan of Vista, but I’m actually impressed with it’s performance on the iMAC (however, having 4Gb memory in the machine helps). I have run XP on the iMAC, but find myself using mostly Vista. Like everything else, it comes down to personal taste and application.

74 Trace Thursday March 12, 2009 at 4:14 pm

Well I have vista on my iMac now (I was used to vista on my old pc so no prob there) in bootcamp (installed fine, put norton on and it crahed out with blue screen arrgghh typical microsoft) and VM fusion (much quicker install and am trying macafee as it came with fusion) ok so far. I will put ms money on it and see how we go. I didn’t realize it like having two separate vista machines! So I think I will put the business apps and money etc on VM one and leave the bootcamp version for games only – makes sense?

75 Don Thursday March 12, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Trace – be careful. If you are thinking the Vista VM showing up in Fusion is different from the Bootcamp install of Vista, that’s not the case. Any changes you make in Bootcamp will show up in the Fusion VM. It’s just VMs way of letting you run Bootcamp without actually launching into Bootcamp. I’ve run Symantec Antivirus in Bootcamp without any issues.

76 Mark Thursday March 12, 2009 at 9:03 pm

For those of you interested, it appears that Quicken has listened to at least some of the concerns from its Mac following and plans on releasing a complete overhaul of Quicken for Mac late 2009.

Here’s a link that provides more info:

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83337

77 Trace Friday March 13, 2009 at 4:25 am

Yay!!!! I now have ms money working again – horrah. I’ve got 3 months of statements to catch up on and balance but hey I’m sooo pleased. VMWare Fusion works absolutely incredibly.
I have msn messenger working too but not with video :( my logitech cam works thru vista no problem but for some reason msn wont see it.

78 John Wednesday March 18, 2009 at 5:40 am

Microsoft Money 2004 Small Business works with Codeweavers Crossover for Mac 7.1.0 if you install Internet Explorer 6 SP1 first and then the Software from the CD to the same Bottle (installation)

Working 100% for me, on Leopard

Hope this helps the rest of you

79 John Wednesday March 18, 2009 at 5:43 am

This would be Crossover Pro 7.1.0 for Mac.

The tip to install Internet Explorer 6 SP1 I got it from a Wine support forum.

I think that was the needed item.

80 Josh Monday March 23, 2009 at 4:25 pm

Warning… do not sink your quicken with Wells Fargo on a mac. Even if you call and talk to someone at Wells Fargo support for over an hour, what they will say is, “it sounds like you’re experiencing a software problem.” Which is crap. It just doesn’t work.

81 Jeff Tuesday April 14, 2009 at 11:17 am

I bought VMWare Fusion for the sole purpose of being able to run MS Money on my Mac

82 Millie Tuesday April 14, 2009 at 3:35 pm

I also bought VMWare Fusion to run Money. I don’t have time to experiment and I have to much historical data which I need for my expense reports and taxes. Someday perhaps there will be an MsMoney version for Mac which would be great since everything is so much quicker in the Mac.

83 Al Koller Tuesday April 14, 2009 at 5:19 pm

After a number of years of running Parallels for MS Money and FrontPage, I’ve given up (too slow, too much trouble) and moved my money management to the local credit union FREE bill pay. I can see all my assets and manage my payments essentially the same way, and it will integrate with my tax software as well. When I finally migrate all my web sites to Mac-based programming, it will be Goodbye Microsoft!

84 Lisa Sunday May 3, 2009 at 10:29 am

Thanks. I guess I’ll quit looking for comparable software and keep my PC limping along so I can use MS Money.

85 Trace Saturday May 16, 2009 at 3:10 am

Well I too have given up with fusion and bootcamp – its ok for some things and for a start you think its great that you have windows on your mac to do the must-do windows things but the memory that windows takes is incredible and so I have undone the partion for bootcamp and gave it back to my mac – and I have resurrected my old vista pc tower!!! So I am back to my iMac with 1 monitor ( I really liked having 2) and now have a windows and mac machine on my desk :(
Is there really no decent money progs been brought out for the mac yet!!! What is going on!!!

86 Ants Sunday May 24, 2009 at 4:56 pm

I found the IBank listed to be a good alternative for ms money. Everything i use ms money for ive found in Ibank.
That said ive also go ms money working on crossover for mac which doesnt require you to have a windows cd and and thus makes it a quite cheap way of getting it working for those that cant live without it.

87 Terry Saturday May 30, 2009 at 8:22 pm

well .. needless to say. Until today, I am still unsuccessfully finding an mac replacement for my aging ms money 2005! (maybe ms money 2008?) Who would think ms money would boost ms and parallel/fusion’s sales .. fellow mac-lover please keep this post alive with latest update.

88 Michelle Saturday June 6, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Have had the iMac for 9 months and love it, but unfortunately we still have to keep the PC in the next room for MS Money. It’s annoying and hard to believe there really isn’t a program for macs!

89 Millie Saturday June 6, 2009 at 5:46 pm

I took the advise of some other users that communicate on this site. I have MS Money on my Mac using VM Fusion. Personally this works fine for me. Actually my Virtual Machine runs Windows XP faster than my old PC. Of course the only thing I run is Ms Money.

90 Dennis Monday June 8, 2009 at 9:53 am

I would have to agree with this perspective. I too have been looking for an alternative, but alas there isn’t a viable, usable, complete program to can match MS Money. Say what you will about MS, they have this niche sewn up.

91 Norm Tuesday June 9, 2009 at 2:05 am

I too am disappointed that a MS Money equivalent is not available for Mac.
I have found that the freeware Mini$ is one application that provides some of the benefits & I have been able to import & retain and manage all my MS Money files that date back to 1993

92 db Thursday June 11, 2009 at 5:01 pm

Well, now that MS Money is going away we can all stop ranting about no good options to MS Money on the Mac.

93 John Friday June 12, 2009 at 2:32 am

Sad news indeed – Microsoft to discontinue making Money. If it wasn’t such an amusing headline in itself, I’d cry.

94 John Friday June 12, 2009 at 2:38 am

Bah – All my hopes dashed in about 2 mins.

Quicken® Financial Life™ for Mac – Coming Summer 2009
http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/mac-personal-finance.jsp

From the FAQ:
Q: How do I update my data from a prior version of Quicken like Quicken Mac 2007?
A: After installing Quicken Financial Life for Mac, you can import your old Quicken Mac file to Quicken Financial Life for Mac using a simple conversion utility provided with the software. Please note that this utility is currently in beta, and unsupported.

Q: Can I convert my Quicken for Windows data to Quicken Financial Life for Mac?
A: At this time, we do not support conversion from Quicken for Windows to Quicken Financial Life for Mac.

Q: Can I convert my data from Microsoft Money to use with Quicken Financial Life for Mac?
A: No. At this time, only Quicken Mac files can be imported into Quicken Financial Life for Mac.

95 Wes Saturday June 13, 2009 at 9:21 am

Wow, this is a bummer. I’ve been a Money user since it was free when Win95 came out. I switched to a Mac 1.5 years ago but never really saw anything on the mac that I could or wanted to migrate to. I currently use Money, an Excel workbook, and a custom .NET web app to manage my finances. I’ve been wanting to port my web app and Excel worksheets into a native mac application but never had the motivation. Now with Money being discontinued, I have even more reason to do so. And, I might as well add in the features of Money that I used as well.

96 db Tuesday June 16, 2009 at 5:33 pm

Well, now check out that quicken link again for “Financial Life” for Mac. http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/mac-personal-finance.jsp

Quicken Financial Life for Mac DELAYED to FALL 2009!

Looks like “Financial Life” is in cardiac arrest and is for the 3rd time now delayed!

97 db Thursday July 2, 2009 at 2:50 pm

Can you believe it, now Quicken has moved Financial Life off their website totally!!! No mention of it and no links to it!!!!

98 BC Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 12:19 pm

Holy Cr4p! you hit the mail on its head. I switched to a mac last year after making sure that VMWare Fusion was loaded with Windows XP and MS-Money was running fine on it. I thought I was all set for a while. But last month MS made the announcement on killing Money and I started looking for alternatives. I must have tried about 10 out of your list of 28. And today I saw your blog post saying *exactly* how I feel. Nothing comes even close.

I have been thinking about writing something for the mac. Just going by the number of people searching for something, it seems a profitable venture. But going by how many software titles are already available, I fear for a huge waste of my time.

All I want is an import of my MS-Money file and simple clean interface for downloading and “approving” my transactions every week. I don’t care for any fancy features. Just plain old categorization and a couple of simple reports. Not that hard to do. If it were Windows, I would do it in C#. But for the Mac, I don’t know Objective C. And Ruby on Rails would give me a web application.

I am hoping that someone would create something in the next 10 months I have left on my Money license.

99 Millie Wednesday July 8, 2009 at 5:01 am

Like BC all I would need is a program where I can load my MSmoney backup and ideally be able to import accounts, payees, catagories, subcatagories and nice to have would be all unreconciled transactions if not all my history. The other would be to be able to import files from my bank and credit card companies. These are just the basic functions. If no reporting is available then at least some type of extract selection.
Anybody knows if one of the 28 softwares mentioned can handle these basic needs?

100 Cory Friday July 10, 2009 at 9:58 am

Well, to continue adding to the bad news. Quicken delayed until 2010:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168171/quicken_financial_life_delayed_until_2010.html

The presumption that this will never see the light of day is starting to feel about right (Duke Nukem Forever, anyone?)…

Good luck, everyone.

101 Tim Jones Sunday July 12, 2009 at 2:25 am

Hello, I also switched to a MacBook just over a year ago, (best thing I’ve done!), and I also use MS Money quite heavily. Unfortunately I let my old Dell go so now I am nearly stuffed. On my Mac I run a programme called Parallels which allows me to run Win’ XP as a virtual machine so now I can run Money on my Mac. The downside side though is that the Money programme now feels a bit flakey – it has fallen over once and in one or two other ways it does not run as smoothly as it used to do. Also, having Windows running on my Mac is annoying because of the vulnerabilities of it regarding virii etc. In my local computer shop I have seen an Asus Netbook for £185. I suppose I’ll just have to bite the bullet and get one of those if I want Money to run smoothly. It’s all just a bit of a pain isn’t it.

102 Al Koller Sunday July 12, 2009 at 8:00 am

On June 30, Microsoft ceased support of all versions of MS Money, stating that newly registered copies would be supported for two years. If you have not upgraded recently, there are no remaining copies to purchase. If you bought MS Money 2008 as I did, we can expect to be abandoned at the end of this year – Dec. 31. After that time all issues will be moot, since MS Money will no longer be an option no matter what platform you are using. I think this is because many banks now offer free bill pay, and Intuit and others provide banking software that integrates with tax software. In any case, prepare to move to another program soon.

103 liz Sunday July 12, 2009 at 8:02 am

Hello,
I have been using Fortora Fresh Finance for about 6 months now and am liking it. I had to just let go of the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to use Money without the hassle of parallels etc. Try it. You can download a free trial. I have not been able to just download my statements if I want to manually input them too, but with an apple it is so easy to just pull up my bank on one screen and fortora on the other. switching between screens is very easy.

104 Tim Jones Sunday July 12, 2009 at 11:32 am

I’ll have a look at the Fortora product although I must admit that I have got myself sych’d up to get the cheap Assus. I’m not really bothered about Microsoft support for MS Money – I have been using the programme without any need for support since 2001, it’s just an efficient way of running it… . Still glad I got the MacBook though.

105 Al Koller Sunday July 12, 2009 at 12:23 pm

The problem will be that you can no longer use Bill Pay through MS Money, which was free under their software. Other systems like Quicken cost about $10 a month. Banks and credit unions have free Bill Pay systems, but some of those don’t export to tax programs, so it will take a bit of research to move to a new system. Bummer!

106 Trace Monday July 13, 2009 at 1:09 am

Ok – so if we are gonna have to get used to a new one for the mac – which one do we recommend??? David – you have tested them all as per your list and say none are anywhere near MS Money but which is the best??? I think we have all begun to accept that MS Money isn’t going to last us all much longer so which is the best of the rest???
Anyone?

107 liz Monday July 13, 2009 at 5:39 am

try fortora fresh finance….free trial

108 Rich Brake Monday July 20, 2009 at 1:10 pm

OK, I get the message but not a very helpful article if you cannot at least name the best of a poor bunch.

109 Chris Wednesday August 12, 2009 at 9:16 pm

I agree completely with the article. I am one of several posters who own a copy of XP and Parallels with the specific purpose of still using Microsoft Money. The discontinuation of online services by MS Money hit my software yesterday. I feel like a fish out of water at the moment with respect to financial management. Amazing that a company would do this… Do they take into account the fact that this decision gives, what seems to be a large number of customers, absolutely no reason to use or purchase their software for any reason or purpose? Well at least I’m even more content with my Mac.

110 db Sunday August 23, 2009 at 7:15 am

Has anyone every tried xecheck.com ? Granted they don’t have a mac version yet, just wondering if any of you with win on your mac have see this?

111 Hoof Hearted Friday August 28, 2009 at 12:31 pm

I spent $50 on paralells 3.0 a year or two ago just so I’d have a way to run MS Money on my mac at home. Now, I just upgraded my OS to Snow Leopard, and guess what? Parallels 3.0 doesn’t work, and it costs $75.00 to get Paralells 4.0. I can’t believe I’m going to pay $75.00 for one program just to run a 2004 version of a dang Microsoft product. However, like most everyone else has written on here, NOTHING compares to MS Money.

112 kbrian Tuesday September 1, 2009 at 12:13 am

Wow, so glad I stumbled on this. Now I know I’m not alone. Have been using MS Money since 2004, and when I got a Mac last spring, I sprang for VMware Fusion and a cheap OEM copy of XP so I could keep using it. I tried out at least a dozen Mac money-management titles, and as the original author points out, none measured up. I’m intrigued by the Crossover program mentioned in the comments — I think I’ll give that a try. Sounds like a faster, less memory-intensive way to load MS Money. Wouldn’t mind getting XP off my machine for good.

113 Chris Tuesday September 1, 2009 at 9:25 am

Brian
Hey just an FYI. I was doing the same thing (using Fusion and OEM XP). If you can afford it, do yourself a favor and get Parallels. It is FAAAR superior to Fusion (faster, less resource intensive, better experience). Are you still finding MS Money to be functional without the online updates?

114 Singletrack Saturday October 3, 2009 at 11:09 pm

Have to agree with this one. MS Money is still the best personal finance program around. I’ve got a house full of Mac’s but still run XP Pro in Parallel’s VM so I can keep using Money on my iMac. This works fine, updates and all but it still irritates me to have to update my anti-virus software, and deal with the system demands of real time scanning so I can post a couple of grocery bills….

Every now and again…I search the internet to see if there is a new solution out there (as I did today) and am confronted by the same wasteland. So I fire up the VM and go back to MS Money.

115 Doug Sunday October 4, 2009 at 9:05 pm

I see a new mac Quicken 2010 being offered on the quicken website. Any comments or knowledge what it might bring to the party??

116 Craig Tuesday October 13, 2009 at 1:23 pm

Thanks for the information.

I think you should remove the link to “Why Windows Users Won’t Switch To The Mac”, or at least link directly to Walt Mossberg’s article instead of Tera Patricks’ rebuttal on mac360.com. The rebuttal is seriously misinformed and arrogant. Walt’s points are great though!

117 Craig Tuesday October 13, 2009 at 1:45 pm
118 Nuno Sunday November 15, 2009 at 2:53 am

Hi there..

That’s the perfect explanation for every switcher. :) I’ve been struggling to find a replacement for Money and there isn’t any single software that would get close the MSMoney.

The best application I’ve found is Money Manager Ex, from http://www.codelathe.com/mmex

Please have a look..

119 eprman Sunday November 15, 2009 at 9:26 am

I do not have any demanding tasks, I just want to easily enter expenses by category, get reports throughout the year and balance my checking account. What would be the best choice?

120 Al Koller Sunday November 15, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Asking this From Nuno, writing earlier today:

“…The best application I’ve found is Money Manager Ex, from http://www.codelathe.com/mmex“.

Will it export to tax programs like Taxcut or Quicken? If not, that lets me out again.

I am still running MS Money on Parallels, but everything I’ve seen indicates I will be unable to continue after Dec. 31. Any ideas?

Al Koller

121 Nuno Monday November 16, 2009 at 11:30 am

Hi Al,

I have no idea.. After some time struggling with it I decided that although it is free, GPL and pretty interesting, it just simply couldn’t replace MSMoney :(

Getting back to VirtualBox, Windows and MSMoney..

122 Alik Tuesday November 17, 2009 at 11:47 am
123 Wes Ellis Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 4:31 am

Hiya, I’m the Mac package maintainer for Money Manager Ex. I also help out with writing new code where I can. I noticed that someone asked if MMEX could export to Taxcut or Quicken (Did you mean TurboTax?).

Quicken being a money management application, it can improt CSV and QIF. And MMEX has the ability to export both of these file types. So, yes MMEX can export to Quicken, if you like.

As for TurboTax, I don’t know what filetype it uses, but if it isn’t QIF or CSV, MMEX doesn’t do it yet.

At any rate, you might do more good to join a project and get the application that you want (eventually) rather than complaining that there isn’t anything available (doesn’t help anyone).

124 Millie Thursday November 19, 2009 at 5:24 pm

I have been seeing all the messages regarding MS ending support for MS Money. I think this does not affect me except no new versions will come out. It’s not like my software is going to delete itself right? or am I not getting what the impact of this means. Will Amex cease to export .mny files?
Enlighten me please.

125 Al Koller Thursday November 19, 2009 at 6:21 pm

I may be wrong, but in the June timeframe I saw an announcement that MS Money would cease support for Bill Pay. Since that’s the main reason I use that service, I may be out of luck come 1 January. I guess we’ll all see what happens soon enought.

126 Millie Friday November 20, 2009 at 9:57 am

So if I don’t use Bill Pay or any other online services, I just continue using my MS Money software and uploading transaction from my Cards as long as these continue to export in .mny format?

127 Al Koller Friday November 20, 2009 at 11:12 am

As far as I know, that’s correct. I received notice today that my account will stop supporting bill pay in 23 days. You can learn more at: http://www.microsoft.com/money/default.mspx.

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