• Financial Software: What to do when MsMoney goes away?

  Filed under Budgeting, Finances, Saving, Small Business
  Sep 22

  In my quest to replace the soon to be obsolete Microsoft Money software I have been researching the various financial software programs available.  Because I am used to a desktop software like Money, I instinctively looked for another program to buy and download to my PC.  Well you know what, the choices are rather limited! Quicken anyone?

  More and more web-based applications are being developed, and all have their individual strengths and weaknesses.  I found a great list of options in an article titled Good-Bye, Microsoft Money… over on Get Rich Slowly. Thanks to a lot of input form readers I was able to get a little more insight into each one.

  My dilemma in making a choice (and if you know me I really weigh my options heavily before deciding anything) is how to incorporate tracking personal finances and business finances.  It seemed to me that no one program is going to do it all in the way I would like.

  Here are functions that would be great to have:

  –ability to connect with banking, credit card, and investment sites to download my transactions

  –ability to also manually enter or edit transactions

  –integration with my banks bill pay features

  –budgeting and  tracking progress

  –the ability to split a transaction into more than one category

  I am sure there are more little things, but these are the big ones.

  As with anything, making a change often does not come easily.

  Since I began searching for something new I have tried the following web-based programs: Mint, Thrive, QuickenOnline, and YodleeMoney Center. Then I also downloaded trial versions of two desktop applications: MoneyDance and You Need a Budget (YNAB).

  After playing around with each of them for a while I found each one had their quirks that were deal-breakers for me. The two big ones are not being able to manually enter transactions or to split a transaction into more than one category. So I discontinued most of the online services.  I got in on a beta testing group from Quicken, so I will keep playing with that in order to give them accurate feedback and suggestions for improvement.

  I have to say I really liked YNAB the best and will continue using it. Their budgeting feature has enabled me to stop running both my excel spreadsheets and my financial software, often doubling my work. This will surely streamline things for me.  If you are wanting to get a handle on your finances, being able to plan where your money is going to go, then YNAB is a great tool. They have a 7 day free trial, so check it out. In addition their site has tutorials on their budgeting philosophy and tips on how to best utilize the program, along with a great user forum.  Soon they are releasing YNAB 3 which will be Mac compatible.

  I hope you take a few minutes to look at the various sites I listed and see if one will work for you. Most of them have the ability to download information from your bank, track credit cards and investments and setup bill pay reminders and some budgeting and savings goals.  As each of us has different requirements, what program works for one may not work for the next person.   If you have experience with any of the above, please post your likes or dislikes in the comments.

  Also…for small business owners, WAHM, eBay sellers and the like, check out this great site for tracking business income and expenses Outright (now eBay compatible!)

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  Tagged as: Budgeting, Finances, money, MsMoney, Quicken, software, YNAB
  
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