One More Mac Program

Goodness, I forgot to mention Quicken 2007 for the Mac.

Quicken is probably the most capable accounting program for an individual that is available for the Mac. I rely on it constantly to keep a handle on my personal finances. That doesn’t mean that I’m happy with it; it’s just the best available in my opinion.

Transitioning from the Windows version, the Mac version (I’ll call them QW and QM for the duration) does not seem to be as polished as the QW. QM, plain and simple, has a non-standard interface on the Mac which makes it more difficult to figure out where to go to get things done. One feature in particular that I miss is the ability to sort the columns by amount, when you are balancing your checking account. On QW, I always did this and it made it much quicker to locate whichever line item I was reconciling at the time. Check numbers don’t get it for me because I do most of my bill paying electronically. So I hope they bring that feature back. The interface sucks, as is.

Having said that, I understand that they are about to come out with a new version, which is supposed to clean up the interface. When it arrives, I will gladly adopt it on the off chance that they did improve on it.

For all its warts, I have to state that I have lost no data and had no problems with the actual functioning of the program. Which is why I still use it. But it could be vastly better than it is.

Three Stars for the crappy interface. Add a half a star because it does, after all, work. http://www.quicken.com/ for about $70.

-Pop