OT: Financial Tracking Software

[lreidgreen]

Sorry this is so OT but I am in a jam. Well maybe this is on-topic because I do track my fitness expenses.

I have been using Quicken 2000 and had no plan to upgrade. I just got a new laptop and was going to get rid of my desktop. I gave my computer guru the Quicken 2000 disk to load onto the new computer before transferring the data. Well he says that the Q2000 will not work as it is 32 bit and my computer is 64 bit (whatever that means)
So I figured I would buy the new version of Quicken and transfer data. Well Q2015 cannot import data from versions before 2010. Ok then I figured I would start from scratch as I am unlikely to use ancient data. However the reviews on Amazon are filled with horror stories about recent versions of quicken. As far back as 2008 versions. They currently offer all kinds of gimmicky services like free credit reports, online communities etc. Don't need or want that crap-just a decent basic no frills program. One of the reviews says that you can't even use Q2015 without having an online account with them. That aint happening...

I do not need or due to security concerns want to import data from my bank online. I enter my checkbook entries and update my investment accounts manually. I save my credit card transactions in QIF format and then import that into quicken on my computer. I mainly need a program to help me balance my checkbook and categorize my expenses for tax purposes. Entering investments would be nice but not necessary. Is there anything else out there that can do this?

[Jags]

Originally Posted by lreidgreen

Sorry this is so OT but I am in a jam. Well maybe this is on-topic because I do track my fitness expenses.

I have been using Quicken 2000 and had no plan to upgrade. I just got a new laptop and was going to get rid of my desktop. I gave my computer guru the Quicken 2000 disk to load onto the new computer before transferring the data. Well he says that the Q2000 will not work as it is 32 bit and my computer is 64 bit (whatever that means)
So I figured I would buy the new version of Quicken and transfer data. Well Q2015 cannot import data from versions before 2010. Ok then I figured I would start from scratch as I am unlikely to use ancient data. However the reviews on Amazon are filled with horror stories about recent versions of quicken. As far back as 2008 versions. They currently offer all kinds of gimmicky services like free credit reports, online communities etc. Don't need or want that crap-just a decent basic no frills program. One of the reviews says that you can't even use Q2015 without having an online account with them. That aint happening...

I do not need or due to security concerns want to import data from my bank online. I enter my checkbook entries and update my investment accounts manually. I save my credit card transactions in QIF format and then import that into quicken on my computer. I mainly need a program to help me balance my checkbook and categorize my expenses for tax purposes. Entering investments would be nice but not necessary. Is there anything else out there that can do this?

It sounds like you are looking for a simple spread sheet program? If you are entering most of your data manually, how about Google Sheets. It's Google's version of Excel. It is stored on Google drive and you can access it anywhere from any device.

[TinierTina]

Originally Posted by Jags

It sounds like you are looking for a simple spread sheet program? If you are entering most of your data manually, how about Google Sheets. It's Google's version of Excel. It is stored on Google drive and you can access it anywhere from any device.

Building on the above, try to keep from reinventing the wheel if possible (I'm lazy that way, myself); if you have Office 365 or Office 2013 or a few earlier versions, you may be able to get a free template online to download and use with Excel, which would cook your checkbook's breakfast for it ...

Because otherwise an old version of the Quicken could be gotten on eBay and you don't know how well the copy (even if unwrapped, new) could work once you install it ...

[bee]

Originally Posted by Jags

It sounds like you are looking for a simple spread sheet program? If you are entering most of your data manually, how about Google Sheets. It's Google's version of Excel. It is stored on Google drive and you can access it anywhere from any device.

Though if she has privacy concerns, she probably doesn't want to use google anything, especially for financial data. At least I know we wouldn't at our house.
But, there is probably something else like that you could use -- excel even. It is so annoying what they do with QB every year!

[TinierTina]

Originally Posted by bee

Though if she has privacy concerns, she probably doesn't want to use google anything, especially for financial data. At least I know we wouldn't at our house.
But, there is probably something else like that you could use -- excel even. It is so annoying what they do with QB every year!

Apple's iCloud Numbers does not have that reputation of tracking your spreadsheet/numerical and financial data as Google has. But it's only in beta.

[lreidgreen]

Originally Posted by TinierTina

Building on the above, try to keep from reinventing the wheel if possible (I'm lazy that way, myself); if you have Office 365 or Office 2013 or a few earlier versions, you may be able to get a free template online to download and use with Excel, which would cook your checkbook's breakfast for it ...

Because otherwise an old version of the Quicken could be gotten on eBay and you don't know how well the copy (even if unwrapped, new) could work once you install it ...

I was searching for older versions of quicken and even those get terrible reviews. I asked on Amazon's Q2015 page about using the program to do things manually and it is possible. Several people said that they have been using the download features with their banks and had no problems but I am wary with all the data breeches you hear about. My other concern is the comments that you cannot do anything without registering with Intuit online. I have Office 2010 so I will try to look for a template to use to balance my checkbook. I do like the ability to upload my credit card transactions via QIF files because we use the credit card a lot and I want to keep track of my expenses, especially for tax purposes. No one on the amazon page answered my question about the current program's ability to use QIF files.

[TinierTina]

Originally Posted by lreidgreen

I was searching for older versions of quicken and even those get terrible reviews. I asked on Amazon's Q2015 page about using the program to do things manually and it is possible. Several people said that they have been using the download features with their banks and had no problems but I am wary with all the data breeches you hear about. My other concern is the comments that you cannot do anything without registering with Intuit online. I have Office 2010 so I will try to look for a template to use to balance my checkbook. I do like the ability to upload my credit card transactions via QIF files because we use the credit card a lot and I want to keep track of my expenses, especially for tax purposes. No one on the amazon page answered my question about the current program's ability to use QIF files.

Quick search on Bing confirmed my suspicions.

You have to get data in a .csv file (CSV stands for comma-separated-variable) ...

Not technical enough, myself, and may look into it later out of curiosity is a macro routine to do a conversion (as an alternative) to enable the .qif to excel ...

http://answers.informer.com/13850/ho...t-qif-to-excel

[lreidgreen]

Tina,
I think the bank where I have my VISA allows me to download my transactions as a CSV file. I will look into this.
Leslie

[TinierTina]

Originally Posted by lreidgreen

Tina,
I think the bank where I have my VISA allows me to download my transactions as a CSV file. I will look into this.
Leslie

Well, there ya go.

Hoping this works out for you.
CSV converts easily to Excel. Even very old (pre-2007). The comma acts as a delimiter, same as if there were Tabs ...

Were I to do this, I'd probably stick clip art and sound into the checkbook and turn it into literally a journal, so I don't bother, for myself ...

[Jags]

Originally Posted by bee

Though if she has privacy concerns, she probably doesn't want to use google anything, especially for financial data. At least I know we wouldn't at our house.
But, there is probably something else like that you could use -- excel even. It is so annoying what they do with QB every year!

<--- color him worried. I have all my passwords on a Google sheets doc. It is stored on Google Drive, but password protected. Do you think I should have security concerns?