Irish alternatives to Quicken?

zoomtard

I have been enjoying great benefit from Quicken in terms of home budgeting and goal setting over the last few months. There is no localised version for Ireland however and so it can't sync with my online banking accounts and that means reconciling accounts which is a pain in the arse.

Does anyone know of similar packages to Quicken that allow you to track, budget and goal home finances that would also sync with Irish banks?

Frank Grimes Jr

I don't think there is anything out there that will log in and sync up your transactions. I used to use Quicken until I discovered YNAB which is beautifully simple and is focused entirely on budgeting and future needs. I can download my bank statements in *.OFX file format which can be imported into YNAB. However I prefer to update manually once or twice a month.

irishgrover

Frank Grimes Jr wrote: »

..... I can download my bank statements in *.OFX file format which can be imported into YNAB. However I prefer to update manually once or twice a month.

Hi Frank, if you don't mind me asking, where are you located or what back do you use that allows .ofx downloads?
thanks
irishgrover

boardtc

I have been using Quicken 2001 for ages but I want an alternative that will take irish bank imports. The problems is that BOI don't seem to offer a download for their _statements_, one can export a statement with custom dates to csv but I've never seen a financial program that has got reconciliation of csv file imports. Correct me if I am wrong. YNAB looks interesting but does not even do csv import out of the box it seems.

irishgrover

boardtc wrote: »

I have been using Quicken 2001 for ages but I want an alternative that will take irish bank imports. The problems is that BOI don't seem to offer a download for their _statements_, one can export a statement with custom dates to csv but I've never seen a financial program that has got reconciliation of csv file imports. Correct me if I am wrong. YNAB looks interesting but does not even do csv import out of the box it seems.

Hi, http://www.buxfer.com/ will take CVS files, with a little conversion from what BOI allow you to do. I'm using it, it's okay, no Quicken, but okay. Quicken used to take CVS files in the '90s but stopped due to commerical agreements with financil institutions etc.

AlbionCat

I use a program called Bank Tree Personal Finance http://www.banktree.co.uk which allows me to set accounts with different currencies - I run Euro and Sterling accounts.

Across the different accounts I have - two online banks do not allow downloads, however so long as the "statement" screen presents the data in a table format I can copy/paste the date to excel then save as CSV.

Bank Tree does allow the import of a CSV file and allows the user to dictate the date order i.e. dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd etc., It also allows the user to map 4 columns of data during the import i.e. date / payee / debit/credit. It also supports import of ofx or qif from various bank downloads.

I think Bank Tree offer a trial where you download and try it out which is what I did. On the whole I am reasonably impressed - the only thing I think could be a bit better is the reporting tool, but that does give me what I want after tweaking it a bit.

boardtc

Thanks everyone. I am not seeing a compelling reason to move from Quicken with my 10+ years of data.

Overheal

boardtc wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I am not seeing a compelling reason to move from Quicken with my 10+ years of data.

Actually I just bought YNAB on Steam and was coming to boards to spread the good word, the program is amazing. Does handle multiple currencies too.

I've used Quicken and I've used Quickbooks. Quickbooks I used to manage a company file that was already established before my time, and Quicken was an arse to set up.

YNAB actually encourages you not to import your data, unless you have a highly compelling reason to. The reason being that you would sit there and categorize, 10 years, of expenses and transactions, and would accomplish squat when it came to how useful that information is in making future budgetary decisions. 'budgeting is about the present and future, not the past'

YNAB is on sale for the next few hours on steam for 66% off, and the YNAB iPhone app is $5. With both, you can enter transactions on the go and they will sync up to your file at home (actually, it uses Dropbox, so your file is stored online, not on your PC) so if I buy coffee and spend $5, I don't have many excuses, I can just plug it in right there and it syncs immediately.

The only reason I can see Quicken being useful is if you want to file an itemized tax return. If you don't file an itemized return, there is little point. Even if you do file this way, theres no point in having anything beyond the last year or so of recent expenses in your active file, since anything older than that is History at that stage. And lets face it, you don't make next week's buying decisions based on the price of a Big Mac in 2003.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/

Swear to god, I've used this program for all of two hours and can attest that between the months of quickbooks and the days spent trying to manually enter everything into quicken, YNAB makes everything super-easy, and even has the same style layouts you are familiar seeing from your Business Studies course in the Junior Cert. You're right at home here. No sense in not running the trial, but for the price on Steam I went ahead and bought it while the price was good and bought the iPhone app (either the phone/desktop program can be used independently or in unison). The entire program, and all of the online course materials offered for free, are designed to help you create a budget where at the most basic level you are living in the current month using the income from the previous month instead of budgeting each month based on expected income. When done correctly the idea is that when your paycheques for this month roll in, you won't even touch that money until next month, and so on.

YNAB looks interesting but does not even do csv import out of the box it seems.

Im looking at the option to import a .CSV right now. It's right next to their link "Learn why we don't reccomend [importing historical data]" However they only reccomend CSV import for advanced users. It does also support the import however of a .OFX and .QFX, so importing your Quicken should be relatively painless either way.

The problem with CSV seems to be evident in their article, and its backed up by what other information Im reading on the history of the CSV file format:

This [CSV] format is not standardized at all across banks. If your bank offers any of the above formats, we recommend using those over CSV. CSV will work but you'll have to edit the data before it can imported. If you use CSV, you should be comfortable working with spreadsheets, copying and pasting cells from one place to another, and saving and retrieving files.

Perhaps the question you should be asking instead is why does your bank insist on CSV when there are far better file formats available? All accounts I need access to online have the newer formats available for download.

boardtc

@Overheal believe it or not I got that deal at the time on steam, €17 but have never looked at YNAB :-( ...I still use Quicken. Looking at YNAB is a project I've never got ot yet but would like to make time for!!

BarryM

Just jumped in here cos I hear big rumours that Quicken (recently sold to what sounds like a vulture fund) is going to introduce transaction based operations, already introduced in Canada, apparently. You'll need an account and everything will be in the cloud, afaics.

So, the search for an alternative becomes......maybe urgent?

I've been,as many others here, a user since what seems like forever....I have to do an itemised income tax return, is one of the reasons. I can create a spreadsheet from the year end data and shovel it into the appropriate bits of the Form 11.

FernandoTorres

I live in Australia and there are multiple providers where you can link all of your accounts (banking, savings, investments, credit cards etc) and see your whole net worth in one page. The data feeds update daily and you can run multiple reports etc. I know there's even more options in the US. Ireland seems prehistoric in comparison. Anyone know the reason for this? I've always wondered why these financial institutions will share the data with the third parties. Maybe they're obliged by law if the account owner gives authority in Aus/US? Or is there just no market in Ireland for anyone to bother...

boardtc

You can download an older version of Quicken which works 100% from the quicken site....no need to upgrade this to a new version

BarryM

I know you can get various versions and they work. My recently downloaded 2017 upgrade works.

I asked the question because of the rumours about a change of policy. Anybody else hear/see them?