Contents. Background Although still widely used, QIF is a format older than (OFX). The inability to reconcile imported transactions against the current account information is one of the primary shortcomings of QIF. Most personal money management software, such as, and Quicken's low end products (e.g.
Quicken Personal and Quicken Personal Plus), can read QIF files to import information. Used to be able to import QIF, too, but with its 2006 version it dropped that support for several important account types, including checking, savings, and credit card accounts.
The Australian version of Quicken still allows the importing of QIF files for these account types. However, unlike the American version, it is not possible to export data to QIF or any other file type for any account type. The QIF format does not allow a user to mark the currency in which a transaction was completed. In some cases this may cause problems for users who do use multiple currencies when they export or import into another software package. Quicken's proposed replacement for the QIF format has been the format. It is commonly supported by financial institutions to supply downloadable information to account holders, especially by banks that support integration of Money or Quicken with their online banking.
Not everybody, however, was, or is, happy with this replacement. Some banks dislike it because Quicken (Intuit) charges licensing fees to use QFX. Other banks pass the fees on by charging customers for downloading QFX files. Because Microsoft Money imports either QIF or OFX format files, and Microsoft does not charge banks any licensing fees to use OFX for Money, banks do not normally charge for downloading QIF and OFX files.
(QIF and OFX are open formats, free for anyone to use.) Data format A QIF file typically has the following structure:!Type: type identifier string single character line codeLiteral String Data. ^ single character line codeLiteral String Data. ^ Each record ends with a ^ (caret). All the data in the file is stored in strings, and the file could be edited in any. Simple example!Type:Bank D03/03/10 T-379.00 PCITY OF SPRINGFIELD ^ D03/04/10 T-20.28 PYOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKET ^ D03/03/10 T-421.35 PSPRINGFIELD WATER UTILITY ^.etc. Header line The first line in the file must be a header line, to identify the type of data contained.
The 'check register' screen has a separate colum for Paye, Tage and Memo on some of my accounts (using Quicken 2011). Other accounts have the Tag and memo colums under the Payer colum which is the screen I prefer.
In fact, QIF files are the only format files that Quicken Personal and Quicken Personal Plus can import. Archived from on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2007. CS1 maint: Archived copy as title. Atkins, Derek (2014-09-17). Retrieved 17 September 2014. The QIF format does not mark currency.
When you import a QIF into GnuCash Desktop you may select one (and only one) currency per import, and that is applied to all transactions in that import. Ralls, John (15 December 2013). Retrieved 17 September 2014.
The QIF is an old and rather broken file format. And fails to define important data (such as the currency denomination). External links. Archived from on 2010-02-22. Look for def extract(path).
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You may want updates. Thanks for visiting! Welcome to the final day of my mini series exploring popular personal-finance apps. As I prepare to in 2017, I have to decide which tool to use. In the olden days, there weren't many options. Lately, however, there's been a boom in personal-finance tools. Rather than try every available app, I elected to take a look at four that seemed like good fits for me: Quicken, You Need a Budget, Personal Capital, and Mint.
Earlier this week, I reviewed. Yesterday I compared. Today I'll talk about Quicken. And at the end of this article, I'll reveal how I've decided to track my money during 2017.
Quicken 2007 For years, my personal-finance tool of choice has been. I used it to track my descent into debt during the 1990s, although those files are exiled to inaccessible 3-1/2 inch floppy disks. That said, I have transactions in my Quicken datafile going back to 19 February 2004 — almost thirteen years ago! My records go back to when I was married to Kris and we were living in the small town where I grew up.
I was still maxing out my credit cards, still living paycheck to paycheck, and still wondering why I had suck rotten luck. I hadn't yet had my financial awakening. (That wouldn't happen until October of 2004.) I've tracked my income and expenses with Quicken intermittently during the past thirteen years. I used the program religiously from October 2004 until April 2009, when. Then I used it again in 2011 and in 2013. So, my records are spotty.
But they're there. If I wanted, it'd be easy to compare my present habits to the past. (In fact, I just for fun I ran a net worth report on each year for which I have data!) I use the decade-old Quicken 2007 to do the following:. I have a list of accounts and spending categories. I've been using the same accounts and same categories for thirteen years. If an account becomes inactive, I'm able to hide it from view (without deleting data). Account registers work just like check registers.
Yes, I'm one of those old men who still uses checks now and then. And because I was raised using checks, I prefer a check-register interface. I enter transactions by hand. Automatic downloads are available but I don't use them. Manual data entry helps me remain more aware of my habits.
That said, I do use automatic updates for my investments. And I like that Quicken downloads stock prices every day.
I don't use the budgeting feature, although I might give it a go in 2017. From time to time, I do use other built-in features though, like the retirement calculator and the home inventory. Finally, I'm a big fan of the reports.
Quicken 2007 is capable of producing dozens of different reports, all of which are customizable. As a money nerd, I like this. Until yesterday, I hadn't upgraded my copy of Quicken in over a decade. I stuck with Quicken 2007 — warts and all. I was fine with it.
The software works. Better still, I know how to use it. I know how to make it do the things I want it to do.
This is no small thing; in fact, as you'll see, it's probably the biggest determining factor in which tool I use to track my money. Yesterday, however, I gave myself permission to upgrade to. I didn't feel like it was fair to review the current versions of Mint, Personal Capital, and against something a decade out of date!
Let's see how the new version compares to the old. Quicken 2017 I'm pleased to report that it was quick and easy to copy my data from Quicken 2007 to Quicken 2017. (I'd been worried.) And the new software was easy enough to figure out. Compared to the older edition, the current version of Quicken looks much prettier. (Quicken 2007 is downright ugly.) The interface is spartan and sleek. Here's the Quicken 2017 home screen: And here's what the investments screen looks like. (Very nice!) This simplicity comes at a price though.
Quicken 2017 has far fewer features than Quicken 2007. It offers similar functionality to Mint (also owned by Intuit) and Personal Capital but lacks the advanced reporting tools, planning calculators, investment tracking, and home finance utilities — emergency records organizer, home inventory, etc. — found in Quicken 2007.
The new version is prettier; the old version is more powerful. Quicken 2017 does offer a few advantages over its elder sibling. It's hard-wired to connect to the Quicken mobile app, for instance, which is probably useful to a lot of folks (but not me). Because the interface is streamlined and pretty, everything is incorporated into a single window.
This is far nicer than Quicken 2007, where everything has its own window. (It's not unusual for me to have 5-6 windows open at a time in the old version.). You're able to add attachments to a transaction, which is very cool. You could, for instance, scan in receipts for tax-related purchases and tag them to the appropriate transaction.
The budget tool in Quicken 2017 is much improved. It's nowhere near as good as, of course, but it's usable. (And I like the feature that shows you a little bar indicating whether you're ahead or behind of projected spending for the month.) That said, there have been some changes that make things more difficult rather than less. For instance, Quicken 2017 is not designed for manual data entry. In the older version I'm accustomed to, it's possible to enter transaction after transaction after transaction without ever taking your hands from the keyboard. That doesn't work with the new version. Now you have to click the “new” button every time you want to enter a transaction — and if you want to enter a description in the Memo field, you have to click yet another button.
Plus, recent transactions are listed at the top of the screen instead of the bottom of the screen. I know I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man here but I can't imagine entering data manually like this for an entire year. And I'm certainly not going to trust Quicken's automatic categorization! (I'm assuming it's similar to — if not the same as — Mint.) Some of the reports in Quicken 2017 arestrange. Who the hell needs to see a “spending cloud” report? What a pointless feature. I didn't like the registration process either.
Even though it's desktop software, you still have to create an Intuit account to use it. I have had nightmare experiences with Intuit accounts — for months, I was charged for a QuickBooks Online account I had cancelled — and I didn't want to create one. But if I wanted to use the program I'd just purchased, I didn't have any option. The thing is, after using Quicken 2017 for a couple of days, I'm not sure I do want to keep it. If I were starting from scratch (and didn't have a copy of Quicken 2007 already), I'd almost assuredly opt for You Need a Budget instead. Quicken 2017 certainly isn't terrible, but I see no reason to “upgrade” from my existing copy of Quicken 2007. Just call me Grandpa J.D., I guess.
Decision 2017! So, after weeks of experimentation with four (well, five) different apps, how will I track my money in 2017?
To be honest, I'm probably going to continue using all four money tools I tested. Mint and Personal Capital are relatively passive. Now that they're set up, I don't have to do anything unless I want to. (Well, I guess I have to manually update my credit union balance in Personal Capital since it refuses to connect.) Instead, I can open each app on my iPad now and then to see how things are going. I've been doing that with Personal Capital for several years already, so that's nothing new. And if I don't like the info I get from Mint, I'll just stop using it. But again: there's no overhead involved in continuing to use both of these.
There is overhead if I choose to track transactions in Quicken and/or You Need a Budget. But that's overhead I want and expect.
As I've said repeatedly, the process of entering transactions by hand forces me to confront my spending habits. Plus there's something meditative and satisfying about balancing the books every week. Right now, I intend to use both You Need a Budget and Quicken 2007.
Each offers features the other doesn't. I'm open to the idea of moving completely to, but I'm just not there yet. As you can tell, I love having a decade of data in a desktop app, so I'm not yet ready to give up Quicken. I suspect a likely scenario is this: I'll use Quicken 2007, just as I always have; meanwhile, I'll pay for a year of YNAB and use it to get my spending habits in check. So, there you have it. Six weeks of money nerd experimentation has led to an indefinite conclusion.
To me, there was no clear winner. Based on my experience, I'd make the following recommendations:. If you already use a money tool that you like, stick with it. There's no compelling reason to switch.
(No reason, that is, unless you think you need help budgeting. If that's the case, make a point to check out You Need a Budget.). If you don't like the tool you're using — or if you don't yet have a tool — make a choice based on your needs. If you need to budget, is the clear favorite.
(Ha!). If you need to track your transactions, YNAB is still a good choice, but I'd also encourage you to try.
If you don't intend to track your spending, then consider an app like Mint or Personal Capital to monitor your progress. Choose if you like tracking your investments; choose if you're more interested in day-to-day spending. I know there are other apps out there, and I'm sad I didn't have enough time to try more of them during this process. That said, the hard work is now done.
My accounts are set up in four different apps, and I'm actively tracking my spending. As readers suggest other apps to try, it'll be easy enough to add them to the mix. And when I do, I'll be sure to share my impressions with you! I’m like you but I use MoneyDance and YNAB. Moneydance is like Quicken but has all the power of Quicken 2007 (for example, it can track specific lots of stock sold – new Quicken for Mac still can’t do that). Moneydance is java based and a license will run on Windows or Mac (it also has free mobile apps and you can keep two computers in sync with your data file via dropbox. I switched over from Quicken for Windows years ago when I saw how bad Quicken for Mac was.
Moneydance has my complete picture for investments, taxes, etc. However, YNAB is hands down the best for really managing where you spend money in a thoughtful way. Despite that we’re all in this to save money and have better financial lives, we all think about money and spending a little differently from the next person. Therefore it makes perfect sense to me that one app would never encompass all the needs any one person has for tracking spending.
They’re tools like anything else, and we use the ones that work for us. Don’t feel bad about Quicken 2007 vs 2017–technology is changing things so rapidly! It’s hard when you get comfortable with the way something runs and then they change it. I’m younger than you, and I’m having some of these issues, too. If it works for you, leave it alone because realistically, there’s no way to keep up every time there’s a new version! Thanks for trying out the different money apps and sharing your experience.
As I said in my other comment, we use Mint to track daily spending, but I still use a good, old spreadsheet to track monthly totals for income, spending, and saving. Although I’m getting curious about Money Dance after seeing multiple comments (and that it is Linux-friendly!). I have been using Quicken for Windows, mostly the Premier version, religiously for almost 25 years.
I think the reduction in features is limited to the Mac version. All of the items that you mention as not being able to do (e.g. Manual entry without clicking a new button, the memo field, sorting, advanced reporting, etc,) or not existing (e.g. Home inventory and emergency records) are possible or do exist in Quicken Premier for Windows.
I don’t currently use the home inventory or emergency records organizer but I am going to look into them. Since I review the budget and net worth with my wife every quarter, I use Excel for the presentation of the information because it easier to organize and format the way she likes to see it. However, all of the information comes from Quicken. I also use Personal Capital because it is faster or easier for some things like a quick checkup on our net worth or how our investments performed that day. I use the retirement planning tools from Quicken, Personal Capital, Fidelity, and an Excel spreadsheet.
They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I’ve been using Quicken for probably as long as you have, JD, and am kind of hooked on it. I’m currently on 2016 and don’t plan to upgrade it for a few years. I do let it sync to my accounts and download transactions, but that’s more a reconciliation feature than having it do it for me. I enter the transactions manually, and then once or twice a month I’ll download from by bank and credit card companies to match up what I’ve entered and reconcile. That’s a big thing for me, keeping my records in sync with the bank – I don’t want to think I have money there and not have it. I also like the reporting features of Quicken which are much better and robust than other apps I use.
I also use YNAB and Personal Capital a lot. Personal Capital mostly for tracking investment accounts and the retirement calculator. It’s the one tool, that for me, will download all my accounts – Quicken won’t sync with Betterment, so it’s much harder tracking net worth with that program. I find YNAB is great to use with my wife. Once a month we have our budget meeting, then through the phone app both of us can enter transactions as we make them. This has really helped her get involved with the family finances. With Quicken I was doing it all and the phone app was clunky enough that she didn’t use it regularly.
With YNAB it’s really easy to record transactions as we make them, and she’s in there recording the transactions and able to be more actively involved as co-CFOs for our family. I’ll continue using the three applications for a while. Like you mentioned, each has it’s strengths and weaknesses, and together I feel like I can get a wholistic view of my finances as I use the three different applications.
BTW, I used Mint for a while too – thought it would be more of an online version of Quicken, but doesn’t have the reporting features I was looking for. Also I feel that Quicken lost something as it’s been going more toward the Mint interface. That’s just my personal opinion.
I tried out Quicken a little over a year ago and just knew that I would love it. I’m an accountant and totally into tracking my personal finances, but I disliked it so much that I returned it for a full refund. I didn’t understand why people were so committed to it, but it makes sense know that you mention how much better the older versions are. Hopefully they’ll make some good improvements with new ownership. However, it led me to give YNAB a second try (had tried them previously). I’ve made adjustments to YNAB that make it the absolutely perfect software for me.
Specifically, the main thing that made me dislike it was that I couldn’t forecast and budget my income. The premise in YNAB is that you only budget for money you currently have received. I realized that I could budget all that income simply by adding categories and including it as a negative expense and haven’t looked back. It is hands down THE best budgeting software out there.
I love that it has a different perspective that helps you succeed with your money, specifically that you are assigning a task/category to each and every dollar that you already have, and then each dollar that comes in. I LOVE that I can login to YNAB and see how much I have to spend immediately and see my goals grow. I am up to Quicken 2016 (after starting with Quicken 2000 for Windows), but switched all my computers to Mac in 2015. I needed a solution to run Quicken for Windows on Mac, and I eventually found CrossOver from CodeWeavers. It’s the best $50 I spent to retain the features of Quicken for Windows that I use. I’ve had one short-term issue in the two years I’ve used the combination (an issue quickly fixed by CodeWeavers tech support via an update), other than that it’s worked flawlessly. (NOT an affiliate link!!
I’ve used Quicken on a Mac since 1995 upgrading along the way. I stopped at version 2006. Its now on its last legs as the OS X that supports it is getting farther away.
I bought Quicken Mac 2017. Transferred everything. There was quite a bit of clean up required. No Balance Sheet, No P&L, NO other business type reports that my accountant requires?? I then thought the solution was move on up to Quickbooks Mac 2017. Quicken 2017 does not export a QDF file! I have not found a way to transfer as yet.
22 years of financials at a dead end. I’m moving to Quicken. My experience with YNAB has been a disaster period. A month into using it it will still not connect to PayPal and, remarkably enough the transactions from my accounts are all over the place; I have transactions from my personal checking account showing up in my business accounts, Janet Jackson’s from saving account showing up in checking accounts, transactions from credit cards showing up in checking accounts. So far as I can tell the customer support is pretty much an nil. All I hear from them is that they’re working on it. Plus their Website Layout is pitiful.
Princeton’s you can’t get from the budgeting tool which you will spend much of your time into the website – there’s no link to it semicolon there’s no link to tutorials or blogs, etc. So after doing all the good reviews of YNAB I’m going for Quicken. General Disclaimer: Get Rich Slowly is an independent website managed by, who is not a trained financial expert.
His knowledge comes from the school of hard knocks. He does his best to provide accurate, useful info, but makes no guarantee that all readers will achieve the same level of success. If you have questions, consult a trained professional. Advertising Disclosure: Some offers on this page may promote affiliates, which means GRS earns a commission if you purchase products or services through the links provided. All opinions expressed here are the author's and not of any other entity. The content at Get Rich Slowly has not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by any entity mentioned at the site.
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