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Microsoft Money For Mac OS X?

34 Comments
by
Kyle Buckley (Senior Editor)
on September 14th, 2009 at 01:11 PM
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Most people who switch from Windows to Mac find themselves entering a much simpler and less annoying world of computing. And they can find Mac equivalents for most of the familiar programs they used in Windows and most are better than those found in Windows. There is one glaring exception: financial software.

The selection of financial software for Mac OS X is vast, but very few are worth your time and hardly any are worth your money. Quicken for Mac is nothing like Quicken for Windows. The Mac version is awful, seemingly put together as an afterthought to get Mac users to hand over money for a pile of crocodile dung. That sounds harsh, but it is true. If Quicken for Windows was a full deck of 52 cards, Quicken for Mac would be a partial deck consisting of only a single torn card. Intuit should be ashamed for selling it for $70 and then charging a crapulous amount of money for India-based tech support.

There are other options for the Mac, and some are much more tolerable than Quicken, but they still pale in comparison to the offerings found in the Windows world. And I've tried them all.

That leads me to this question: why doesn't Microsoft develop Microsoft Money for Mac? They already produce Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Messenger for the Mac platform and will soon be developing Outlook, so why not Microsoft Money? I have tried to contact Microsoft about this, and when I do get a response, the answer is always, "There is not enough demand for it" or the like.

With no apparent plans for a Mac version of Money, Microsoft is squandering a great opportunity. I know several people who, after switching to Mac, find themselves with no financial software. So they choose to use Boot Camp or vMware Fusion to run their old copies of Microsoft Money for Windows. There are millions of Mac users who are waiting for good financial software for their platform and as soon as one is available, they will pounce. Intuit is currently developing a new version of Quicken for the Mac, supposedly re-designed from the ground up. But this new version has been delayed numerous times, and based on the past, I have no faith that the new version will be delivered soon or give me what I need.

The department of Microsoft that develops Mac software is, in the words of Bill Gates, treated in a unique way by Microsoft itself. The department is in a sense, its own entity and they are given free reign on what to develop, how to develop it and they set their own timetables. The engineers are dedicated to the Mac platform not only in their jobs, but in their personal lives as well. The Mac versions of Microsoft Office aren't clones of the Windows versions, they are designed specifically for Mac OS X and for Mac users.

With Microsoft's resources, the brand name, and the dedicated Mac department, Microsoft could develop a terrific financial software package for Mac OS X that would benefit the end-user and Microsoft.

If you would like to see a version of Money for the Mac platform, post your comments below and send Microsoft some feedback by clicking here.



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Comments

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  1. Jordan - September 14th, 2009 08:09 PM
    Jordan's Avatar
    I have always wondered why Microsoft doesn't make Money for Mac. I think it would be great!


  2. Kelly - September 14th, 2009 09:39 PM
    Kelly's Avatar
    There isn't even a Microsoft Money for Windows anymore. Microsoft has stopped development and sales, effective June 30 2009. (Support will continue for a couple more years.)

    I use MoneyDance, which runs on both Mac and PC. It has many nice features, and a few rough edges, but does the job fairly well for my needs. There are a few others which also look nice, like MotiMotion Prospects and Fortora.
  3. dksBeet - September 14th, 2009 10:12 PM
    dksBeet's Avatar
    Quote From Kelly
    There isn't even a Microsoft Money for Windows anymore.
    I think that this is irrelevant. Microsoft discontinued Money for Windows because it didn't receive the sales it needed to maintain the development. This was due to competition. In the Mac market, there is no competition for personal financial software. There is a need for good PFS and if Microsoft developed Money for Mac, they could have a huge market share in the Mac ecosystem. Huge.

    Quicken for Windows is a well built piece of software and therefore has a larger market share. Quicken for Mac is a piece of crap and if something better was offered, Mac users would flock to it in droves. Microsoft would waste a great opportunity if they didn't try to get into that.
  4. Timothy Smith - September 15th, 2009 12:18 AM
    Timothy Smith's Avatar
    this is great I heard. and web based. any thoughts?
    www.MINT.com
  5. Karl Martineau - September 15th, 2009 12:50 AM
    Karl Martineau's Avatar
    Quote From Timothy Smith
    this is great I heard. and web based. any thoughts?
    www.MINT.com
    Funny you should mention it. It just so happens that mint.com announced today that they were being bought by Intuit, the makers of Quicken. I've been using mint.com lately and like it for the most part, but following that announcement, I think I'll be looking for new financial software.

    One notable weakness of mint.com is that it doesn't allow you to enter transactions manually. It only downloads them from your bank (if your bank happens to be one they support).
  6. Kyle Buckley - September 15th, 2009 01:03 AM
    Kyle Buckley's Avatar
    Quote From Timothy Smith
    this is great I heard. and web based. any thoughts?
    www.MINT.com
    I haven't been impressed with Mint either. I used it for a few weeks but found it useless for me in many ways. I also don't like the fact that it is web-based. Cloud computing worries me. And since Mint.com is now Intuit, I will definitely not be using it. I think Intuit has some pretty shady business practices and they treat their customers like vermin.
  7. Charles (Singapour) - September 15th, 2009 04:25 AM
    Charles (Singapour)'s Avatar
    I had virtualisation on my Mac just for Microsoft Money for I could synchronise my account with my Palm thanks to Ultrasoft money.
    I now have an iPhone... time to get rid of the remnant of the last century and go Mac only.

    Mint does ("did" as it was bought by Intuit) not suit my needs for full monitoring of my activities: only connected accounts are supported.

    So here comes MoneyDance: a multiplatform solution => perfect for me for the last two years (except for stock-options).
  8. Steve - September 15th, 2009 09:59 AM
    Steve's Avatar
    I have to laugh at all of the "Microsoft Money for Mac would be a God send" comments. This is complete rubbish. For starters, Microsoft has a terrible history of providing Mac users with half baked versions of their products (with few notable exceptions). Entourage would be a perfect reminder of that. They're only coming out with Outlook now that Apple has full Exchange compatibility with their own (and better) products. Microsoft is always late to support Mac technologies. I'm not holding my breath for the Cocoa / 64bit version of Office for example.

    In reality, most people just use the basics in terms of the electronic checkbook and reporting anyway.
  9. jopper27 - September 15th, 2009 10:33 AM
    jopper27's Avatar
    Quote From Steve
    In reality, most people just use the basics in terms of the electronic checkbook and reporting anyway.
    Source?
  10. Margaret - September 16th, 2009 09:13 AM
    Margaret's Avatar
    I absolutely hate Quicken on my iMac - I had to update the certificate because the other expired (why - I'm not sure) - after going through miles of instructions, I was able to again download transactions from the bank. The updated certificate wiped out the transactions that had not yet cleared the bank and didn't update a deposit. This isn't the first problem I've had with Quicken. It's worthless, in my opinion. I'm almost irritated enough to go back to a handwritten check register. I would love to see Money for Macs - I've used Money for years, but had to use Quicken when I went to an iMac.
  11. RDEL - October 17th, 2009 01:40 PM
    RDEL's Avatar
    I've just tried to covert files from Money to Accountz.com - failed as it oitted to download the payees. I'm sending it back and keeping my PC going until Money comes up with MAC version
  12. Cyle Sheaffer - November 17th, 2009 01:05 PM
    Cyle Sheaffer's Avatar
    Microsoft Money for Mac???? I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
  13. edd - February 1st, 2010 05:28 PM
    edd's Avatar
    i love my mac and want microsoft money.
  14. Nino - June 22nd, 2010 10:00 PM
    Nino's Avatar
    Microsoft Money is hands down the best software they have. I have no idea why they are discontinuing it. The only thing keeping me from going to mac is Microsoft Money
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