Moneydance - personal financial management app [Online Code]

So, I like that Moneydance is a one time purchase. I did try the trial, however, it isn't until I purchased the code and started trying to use it (beyond the 100 transactions,) that its problems began to show. Moneydance could download data from some institutions, but the bank with my checking account won't connect correctly. I have to sign in and download manually. When entering data in Moneydance, it will not all pasting. I have found this program cumbersome and time consuming. I want an alternative to Quicken, and I want ease of use, but I don't want to have to hand enter so much. The categories, apparently, don't import with Quicken data. Every debit purchase is marked as an ATM Withdrawal - and changing it is a huge time suck! Moneydance is certainly an alternative, but it takes more time and patience than I have to give it. If you have been using Quicken for years and years, and you are frustrated with the increase in price and degradation of service, Moneydance is probably not the right alternative for you.

I was a long time Quicken user, but I finally had to fin an alternate solution when Intuit sold them and they went to a subscription model. For years they forced you to upgrade ever 3 years, with no new useful features or major improvements. Moneydance was one of the only alternatives that allows you to keep your data local and not store it in the cloud. It took me some time to get it setup and working how I wanted, and since I was already a DirectConnect customer at B of A, I could continue to connect with Moneydance. I had to look a few things up in the KB to figure out how to make it work, but now that it is working, I am pretty happy with the software. It's not perfect, but for the price and no yearly subscription fee, it is a decent replacement to Quicken.**Update** - I have been using Moneydance for a couple months now and wanted to provide an update to my review. Overall it is not as easy to use as Quicken, but I was done with Quicken after the latest changes to a subscription service. The main limitation I have found are with Loans. Loans don't work well if you use Online Payments to make the loan payment. If you do, it doesn't track the P & I correctly, so your loan balance is not correct. This has been an issue since the 2010 version, and a fix has been requested by a number of users, but after updating to the latest version (2019.3), the issue has still not been addressed. Multiple posts on the discussion forum have been ignored by the manufacturer.

Like others I have used Quicken for decades now. My computer crashed and I was unable retrieve my Quicken data and unable to reinstall my 2013 version. It surprised me to see that it was now a subscription. I found tutorials on Youtube that have been very helpful so far. It does seem like there will take some time setting up what I need but it will be my software and I will only have to do this once. I don't care about connecting to my bank since I would rather do that by hand as well as most of my other entries. I just want a program that will keep track of my records and even though I just started getting this set up, it looks like it will do that for me. I don't understand why they don't have an online manual available.Update: I was able to find an online manual for Moneydance with a search. There was no link to it that I saw from Moneydance.

Pros: works well, even with large history (back to 1990). Online updating of accounts works well. Reports and configurable front page is genuinely helpful. Active community is creating new plugins that provide new capabilities you may not have realized you needed!Cons: This is not a quicken-clone, so expecting it to work exactly the same way will cause frustration. Biggest issues: Quicken allows you to have an account be the category for itself, useful for setting starting balances, making adjustments, etc. MoneyDance will not do that, requiring some changes in how you work (the Starting Balance in the Accounts menu is important). Import of exported QFX file is a little iffy - I spent about four days, on and off, making corrections.Important note: Quicken has gone to a "subscription" model, meaning you have to pay an annual fee (effectively you're renting the software) or you lose access to online data AND when you start it the screen is 2/3rds covered with annoying nags/reminders/ads telling you to pay your fees.After using MoneyDance for four months, I happy with it, find features and capabilities Quicken didn't have that are really useful, and have learned to "MoneyDance way" for the things that are different.I was, seriously, prepared to dump it and go back to Quicken if it didn't work out but now I'm glad I moved!

I was using Quicken Deluxe 2017 but they are going to a subscription use so found this to replace it.It works but I couldn't find very good information on what the transaction symbols were or how to importmy Quicken accounts. I have stumbled across some information and am able to use it but it is no where aseasy to use as my Quicken program was.