Financial Programs Other Than Quicken?

[SiouzQ.]

The almost year-long saga of trying to get my bank's new (March 2021) online banking website to work with the Quicken program continues, almost a year later. I have tried numerous times to engage Quicken and the bank to get some sort of working solution but me thinks I am really at the end of the line. The crux of the problem is that Quicken needs a certain kind of file to export to the bank and the bank can't (or won't) create that file so the correct information gets exported. Consequently, I have to manually fix everything everyday as it comes in, directing the expenditures to MY categories that I set up. However, I can NEVER get anything to balance at this point as there are duplicate transactions somewhere and I am not adept enough at this point to track them down. Mainly I need to use some sort of financial program to track my business expenses, as well as personal expenses.

Quickbooks is not going to really work for me, as my business is too small for it to really make a difference. I really just need one program that works to do both. I did set up Mint but I'm not really liking how it is set up and it will take me a long time to figure it out. I used Quicken for over 20 years and well, Mint is NOT anything like it. So far I don't like it and I don't want to change!

Anything other programs out there that I don't know about?

PS: I had been communicating with someone at my credit union for months who was supposed to be giving me updates on their progress and the other day I finally just had it and wrote a much stronger letter expressing my extreme disappointment in their inability to get a working solution. My husband who works in IT and system analysis said it wasn't even that hard of a fix, to create the type of file Quicken needs to export the info...

[catherine]

Exactly what do you need a program to do for you?

[SiouzQ.]

Simply put, to track my income and expenses by putting everything into my personal categories. I use my credit card for everything so I need to be able to get every single credit card transaction and direct it to the appropriate expenditures so I can do my taxes at the end of the year. Quicken used to work great for this.

[catherine]

As you know I'm also self-employed, and I never was able to get Quicken to do what I wanted either, really. I have very few business expenditures, other than software I use for interviews and stuff. So it was a bit of overkill.

I have suggested in other threads YouNeedABudget. It works perfectly for me. I link it to my bank and credit card accounts, and it imports all transactions into the software, and it becomes "smart" after a while and it knows that Staples' category goes into the category I've designated as my "business non-reimbursable" account.

It is VERY flexible in terms of setting up categories, and I find it to be pretty good about being able to link to all my accounts (nearly 100%).

It costs about $60/year I think, but it's totally worth it for me.

www.ynab.com

What it won't do is invoice, however. I continue to invoice clients manually, but I only need to generate about 20 invoices a year.

[SiouzQ.]

Thanks Catherine, I'll check it out; I've never heard of that one!

I don't need to do invoicing much either, and I can use PayPal or Venmo to do that with. What I need to track is cost of supplies, studio expenses and such, plus income coming in from my sales. Pretty small potatoes in the scheme of things. But I really like to track all of my other expenses and income. It's such a habit by now, going on 30 years of doing it!

[catherine]

Thanks Catherine, I'll check it out; I've never heard of that one!

I don't need to do invoicing much either, and I can use PayPal or Venmo to do that with. What I need to track is cost of supplies, studio expenses and such, plus income coming in from my sales. Pretty small potatoes in the scheme of things. But I really like to track all of my other expenses and income. It's such a habit by now, going on 30 years of doing it!

I'm totally with you. I'm OCD about tracking expenses. If you're like me, I think YNAB will work for you.

[SiouzQ.]

I only have a few moments this morning to explore YNAB; just off the top of my head, are you able to assign specific categories that you need to track expenses for your business? So far I am looking at the "how to set up your budget" tutorial. I'll have more time later today and tomorrow to delve into it.

[catherine]

I only have a few moments this morning to explore YNAB; just off the top of my head, are you able to assign specific categories that you need to track expenses for your business? So far I am looking at the "how to set up your budget" tutorial. I'll have more time later today and tomorrow to delve into it.

Yes.

My major categories are (which I set up in mere minutes) are:

Personal Needs (with about 10 subcategories under that)
Personal Wants (same--about 10 subcategories)
[my company] Reimburseable (because I traveled a lot--not as relevant these days)
[my company] Non-reimbursable
Tax set-asaide
Debt pay-off
Major Purchase set-aside
Savings

[Tybee]

Sioux, it's more expensive than YNAB (I checked) and I have not tried it yet, but I just signed up for Money Grit, which is 17 dollars a month and created by Karen McCall, who does the Financial Recovery Institute. I have tried YNAB and I just could not understand it, and this one has tutorials and I am interested in her book Financial Recovery, so thought I would try it. But I am sure you can understand YNAB, and it is more mainstream and cheaper.

[SiouzQ.]

I just tried YNAB and gave up after 45 minutes! Number one, it doesn't have an automatic link to my bank, so I had to export the files, and number two, I couldn't make heads or tails of adding my damn categories! Things is, I don't need a budgeting tool (I do that fine on my own). All I need is an easy way to assign categories to my purchases and income so I can pull them up later to monitor my spending and to help with taxes.

I am ruined by over 20 years of Quicken working just fine for my purposes. I even spent most of my morning on hold with Quicken Support for one last ditch effort (after having my call dropped twice, then the support person would disappear for minutes at a time because I honestly think they do not know what they are doing and it's probably all going fold and go away anyway) all because for the last five days I cannot get any updated credit card transactions because their server won't connect with my bank anymore (but only for the credit card for some reason, not the other accounts).

I actually feel like crying. I just don't know what to do anymore. Not having a sense of where my money is going is actually giving me this underlying anxiety. I check my bank account everyday day but I really need to have that daily overview where I can see how my money is assigned to my things that I spend it on.

Any other suggestions? I'll check out the MoneyGrit next, but is there any another programs out that works much like Quicken always did, with no unnecessary budgeting gobbledy-gook?

[catherine]

So sorry nothing is working for you! I get the frustration!

Good idea to try Tybee's suggestion to see if it's any better.

I don't have any experience with these, but I googled "Best Small Business Finance Software" and this is what came up:

The 5 Best Accounting Software for Small Business of 2022;

Best Overall: QuickBooks Online.
Best for Micro-Business Owners: Xero.
Best for Service-Based Businesses: FreshBooks.
Best for Part-Time Freelancers: QuickBooks Self-Employed.
Best Free Software: Wave.

Maybe check them out..