Comments on: iBank – Your Quicken Alternative

By: Rob Pickering

Rob Pickering — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:23:00 +0000

You can probably come up with either Category descriptions, or Memo field entries, that will mimic the support you have with Classes. I wish iBank supported Tags (which are basically what Classes are), but they aren’t there yet.

By: The Wisdom Fund

The Wisdom Fund — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Thanks. Quicken Classes is what’s holding up my switching to iBank. I use Classes to track project or job costs.

By: Rob Pickering

Rob Pickering — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:19:00 +0000

Yes you can. Just export it as a QIF and iBank will import it.

By: Ball

Ball — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:12:00 +0000

can I import from Quicken 2003 into iBank?

By: Rob Pickering

Rob Pickering — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:46:38 +0000

@steve According to their site, they import MS Money's OFX format. I'm guessing you have to export it first, which is the same process you have to follow to move data from Quicken. There is an article here about it: http://forums.iggsoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=13506

By: steve

steve — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:22:27 +0000

Any ides on how to import MS Money data into iBank?

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:30:06 +0000

Rob, thanks for all your time and info.
FYI to Quicken Windows users: I imported my data from Q2009. My "tags" (categories in Windows Quicken I believe) converted beautifully. I did of course have to import each account individually. And, I had one account that was off, but I easily found the error. I generally like it, but my main issue is the lack of direct connect bill pay…a deal breaker for me. I’m willing to give up some things, but rely heavily on this feature to simplify my life. I’m hoping they will add it soon, as this looks to be good alternative to Quicken.

By: Rob Pickering

Rob Pickering — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:17:37 +0000

@Neal: Just did the import, see Update #2 in the original Post. I tested Class importing into iBank. It "kinda" works. Sounds like Moneydance and Quicken Essentials are better choices if Classes are critical to your finances.

By: Rob Pickering

Rob Pickering — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:23:24 +0000

@Neal: iBank does not support Tags or Classes. It CAN support Smart Accounts based off of a variety of criteria, including keywords in the Memo field. This would then allow you to sort, filter, and report (via Smart Accounts) based on this criteria and that would basically give you Quicken's Classes (or Quicken Essential's Tags). I've had this question before, and it's one of the things I wanted to review but ran out of time. That said, I'm going right now to put some Classes into my Quicken 2007 transactions and see what it does when I import that file. If it saves those Classes into the Memo field, then you can use iBank's Smart Accounts and it'll work. If not, then you'd lose your history moving to iBank, but would be able to re-establish it on a going forward basis.

Quicken Essentials will import Classes as Tags, just like it sounds MoneyDance did.

By: Neal Plotkin

Neal Plotkin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:59:24 +0000

I'm a 15-year Quicken user (currently on the 2006 Mac version), with no interest in Quicken Essentials because of its lack of investment tracking. I have two must-have requirements for switching to a new app: ability to import my complete file of Quicken data without too much trouble, and support for Quicken's Classes.

Unfortunately, iBank's demo limit of 75 transactions means I can't try out the import function. The Moneydance demo version also allows limited *entered* transactions, but unlimited *imports*. And it successfully imported my full Quicken file with only about a dozen problem transactions.

Also, Moneydance imported Quicken's Classes as Tags. Does iBank do Classes?

So at the moment, Moneydance looks acceptable, but I can't check out iBank without buying it.