# Personal Finance Software



## rgarand (Sep 19, 2010)

I'm sure this is debated as much as active vs passive management, but it's hard to find current information since I haven't been following recently. I've been through everything from spreadsheets to making my own free software (which was used by a few thousand other people at one point) but now I'm looking for something simple that won't take a lot of time. I'm looking at software that can combine multiple accounts; important features would include:

- OFX/quicken import since we use local credit unions that no one cares about
- Having a low-effort way to categorize transactions so we can see expenses by month
- Investment tracking + performance calculation
- Recurring bills/cash forecasting (see what's committed but not yet gone)
- Email alerts for specific events would be very nice but not essential

The three options that aren't dying/dead and support some canadian institutions appear to be quicken, mint, and yodlee.

I've just opened accounts with mint and yodlee but the only way to get a complete picture seems to be manually entering one transaction at a time on yodlee (and mint seems to have the nicest summaries). I'm thinking about just buying quicken home and business (haven't used it yet but it has a 60-day money back guarantee and it seems reasonable). Is there anything I'm missing here?


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

Microsoft Money Sunset Edition which is free to download and use might be what you are looking for. Many websites have hacks to update Money's portfolio and download transactions.

Free Personal Finance Software: Microsoft Money Sunset Version


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## Ben (Apr 3, 2009)

As far as I could tell, Money didn't seem to support PC Financial.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I've been using Quicken since the mid 1990s and am pretty happy with it. I started with Quicken for Mac, then switched a few years ago to the Windows Canadian version, but then switched back to Mac earlier this year when Quicken Essentials was released. I use Windows for work and Mac for everything else, plus I prefer keeping my finances on a more secure and less virus-prone platform than Windows.

I downloaded transactions directly for a few years, but there were enough glitches with that over the years (plus Quicken's annoying ploy of eventually breaking the connection to your bank if you don't update to the latest version of Quicken) that I switched to entering all transactions by hand. This is more tedious, to be sure, but I feel it gives me a much better handle on my finances since I'm more actively involved in the tracking process.


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## rgarand (Sep 19, 2010)

I hadn't seen that money is actually free for everyone now - I just got the trial version yesterday but when it was clear that it's going away I didn't spend any more time on it. The new hacks sound interesting but I'm still leaning towards something that will be supported in the future (maybe it goes a bit too far Quicken's case but I saw some references to Mint losing access to banks as well yesterday; I've seen how a lot of banks handle online banking so I'm not surprised).

With Quicken does anyone know if there are major differences or advantages between the canadian/us versions?


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

rgarand said:


> I hadn't seen that money is actually free for everyone now - I just got the trial version yesterday but when it was clear that it's going away I didn't spend any more time on it. The new hacks sound interesting but I'm still leaning towards something that will be supported in the future (maybe it goes a bit too far Quicken's case but I saw some references to Mint losing access to banks as well yesterday; I've seen how a lot of banks handle online banking so I'm not surprised).
> 
> With Quicken does anyone know if there are major differences or advantages between the canadian/us versions?


Sure it is free. I'm curious as to what makes you think it is not free. Can you point me to a reference? I just downloaded and installed the sunset versions on my new laptop. It did not ask for a license and no activation (I currently have a valid Microsoft Money Deluxe license).


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

rgarand said:


> With Quicken does anyone know if there are major differences or advantages between the canadian/us versions?


The Canadian version is more convenient if you're based in Canada, in part because the pre-set categories are all set up for Canadian users, but also because if you use it to help you prepare your taxes you'll be glad you're using the Canadian rather than the US version. I'm not sure if the US version allows you to download data from Canadian institutions. On the other hand, I was hampered a bit by the fact that the Canadian version didn't allow me to connect to my US-based bank and investments -- I moved to Canada from the US eight years ago, and still maintain some banking and retirement accounts there.

By default the Canadian version tracks your accounts in Canadian dollars, but you can specify the currency for each account if you have some US dollar accounts. And if you transfer money from a Canadian to US account or vice-versa, it'll use the current exchange rate (although I always had to adjust the rate to account for fees etc.).


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## rgarand (Sep 19, 2010)

CanadianCapitalist said:


> Sure it is free. I'm curious as to what makes you think it is not free. Can you point me to a reference? I just downloaded and installed the sunset versions on my new laptop. It did not ask for a license and no activation (I currently have a valid Microsoft Money Deluxe license).


I went to the microsoft sites (canada & us) and navigated to the money section - it did still mention paid versions and free trials but there were also bold notices about online services being disconnected.


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