(2017-03-03 at 02:19)MacBart wrote: A couple of weeks ago I read about the Canada versions of Quicken going to a subscription model, with the fear that the same will happen in the US as well. I'm surprised it hasn't come up here. This is a thread in their support forum.Uh oh. The nightmare scenario:.
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You upgrade to Q2015 or later, which has no capability to export data. This is no accident on Intuit/Quicken's part. You put in a year or two of vitally important financial data. Quicken changes to only support the subscription model.Now you're stuck. If you upgrade then you're stuck paying the subscription price, which looks to be the full cost of the current product except you have to pay it every year.But you have no alternative.
Q201x can't export your data, so can you do a conversion to another vendor's product without data loss? Probably not.The lesson here is never use Q201x or later. (2017-03-02 at 12:23)George wrote: I anticipate the new Quicken company will eventually use a future MacOS update to 'break' Quicken 2007. (2017-03-03 at 18:15)Joe F wrote: Quicken wrote:You may continue to use Quicken for Mac 2007 for as long as you like and for as long as it continues to run. In summary, Quicken won't put any effort to providing updates if a future macOS update breaks something, and you are at the mercy of your bank to continue supporting the online functionality.To be honest, while I will complain about Quicken not providing a newer version on par with 2007, in today's world of subscription software and hyper-aggressive dropping of OS support by Apple, I can't really complain that this 10-yr old software still runs on the latest macOS.Great and informative post, Joe.We use Quicken 2007 QIF export/import to merge records from different offices. And to import payroll detail from the commercial Checkmark payroll application that its developer keeps updated as tax rates vary.Intuit killed QIF in Windows several versions ago.
And in an effort to extract money from users and financial providers, provides no equivalent in any new Windows or Mac versions. Quicken 2007 will be missed - if/when it stops working. Maybe I'm missing something, but despite Quicken's claim they have discontinued services including downloading financial data and downloading stock quotes, I was able to do both of them yesterday with Quicken 2007. I exported a Quicken Web Connect (.qfx) file from my bank and imported it into Quicken 2007, and updated security prices by going to the Online menu and running 'Update Security Prices.' I think what they mean by downloading financial data is direct downloading from the bank using Quicken, rather than downloading a file from the bank. But I continue to be able to update security prices from within Quicken. What they may be saying is that they won't fix the software if the feature breaks.I can understand from a business viewpoint why they don't want to continue supporting 10 year old software.
What's annoying is that they still can't match the function of the old software. (2017-03-04 at 17:00)JeffH wrote: Maybe I'm missing something, but despite Quicken's claim they have discontinued services including downloading financial data and downloading stock quotes, I was able to do both of them yesterday with Quicken 2007. I exported a Quicken Web Connect (.qfx) file from my bank and imported it into Quicken 2007, and updated security prices by going to the Online menu and running 'Update Security Prices.' I think what they mean by downloading financial data is direct downloading from the bank using Quicken, rather than downloading a file from the bank.When importing Web connect.qfx files, Quicken still needs to make some contact to verify the financial institution - I'm not sure of the details but I have some financial institutions whose.qfx did not work with Quicken 2007 because of that issue. I expect other QFX may also stop working before long.
For Apple users, iBank is a useful alternative that can sync with your iPad or iPhone and import your Quicken data, but you have to buy it. Before researching these options in depth, think about.
(2017-03-02 at 12:23)George wrote: Quicken, now a product independent of Intuit, doesn't want you to go back. The 'new' Quickens don't generate QIF exports, even though online help still references the process.The 'new' file transfer mode is proprietary, QFX.This is incorrect. Q XF is the new file transfer format, not Q FX. You can also (indirectly) export a QIF file from Quicken Mac 201X.Q XF and Q FX files are two distinctly different file formats. Q XF is an undocumented proprietary file format used to transfer data between different versions of Quicken. Q FX files are files you can download from your bank and import into programs. QFX files are really just OFX files with an added Quicken-specific institution ID field added, which Quicken uses to check if the institution has 'paid to play' and blocks importing the file if they haven't.
There's the hack where you can open a QFX file in a text editor and change its Quicken-specific institution ID field, the 'INTU.BID' field, to a value that is accepted by Quicken.Everyone should realize that Quicken Mac 201X has been built upon its predecessor with the original base being Quicken Essentials for Mac. They have never had a QIF file-exporting option in Quicken 201X, but added a QMTF file-exporting option, so that the disgruntled users of Quicken Essentials/201X could go back to Quicken Mac 2007 when they introduced the Lion-compatible version of Quicken Mac 2007. QMTF stands for 'Quicken Mac Transfer File' and they are actually QIF files using the QMTF file extension.
One can only assume they didn't want to call it a QIF file since they took a big stand when moving away from QIF files previously. As old as the QIF file format is, it is still the most capable one for transferring financial data between programs.You can export a QMTF file from Quicken Mac 201X and just switch the file extension from 'qmtf' to 'qif', and you'll have a QIF file. It should be noted that Quicken Mac 201X doesn't export investment transactions to its QMTF files. That goes back to Quicken Essentials never having the ability to record investment transactions at all, and they've yet to update their export feature to also include investment transactions, securities and historical prices.
(2017-03-06 at 17:10)Guest wrote: Q XF is the new file transfer format, not Q FX. You can also (indirectly) export a QIF file from Quicken Mac 201X.Q XF and Q FX files are two distinctly different file formats.There's the hack where you can open a QFX file in a text editor and change its Quicken-specific institution ID field, the 'INTU.BID' field, to a value that is accepted by Quicken.They have never had a QIF file-exporting option in Quicken 201X, but added a QMTF file-exporting option, so that the disgruntled users of Quicken Essentials/201X could go back to Quicken Mac 2007 when they introduced the Lion-compatible version of Quicken Mac 2007. QMTF stands for 'Quicken Mac Transfer File' and they are actually QIF files using the QMTF file extension.
As old as the QIF file format is, it is still the most capable one for transferring financial data between programs.You can export a QMTF file from Quicken Mac 201X and just switch the file extension from 'qmtf' to 'qif', and you'll have a QIF file. It should be noted that Quicken Mac 201X doesn't export investment transactions to its QMTF files. That goes back to Quicken Essentials never having the ability to record investment transactions at all, and they've yet to update their export feature to also include investment transactions, securities and historical prices.Thanks. I don't know whether to blame my confusion of file types QXF and QFX on bad eyes, small screen, or haste. But 'Guest' caught the error.Since I don't have any Mac Quicken 201X, I'm unaware of the QMTF export option.This page, turned up by searching 'QMTF' on the Quicken Support website (updated 2/9/2017) has no reference to QMTF:Quicken Support wrote:The only specific reference to QMTF on the Quicken site is:Quicken Support wrote:I did find this link about how to export QMTF from Mac Quicken 2015 and change the file type to QIF in Moneydance Support:The Infinite Kind wrote:In Googling around, I also tumbled onto a company that provides Conversion Tools for Quicken, Quickbooks, and the Excel.
Some good comments about the company's utilities, but obviously I've not used them (yet):.Now I have to decide if I want to buy a download of Quicken 2017 and give the actual program a try. Reviews on Amazon are discouraging.What isn't discouraging is the value I continue to derive from MacInTouch. The value Ric provides for my modest donations is fantastic. I invite each of you to join in helping keep his work going. (2017-03-04 at 17:00)JeffH wrote: I can understand from a business viewpoint why they don't want to continue supporting 10 year old software. What's annoying is that they still can't match the function of the old software.I agree!
I'm actually eager to update to a current (non-cloud) version as soon as all the functions are replaced. Q'17 seems like it's gotten pretty close, but it's still weak in investments.I also want to confirm that Q'17 reports can still be exported to Excel. That fills some gaps for me.
About changing the QMTF file type export to QIF and importing into Quicken:Found one unanswered third party support question:'After I changed the extension to.qif I lost the window titled 'Convert your Qucken Essentials file.' How can I get it back?'
Would someone who has Mac Quicken 2015-2017 test the export to QMTF - change file type to QIF and import, then report back?I can certainly imagine Quicken Inc putting in a blocking 'if then'2. If QMTF QIF works as outlined, how does it work with subsets by date/register account?Thanks! (2017-03-07 at 12:25)George wrote: About changing the QMTF file type export to QIF and importing into Quicken: Found one unanswered third party support question:'After I changed the extension to.qif I lost the window titled 'Convert your Qucken Essentials file.' How can I get it back?'
Would someone who has Mac Quicken 2015-2017 test the export to QMTF - change file type to QIF and import, then report back? I can certainly imagine Quicken Inc putting in a blocking 'if then'2. If QMTF QIF works as outlined, how does it work with subsets by date/register account?1.
QIF/QMTF files are just simple text files you can open with any text editor such as Apple's TextEdit. So are OFX/QFX files for that matter.
You just need to use Finder to change the file extension from.qmtf to.qif, and it will be recognized as a QIF file. There’s nothing Quicken can do after the export to block that.
They didn’t create a whole new file format just so that unhappy Quicken Essentials for Mac customers could revert back to Quicken Mac 2007. You can’t import a QMTF into any other version of Quicken except for Quicken Mac 2007 for Lion. Several other programs realized QMTF files were QIF files and added support for importing them when Quicken Essentials added the QMTF export option.Quicken wrote:The reference to changing the extension and losing the window titled 'Convert your Quicken Essentials file' would seem to indicate they were doing something (odd) with the file while in Quicken.
The QMTF file is something you’d export with the intention of importing into a different program. You wouldn’t change the file extension while it was being used by a program.2.
Quicken Mac 201X only allows you to export a specified date range to a QMTF/QIF file. It will include all accounts, except but will not include investment account transactions (limitation in Quicken Essentials that has been carried over into newer versions of Quicken Mac 201X). You can’t export any other subset besides the adjusted date range (no picking accounts or other options). (2017-03-07 at 11:50)jschaffe wrote: I also want to confirm that Q'17 reports can still be exported to Excel. That fills some gaps for me.A few of the reports have an option to export to CSV (“Payee Comparison”, “Category Summary” and custom summary/comparison reports).
You can select to print a report and save it as a PDF. You can also do a “select all” on a report and paste the data into an Excel file.Don’t forget that Quicken Mac 201X is built on the base that was Quicken Essentials for Mac. They’ve polished it up fairly well considering how bad that was, but it is still not close to Quicken Mac 2007, let alone Quicken Windows. With Quicken Essentials for Mac being the base, they're probably limited in possibilities that only another complete re-write would solve.
It is going to be very interesting what the new owners of Quicken do with respect to Quicken Mac. (2017-03-07 at 17:28)Guest wrote: 1.
QIF/QMTF files are just simple text files you can open with any text editor such as Apple's TextEdit.2. Quicken Mac 201X only allows you to export a specified date range to a QMTF/QIF file. It will include all accounts, except but will not include investment account transactions (limitation in Quicken Essentials that has been carried over into newer versions of Quicken Mac 201X). You can’t export any other subset besides the adjusted date range (no picking accounts or other options).So per the answer above to #2, if the export is a specified date range for all accounts other than investment accounts, then this would be useful (perhaps) for starting over, but not for merging data from different 'check registers' kept on different computers into one integrated 'master summary.' Which is what we've done for decades, exporting a 'register's' entries for a date range, than tabbing data from that QIF into the same register on the 'master summary.' It's also how the Checkmark Payroll program exports payroll detail to Quicken 2007 so Quicken can be used to generate checks.Thanks so much for answering with specifics.I'll not be 'investing' in Quicken 2017!We'll continue to run MoneyDance beside Q 2007, since MoneyDance handles QIF and the OFX, the Open Financial Exchange file type.Darn, this should all be easy. It pretty much was until, for 'selfish' reasons, Intuit decided to deprecate QIF, a decision Quicken Inc.
Could reverse but apparently won't.Keeping old Mac OS versions on old machines to be sure Quicken 2007 keeps working is another option. But old machines do eventually die, and so that depends on having old computers that don't die. (2017-03-07 at 23:40)George wrote. Keeping old Mac OS versions on old machines to be sure Quicken 2007 keeps working is another option. But old machines do eventually die, and so that depends on having old computers that don't die.For you, the business value of Quicken 2007 may make running it in a virtual machine practical. Both my Windows and Snow Leopard Server VMs have lived on through multiple versions of OS X and macOS on multiple hardware instances.
More recent OS X and macOS instances virtualize with no problems for programs like Quicken.I have run Quicken for Windows in a virtual machine since my last Wintel hardware died years ago. I did not spend hundreds for a new Wintel machine. And the bonus - the continual performance improvement of Apple OS and hardware carries over to VM operations. Snow Leopard Server or a newer OS X in a VM will see the same improvement. (2017-03-08 at 10:58)Bob Wolfe wrote: I now have a Chase credit card account that downloads transactions as a qif, but if I try to import it Quicken thinks I want to set up a whole new account.Have you tried using the.qfx download? Even though it's labelled Quicken Web Connect, it downloads a file.My Chase Credit Cards allow me to download in.qfx format. I gave up using Quicken years ago, but find that format loads into my financial program (Moneydance) just fine.
It automatically recognizes the correct credit card account (asks for confirmation) and then loads the transactions in. When I have tried using the.qif file, it doesn't recognize the account and I need to manually assign it.For a while for a credit card account from another bank, I had to revert to the.qif version, as.qfx file was apparently not 100% correctly formatted. I'm not disclosing the bank name, as they have fixed the problem. IT was more of a pain to work with. (2017-03-08 at 10:35)James Cutler wrote: For you, the business value of Quicken 2007 may make running it in a virtual machine practical. Both my Windows and Snow Leopard Server VMs have lived on through multiple versions of OS X and macOS on multiple hardware instances. More recent OS X and macOS instances virtualize with no problems for programs like Quicken.I have run Quicken for Windows in a virtual machine since my last Wintel hardware died years ago.
I did not spend hundreds for a new Wintel machine. And the bonus - the continual performance improvement of Apple OS and hardware carries over to VM operations. Snow Leopard Server or a newer OS X in a VM will see the same improvement.Interesting that on this same day there's a MacInTouch thread about Snow Leopard Server being 'killed' (discontinued).Observation: I've been able to use VMs. Not ideal for a personal desktop.
Less success when I've tried to set them up for other users. I'm sure it is possible, and it is likely I just don't have enough experience. I've tried Fusion, Parallels, and VirtualBox, all three seem to puzzle 'my' users, and they're 'not the same' as running the software 'directly on hardware.'
A current version of Quicken for Windows in a VM? Won't help, since the 'crisis' we're facing is loss of the ability in Mac Quicken 2007 to export and import QIF subsets of 'registers' maintained by different uses in different locations, as well as the QIF output from the Checkmark Payroll application.I have been able to use Windows Quicken 2004 in Wine on Linux Mint 17.3. Pretty straightforward. Continues to provide it free as a file conversion tool. Might work much the same in Wine on Mac? But you'll not be directly downloading any bank or broker transactions.Moneydance (Windows, Linux, Mac) will print paper checks, but it's a badly designed and excruciating process of exact alignment.
Quicken 2004 just does the job. (2017-03-10 at 16:30)Bob Wolfe wrote: (2017-03-08 at 13:01)aforkosh wrote: Have you tried using the.qfx download? Even though it's labelled Quicken Web Connect, it downloads a file.Chase doesn't offer.qfx as an optionReally? It does for me. I first go to 'Account Activity' and select the statement I wish to work with. I then tap the download icon and see the following choices in the file type dropdown menu:Spreadsheet (Excel, CSV)Quicken Web Connect (QFX)Quicken or Microsoft Money (QIF)Quickbooks (IIF)Quickbooks Web Connect(QBO)As I said before, I select QFX, and the downloaded file correctly chooses the appropriate credit card account in Moneydance, which I use instead of Quicken.
(2017-03-11 at 19:11)James Cutler wrote: Choose the download icon, which you'll find in the upper right corner above your transaction history. Follow the prompts on the Download page to choose a file type for your transactions: Spreadsheet (Excel, CSV), Quicken Web Connect (QFX), Quicken (QIF), QuickBooks (IIF), QuickBooks Web Connect (QBO) or Microsoft Money (QIF).Other readers may continue to be confused by these instructions. Note that not all Chase-branded cards offer all these options. For example, my own active Chase card (I’m not prepared to say which, but it’s a consumer-oriented account) offers only pdf downloads. Until about a year ago I could also get CSV, but they have now removed that option. In a secure email I was told:Currently, the option to download transactions in CSV format is unavailable. You may refer to your monthly statements for this information.
A new Quicken upgrade breaks Web Connect for all old versions of Quicken, blocking users from importing data they have downloaded from banks, credit cards, and such. So far this has affected the small local bank I deal with, which upgraded its web site in April, but not Bank of America, where we have credit cards.I was able to download Web Connect (.qfx) files, as before, and they can be imported into Numbers. But when I try to import them into Quicken 2007, nothing happens. I talked to my local bank, and their service department said other customers were having problems, but that Quicken had given them a number to call. I tried that yesterday (with a person from the bank on the line) and got an extremely noisy line from India which promised a callback that never came. Today we got through and were switched promptly to a tech with a thick Indian accent who asked for screen sharing so he could see what the problem was.
After fiddling around for a few minutes, he said the problem was that I needed to upgrade Quicken, and that he would handle that and it would take about 40 minutes to fix any errors because of incompatibility.About at this point it began to shift from a service call into a high-pressure sales call. He asks me to open TexEdit and opens a file that shows a 'Home Bundle Quicken Support Pack' offering unlimited support, transferable services, date recovery, password recovery, cleanups, etc., with no numbers filled in on the prices.
He went through showing me that Quicken was no longer owned by Intuit, and telling me that I would get 'free upgrades' to Quicken 2017 now and to Quicken 2018 next year. Then he starts filling in the numbers: $198.49 for a basic one-year plan and $348.49 for a two-year budget plan, talking so fast that it took a while to break through and say 'NO!'
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It took a few more minutes to convince him I was serious and get him off the phone.I saw no evidence of any monkey business to my computer while I was on the phone, and he did get off the phone when I made it clear I was not going to fall for the hard sell. Downloading accounts is a convenience, but the ripoff price wasn't worth it. A Quicken 2017 disk or download is $64.99 from the Quicken web site. Before that sleazy little game of breaking Web Connect and turning a service call into a hard sell, I was thinking of buying Quicken 2017 to see if it's usable. Now I am very reluctant to do business with them.A little further digging reveals that HIG Capital, which owns Quicken, may have contracted Quicken Service out to a company called Josh Consulting Inc., with service centers in India that sound as noisy and fast-talking as the one I encountered.
But they seem to do much of their business on Facebook, which blocks me from accessing further information because I don't have an account.Has anybody else encountered this? (2017-05-05 at 17:49)JeffH wrote: A new Quicken upgrade breaks Web Connect for all old versions of Quicken, blocking users from importing data they have downloaded from banks, credit cards, and such. So far this has affected the small local bank I deal with, which upgraded its web site in April, but not Bank of America, where we have credit cards.I had a similar experience with support trying to sell me. I said not interested and goodbye. The problem I and others had recently with Barclays card was the downloaded QFX file's FITID unique identifiers are all the same. Repeating the same FITID number.
Resulting in only one or a few, at most transactions to download. If any.I changed the first two digits of the long FITID number to something that started with 01, 02, 03, etc.
Using TextEdit. Importing again, they all came in.You can see if your QFX is the same. (2017-05-08 at 16:39)mtzt wrote: I had a similar experience with support trying to sell me. I said not interested and goodbye. The problem I and others had recently with Barclays card was the downloaded QFX file's FITID unique identifiers are all the same.
Repeating the same FITID number. Resulting in only one or a few, at most transactions to download. I changed the first two digits of the long FITID number to something that started with 01, 02, 03, etc. Using TextEdit.
Importing again, they all came. You can see if your QFX is the same.Thanks, but I'm not seeing that. When I open the old and new.qfx docs in Numbers, they look the same except that my bank files are for bank accounts and the Bank of America files are for credit cards.
Looking at them in TextEdit, the Bank of America files have two identical entries one after the other. I have been a Quicken 2007 holdout but Wells Fargo has stopped supporting automatic downloads, so I purchased Quicken 2017. Unfortunately, I am unable to import my 2007 file, it chokes with 'Could not import filename.qdfm. An error occurred while preparing the file to be imported.”I have tried reindexing the file in Quicken 2007.
Also, saved a copy with only transactions from 2016 to present, deleted all unused accounts, payees, made sure all transactions were categorized, etc. All to no avail.Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance! (2017-05-30 at 03:16)I wrote: I have been a Quicken 2007 holdout but Wells Fargo has stopped supporting automatic downloads, so I purchased Quicken 2017. Unfortunately, I am unable to import my 2007 file, it chokes with 'Could not import filename.qdfm.
An error occurred while preparing the file to be imported.”Turns out this was due to a filename with special characters. Silly me, who would want to apply secure naming safeguard conventions to a filename? Still, it might be helpful to have one of those things they used to call User Manuals for us dinosaurs who were raised on Quicken 2007.
Oh well, we'll always have MacInTouch. (2016-12-06 at 12:22)Lee B wrote: I too am concerned about having my financial data on some cloud server, so I am looking to return to Quicken 2007. My copy will not run on El Capitan (I used it on Snow Leopard). I know there was an update that made 2007 compatible with Lion; will it also work on El Capitan with that update?
Is the update still available?I am running Quicken 2007 with all of the updates on Sierra and have had no problem with it. It first refused to open and gave an error message of 'cannot open file'. I used a backup data copy that opened and updated from my bank (Chase).
I am leery of upgrading to 2017 at this point and will continue to use 2007 as long as it works. I, too, started with Dollars and Sense in the 1980's. I stayed with Quicken over all of the years.
(2017-06-22 at 11:07)jschaffe wrote: (2017-06-21 at 18:31)Scott Austin wrote: Quicken 2007 (updated version for Lion) works fine for me on a Mac Mini running Sierra. Every feature I use works fine, including importing QFX files that I download from my bank's web site. I have never used the integrated online features, aside from downloading stock prices, which also works.Same here.A couple of months ago, the small bank I deal with updated their web site and that broke QFX downloads. The bank's web-site developer gave them a phone number to contact, which turned out to be a sleazy overseas contractor for the new owner of Quicken who claimed I needed to pay $200 to get an upgraded version of Quicken (i.e., Quicken 2017) and a service plan. I complained to the bank, and gave up QFX downloads from them. I can still use QFX files from my credit card company.This was not a Sierra problem; I'm on El Capitan. It's a problem with the way my bank's web site developer implemented QFX files, which I can open with Numbers(!), but which no longer work in Quicken 2007.
I have no way of telling whether the underlying problem was a bug introduced by the web developer, or if it's an 'upgrade' from Quicken intended to force customers to buy Quicken 2017. (2017-06-23 at 11:04)JeffH wrote: A couple of months ago, the small bank I deal with updated their web site and that broke QFX downloads. The bank's web-site developer gave them a phone number to contact, which turned out to be a sleazy overseas contractor for the new owner of Quicken who claimed I needed to pay $200 to get an upgraded version of Quicken (i.e., Quicken 2017) and a service plan. I complained to the bank, and gave up QFX downloads from them. I can still use QFX files from my credit card company.This was not a Sierra problem; I'm on El Capitan.
It's a problem with the way my bank's web site developer implemented QFX files, which I can open with Numbers(!), but which no longer work in Quicken 2007. I have no way of telling whether the underlying problem was a bug introduced by the web developer, or if it's an 'upgrade' from Quicken intended to force customers to buy Quicken 2017.Ah, Numbers. I remember being surprised how pretty Numbers circa 2009 (?) made bank data imported as QFX (or OFX?) 'The Google' says that function has been removed from the current version of Numbers, which I don't even have installed. Is that correct?If you can open the QFX in your version of Numbers, you can export it to QIF for Quicken 2007.Once a year we write a lot of checks. It is easier to prepare the list in a spreadsheet (we've used Excel 2011), including Payee, Address, Amount, Category and Memo, then 'print' the spreadsheet to a text file in QIF format. You can see the QIF format for Q 2007 by exporting one yourself.There are also these paid converters:This MacInTouch discusses how to 'trick' Quicken 2017 into importing QIF data.And Numbers?
It's been part of a current ongoing MacInTouch discussion triggered by WWDC news. (2017-06-23 at 11:04)JeffH wrote: A couple of months ago, the small bank I deal with updated their web site and that broke QFX downloads. The bank's web-site developer gave them a phone number to contact, which turned out to be a sleazy overseas contractor for the new owner of Quicken who claimed I needed to pay $200 to get an upgraded version of Quicken (i.e., Quicken 2017) and a service plan.
I complained to the bank, and gave up QFX downloads from them. I can still use QFX files from my credit card company.This was not a Sierra problem; I'm on El Capitan. It's a problem with the way my bank's web site developer implemented QFX files, which I can open with Numbers(!), but which no longer work in Quicken 2007.
I have no way of telling whether the underlying problem was a bug introduced by the web developer, or if it's an 'upgrade' from Quicken intended to force customers to buy Quicken 2017.I had a similar problem with my bank when they started appending the date to the QFX filename. This made the filename too long. Clicking on the filename and deleting the extra characters fixed the problem.
Unfortunately, it's necessary to do this every time a new QFX file is downloaded. I've wondered for some years, and watched here as the subject was discussed, but only peripherally: why in 2017, use Quicken at all?I can see two features that are useful: (1) a record of all your transactions at one or more financial institutions, and (2) the ability to print checks, and keep a record of them. Please let me know if there are more killer features. (I don't consider pretty pie charts breaking down my spending into categories that aren't meaningful to me as a 'feature' (a gripe I have with at least one credit card company, as well.)I use electronic banking, so (2) isn't a big deal, particularly as for some years, my bank's website has allowed displaying, and exporting in CSV format, at least the last twelve months's worth of electronic payments, paper checks, etc. Every January, I download a record of the previous year's transactions, import in into Excel, and sort as needed for taxes, tracking spending trends, etc.Similarly, nearly all my investments are in an employer-offered, 401(k)-like plan with a relatively small number of index-based plans. I do no day trading, and have no plans to.
At tax time, I receive all the required 1099's from other investments (sadly, by snail mail, but some also offer online access to PDFs). The last one usually arrives by mid-February.I did play around with the late, unlamented Quicken Essentials, and found nothing but difficulty in automating valid downloads from my financial institutions. So bad (multiple entries, missing entries, failures to connect at all) that I dropped it like the foul-smelling piece of cruft that it was.So again: am I missing anything major that Quicken offers? (2017-06-23 at 16:32)George wrote: Ah, Numbers. I remember being surprised how pretty Numbers circa 2009 (?) made bank data imported as QFX (or OFX?) 'The Google' says that function has been removed from the current version of Numbers, which I don't even have installed. Is that correct?If you can open the QFX in your version of Numbers, you can export it to QIF for Quicken 2007.Once a year we write a lot of checks.
It is easier to prepare the list in a spreadsheet (we've used Excel 2011), including Payee, Address, Amount, Category and Memo, then 'print' the spreadsheet to a text file in QIF format. You can see the QIF format for Q 2007 by exporting one yourself.How can you save a QIF out of Numbers 2009?
The only Save options I see are PDF, Excel and CSV. When I tried saving as Excel, Excel also did not offer a QIF save option.Numbers 2014 (3.2.2), the latest I have, does not recognize QFX files as openable. Only Numbers 2009 does. (2017-06-24 at 20:38)stananderson wrote: I had a similar problem with my bank when they started appending the date to the QFX filename.
This made the filename too long. Clicking on the filename and deleting the extra characters fixed the problem. Unfortunately, it's necessary to do this every time a new QFX file is downloaded.Thanks - the long file name produced by the software was the problem. I cut it down to the same length as what I was getting from my credit card company, and it worked without a hitch. I just called my bank and they are going to see if they can fix it. If not, I now know how to fix it myself.
(2017-06-23 at 11:04)JeffH wrote: A couple of months ago, the small bank I deal with updated their web site and that broke QFX downloads. The bank's web-site developer gave them a phone number to contact, which turned out to be a sleazy overseas contractor for the new owner of Quicken who claimed I needed to pay $200 to get an upgraded version of Quicken (i.e., Quicken 2017) and a service plan.
I complained to the bank, and gave up QFX downloads from them. I can still use QFX files from my credit card company.
I have no way of telling whether the underlying problem was a bug introduced by the web developer, or if it's an 'upgrade' from Quicken intended to force customers to buy Quicken 2017.I don't know what your 'small bank' has going for it. I started using Quicken for Mac 2017 several months ago and have had to call the new owner of Quicken for Mac 2017 several times. The calls have always been answered by someone in the United States and answered very quickly. I also have always received outstanding support. In fact, it's probably the best technical support I've ever received from any company, including Apple!
Your 'sleazy overseas contractor' sounds like a scam. The number I use to call Quicken is 650-250-1900. I'd be interested in knowing what response you get to your problem if you call that telephone number. (2017-06-26 at 11:03)JeffH wrote: How can you save a QIF out of Numbers 2009?
The only Save options I see are PDF, Excel and CSV. When I tried saving as Excel, Excel also did not offer a QIF save option. Numbers 2014 (3.2.2), the latest I have, does not recognize QFX files as openable. Only Numbers 2009 does.Save to CSV and use a converter.Reformat the Numbers file to a QIF file template. Then transfer the data to a text file, rename the text 'file type'.QIFAs we haven't used Numbers in years, but have used Excel for the same purpose, I don't know how Numbers handles output to.txt - you may need to copy / paste the Numbers data structured as a QIF into a basic text editor.Info about.QIF structure here:Seems to work best if a QIF file is exported from the specific register account you're hoping to import into, then that QIF export is used as the example template. (2017-06-25 at 16:02)Joe Gurman wrote: I've wondered for some years, and watched here as the subject was discussed, but only peripherally: why in 2017, use Quicken at all?I can see two features that are useful: (1) a record of all your transactions at one or more financial institutions, and (2) the ability to print checks, and keep a record of them. Please let me know if there are more killer features.
(I don't consider pretty pie charts breaking down my spending into categories that aren't meaningful to me as a 'feature' (a gripe I have with at least one credit card company, as well.)I use electronic banking, so (2) isn't a big deal, particularly as for some years, my bank's website has allowed displaying, and exporting in CSV format, at least the last twelve months's worth of electronic payments, paper checks, etc. Every January, I download a record of the previous year's transactions, import in into Excel, and sort as needed for taxes, tracking spending trends, etc.Similarly, nearly all my investments are in an employer-offered, 401(k)-like plan with a relatively small number of index-based plans. I do no day trading, and have no plans to. At tax time, I receive all the required 1099's from other investments (sadly, by snail mail, but some also offer online access to PDFs). The last one usually arrives by mid-February.I did play around with the late, unlamented Quicken Essentials, and found nothing but difficulty in automating valid downloads from my financial institutions. So bad (multiple entries, missing entries, failures to connect at all) that I dropped it like the foul-smelling piece of cruft that it was.So again: am I missing anything major that Quicken offers?Excellent points, Joe.I remember sitting down at least once a week with the bills that arrived that week and using Quicken to write paper checks that had to go in the mail enough ahead of time to be posted by the payee ahead of the due date.
So much easier in Quicken than manually. (My handwriting is awful.)In 2017 I pay my bills online, and have nearly all of them set to auto-draw.Banks and brokers provide.CSV downloads and year end summaries. Even the broker online PDF tax reports can be used to extract tables of data. They may not pay much interest, but they're doing most of my bookkeeping.I'm no longer using Quicken for 'personal.' Work's different.
We do the same auto-pay and bank/broker downloads, as well as issuing online checks, but we do have to write a lot of paper checks. We need income, cash flow, and balance sheet reports. The ability to search and organize by category, class, payee, across multiple accounts and fiscal years is very important.The business is big enough that most of similar size would be using a 'professional' bookkeeping package, or even outsourcing to an accounting firm. We've grown it with Quicken, and found the ability to merge QIF data from different locations invaluable. We use a third-party payroll program that outputs to QIF, so payroll can be processed within Quicken. Probably an unusual use of Quicken.
Did discover years ago that the largest entries Quicken permitted was $9,999,999.99. (2017-06-25 at 16:02)Joe Gurman wrote: I've wondered for some years, and watched here as the subject was discussed, but only peripherally: why in 2017, use Quicken at all?
I can see two features that are useful: (1) a record of all your transactions at one or more financial institutions, and (2) the ability to print checks, and keep a record of them. Please let me know if there are more killer features. (I don't consider pretty pie charts breaking down my spending into categories that aren't meaningful to me as a 'feature' (a gripe I have with at least one credit card company, as well.)I've never printed checks with Quicken, but having a record of all financial transactions going back to the late 90's is invaluable.
I'm self-employed, we own rental property and have retirement accounts. We also deal with multiple financial institutions.
That data base is invaluable in checking what bills we've paid, contractors and doctors we've dealt with before, and tracking business clients. At tax time, having one master set of financial records lets me pull out and total every payment labeled 'charity' or 'medical' and specific rental property expenses regardless of whether we paid from our checking account, one of multiple credit cards, or cash at the hardware store (if properly recorded).Quicken's reports are very useful tools for managing personal finance. For example, comparison reports of this year and last give me a quick check of personal and business cash flow.
Quicken was traditionally known as one of the best personal finance software options for desktop users. However, the Mac version had traditionally lacked the features found in the PC version, and that was disappointing to many users. While last year's version was a big improvement, it still wasn't there for everyone.After using Quicken for Mac 2019 for several weeks, we're happy to see that Quicken has continued the improvements over prior years. It's not as robust as we'd like to see yet, but it's definitely been moving in the right direction.So, how did Quicken for Mac 2019 do? Honestly, it's an incremental improvement over 2018. But we like the direction it's going, and if you can get a great deal on pricing (which you typically can on or when they have a sale), it could be worth it. Key Features Of Quicken For Mac 2019Quicken For Mac continues to build on the many traditional features that Quicken users expect.
As always, it comes with great spending tracking (compared to other online options like and ), it has investment tracking, and budgeting.For 2019, they have improved the usability of the platform, but the navigation is still a little challenging. Even after using Quicken for about a week, I still find it hard to get to different reports. It's not intuitive.They also improved the web interface for Quicken. If you don't want to use the desktop software, and prefer a web version (like what you get with Mint), you can have that now.
But I prefer the app over the web version.Here's what the home screen looks like. The pricing for Quicken For Mac 2019 continues to be a focus point for most users. Quicken changed their pricing model last year to a subscription-based model, instead of a one-time fee. I see this as both good and bad.It's bad, because many Quicken users kept their software for years, and never upgraded. For users, this was fine - because you could avoid bad rollouts like Quicken for Mac 2017. However, to continue to receive updates and banking information, you had to update every few years anyway or Quicken would cut you off.It's good, because my hope is with more recurring revenue, Quicken can continue to improve their software and ensure banking connectivity.Quicken For Mac 2019 has three price points this year. I think 90% of users would benefit simply using the Deluxe version, which is $49.99/yr at full price.Here's what the pricing looks like.
It's hard to say if Premier is worth the huge additional price. I think Deluxe is the best value, for the added features of investment and loan tracking. But I've never used BillPay, and I highly recommend that most people don't use a service like BillPay because not only does Quicken charge more, but many banks charge for the service as well.Note: For Windows, there is also a Home and Business version. However, we think most consumers with a small business would benefit more from using a tool like, versus using Quicken Home and Business. Special Promotional PricingAs you probably already know, Quicken is notorious for running promotional pricing all the time. Recently, they were offering 40% off their prices - which I think is a fair price for the product.I would have a hard time paying $49.99 per year for Deluxe, but paying $29.99 per year makes much more sense - especially considering that I would typically upgrade every 2-3 years, this aligns much better with the pricing I'd expect.However, in our search for deals, we found that Amazon.com is offering a 14-month subscription of the Deluxe version for $38.49 (which is 30% off full price).
Given the $49.99 price is $4.17 per month, Amazon's deal is $2.75 per month. Still not as good as Quicken's own sale, but the second best deal we've found. Quicken World MastercardAnother interesting product/feature that Quicken launched this year is the Quicken World Mastercard.
The Quicken credit card provides real-time transaction notifications in the Quicken mobile app, and offers integration with Quicken for Mac desktop.This card also gives you a free year of Quicken Deluxe when you spend at least $500 in the first 90 days. If you already have a subscription, you'll get a 1 year extension.The card offers 2x rewards points on all your qualified spending, and has no annual fees.Given that this card is really about integration with Quicken, we're surprised that you don't get Quicken free every year as long as you spend at least $500 per year. Otherwise, all the rewards are on par or below the other. Filed Under: Tagged With:Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.Comment Policy: We invite readers to respond with questions or comments. Comments may be held for moderation and are subject to approval. Comments are solely the opinions of their authors'. The responses in the comments below are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser.
Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any company. It is not anyone's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. About Robert Farrington. Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about himHe regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to. You’re totally right on that long term value – that’s why I’m not sure at full price.
However, at $29.99, now we’re talking $300 over 10 years – which is on par with what Quicken users have been paying for the last 10-15 years anyway with required upgrades.You have to remember, Quicken pays to have access to that bank connectivity. I’ve heard it costs about $1 per account per year for a service like Quicken. When you think that the average user probably has 5-10 accounts linked, their ongoing data expense alone is $5-10 per each user. It makes sense that on that cost alone they can’t offer bank connectivity forever at a single one time fee.
I’m concerned about the inability to track “Transfers” to loan accounts in the Budgeting function. Our family was setting up a budget that involved 13 loans including 11 student loans that have to be paid for out of our checking accounts every month. This obligation is a substantial portion of our family budget, yet cannot be tracked with the latest version of the Quicken Deluxe for the Mac platform. Many other users in the Users Forum complain about this deficiency and Quicken promises that they are aware of it and plan to make changes.
Is this a fatal flaw for families that need to budget loan payments, or are you aware of a workaround that will address this problem. So I’m confused. Is it because when you setup the loan, it only counts the interest as the expense and not the full amount (since part of it was a transfer)?What I’ve found to work is renaming the split (I had to do this in prior versions of Quicken as well, and early versions with Credit Card Payments even) – “Student Loan Payment”. You could even get specific by loan type.It looks like this:Then, when you go into your spending and budgeting, you can see it here – just look at the line for both Student Loan Payment and Loans (which is interest and I could also rename). I have been using Quicken Mac 2007 for all this time because my stock data has multiple lots with different purchase dates. I bought the 2018 edition because they claimed it will handle multiple lots — and it does, though the import had a few glitches which I was able to work around.
But I’m sorry I spent the time doing that, as the 2018 version is severely crippled. It won’t even let you print or export a simple “portfolio value report”: about the most basic function I can imagine; all you can do is look at it onscreen. Custom reports are all about transactions, not current holdings and values. It claims to generate exportable files for transfer to Q Mac 2007 and for Q Windows, but neither of them worked. So your data goes in, but you can’t get it out, which doesn’t satisfy their “data guarantee.” I discovered this a few days after the 30-day money back period, but was able (after hours unsuccessfully trying to reach a chat agent, and half an hour of phone hold) to get them to refund my purchase price, but I’ll never get back the time I spent fixing the data importing or trying to make it do what it ought to do. I would advise everyone to avoid this product. Quicken Mac 2018 is a glorious flaming waste of time if you want a semblance of tracking investments.
I have been using Quicken Mac since 2004. I have diligently been forced into upgrading purely because mac has improved with time and no longer can run older versions of Quicken. I am now on the 3rd round of customer service calls. (I installed Mac 2018 this morning.) I am an expert Quicken user and know my way around my mac. Importing my data file was a breeze. Thanks for that. My issue – when I sell shares of a security, it doesn’t update in the portfolio or cash.
Three rounds of customer service and I am now asked to enter a transaction to sell shares. And a transaction to remove shares. And a transaction to add a ghost “placeholder.” And if its a full moon maybe your shares will actually appear correctly. The other option is to go into your account and delete every possible transaction relating to the security you just sold. Compliance and data integrity nightmare.
The graphics are fun and pretty just don’t actually use the data generated. Back to the drawing board quicken. $50 annual fee? Thats laughable!
I have been using Quicken 2007 for 11 years. I pay my bills with Quicken, and reconcile my checkbook by downloading bank transactions with Quicken. I believe that at one time, I paid my bank a monthly fee for this privilege, but as far as I can tell, I pay nothing now. How is Quicken 2018 different in this regard?Once upon a time, I reconciled my credit cards by downloading transactions from my credit card companies.
I stopped doing that some time ago, but should I wish to start up again, does Quicken 2018 support that, and is there a charge for that?I would just continue to use Quicken 2007, but I am concerned about the upcoming abandonment of 32 bit applications by Apple. Brian, I’m currently using Quicken 2008 and have 20 years(!) worth of data. I have been putting it off, but likely have to buy a new Mac, and like you am pretty sure I will be forced off the 32 bit application and have no choice but to upgrade at that time. To tell you I’m terrified of this is no understatement. Did you have a smooth transition pulling in all your accounts and data when you went up to Quicken 2018?
(Robert, feel free to reply regarding upgrading and pulling in data/accounts/history/etc) Thanks! You definitely won’t have a smooth transition.
Sorry.But, my real question is this (and I’ve been there with myself and my father, who had 20+ years of transaction data as well). Why do you need it?The only data we actually needed when my dad migrated over was the cost basis of a few positions in his investments. Everything else was nice, but didn’t matter for anything.I’d challenge yourself to see if there really is data you need/use regularly.
Also, can you print it or save it another way?At some point, you’re not going to be able to access that old stuff anyway, so planning ahead on this whether you upgrade or not is important. Hi Robert, just want to let you know I finally made the leap to Quicken 2019 and it took me a few tries (many hours and almost tears) but I was able to get all my data over.
To answer your question, I like to have it so I can reference things and run reports. I’m so thankful I didn’t lose it. It’s going to take me quite some time to get used to the new version though, and figure out the best ways to do things I’m used to doing.
I’m just so relieved I got the conversion over with. I had been putting it off for a long time.
Hi Sheryl, I see you asked me some time ago what my experience was moving from Quicken 2007 to 2018. Well, I only just did it with 2019.
2019 sat in my computer for about a year until Catalina and a new Mac forced my move. I, like you, was terrified. I, like you, successfully made the transition, but it wasn’t pretty. Several hours of Quicken Support conversations were required to get it all worked out.
And it’s possible that it is NOT all worked out, because I am not yet an expert user, and sort of expect to run into features that I don’t fully understand. I have to take my hat off to Support however, because so far, they have kept the wheels on the car. The big question that I am currently pursuing is how do I get Quicken to effectively work with a database on a network server being used by my two Macs (iMac home, and MacBook travel). I see a potential technique with warnings, but no definitive successful path from Quicken. That’s what I want to see.Robert J Simoneau says. Quicken 2019 has a dreadful user interface.
GONE is the ability to run simple reports for this year, last year, date-to-date, etc. With any ease, if at all. GONE is the simple accounts window that you are used to. GONE is the empty register line at the bottom of your account window waiting for you to fill in the newest transaction (you have to use a “+” “New Transaction” clumsy interface now). I could go on.The people who revamped this app appear to have done ZERO research with real world users. The investment firm who bought Quicken?
They’re doing nothing good here. I am one of thousands or millions stuck in Quicken 2007 and LIKE the interfaces in that version.Why can’t Quicken LISTEN to all the people screaming how unhappy they are with this product? I could care less about the online features. It’s just not there yet and I would never use it anyway.
I have my stuff in the cloud, it’s fine. I use Quicken on a desktop or laptop so the phone app is of no use for me. It’s fine to build that in for those who like it. But you have to perfect, as best as you can, the actual application first and foremost. Quicken has become bloated and unintuitive over the last few versions. They’ve lost sight of the original idea and purpose.
This is simple bookkeeping. And simpler, is BETTER, when it comes to accounting software. Graphs, charts, and icons are fine, but can we please have the ability to turn them off. I don’t want to look at all the clutter constantly.Give me an accounts window (without the unnecessary folders for cash, cc, investments), individual account windows when I open them, keep the legacy register format that has been used for many decades (it just plain works and makes sense, newest on the bottom, empty one at bottom ready to be filled in), a way to run reports the way it’s done in 2007 (again, simple, makes sense, easy to get what you want out of it). STOP the incessant altering and revamping.
It does not work as well for the end users.And H.I.G. Capital, sell this software to someone who gets it and will rework with some thoughtful acumen and intelligence. Forget the subscription plan too. It’s insulting. People upgrade as needed every couple years or so without be forced into it. Subscription methods set a bad tone between the company and it’s users.
Allow users the respect to upgrade when they choose rather than strong-arming them into it from the get go. I’ve been a Quicken for Mac user since, ahem, 1990, and some of my Q2007 files reach back that far. Hands down, the Quicken made for primitive Macs back then was much more powerful than Q2017.
My main gripe is that I am in a business where I have to be able to create income reports based on memos, dates, etc., which was easy to do with the 3.5″ diskette version of Quicken in, say, 1994. This cannot be done in Q 2017. The last version that allowed this feature was Q2007, and it was very unstable in the last year or two, so I updated to the 2017. From what I am hearing, the later versions are even worse than 2017. I also have Quickbooks online, but it doesn’t work for what I need either. Maybe the new owners of Quicken are trying to kill the brand. I have had Quicken for Mac for over 5 years.
The first 1-2 years were nearly flawless. I could include business, retirement and investment/banking accounts, and prepare a fairly accurate estimate of taxable income during the “early years”.It is NO LONGER THE CASE. Since Quicken for Mac became an independent company, things have gone South! Banking and investment income is inaccurate. I used this software to prepare estimated tax income so that I could adjust quarterly tax payments as income from investments changed at year’s end. Entries in investment, banking and retirement accounts are frequently not updated. Retirement earnings (not taxable at this time) for some reason is entered in my Tax Report.
I had the Premium Q4Mac, which is designed to include iInvestment Income. I had to spend hours each week correcting inaccurate entries. My recommendation: avoid this software. When I canceled my account, the representative stated that “many others have had the same experience.” It’s your choice, but my experience suggests you’d do better finding another more accurate and supported software. What a shame. It was good back in 2015 under Intuit ownership.
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