quicken to moneydance part 1

I went to reconcile my accounts in Quicken today, and I came to the annoying realization that Quicken had decided to sunset Quicken 2004 (Mac version). My bank no longer supported Quicken 2004. They actually removed the option to download account files for Quicken 2004. I tried the Quicken 2005 file (same file extension), but no luck there.

I can’t believe that this is Quicken’s business strategy to get me to upgrade. Break my software and then tell me that to fix it I have to shell out $70 to get Quicken 2007, which, from the reviews I’ve read, sucks. No thanks. How do big, successful companies like Intuit (makers of Quicken) stay in business with this kind of garbage?

Anyways, I happened to read on Lifehacker today that a new version of Moneydance was just released. Moneydance is cross-platform (Windows/Mac/Linux), and $30 for a license. They also have a free trial that seems to be fully functional. So far, I’m very impressed with Moneydance. I spent about two seconds importing all of my Quicken data (about 1.5 years of transactions) into Moneydance with zero hitches. Also, I’ve been able to connect directly with my bank and credit card company to download transactions - something that I could never get to work in Quicken 2004.

I will add more as I continue to work with Moneydance.