AAUG Reviews

by Ron Schoedel, AAUG Member

iBank is touted as being “Beautiful, intuitive, powerful…the way Mac applications should be”, by it’s developer, IGG Software. The program won an Apple Design Award in 2007 for Best Leopard Application (Runner up). I am a long-timer user of Quicken, and a former full-time user of MoneyDance, which I used for a few years while Quicken was particularly awful. But once I saw iBank, I saw another opportunity to dump Quicken. I will not elaborate on the many reasons why one might search out a replacement for the venerable mainstay of consumer accounting software, but I will admit that I am one of many Mac users who just doesn’t much care for Quicken, even if I have to use it every day.

Here’s my review in one sentence, if you have no time to read further: If you are just getting started tracking your finances on your Mac, and have no prior investment in financial software, and no data to import: BUY iBANK IMMEDIATELY. Don’t waste any time. You will like it. It is slick, attractive, and fully capable of tracking your accounts, whether they are checking, cash, loans, credit cards, stocks, IRAs and even accounts that are denominated in currencies other than your primary currency. All of the necessary features are present. Split transactions, powerful searching and reporting tools, filtering, memorized transactions, scheduled bills, as well as the nice touch of allowing you to put a reminder on your iCal for coming due items.

One of the nicest “ooh ahh” traits of iBank is its quite stunning graphs and charts. If you’re going to be looking at a visual representation of your financial data, it does not have to be boring and 80s-like in appearance. iBank trumps Quicken’s old-fashioned (more…)