The Mini Re-Test Against (Quicken and) Buddi

It's been two years, and it feels like time to look at alternatives to Quicken for personal finance. I've been using Buddi happily for 2 years. It's updated regularly. It's portable (cross-platform and no funny stuff in the data files). Java isn't as slow as I expected, and Buddi even accepts dropped text. It has a stable of plugins. However, some of export plugins don't work as well as I'd like. The unmaintained QIF Export has no option to export each account separately which is needed for most of the personal financial software I've tested, and, much worse, the starting balance in the QIF file was off by about two orders of magnitude! Since only the starting balances were wrong, I edited those lines by hand in TextEdit, but it makes me not trust the QIF Export plugin -- not fun for all of your financial data. [I suspect the safer route is to use CSV export and then use a CSV-to-QIF tool written in awk, perl, python, or ruby; the other direction is Javascript that you can even download to your own computer.] And Buddi isn't Aqua, or integrated with anything else on my Mac. Buddi is a very reliable program that I could use for many more years, but I don't mind looking at the alternatives either.

So, to review from last time, my needs are:

• reconcile that I can use
• proper double entry for transfers
• import/export
• would like multiple accounts in one document
• would like bill scheduling, although I have reminders in iCal now

A quick check for what was updated since 2008 and had tempting screenshot(s) led me to Stash (new yummy open-source Aqua!), mini$, and MoneyWell. Although I looked at those last two before, they had major version updates so I thought I'd look again.

The quick one: mini$ had a big update since I last tested it, but it wouldn't launch on my Intel MacBook Pro, so that test is done already. The error was "java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file" so I think my Java is too new for it (it needs 1.4.2+ and I have the standard 32-bit 1.5.0_22 version in). I need the newer Java for work applications, so I don't want to mess around with older versions of Java.

So here's the report on Stash and MoneyWell.

Stash is very new, so I'm reviewing a moving target. Reconcile is just a check, but I can use that (no check for cleared, though). I like that Stash can re-order transactions so that I can match Stash's balance with my bank statement (which is the order in which the transaction cleared, not when it occurred); this makes reconciliation easier. As of version 0.6, it has double entry transfers, although if I delete one half of a transfer, the other half is still there (although that shouldn't be common). Stash can import and export QIF, and it has multiple accounts per document, with transaction scheduling. It hits my necessary points, and it has bonus points for Aqua and a responsive developer. It's worth a look. Plus there's just something pretty about it that makes me want to like it!

MoneyWell does a lot. It has states for open, pending, cleared, and reconciled transactions (although I can't click on the icon to cycle between open, cleared, and reconciled). It transfers. It imports many formats including CSV, QIF, and OFX, although it only exports to QIF. It has multiple accounts in one document, and it does bill scheduling although it filled in the current variable amount for the future transactions as well. (Quicken asked me if the amount were the same or if it varied.)

I think I should use the MoneyWell Bucket construct for what are Categories in Quicken and Stash, and Budget Categories in Buddi. Watch your left-hand pane when using MoneyWell: your view is filtered to whatever Accounts and Buckets you have selected! So if you think you're missing an entry, select ALL Accounts and the "All Transactions" smart bucket! Although I don't plan to use this feature, MoneyWell can link an account in your MoneyWell document to an online account in order to download transactions. There even appears to be a way to manage similar and duplicate transactions (I'm sure that's useful)!

I really can't explain why I'm not sucked in by MoneyWell with all of its features, but yet I find Stash attractive despite a shorter feature list. I guess it's because MoneyWell doesn't have the user interface convenience I expect when I click on the open-cleared-reconciled checkbox. I want utter simplicity, and MoneyWell has a flurry of ways to filter my view. Stash, on the other hand, is very much like a checkbook register. It's simple, and it does what I expect when I click on the reconciled check. I don't need the very simple budgeting in MoneyWell, and the graphs in Stash supply eye candy if I want it. Stash has a simple, uncluttered, unconfusing user interface.