What's the best Budgeting Software

Willy_Wombat

Hi All

I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in the "Techie" forum - I'll try here first. Also, I'm sure this will have been asked before but searching for "Software" returns 000's of posts, "MS Money" does too but because the forum seems to search for all the words in a search and "Money" is a pretty frequent word around these parts:rotfl: and "Quicken" returns nothing so please bear with me if this is a FAQ here . . .

For the last 12 years or so, I've been using Quicken98 to track my various bank, building society and other accounts.

I now want to upgrade my PC (No! it's not 12 years old but I want to use Windows 7 and I don't think Quicken98 will work with Windows 7) so I'm looking for an alternative software package.

Microsoft have stopped selling MS Money and whilst Quicken still exists, it's not suitable for UK use.

I know there's an iPhone app that will track day to day spending but I won't go near Apple products due to their draconian DRM policy and besides, I need more than that app provides.

I need something that will handle multiple accounts and do a bit of budgeting. There's no business involvement so tracking VAT etc is not needed but I do dabble in the markets a bit and have been a bit (just a little bit!!) successful this year so I need something that will also help me track any profit and tax liability on my trading account.

So, what do other people use to track their spending and saving etc?

TIA

Neil

Joe_Bloggs

You can create a virtual machine to run old software on a modern PC. A virtual machine is a software simulation of a computer perhaps running an older operating system (the guest) and software, under an another operating system (the host). Microsoft offer Virtual PC. There are other similar virtualization products.
J_B.

8u87fhsd

Tesco Personal Finance is OK - not as good as Quicken but only cost me a few quid. I tried GnuCash & got thoroughly confused.

Willy_Wombat

Thanks for that JB. I'm familiar with virtual machines and suppose that would work but I was looking for something maybe a little more up to date too.

In it's day, Quicken would download share values etc and I know that with MS money there was an option to download an electronic copy of your statement for reconciliation.

The statement regarding the demise of MS money on the MS website seems to point people to on-line options provided by their banks but I'm not aware of any such services provided by UK banks:( so I'm still looking for a "Quicken alternative"

Thanks

Neil

Willy_Wombat

Tesco Personal Finance looks interesting but they seem to have ceased supplying it - It's unavailable through Tesco Direct. I'll drop in to the local "shed" tomorrow and see if they have it on the shelf.

Thanks

Neil

blueberrypie

Willy_Wombat wrote: »

I need something that will handle multiple accounts and do a bit of budgeting. There's no business involvement so tracking VAT etc is not needed but I do dabble in the markets a bit and have been a bit (just a little bit!!) successful this year so I need something that will also help me track any profit and tax liability on my trading account.

So, what do other people use to track their spending and saving etc?

Moneydance is very good, and you'll find it very easy to use if you've been using Quicken. You can import all your Quicken accounts and transactions too. There's a free trial (30 days?) so you can see if it suits your needs before you buy.

(I believe the Tesco software is a rebranding of Moneydance, btw.)

8u87fhsd

Tesco Personal Finance IS Moneydance rebranded. TBH I was going to buy Moneydance(after the free trail) but the Tesco Version was going cheap for ~ £5

8u87fhsd

Whoops - trial

LeeSouthEast

I just use Excel.. (well, Google Documents at the moment). I can design my own that works with my outgoings, savings products and methods. It's pretty easy to get on with once you learn a few formulas.

Cool graphs, too.

Richard_Cocks

I find GnuCash the best. I've not tried the windows version but the ubuntu (linux) version works really well for me.

It's a double-accounting thing, so takes a little getting used to if you're a spreadsheet user but after a while it makes sense and I find it great for tracking expenditure across categories.