Replacement personal finance software

lr1277

Hi

I have been using Home Accountz (HA) for the last 15 years and found it really useful, especially for:

reconciling against my bank accounts

Producing figures when completing my tax return.

Today HA told me they were closing down next month due to Covid and not making money during this period.Personally I am very sad about this both for the loss of the software and the staff who will lose their jobs.I have searched this forum for replacements and found suggestions such as Money Manager Ex, YNAB, Ace Money etc.

HA is a double entry system so would not mind continuing with that format in the next software I get.

I also want to import the 15 years of data. I have one file for each financial year.

I also would like mobile access so I can enter data when I am out and about.

And I know this is not very MSE, but I am prepared to pay for the product, support and mobile access.

Do you have a suggestion that will meet my requirements?

Many thanks in advance

LR

Wellard_Mann

I am in the same position. I switched from Quicken to Home Accountz about ten years ago, I regret their decision, and of course feel for their staff. I am not entirely convinced by their Covid argument though. They haven’t developed the software much in recent years and I suspect they’ve been struggling for a while.

 There seem to be a lot of budgeting type apps around but not too many that facilitate double entry. I want to configure my own chart of accounts and be able to do that. So far I have identified two that might do the job. BankTree and JioSoft. They are both at the £35 price point. The former is available as a free trial download before payment. I’ll try this out later.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

dunstonh

I am still using Microsoft Money.   They stopped supporting a very long time ago but it does the job well and I have not found anything better.  It is still available.

Grumpy_chap

I also use MS Money and never found anything better.

Eco_Miser

Does HA the company closing mean that HA the software stops working?  If not, just keep using it for a few more years, as many people have done with the unsupported MS Money.

Wellard_Mann

Eco_Miser said:

Does HA the company closing mean that HA the software stops working?  If not, just keep using it for a few more years, as many people have done with the unsupported MS Money.

That’s a good point. They say it should keep working, although without the cloud backup and the phone app (if you subscribe to those). I plan to keep it around, at least in the short term, though I’m still looking at alternatives. BankTree looks a definite possibility, judging from my trial review.

MS Money clearly has a following here and I’m pleased still it’s working for other members. My issue is not so much the fact that it’s unsupported (albeit that’s a slight concern) it’s more the provenance of the downloads that concerns me – rightly or wrongly. I’m not ruling it out completely though.

lr1277

Eco_Miser said:

Does HA the company closing mean that HA the software stops working?  If not, just keep using it for a few more years, as many people have done with the unsupported MS Money.

Yes that is a possibility. However I have had a pc completely die on me before. So was looking to get a copy of the download for both pc and Mac (just in case). However I went on the website and requested the download and nothing seemed to happen. Will try again, and it not successful, will contact support.

lr1277

I did look at Banktree last night and was somewhat worried that on the page where you enter your details, there was no padlock next to the URL. For this reason I did not take it any further.

jimjames

Wellard_Mann said:

Eco_Miser said:

Does HA the company closing mean that HA the software stops working?  If not, just keep using it for a few more years, as many people have done with the unsupported MS Money.

MS Money clearly has a following here and I’m pleased still it’s working for other members. My issue is not so much the fact that it’s unsupported (albeit that’s a slight concern) it’s more the provenance of the downloads that concerns me – rightly or wrongly. I’m not ruling it out completely though.

It's not been supported for 15 years plus now so any issues that would have appeared should already be obvious but it's a very mature bit of software so I'm not sure what value support would add for you - is there something specific? If you want to check any of the files you are looking to download I'm happy to provide the details of the file I downloaded from MS called Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe so you can check it.

The file I have does show a digital signature from Microsoft if you look at properties so that shouldn't be a hurdle to using it.

Wellard_Mann

jimjames said:

Wellard_Mann said:

Eco_Miser said:

Does HA the company closing mean that HA the software stops working?  If not, just keep using it for a few more years, as many people have done with the unsupported MS Money.

MS Money clearly has a following here and I’m pleased still it’s working for other members. My issue is not so much the fact that it’s unsupported (albeit that’s a slight concern) it’s more the provenance of the downloads that concerns me – rightly or wrongly. I’m not ruling it out completely though.

It's not been supported for 15 years plus now so any issues that would have appeared should already be obvious but it's a very mature bit of software so I'm not sure what value support would add for you - is there something specific? If you want to check any of the files you are looking to download I'm happy to provide the details of the file I downloaded from MS called Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe so you can check it.

The file I have does show a digital signature from Microsoft if you look at properties so that shouldn't be a hurdle to using it.

Very helpful thanks. Particularly the details of the correct file to look for; my quick look threw up a number of options. And that’s a kind offer on the certificate.  Obviously the file is no longer available from MS but a quick look indicates that it’s available from various other sources. I’ll explore further over the weekend. I don’t have an issue paying £35 for financial software but since I’m in the market anyway I might as well look at all credible options. I seem to remember that MS Money was bundled on a PC I had back in the day. I can't recall much about it as I went the Quicken route but I'm sure it'll meet my requirements.

getmore4less

MSMoney stopped making money because it did everything no reason for people to upgrade.

Pretty solid  as debuged for years.
(Software that is continuously upgraded is likely to be bug ridden good QA is expensive)

What's missing now is interface to mobile devices for on the go updating.

There is a working add-on if you want share prices.