Personal Accounting Software

I use MoneyDance for my financial records. It's very stable and easy to use. I think it can connect to banks, but not many banks in the UK support this yet. I use downloaded OFX and QIF files to get the data in.

I have been using YNAB for six months now and find it very good. I think I am pretty good at managing our personal finances but the YNAB approach makes you look at things in a different (and quite unique) way, and I believe has made a definite improvement to our financial situation. Check out the large number of videos on YouTube that explain the system. It won't do direct import from UK banks if that is what you're looking for, but it has some good reporting features - e.g. you can see at a glance what your 'net worth' is, and how it has changed over time. The new version is Internet based, so if you are still under the illusion that you have any privacy in this day and age that may be a concern for you. Also, it may be counter-intuitive, but the fact that you have paid for it, will be a greater incentive for you to actually use it (and it's not a great deal of money). Since we have been using it our 'net worth' has increased by 46.3% in 6 months - which is indeed more than $6,000.

I recently switched to Moneydance after using Quicken for the past 15 years. I always liked Quicken but after my 2002 version started misbehaving, and Quicken switched to an annual charge, I decided I needed to future-proof my computer-based personal finance tracking.

I think Moneydance is about the closest in terms of replicating how Quicken works, and after 3 or 4 abortive attempts to import my Quicken records into Moneydance I eventually managed it very smoothly and did't need to do any manual corrections. My Quicken is a US copy as I used to live there, and I didn't realise that the underlying dates were US format (MM/DD/YYYY), which is what was causing my initial import issues. I am now finding it simple to use.

Although Moneydance supposedly allows tracking of investments and use of multiple currencies, I don't use those functions. I'm a bit leery about ubiquitous connectivity and would rather keep track of that stuff independently. I also believe that Moneydance does not connect well to UK bank accounts, but again I have no desire to tell the software my bank login details, etc.

Moneydance allows a free trial, unlimited time but limited to 100 new entries. However, you can import an unlimited amount of prior financial data so you really do get the chance to try the full functionality at your leisure before deciding whether to purchase the full licence.