Ibank :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

iBank Needs Work

2008-03-19
Based on a trial test of iBank it appeared to be a good replacement of Quicken for use as a home accounting application on the Mac computer. Quicken was very good early in its history but has become so loaded with so called enhancements that it is crash prone and no longer easy to use or navigate. This, apparently in the interest of encouraging users to upgrade to the latest and greatest. All of this is simply to say that iBank seemed to be an answer to the now bloated and difficult to use Quicken. iBank is not the answer. First, I bought the disk from Amazon rather than simply downloading the program because I like the redundancy of having the physical disk on the shelf if the computer crashes or if I get a new machine. This was useless because the disk was out of date as received and would not work with Leopard. So, after going through some hoops to prove I owned and had paid Amazon for the disk, IGG Software let me download a new copy of iBank. However, it then failed to work properly in transferring the old data from Quicken as advertised. More e-mails to IGG Software and more down loads of patches to rectify the problem. None of these patches and fixes worked. The data transferred from Quicken continued to be corrupted in spite of the various fixes from IGG Software. In the end, I gave up, said good bye to the money and time invested and have gone back to Quicken--poorer and not much wiser. If one were to start with a blank iBank account and not attempt to download anything into it, it might work well. The graphics are good and the interface seems friendly enough. It just isn't ready for release as advertised. Let's hope they solve their problems because Quicken needs competition on the Mac side.

Didn't work for me

2008-03-06
I switched from a PC to an iMac, and was looking for an alternative to Quicken because the reviews were so bad. After reading the reviews here, I decided to give iBank a try.

1) It did NOT import my QIF files properly. It left out deposits, and did other very strange things. So I just decided to start at the beginning of the year, leaving behind 16 years of information.
2) Transactions are very difficult to enter for the first time. A lot of mouse work involved; you can't do it all quickly on the keyboard like you can in Quicken. And mystery zero balance transactions show up for no reason.
3) I finally got everything loaded, only to discover that my bank won't download to iBank, even though it's in the list. I had to manually do a reconcile; haven't had to do that in years. What a pain.
4) Investments are crazy. I read the FAQ on them pretty thoroughly, but never could figure out how to enter them so that they showed a positive balance.
5) After getting all of the above done and ready to go, I went to enter in my transactions for the week. Got an error stating iBank can't save, there is a line item error. It seemed to highlight a particular transaction, but no matter what I did to that transaction, even deleting it, I could not get past the error, which rendered the entire program useless.

I have to give them credit, I emailed them stating I wanted my money back and it was done within a couple of hours.

Yes, I am new to Mac, but I'm pretty computer savvy. I'm pretty sure it's not me.

Excellent Application

2008-02-28
This application is easy to use, feature rich, and just works very well.

I highly recommend it over the other financial applications out there for the Mac.

I have used it for a few years and really enjoy it for keeping track of my money.

Disappointing

2007-12-05
I purchased this item when I switched from a Windows machine to an iMac. Quicken for Mac had poor reviews and, from what I read, didn't have multiple currency support, so I elected to try iBank. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my needs.

First, it did a poor job transferring in my Quicken QIF files. My investment accounts transfered in with negative balances which I couldn't rectify. The multiple currency support did not seem to function correctly and the program - even after the update - crashed repeatedly (odd for a Mac program).

Thus, iBank didn't really live up to the Quicken replacement that I was looking for.

Solid Mac app done right

2007-11-15
I really appreciate the attention to detail Igg Software has put into this product. After long months of cursing and struggling with the heaping pile of Java widgets that is Quicken on the Mac, I finally set out across the intarwebs determined to find SOME kind of alternative. I finally found iBank, and man, the difference was like night and day. iBank is actually designed to be--gasp--a Mac program. It has proper search integration, behaves as you expect a Mac program to behave, is stable, imports and exports quickly and easily, and is designed with care.

The product has room to grow--reports are currently limited to a single kind, and I think there might be a few high-end features of that other program that haven't found their way into this program, but if there are I haven't noticed yet, as I'm too busy doing what I want to do and not cursing at my computer any more.

Definitely recommend.

Doesn't live up

2008-05-30
iBank doesn't live up to it's claims. The search engine, doesn't work. It can't automatically download from your banks as it claims. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one. It was an expensive lesson for me.

Not ready for prime time

2008-05-26
I bought IBank thinking it might be an alternative to Quicken, which I've used since 1992. I'm not hugely unhappy with Quicken, but Intuit obviously doesn't give a crap about Mac users so it seemed like a good idea to find an alternative. However, this isn't it. Maybe if you were starting from scratch, the program might feel more friendly, but after waiting through an 8 HOUR DOWNLOAD of my .QIF file from Quicken only to find all my investment data (almost 20 years worth) must at BEST be checked and at worst reentered, I've given up. IBank 2 doesn't allow anything but dividends on an investment-- no capital gains (long or short) so for tax purposes it's worthless. And you can't automatically reinvest dividends-- you have to enter them as a cash deposit and then add another transaction for the reinvestment. More work that Quicken handles as a no-brainer. As a result, I'm facing the prospect going back through 20 years of transactions to reinvest all the dividends that IBank added to my investment accounts as simple cash deposits. No way. Sorry, IBank. I give 3 stars for effort, for what appears to be an attractive interface, and because I know loading many years of data is more of a challenge than starting fresh, but I can't deal with the transition problems.

I've visited the IBank help site and I know some of these problems are supposedly being dealt with in IBank 3, but it's too new-- and sounds like it's still in beta. Guess I'll slog along with Quicken another year.

Pretty good

2008-05-18
I recently switched from a PC to a Mac and was debating which financial software to get. I have never used Quicken, so I tried iBank. Over all it is easy to use and import information. However, when I use it for extended periods it tends to crash. It has been easy to use and figure out, but slightly frustrating with the instability and that there is no way to refresh the selections when reconciling statements.

Works great with a few small issues

2008-05-03
I've been using this software for several months now. The recent upgrade to iBank 3 was a huge improvement. This has worked MUCH better than Quicken for Mac. My only complaint is that it is cumbersome to have to download statements from banks and import them. Many banks support direct imports but some of my banks do not. The banks refuse to work with anyone besides Quicken or Money. Other than that, this has been a great tool and works very well. I would highly recommend it over Quicken.

Great for Mac users

2008-04-22
Great product for mac users. I am a first time mac user (have a 2007 macbook) and selected this based on other reviews to replace my Microsoft Money. I had used Quicken in past and preferred Money's structure. This is very similar and great for those of us who just want to keep track of our checking/savings accounts and who don't have huge portfolios of investments to monitor.