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Quicken Windows to Mac - trial by fire.
Jun 01, 2007 11:22 am
![[barrylibby]](/webx/?30@@3)
barrylibby
Total posts: 18
Quicken Premier
Windows 98
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This post is about:
Quicken Mac 2007
I just deleted my Quicken Mac 2007 and will probably put the disk on Ebay for whatever it brings. I spent the better part of the past week trying to migrate my PC Quicken data files over to the Mac. It can be done, but not entirely. If you follow the instructions in the Quicken.Com website for migrating to the Mac, then you've got the basics, but the instructions don't go far enough.:
My suggestions if you must:
1) create a QIF file for each account separately. After importing each account into Quicken Mac rename (temporarily) each imported Mac account (just add an "x" or something to each account name).
2) if you are like me, you have cash transfers between accounts - Quicken Mac will create temporary categories for these, essentially the transfer account name in quotes instead of brackets denoting a real account. If you rename each account as you import each, Quicken will (temporarily) not see a transfer account and will thus place the transfers into the artificial category.
3) When exporting each account, be sure to include categories with each QIF file or your import will not include categories.
4) be sure you include the entire account register from earliest date to present.
5) You will have an account list after all the imports are in of all of your accounts now misnamed (by one character if you follow my advice). Now change all of them back to the real names.
6)Using the reports feature, open each of the artificial categories (the ones representing the real accounts), print out the report, and then manually correct the entry from the artificial account to the real one. As you make each transaction change, the change should be reflected in both sides of the transfer (both accounts). A lot of work.
You should now have all of your cash/checking/credit card accounts set. So why did I get rid of Quicken for Mac? Read on...
1) Quicken Mac doesn't look or feel at all like the PC version. There is no corresponding home page displaying all of the accounts with their balances, and a total for all of the accounts. I have no quick look at my account values.
2) There is not enough room on the home page toolbar for more than a few accounts, and no totals displayed there either.
3) Want to register transactions from your last European vacation in Euros? Forget it in the Mac version, it doesn't exist except for a single mutual fund account that doesn't apply for this type of transaction. And that's cumbersome.
4)Read on...
Here's the major problem with the transfer: it is simply not possible to transfer brokerage accounts over to the Mac. Trust me, I've tried it every which way. Because...
1) Cash transactions do not transfer
2) Cash received as dividends wind up being reversed (in the Mac) by some sort of artificial reversing entry
3) Bonds do not register in the portfolio - because they have a "%" symbol in the name! That's right, the Mac version does not accept "%" symbols! The portfolio does not show any market value for the bonds.
4) Even manual corrections (try that over a few years of transactions) cannot be correctly entered.
5) Downloads from the brokerage house are wrong again for bonds: the brokerage house names include a "%" symbol in the name doesn't register correctly, and therefore will not update your fixed income securities.
6) It's a mess, after a week of trying every possible method of importing my brokerage accounts, there is not even a reasonably close match that could possibly be corrected manually.
So...
I purchased Parallels, installed it on my Mac, and installed the PC version on my Mac. It works just fine, just like it did on a PC. By the way, I was Linux user - Linux also doesn't support Quicken and there is no Linux version - so there are two Linux programs that work in Linux as Parallels works in the Mac: by creating a Windows environment inside Linux - but both had serious failings: Crossover wouldn't connect online and wouldn't connect to a USB exter
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