Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tank!ncar!unmvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sm.unisys.com!ucla-cs!flowers From: flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: personal finance packages Message-ID: <18833@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Date: 13 Dec 88 01:13:56 GMT References: <2669@copper.SDP.TEK.COM> Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU Reply-To: flowers@cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) Distribution: comp Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 49 In article <2669@copper.SDP.TEK.COM> jackd@copper.SDP.TEK.COM (Jack Decker) writes: >MacMoney, the one I use, is >OK for accounting but they seem to be falling behind the power curve >in adding new features such as portfolio and tax handling. For tax handling, the MacMoney people have a conversion utility written in hypercard which will extract data from MacMoney files and produce a MacInTax file (if I understand their description correctly). The way it finds out which data of yours belongs on the tax schedule is by asking you for what category names you have used for various pieces of information. They are waiting until this year's release of MacInTax to test and make sure it the file formats are still compatible (eta Dec 19), and then they will ship it out to MacMoney users at a cost of $7.50. [This info all from talking to them on the phone, I haven't seen it myself so hopefully these details are not inaccurate.] The MacInTax people have told me they've also send file format specs to the Quicken people, so I presume there is something similar in the works for Quicken. >As far as personal finance packages that manage portfolios go, >Managing Your Money is the one to beat. ... >MYM, on the other hand, has all of this now and they seem >committed to improving the product. (2.0 just came out.) They told me there would be a new version of MacMoney this summer. They were very responsive to some suggestions I made ("you're the first one who has mentioned this, but it seems like a good idea...") so it might be worth giving them some feedback on desired features. On the subject of picking personal finance packages: What kinds of improvements are there in MYM compared to MacMoney for portfolio management? From various messages, I've gotten the impression that the significant differences between Quicken & MacMoney are that MacMoney does crossposting, can handle multiple accounts, and has ID codes as an second dimension to the transaction categories; Quicken can print custon designed checks with a laserwriter onto numberless check stock and has more flexible reporting (some people have mentioned exporting MacMoney to Excel for improved reporting). Is this correct? Are there any other significant differences? What improved personal finance packages can convert or accept MacMoney data files, if one wanted to convert? Margot Flowers Flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU ...!(uunet,rutgers,ucbvax,randvax)!cs.ucla.edu!flowers