Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After 20 years on a PC, couldn't be happier being a Mac user for the last 3 years. With Macs and Mac software, no aggravation, no frustration, and everything is beautiful, really visually pleasing. Then, there's iBank. It's aggravating, frustrating, and sub-par in terms of looks and user experience. However, after 3 years of searching and searching, 3 years of using trial or paid versions of just about every Mac home financial software out there, I have to say it is the best of a very bad lot. It's not what iBank does or doesn't do that is the problem; it's *how* it does it. I could list 30 things that, each one by itself, is not any real problem. The problem is the combination of all the little things that add up to an overall experience of aggravation and frustration. Example: It's very, very slow to respond. I'm on my 2nd click but the 1st one hasn't resulted in anything yet. Click on, say, Checking Account, and have to wait a period of time for the program to switch to that account. You'd naturally think that you could move forward and start clicking the + icon to begin adding a transaction because when you clicked the account name, something should happen, right? Instead, you have to wait and wait for that account to open. The additional clicks from trying to move forward at what should be a normal pace when actually iBank hasn't caught up to your 1st click yet causes the program to crash. (Crashing is one thing iBank does very well, and often.) Example: Click after click after click just to accomplish one little thing. Let's do Apple stock this session. How many shares of Apple stock do I now have? Click on a Portfolio Report you've created. How well has my investment in that stock done over time? Click on an Investment Summary report that you've created. Let's add a dividend reinvestment for Apple stock. Click on that account to enter the transaction. 3 clicks and a total of 5+ minutes to get info you want and make 1 transaction because nothing is in the same place. I.e. cannot view everything about your Apple stock on one screen as you easily can in other such programs. Another example: entering a transaction in, say, Checking Account and want to assign the expense to a category, but don't recall exactly how the category was named. Was that a sub category of Misc or maybe the Other Expense category? Or, is it a sub category of Food that I'm after? Can't click in the Category box to see all available categories and scroll to find the one needed. Must know exactly what the category name is, then enter the 1st letter for anything to appear in the Category drop down box. Enter M for Misc and the Misc category appears along with its sub categories as well as all the other categories beginning with M. Nope, not there. Let's try F for Food. Nope, none of them either. Well, let's go to the Category list and find out for sure which category I need. Ooops, must click Cancel in order to leave this Checking Account screen, and thus loose what was started. Click on Categories. Find the category needed. Oh, OK, that's what it's called. Now, back to Checking Account and start the transaction all over again. Wait...which transaction was I trying to add? This one or that one? None of this wasted time and aggravation would be necessary if you could simply be able to see all available categories from within the category drop down box. Such a simple thing. Other programs are set up this way. Not iBank. Another example: include in your 2010 monthly budget expenses, say, Christmas. Only need to budget for it for maybe 2 months - Nov & Dec. Except, iBank will not allow you to do that. Can only budget the way iBank programmers want you to budget, which is monthly, quarterly, or yearly. They will not allow you to budget a line item for any other period such as 2 months. So, it's impossible to set up within your 2010 Budget a line item for the Christmas category and budget $X in Nov and $X in Dec. Another example: It's now Dec 4. Want to see how you did with your budgeting for Nov? Can't, you silly goose. iBank programmers don't want you to see how you did in any previous month as far as your budgeting v. actual. They will not allow you to change dates to view previous periods. Can view only the current month's budgeting v. actual. Another example: when splitting a transaction and need to do some math to determine the split amounts, need to use the Mac's calculator as there isn't one within the software like there is with other such software. So, you have to click on the calculator icon in iBank which opens the Mac's calculator, then click on the calculator to select it, then do your figuring, then click back on iBank to select it, then double click in the area you want to enter the amount you just calculated. Click click click click, that's all you do in iBank is click. Other financial programs have a built-in calculator right where you need to do the figuring which eliminates the need for all those additional clicks. I could go on. iBank pretty much does what you need it to do. But, it unnecessarily adds so much time and aggravation to the process that dealing with your money becomes so much more of a chore than it has to be. And, it's not nice to look at nor well-laid out on top of that. Yet, it's still the best Mac home money software out there. You'd think by now someone out there would have gotten this right.