Goodbye Quicken 2007 – Hello SEE Finance!

Quicken SEE Finance

I have switched my personal finance software from Quicken 2007 to SEE Finance. For twelve years, I used the venerable Quicken 2007 to manage my personal finances; a lifetime for software these days. Later Quicken versions never matched the functionality of the 2007 version, which has consequently remained extremely popular.

But software platforms constantly change, and Intuit recently announced the functional death of Quicken 2007 in two ways: one that can be worked around, and one that really can’t. First, Intuit pointed out that the 32-bit software will not run on future 64-bit versions of macOS. If you don’t upgrade macOS (or keep a machine to run Mohave or an older version) Quicken 2007 can still be used. But the game changer for me is Intuit’s announcement that “Due to a security and reliability update from the service provider, the ability to download transactions will no longer work in Quicken 2007, regardless of your macOS version”.

It’s unclear exactly what “update” Intuit is referring to. Regardless, there was no way I was going back to the days when I had to manually enter security prices, and bank and credit card transactions.

So I needed new personal finance software.

My search for personal finance software

I spent a few days reading reviews and comparing features of current personal finance software. My must-have features included:

  • Runs on an Apple Macintosh and looks like a Mac app
  • Can import my historic Quicken 2007 data (~50,000 transactions!)
  • Downloads bank and credit card transactions from the financial institutions I use
  • Updates security prices
  • Allows customization of the information shown in account registers
  • Includes memorized repeated transactions
  • Provides adequate financial reports
  • Allows me to choose where I store my data, so I can access it anywhere from my desktop or laptop Macs
  • Rock solid reliability
  • As responsive as Quicken 2007

One feature I didn’t need is built-in online bill paying. I use my bank’s service, or the online payment scheduling that most businesses offer today.

Hello SEE Finance!

After checking out options that included Moneydance and subscription-based Quicken for Mac, I installed a thirty-day free trial of SEE Finance 2, and never looked back.

SEE Finance 2 imported all my Quicken 2007 transactions flawlessly, even highlighting a few discrepancies I’d overlooked over the years. The OFX (think Microsoft Money) one-step update of prices and account transactions works better for me, and for more accounts than Quicken 2007 ever did. Online account updating is outstanding: one-click updates all security prices and brings in new transactions from all linked brokerage, bank, and credit card accounts.

I have bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, mutual funds, individual investments, and some assets — all handled without problems. It took me a little while to understand how SEE Finance reconciles accounts, but I now find the process intuitive. The program is very fast and has been rock solid. And I am rapidly adjusting to the new interface after all these years of muscle memory Quicken 2007 data entry.

The program handles multiple currencies and budgeting, which might be great features for some, but I don’t need them. The developer also offers an IOS version for $4.99 (!), but it only works if your data is stored in iCloud. My free iCloud storage is fairly full, so I prefer to use my paid Dropbox account to store my 200MB data file plus the backups SEE Finance makes.

I think the only thing I will probably miss is Quicken 2007’s extensive reporting capabilities. I haven’t fully explored the reporting in SEE Finance yet, but it looks adequate for my needs, though there may be some minor gaps.

Currently, you can buy SEE Finance 2 for $39.99 US “for a limited time”. Unlike the current Quicken for Mac, no subscription is needed.

I have no connection with the developer, Scimonoce Software; I’m just, so far, a happy customer!

5 thoughts on “Goodbye Quicken 2007 – Hello SEE Finance!

  1. Hi Adrian. We will soon need to switch away from Quicken 2007, and find that See Finance 2 does a great job of importing, and that its feature set appears to meet our needs. Now that See Finance 2 is no longer supported by the vendor do you have any regrets? Is there a forum anywhere that people with issues can post?

    1. Well, Richard, I’m certainly concerned that live online support has apparently vanished! And I don’t know of any replacement. If this state of affairs continues (as I suspect it will) I will eventually be forced to purchase another program when this one becomes unusable (probably due to it being incompatible with Mac OS upgrades).

      And that’s a shame, because this software has been doing a fantastic job for me: reliable, fast, and all the features I need. The automatic downloading of CC and investment information works very well right now, and the interface is very usable.

      I wish the developer would share what’s going on, whatever the situation is. He has done a great job, and, though I’m sure he has good reasons for his abrupt silence, it would be great to know what the future holds.

    2. Support requests for the excellent personal software program SEE Finance have not been replied to since early this year, and I feared that support and updates to the program had come to an end. But Patrick is back! I opened SEE Finance yesterday and was amazed to see an update (current version is now 2.2.0). And, later in the day I was again surprised to receive a personal email from Patrick responding to a support request.

      In the email, he wrote: “For reference, support was unavailable for SEE Finance for an extended period of time due to an unexpected major medical issue I had along with Covid related issues upending my daily life. Support is now available now that medical issue has been resolved.”

      I am very happy that Patrick is Ok, and that SEE Finance is once again being updated and supported!

  2. I have been begging Scimonoce for customer support for about two months now but have been ghosted in late 2022. I do have the updated version of the software 2.2.3 for Mac. Are you still getting support?

    1. I haven’t needed support for a while. But about a month ago, Chase stopped supporting Direct Connect/OFX, which SEE Finance uses to automatically update accounts. This means I have to manually import Chase transactions now.

      I emailed Patrick to ask if the program would/could support Chases’s new standard, Open Banking, and haven’t heard back.

      So Patrick seems to have gone dark again. Hopefully he will resurface.

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