IGG Software today announced the upcoming launch of Banktivity 6, the latest version of the popular personal finance app for Mac. The software, previously known as iBank, has been redesigned for macOS Sierra and updated with several new features, including Workspace, Tags, Quick Reports, Find, and more.
Banktivity 6 introduces Workspace, a new feature that enables customers to view any account, budget, report, or other view side by side. "For example, users can put transactions for an account next to a budget to see how recent spending affects the budget," the company said.
Tags have also been added, allowing individuals and small business owners to see and analyze their income and spending habits across categories. "Now when a person goes on vacation and spends money on dining out, gas, air fare and hotels they can tag all those transactions as a 'vacation,'" said IGG.
A new Quick Reports feature lets users select transactions and then quickly bring up a detailed report based on the selection. "For example, if a customer were wondering how much money was donated to a specific charity last year, a Quick Report answers that question with one click," the company said.
Find is a new document-wide search feature that enables customers to search "almost any part of any transaction" within an entire Banktivity document.
The app's sidebar has a new feature called Portfolio that provides quick access to the performance of investments. Portfolio's customizable view shows high-level information such as cost basis, value, gain/loss, security price, and IRR, and clicking on a security brings up a complete analysis of that holding.
Banktivity 6 features over 100 changes and enhancements, including more flexible report grouping, new transaction editor with improved keyboard support, new reconciliation process, a new summary view, improved transaction downloads, more flexible budgeting, easier in-app navigation, redesigned reports, and more.
IGG said Banktivity 6 will be released in the Spring for $64.99. Users upgrading from Banktivity 5 will qualify for upgrade pricing of $29.99. Customers who purchased Banktivity 5 from the IGG Store between January 23 and Banktivity 6's launch will receive a free registration code to unlock the new version.
The app will sync with Banktivity for iPhone ($9.99) and Banktivity for iPad ($19.99).
Top Rated Comments
Honestly, I haven't used Mint in ages... I never liked their way of inspecting my info just to show me an ad or credit card referral. Long ago, the web app was unstable and took forever to update when I logged in. If they have an iOS app now, I don't know about it, because it's been *that long* since I used it. :)
For Banktivity, I like the "double-entry accounting" method they use: A charge on Account A is recorded as an expense to the Expense Account B:
01/26 Starbucks withdrawal $6.52 [a made-up number]
Expenses - Coffee
memo: muffin and tall coffee
Loans and credit cards are listed as such (the liabilities they are) and payments are recorded as transfers:
In the checking account:
01/26 Chase Card payment transfer -$100
[to:] Chase Card 1234
In the Chase card account I then see:
01/26 Chase Card payment transfer +$100
[from:] My Checking Account
Modifying that value affects the same on the other account because they are linked entries. It can also auto-calculate and keep up with installment loans like car payments (principle and interest) and even mortgage payments with combination of escrow, taxes, principle, interest, and your optional surplus payments.
They do have a 30-day free trial you can use. The article should have mentioned that. Go to their web site and just download the app. It's fully-functional for 30 days. Then you buy and enter a license key to keep going. Sadly, I don't think the iOS app has any similar free trial feature, tho. :( So you can't play with the sync service.
[no i don't work for them; i just like the product]
Alternatively, they do offer an optional "Direct Access" service where *everything* resides on their end, including transactions. In this case, the iOS apps *can* get new/updated transaction data directly, as would the Mac app. But you don't have to sync between the two inherently. This is more of the iCloud behavior rather than the Dropbox behavior. The Direct Access service is a subscription you pay to IGG to run all that.
No, they don't have any "web front end" service (and I consider that a feature, not a bug).
They have a ton of institutions they can work with, but if yours isn't on the list, you can always do a manual download-OFX-from-the-bank and import the file.
Investments
* Investment types: Track stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, CDs, money market funds, precious metals, commodities, and stock options with ease. You can also enter watchlist items and indices for quick reference.
* Quote downloading: Automatically retrieve up-to-date quotes from Yahoo! Finance at the click of a button. International exchanges are supported too.
* Security management: Check the current market value and price history for each of your securities at a glance, adjust security names and ticker symbols, and check the performance of indices.
* Investment reports: Easily generate reports to analyze your capital gains (realized and unrealized), security income, portfolio diversity, and return on investment (ROI). Check the current market value of your portfolio and drill down into any security to view details of your investment activity over time.
* Expert trading: Banktivity 5 now lets you categorize investment transactions. Banktivity also supports short and long puts and calls, stock option trading, bonds and more.
I'm curious if there are any users in the house who can speak to how well it works?
After Quicken gave up I tried several others, money dance, mint, quickbooks and some open source stuff.
Using it since iBank 4 and I keep posting that the UI is somewhat non Mac intuitive and too many clicks needed for a Mac program. They claim they run their entire company finances with their own program, makes me wonder.
Once one learns the program, it's keyboard short cuts and workarounds for what is annoying it is very good, not excellent!
They wrestle with screen resolutions (No pinch and zoom, so I have to switch my display resolution)
I manually download my bank info, as I try not to pay for anything per month. Works just fine, but needs to be hand refined.
Mint is free, but inflexible and I believe it can't be free forever, plus advertising is a no go.
Don't really care who has my info, but I prefer it on my computer.
As for customer service they run hot and cold.
If you are suggesting changes for the better they send you to a requested features list, which doesn't solve your problem.
I once had a corrupted database and somebody worked with me tirelessly over a week to fix it.
Since everybody has different accounting needs it is unfair to criticize it for what it cannot do.
From what I see, I don't need any of the new features, but if some annoyances are gone in version 6
I will upgrade. It already has a lot of bells and whistles I don't use right now.
Maybe my problem is that I don't have enough money to require a super financial program.
BTW: There is a guy on Amazon who wrote the best neutral review about the original app.