Slashdot Mirror


Quicken 2007 For Mac Lacks EV Cert Support

adamengst writes "If your bank uses the Extended Validation certificates that require a higher level of identity checking on the certificate authority's part (as at least one Seattle bank does), you may not be able to download transactions using the Mac version of Quicken. Quicken doesn't gracefully ignore extra information in EV certificates as older Web browsers do, but instead throws an error and refuses to download transactions. Intuit says they're working on a fix — but users may have to wait 'a couple of months,' and even then the fix may not be applied to versions before Quicken 2007."

29 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. easy fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    don't use quicken

    1. Re:easy fix by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mod parent up. When we started our business almost 4 years ago, we bought Quickbooks, because that's what I was used to from another job and because that's what everybody does. And I'm so tired of the bloat, the lack of customization and the unwieldy interface that I'm rolling my own solution in the new year.

      It's a good product line, to be sure, but they're stuck in the incremental upgrades cycle a la Madden football, and it's starting to stink.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    2. Re:easy fix by thornomad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When I moved from Windows to Mac three or four years ago, one big sticking point was losing Quicken (because the Mac version, even to a relative naive person such as myself, was so very obviously sub-par). I ended up going with MoneyDance -- and because it's cross-platform compatible, as I slowly switch from Mac to Linux, I won't be stuck out in the cold again.

      And they do respond to bug reports. It isn't free (as in beer or as in open source), but it was less expensive and have gotten numerous upgrades without having to buy a new license.

    3. Re:easy fix by operator_error · · Score: 2

      I can offer these tips from my experience making the switch from Quicken to GnuCash.

      1, The first of January makes life easy, so *use* it! As in, by Jan 3rd - 5th you will have very, very little paper to 'balance' the books with, so Do It, and Stay on Top of It (like a hawk) and the repetition over time, plus relatively small workload of a few items of paper to balance and account for, download from the bank, etc. works in your favor. Much easier than 'catching up' later in the year.

      2, I did the above for 2008, and I am so happy to be free from Quicken. Here in the Netherlands, no banks pay Intuit's Bank-Extortion fee, to subscribe to Intuit's system. See, what is happening here is Intuit serves two paying masters. Both end-users who pay about $40 a year, plus the banks that offer transaction downloads in Quicken formats. Because no NL banks are supported through Quicken, Intuit officially will not support any NL users. Coincidence? I think not.

      3, Also note 1 of my 2 Dutch banks botches MT940 transaction downloads, so even the 'bigger' banks 'support' is questionable. Don't waste your time trying to use ABNAMRO's MT940 transaction-file download, but if you are curious why, download one from your account and notice NULL is actually written where the date should be. I called them to clarify this 'bug', and after a few weeks passed I got a very rude 'support' call from their programmer who wanted this issue buried pronto, and I was to understand there were no resources for a fix, even though I offered to help. So the lesson learned here is to do business with banks like van Lanschot (since 1733) that *can* operate their I.T. systems by themselves.

  2. In Australia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    We have *zero* banks that support Online Transactions. *ZERO*.

    Oh, and we can't visit porn sites.

    1. Re:In Australia by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well at least you can download porn via torrents right.... Oh wait....

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  3. Intuit's Mac support stinks anyway, these days.... by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quickbooks Pro 2009? No Mac version to be found yet.

    Quicken? No 2008 or 2009 version for the Mac! 2007 is *still* the latest one they offer! WTF?

    They've been promising they're going to replace Quicken for Mac with a whole new financial management product, but it's not even scheduled for release until Summer of 2009!

    http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/mac-personal-finance.jsp

    Personally, I'm looking at switching over to a shareware product called iBank. It can import all your info from Quicken, looks MUCH nicer, and actually has regular updates:

    http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/

  4. Pfffft by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not going to fork over $50 just so some company can sell me a few hundred megabytes to balance my checkbook. That's what GNU Cash is for!!

  5. Quicken-Everything is pretty awful. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Quicken-everything is pretty awful (and that's before business tactics). Alas, their competition is all deficient as well -- though that's changing. Hopefully sites like Mint will give them a run for their money, and they'll have to make a decent product again.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    1. Re:Quicken-Everything is pretty awful. by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even though they guarantee that they don't keep your account details, I'm very leery of a web-based service that requires login details. A bad commit, and suddenly all your credentials could be flying round in the clear.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    2. Re:Quicken-Everything is pretty awful. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 2, Informative
      They use Yodlee, a banking platform/service-provider thing that provides connect-to-bank functions. They are also used by a variety of other finance-related things (when I banked with Wachovia, for instance, they had a Yodlee-powered money-management web tool). They have decently-well-established connections within the Industry and hopefully a certain degree of discipline in excess of the Web 2.0 shininess of Mint.

      That said, yes, it is a deficiency that's just not acceptable for some people.

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  6. Just wondering.... by himurabattousai · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wouldn't offering this as an update to '07 break Intuit's business model of requiring full-price purchases to get updates that should be free?

    --
    "osake no hou ga, biiru yori ii" to omotteiru.
  7. Re:Is this really "stuff that matters"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what if it was "news for nerds"?

    don't nerds like to know about bugs and how they're being worked on?

    does everything have to be a big deal?

  8. What Have You Done For Me Today? by macs4all · · Score: 2, Informative

    Considering that what is now known as Quicken started out as an Apple ][ (and IBM PC) "checkbook" app (written in Pascal, no less!), and wildly popular on the Apple ][, Intuit has completely dissed the Mac for some time now. In fact, a few years ago, Intuit had announced that they wouldn't be updating Quicken and/or QuickBooks for the Mac AT ALL! Several of the Intuit developers talked them out of that decision, fortunately (I think).

    So, now that they're all rich an famous and stuff, Intuit has conveniently forgotten more than half of the loyal customers who got them there.

    I'm just amazed that after all this time, that no one else has stepped up to the plate, er, platter...

  9. Re:Intuit's Mac support stinks anyway, these days. by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    New Flash!!

    Mac users have always been second-class computer users. Mac gets fewer games made for them and fewer applications made for them. The applications that do get made for them have decreased functionality, service or support in some way. This is especially true when there is a Windows version of the same. (* insert microsoft conspiracy theory here *) But given the recent surge in Mac netizenship, it is past time for these vendors to start paying more attention to Mac users. But it wouldn't hurt to join some users groups and start circulating petitions... and if those fail to get notice, pool a VERY large amount of money and contribute heavily to open source products with emphasis on the features and functions most needed and most missing in the commercially negligent. I'll bet some $20 donations from individuals could amount to a LOT of money fast -- just make sure that Intuit and other vendors know that you're doing it. They say that voting with your dollars makes a difference, but I think if they see that open source is their competitor, it will get a LOT more attention.

    There are certain exclusions to this, of course -- forget about ever begging Microsoft to write a more feature complete version of Office for Mac. It is NEVER going to happen. Instead, skip right by the begging/petitioning stage and advance DIRECTLY to supporting Open Source projects.

    When large sums of money are pooled prior to donation, you have the power to help steer a project in ways that smaller, individual donations would not receive.

  10. I really hate Intuit by phillymjs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I use Quicken as nothing more than a glorified check register where I enter everything manually, so none of their sunsetting-features-to-force-upgrades shenanigans ever bit me. Having said that, it still pisses me off what a half-assed product Mac Quicken has always been, and it *really* grinds my gears that Bill Campbell sits on their board *and* Apple's board and *still* the Mac gets short shrift. I don't know how Jobs hasn't broken his foot off in someone's ass about it-- especially since people have their lives in Quicken, and the fact that it's a HUGE pain in the ass to migrate from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac has probably dissuaded more than a few people from switching to Mac. I don't know what's so fucking hard about using cross-platform data file formats and providing 100% feature parity with the Windows version, I really don't.

    I wish Apple would roll their own financial iApp as a shot across Intuit's bow, to get them to straighten up and fly right.

    ~Philly

  11. Re:Is this really "stuff that matters"? by earnest+murderer · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's Quicken, arguably the largest personal finance software developer giving paying customers the cold shoulder.

    This isn't even a "bug" in as much as they decided they would ignore the issue on the Mac platform in hopes that they could just point at the (*still* unfinished) Mac product and say "there's your patch buddy, $60 please".

    On the up side, this is not nearly as wide spread a problem as it might be. Based on my own experience there are a not insignificant number of Macintosh based Quicken users that bought Parallels and an XP license just to run Quicken for windows.

    No baloney, I know 5 and I didn't even suggest it to them.

    The OS X product sucks that bad.

    --
    Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
  12. IMO: Intuit competition is desperately needed by walterbyrd · · Score: 3, Informative

    Intuit has about 80% of the US SMB market, in spite of the fact that they suck. Intuits hates to fully support any non-microsoft platforms. I really wish there was a good alternative. Intuit actually has me hoping that microsoft's office-accounting will get some traction.

    A f/oss alternative would be ideal. But, for some reason, there does not seem to be any worthwhile f/oss alternative.

  13. There are alternatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Intuit is dead to me. I use Moneydance. It's cross-platform (try the demo) and works great. Imports wonderfully from Quicken. Aside from that, there are many many many many options for mac. And quite a number of good ones for Linux too. There's even GPL'd GnuCash for more sophisticated accounting.

    And because I don't like Intuit, here's an offtopic tip-- did you know that thanks to a certain pre-Bush president, any company who wants to sell tax efiling software also has to provide free tax filing to the general public? Because if you think about it, why the hell are IRS tax filing servers (paid for by the public) not made available to the public? Rather, only certain corporations who then SELL their services to the public to use them? Seems a little unfairly tilted towards big business, doesn't it? Wouldn't you think the government would provide software to the public directly?

    Well the Clinton administration thought so too, but negotiated with Intuit and others to let them keep their oily grip on the tax filing software in exchange for this "free filing software" deal. Never heard of it? Well, they certainly don't advertise it widely. And I've noticed that in years past they've lowered the maximum income to qualify. Currently it's an adjusted gross income of $54,000.

    According to the web site, more info for this year becomes available January 16th.

    Pass it on. The more you know...

  14. Re:I'm Missing Something by Symbolis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Gracefully" would be informing the user of the issue and allowing them to say "Screw it. This needs to get done NOW, insecure or not. Not X months from now when they get around to fixing it."

  15. Has to be an out and out bug. by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unless the program has the code to recognize EV certs (which requires tables of valid issuers) it can't distinguish between them and ordinary certificates. So, if there's trouble with EV certs, it means suppport was added, but botched.

  16. It's the bitterness that lasts by earnest+murderer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One more thing...

    Quicken Online... Their free product... It works better than the for $ product on the shelf.

    It actually gets QFX files from your bank (even if you're on a mac). The primary reason those Parallels users switched in the first place.

    Sure there are a few features missing, but it's a product that caters directly to a growing market segment that all other financial products ignore.

    People living paycheck to paycheck. Not because it's free. Because it's features are built around telling you how you are going to make it to the next paycheck.

    --
    Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
  17. From the Wikipedia Article: by Anthony_Cargile · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Intuit's focus on usability and customer support in its early years was legendary. [citation needed]

    'Nuff said.

  18. Not making it platform independent is stupid. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Out of all the applications that could be made in a platform independent language such as Java Quicken/Quickbooks would be high on the list. No massive requirement for graphics modest processing of data, displaying of pleasant however mostly simple forms. Its value is in all the exceptions and rules it uses to follow.
    Not porting to Java is a stupid move for this app. Besides allowing Mac, Linux, Windows or whatever user ability to access the app and sell more copies and have the same version across them. There is less work on their part having a Mac Unit and a windows unit all trying to to get each part working, probably having to get lessons learned relearned across each platform. Going with Java or some other platform independent way of processing common logic.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  19. Re:Intuit's Mac support stinks anyway, these days. by davolfman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unless they're an arts program. Then the Mac version is likely to be superior.

  20. Use quicken for Windows before Mac by bogie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From everyone I've talked to they say Quicken for Mac isn't worth using over the Windows version. So Install XP Home on VirtualBox and then run the Windows version of Quicken if you must. Mac users are 2nd class citizens to Intuit and that shouldn't be supported.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  21. I wouldn't feel too bad for Mac users... by Crash+Culligan · · Score: 2, Informative

    After all, it's not like they don't have someplace to look for alternatives. Apple itself has a whole section on their downloads website dedicated to third party business and financial software. This includes freebies, shareware, and demo versions of larger, more robust packages that they can try out. (Yeah, I know, that covers everything.)

    Can anyone recommend any of the software available in there? I need to recommend something for my parents sooner or later too, come to think of it, and the 2006 version I'm using now is getting a little hoary.

    --
    You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
  22. People still use quicken? by oogoliegoogolie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Bank accounts, bonds, stocks, and most other items in your portfolio can be viewed online nowadays so why are people still using quicken to track this stuff? It was the cat's meow in the 90's when you didn't have access to all of your financial information online, but nowadays I got better things to do than type in or download all my financial transactions each week. Besides, most peoples' spending and savings habits don't change whether you use financial software or use not...software ain't going to make you a great investor.

  23. Re:Intuit's Mac support stinks anyway, these days. by erroneus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I might have said the same thing, but lately, the quality of Adobe Creative Suite has REALLY started to fail... both on the Windows and Mac sides. Users are coming up with great interpretations of what "CS" means. "Crappy Suite" "Creative Shit" and all sorts of things like that. As the product grows, it seems to get less stable. Once again, this is true both on Windows and Mac as I support both platforms and both have similar problems.

    I am not familiar with other "art" software used by Mac users... at least not lately. Last time I supported Quark Express was several years ago when OS X was young.