A couple of months back I wrote this post and compared MoneyWiz and iBank. Back then I decided to move over to MoneyWiz to track my financial life. In the past week I decided to move back to iBank and I wanted to explain why.
My main reason for moving to MoneyWiz was the sync service. Its fantastic and works a treat. After using the software for a few months I found I spent 95% of the time using the iPhone app and the other 5% using he iPad version (I only launched the mac version and configured it). Changing platform offered no additional benefits bar the bigger screen so I always used the device closest to hand (the iPhone). So having the sync service was useful but not essential, in hindsight I focused on this more in my first post due to my disappointment with the iBank solution.
In my first post I was more concerned with software features rather than what the software does for me. In the end of the day I started tracking my finances to find out what I spent my money on, to ensure I did not over spend and work out a savings plan. Both software suits archive this but I really missed the flexibility of reports in iBank.
The workflow I have moved to is iBank for the mac and iBank Mobile to enter transaction on the move. I sync using dropDav and it all seems to be good. The main feature I miss from MoneyWiz is the ability to confirm scheduled transactions from the mobile app, but I get around this by manually adding the transaction when I am on the road and ‘Skipping’ them when I am back at my mac.
I was disappointed that MoneyWiz did not offer a Quicken export format as I had to input all my data in to iBank manually. This will make me a more reluctant about trying MoneyWiz again in the future. If MoneyWiz had Quicken export I would have been tempted to use MoneyWiz daily and export monthly to iBank for the reports.
Overall I am happy with both MoneyWiz and iBank products. Both have their benefits and drawbacks. MoneyWiz has its great sync service but lacks report options and flexibility. iBank has its great reports but issues with syncing more than two products. As i mentioned above the main reason I track my finances is to work out what I am spending money on and how well I am saving. This is much simpler and more effective to work out with iBank so for now I am sticking with it for the foreseeable future.
The latest MoneyWiz release notes point to improved reports so I will keep my eye out for that and I have my fingers crossed that IGG bring out a significant software update that improves the syncing so I can start to introduce the iPad application into my workflow.