Is Moneydance Software Right for You?
It can be a challenge making money, let alone managing your money. The day of entering check numbers and amounts in the checkbook register are long gone. In the checkbook register’s place is a new, easier way.
Created by The Infinite Kind, Moneydance is a top personal finance software and popular Quicken replacement that makes managing your money a more simple and accurate process.
Our Moneydance review will answer the question, “What is Moneydance?” and provide key information on how to use Moneydance, even if you are not quite so tech-savvy.
By taking an in-depth look at this money management software, our Moneydance review will provide you with all the guidance you need to determine whether Moneydance software is right for you.
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Moneydance Review
Before diving into our Moneydance review, it may be helpful to have an overview of the types of financial services that are offered through the Moneydance software.
With the new release of Moneydance 2017, our Moneydance review will focus on the top features of this updated version. While many features and services remain the same, there are a few updates to look for in 2017.
Moneydance 2017: Key Features
As a top personal finance software, Moneydance 2017 provides a wide range of features, including:
- Online banking & bill pay
- Account management
- Budgeting tools
- Investment tracking
- Graphs & reports
- Bill pay reminders
- Mobile accessibility
- Use for personal & business finances
- Investment tracking
Moneydance 2017: Online Banking
To help users understand how to use Moneydance, our Moneydance review will start with a look at the online banking feature.
This personal finance software allows you to automatically download your bank transactions – no more manual entering of each transaction, date, or dollar amount.
To save users valuable time, the Moneydance software will do it all for you–unless, of course, you would prefer to enter your transactions manually.
The Moneydance app also does a great job of organizing and sorting the downloaded transactions. This makes it easy for the user to find transactions and look at spending trends.
Moneydance Mobile App
This money management software is available for both iOS and Android, making it easy to access Moneydance budgeting tools while on the go.
For those who are considering downloading Moneydance 2017, there are a few components of other Moneydance reviews that we would like to highlight.
Android Moneydance Reviews
Android devices 4.0 and up can easily download and use the Android Moneydance app. It has a rating of 3 stars on the Google Play store, and needs to be paired with the full desktop version of the Moneydance software.
The majority of Android Moneydance reviews come from 2016 and prior. Many users reported that while the personal finance software does help monitor their finances, the Moneydance app suffers from recurring crashes and bugs.
The last Moneydance software update was performed in February of 2016.
After that date, many Moneydance reviews report experiencing improved function and fewer crashes, signalling good things for Android users who want to install Moneydance software.
Android users should keep in mind, however, that this means that the Google Play store is not yet offering Moneydance 2017.
The money management software will offer similar features and services, but the overall performance quality may be lower than that of Moneydance 2017.
iOS Moneydance Reviews
Moneydance 2017 is now available on the iTunes store, and is compatible with OS X 10.6.6 or later. With a 4+ rating, Moneydance falls amongst the most popular personal finance software apps.
Moneydance reviews on iTunes are overwhemingly positive: users applaud the app’s ability to seamlessly sync their financial data, calling it a great Quicken replacement.
The last update on the iOS software was performed in January of 2017, providing users with the updated version of the Moneydance software: Moneydance 2017.
Because the iTunes store has an updated version, Moneydance for Mac users may be a more efficient version.
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Moneydance 2017: Account Management
Moneydance 2017 offers a comprehensive 360-view of your downloaded transactions, which allows you to see trends in your spending.
You can easily see all your account balances, as well as upcoming and past due transactions. If needed, the Moneydance software will provide exchange rates.
Account Register
Our Moneydance review found an account register for each individual account listed in the summary. Using the account register, users can enter, edit, and delete transactions within an account.
Although the register looks similar to a paper checkbook register, calculating and sorting each transaction is done automatically. Categorizing and entering transactions is made easier through the payee auto-complete function.
While entering transactions, you can balance your “checkbook” by reconciling the account against statements.
Moneydance’s virtual account registers enable users to enter, modify or delete transactions related to a specified amount. For example, if you were trying to locate a transaction that you made for $11.27 but were unsure of the date or check number, this feature would find the entry.
For consumers that struggle with math, the best register feature comes from automatic calculations. That should save everyone some valuable time.
More timesaving features allow users to use the quick entry option. Just enter the amount or place of a purchase to have the full transaction data entered.
When conducting research for our Moneydance review, we discovered that you could create PDF links or image doc placeholders to any desired transaction. This means no more misplaced receipts for purchases!
On the negative side, our Moneydance review also found that some banking information cannot be downloaded from financial institutions by the Moneydance software.
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Moneydance 2017: Budgeting With Moneydance Software
Budgeting is made easy with this personal finance software. The creation of many budgets allow for the ability to track various income and spending purposes.
Data from your checkbook is easily linked to your budget reports. Once the categorized data is in your checkbook, it will do the same for the budget data.
A color-coded budget system makes viewing easy on the eyes. There are options to set spending limits for your budget. If you approach your spending limits, an orange warning will appear. In addition, Moneydance allows you to monitor up-to-date monthly spending.
Balance Predictor is a beneficial extension to Moneydance. It is an app noted on CNET which predicts future balance trends based on your data history. This could be useful to create an accurate budget.
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Moneydance 2017: Investing
It is time for this Moneydance review to shift its focus from banking to investing. This money management software enables users to view and track their investments, including:
- Stocks
- Bonds
- CDs
- Mutual funds
Moneydance looks at your total investment value and each individual investment’s performance over time. Automatic downloads of current prices occur for listed investments. There are also easy cost basis and stock split valuations.
Once again, for the non-math lovers, Moneydance makes the calculations for you. There is even an option to select specific shares of an investment to calculate tax lots, as mentioned by Investor Junkie.
These features save time by looking up current stock prices and maintain efficiency by calculating current values.
Moneydance 2017: Graphs and Reports
To make money management easier, this personal finance software will generate graphs and reports. With visual aids, income and expenses are much easier to track and understand.
The style of report can be selected by graph type, date range and specific settings. The graphs can be year-to-date, all of the previous year or select periods of time.
Pop-up displays show more data-related information when the cursor is moved. Reports can even be created for missed checks or to track your budget.
Our Moneydance review found that there is also an option to print or save the graphs as PNG image files for later reference, making it easy to locally store these graphs.
Improvements needed include adding an option to create invoice and time logs – this data could be useful for small businesses. It would log data to create time efficiency and billing reports.
Moneydance 2017: Bill Pay Reminders
Moneydance offers free bill pay. All upcoming registered bills are shown to the user. Off to the right screen view is a list of bills owed.
However, this takes into account all past and present bills that may not be accurate for the current month, according to a Moneydance review by Investor Junkie.
The forgetful bill payer will appreciate reminders received that show the set payment schedule, whether it is a single or repeat payments. This should avoid missed payments that result in dreaded late fees and affected credit reports.
Moneydance 2017: Personal vs. Business Use
It is important to understand how to use this money management software for personal versus business use.
There is only one key (license) needed for personal use per household, regardless of the number of computers used, the number of individuals using computers, the number of files created or the operations system.
Conversely, business use requires one license for each computer used or data file used on a shared network, whichever is less. In the event that a key is lost, you can request that Moneydance help by sending it to the registered account email.
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Moneydance 2017: Moneydance Help
The Moneydance Help Page enables the user to ask questions or view frequently asked questions. Additional Moneydance help resources include:
- User guide
- Knowledge base
- Community discussions
- Access to support staff
Moneydance 2017: New Updates
Users can update their current Moneydance with new improvements as they become available. The latest version, Moneydance 2017, is now available for purchase.
There is a huge list of improvements and updates that developers have made to this personal finance software.
Photo courtesy of: Moneydance Reviews
While it would be nearly impossible to include the full list of updates, our Moneydance review has highlighted a few key updates for users:
- Use any shared folder (like Dropbox) to automatically & securely sync financial data
- Support for Python scripts to manipulate & and create custom actions
- Use built-in color themes or create your own for a customized look
- Repaired budget calculation bug
- Improved portfolio allocation & other graphs
Upgrading to Moneydance 2017
For users with Moneydance 2015, the upgrade to Moneydance 2017 is free of charge. For those who have older versions, upgrading through the website provides 50% off.
Even if you decide not to upgrade to Moneydance 2017, older versions of this personal finance software will still continue to work.
This is a great feature to note–Moneydance does not “sunset” their features or services, meaning that their users are not forced to upgrade to new versions unless they choose to.
Upgrading to Moneydance 2017 on Mobile
As mentioned before, the available Android Moneydance app is an outdated version, last updated in February of 2016. This leads us to believe that Moneydance 2017 is not yet available on the Google Play store.
Moneydance for Mac users, however, seems to be fully updated and ready for download, with the most recent iTunes update in January of 2017.
However, users with older versions of this personal finance software can continue to use their current app. The disadvantage, of course, is that users will not be able to take advantage of the numerous updates in Moneydance 2017.
Moneydance 2017: Advanced User Options
This Moneydance review identified extension options available to Moneydance users. A free Extension Developer’s Kit is available for download. Included in this kit is:
- Sample code
- Libraries necessary to pack and sign extensions
- ANT built file for compelling, packing, and signing extensions
An API is available through the Moneydance site. More topics for Extension Developers (ED) are available in the Infinite Kind’s support forum under ED.
This forum addresses topics such as writing extensions, scripts, and codes to be used with Moneydance.
Another option, sample Python scripts, are available for download to enhance Moneydance. These tools will expand the benefits of this personal finance software for advanced users.
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Moneydance 2017: Reviews
Moneydance reviews posted on its website offer additional endorsements of the product, particularly as a Quicken replacement:
- “Viable alternative to Quicken”
- “Much more solid contender”
- “The one I’ll be sticking with”
- “Fast, well designed, regularly updated and well supported”
- “Online baking type of person will love Moneydance”
- “The functionality and usefulness of it is just awesome”
Yet, transferring data from another program, such as Quicken, has proven to have a few glitches.
After moving data to Moneydance for Mac or PC, the user needs to check that all data has been transferred over and that no duplications exist. This seems to be a one-time inconvenience in setting up Moneydance.
While there have also been some frustrated Moneydance reviews regarding syncing Dropbox files with Moneydance 2017, it seems as though these are temporary and easily fixed.
Moneydance 2017: Pricing
A free Moneydance trial is available. This trial gives full access to all features previously described with the limitation of 100 manually entered transactions.
Moneydance’s unlimited usage currently has a price tag of $49.99 USD. For those who choose to purchase their personal finance software, Moneydance offers a 90-day money back guarantee.
Positive reviews of Moneydance make this an offer hard to pass up, at least for the free trial. Make your money dance!
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Conclusion: Is Moneydance 2017 the Right Personal Finance Software for You?
As evident in our Moneydance review, there are plenty of great tools within this personal finance software to help you achieve and maintain financial health.
There is no “one size fits all” solution for money management software, so it’s important to consider your unique financial situation and goals before deciding if Moneydance for Mac or PC is right for you.
Here at AdvisoryHQ, we hope that our Moneydance review has provided you with all of the necessary information–including how to use Moneydance–effectively guiding you in your decision on whether to use Moneydance software.
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