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Mac "Quicken-Killer" Receives Impressive GUI Update

midnightapps.com — Cha-Ching, the infamous so-called Quicken killer application for Mac has received a large update today putting it at beta 0.4. Most of the new features are with the GUI, which has really improved a lot since the last update. This version also includes several bug fixes. Along with the update they have added a lot of content to the website.

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  • klawz, on 10/12/2007, -6/+67This is as much of a "quicken killer" as the Zune is an "ipod killer"
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20i tried this a few points ago, i wasn't impressed.

      does anyone really have the desire to take pictures of their purchases with isight?

      "hmm, i was thinking i bought the new beck album. checking .. checking, oh yeah, here it is .. picture and everything."

      wtf..
    • 1021, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8looks like iTunes to my eyes. I quote from the screenshot when I say: "Always know when you're loaded".. I have a feeling that they know they are loaded with *****.
    • reedreeder, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4It's a quicken-killer to the correct audience. There are a lot of mac users who will mindlessly buy any piece of shareware advertised on Phill Ryu's blog.

      Technically, Delicious Library should have been a total flop too. People, however, put a lot of emphasis on a pretty GUI.
    • doce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@reedreeder: i disagree, to an extent. Delicious Library is, in and of itself, a fairly unique app with some fairly unique features, with a really unique UI experience, but summed up to an app with a lot of "golly gee whiz" factor but little realworld application.

      Cha-ching, otoh, is putrid crap with a pretty package.
    • f3l1x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1*cough* http://www.fadingred.org/cashbox/

      free

      *cough*

      (meant to be response to next threaded reply by Kazaki)
  • Kazaki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9If there's anything on a Mac close to being a Quicken killer, it's iBank.
    • smkelly, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I use Money Dance quite successfully.
    • liquidrums, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13If you can't download your statements online, then it will *NEVER* be a quicken killer.

      Most people simply need to download their statements and "reconcile". That's it.
    • CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@liquidrums - That is so on point. We recently switched banks and the bank doesn't offer an automatic Quicken download. They fuzzed over that bit in the feature list. I have to actually download .qif files and import them into Quicken, which doesn't do transaction matching for .qif imports. It's a nightmare. Automatic downloading and reconciling is such a powerful Quicken feature that I'm switching banks again just to use it.

      Until Cha-ching (a kitschy, cutesy name that seriously impairs the app's ability to be taken seriously for finances) interfaces with banks it will remain a second stringer - even with all of Quicken's annoying flaws.
    • mpancha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I second iBank. Well worth the money, only complaint I haveisthe slowness as my database gets bigger and bigger.
  • TheGaiaProject, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6Yeah, iBank, which was last updated 5 billion years ago and looks like ASS. Midnight Apps is actually making an app people are able to give direct feedback on and they listen. It has evolved and changed, and yes, has a lot to go from here, but still is being made with attention and commitment to user suggestions.
    • mogus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Plus, at ~$15 with free upgrades for life, you could look at it as an investment if you thought that your suggestions and their efforts would deliver the features you want.
    • drakethegreat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I think thats precisely the issue here. There are so many choices in the personal finance app market on the Mac. Here are the ones I know about, feel free to add to this list in a reply.

      Quicken
      Cha-Ching
      Cashbox
      Money Dance
      iBank

      All of which require purchase except Cashbox.
    • unmarked, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Free updates for life is not a good business model. The result is usually that at some point the developer can't afford future development as it relies on only NEW purchases.
    • gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or the developer graduates and doesn't have time for the project anymore.
  • dashiel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7i certainly hope ca-ching does become the quicken killer since quicken is ass on the mac, but unfortunately it's not there yet. i'll keep tabs though.
  • bdbr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16I'm so sick of the "-killer" suffix.

    Maybe if it was occasionaly applied to something that actually had any hope of killing off a product, it wouldn't be so irritating. Then again, I 'm not even sure why we feel the need or desire to kill off popular products.
    • greymarketbrain, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3and sick of the ***** "2.0" look of that site and all their ilk!
    • pandaro, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1blech. that site does look hideous.
    • spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What's wrong with the site? It's clean with good easy navigation.
    • time2go, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2InDesign was labeled the "QUARK-KILLER" back in 1995...now, eleven years later it is finally getting there. Point: nothing is a "killer" at first. Maybe Cha-Ching will be a "Quicken-Killer" someday.
  • greymarketbrain, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4As much as I like my mac...
    who gives a *****?
  • slickto, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3How about GnuCash - Its open source, free, and there's a Mac port available:

    http://www.gnucash.org/
  • dancallahan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3http://www.macheist.com Cha-ching is one of the prizes for completing the second heist, and the registration code updated with the new version. So it's free AND pretty nice.
  • isnoop, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Why does this app get any attention at all? If I want to catalog my purchases along with photos of the items... wait, that's absurd. Why would I want to do that?

    Wake me when this app has automatic statement imports from the major banks.
    • Fordi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Not to mention automated statement and bill payment for major utilities and online shop systems.

      *thinks up a community-driven system of kludges via curl that, while not perfect, would fill the gap and incite major software companies and banks to implement such a system*

      Actually, why do I think that would work really, really well? Being community-driven, the banks and online service companies might just set their developers on a standard 'remote transaction API'. There would be about a year of hacking and lost money before the developrs re-learn the meaning of 'security', while they're continuously criticized for not being perfect the first time...

      Oh, dear. I think I've figured out what I'll be doing this weekend...
    • DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I imagine if you are anal retentive enough to actually take pictures of all of your purchases and put them in this program and make backup copies to keep in off-site storage, then it could come in handy when dealing with your insurance company if your house/apartment burns down. But damn, that's just not how I want to live my life. It's just not worth it.
    • pdxvanyel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5What I *do* want to do is take pictures of the receipts and link them with the corresponding register entries. I can't count the number of receipts I have that were printed with disappearing ink.
  • Fordi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Can application X be called an "application Y killer" if it doesn't run on all the same platforms as application Y?

    Question not specific to this instance, but generalized to all stupid astroturfing I've seen lately. And while I tried to generalize this, it does apply in this specific instance.

    In other words: how can you kill what you don't compete with? When was the last time, for example, you saw K Office touted as an "MS Office killer"?
  • xsuite, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2They gave it away for free, w/ free updates for life at MacHeist.
  • dioscaido, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0Sigh... a name like "cha-ching" does not instill the kind of confidence needed for a money management application.
  • wallyfoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I'm all for Quicken killers, but this one isn't going to be a Quicken killer until it at least syncs with my bank for online transactions. Unfortunately, the website is short on details regarding features. Nice, but no killer.
  • whiplashgrin, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3@oOLiquidNightOo: have you ever heard of "insurance"? They usually like pictures to back up claims of lost/stolen belongings. No, your Beck album probably wouldn't qualify, but a pic of your entire music collection might come in handy after a fire. Or your entertainment system, etc.

    Quicken is the epitome of Windows programs that have been ported to Mac that just don't "get it". It's overpriced, bloated, has more useless "features" than Office, and not very well integrated with anything (other than the banks, its one redeeming feature). Cha-Ching has made a huge amount of progress in the last couple of updates. It's a great concept, functional, attractive interface, does what its supposed to without all the "fat" Quicken has accumulated, and the developer actually cares what the users think, and responds! As soon as they have their transaction downloads working, I'm dumping Quicken like the overpriced lead balloon it is.
    • ricodued, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2What happens if your Mac is lost in that same fire? I mean, if it takes the whole of your music collection, surely it'd get the Mac too.

      Duh.
    • placain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Um, have you ever heard of backups, ricodued?
  • cipher64, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3"cha-ching" really...you'd be comfortable letting an app with a name like that handle your finances.
  • rbp1987, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1In The UK we don't get Quicken for mac so there is not that much around so any thing is better than nothing. The other choices aren't that brilliant any way
  • kehunt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9This is worth digging just to publicize how dismal financial software is on the Mac. I've tried them all, several times, and none is anywhere close to what I need. MS Money is the only reason I still have a Windows box... if someone actually got this right in a Mac app, they'd easily get my $60/year I pay for MS Money upgrades.

    A "Quicken killer" would need to:
    * Download statements from financial institutions and support assisted reconciliation
    * Support different types of financial accounts (savings, investment, loan, options, 401k, IRA, etc.)
    * Support for investment accounts, investment tracking, price updates, cost basis, lot reconciliation, etc.
    * Support for associated cash accounts (e.g., MS Money knows that stock purchases draw cash from the associated Ameritrade Cash account)
    * Budgeting, transaction categorization and cash flow projections (which changed my financial life)
    * Integrated bill payment, scheduled payments and deposits (used for reminders and forecasting)
    * Fully customizable reports (budget vs actual, investments, net worth over time, etc etc etc)

  • xatx, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4buried. spam.
  • DavidandDenise, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I only need online statement downloading, and I'll leave Quicken in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, noone apparently has the time/talent to actually code the feature, or someone would have done it already.
    • nixfu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ummmm MONEYDANCE does online downloads and even will interface with your banks online bill-pay right in the GUI.

    • gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If only Moneydance didn't look like a programmer designed application (i.e. Very java and very yuck) it would be great. Great feature set and quite powerful (I use it) but it just doesn't feel Mac-like.
  • biggbrother, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1It's like saying a given OS is a Windows-killer. Customers are locked in, ain't gonna happen.
  • jamester, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2On a topic only related to the website... wtF do companies have against posting *normal size screenshots* these days? Why do we always have to see these tiny, unclickable pieces of garbage? Are screenshots passe? Or is it a resolution issue?

    I like to SEE a program before I decide whether or not to download. Yes, I'm that shallow.
  • scottmyles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Parallels -> WindowsXP -> MS Money. Only want to do finances on a Mac at the moment, unfortunately.
  • stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5What is it with Mac app creators and *charging money* for beta apps?
    • imikedaman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You mean Mac app creators who know Phill Ryu. It's not a coincidence that any app appearing on Phill Ryu's blog also shows up on digg a lot with:

      1) a title that includes the phrase "App-Killer"
      2) the same people digging the stories to the front page every time
      3) a price tag for beta software (Cha-Ching and Disco)

      Check out the stories pixelmatrix dugg - many of them are related to MacHeist, MyDreamApp, Cha-Ching, etc., all of which are related to Phill Ryu.

      So yeah, buried as spam and reported. This ***** is getting really annoying now...
  • massysett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Check out Ledger. It's nothing like Quicken--it's CLI. It was developed on Mac OS X. I love it, as it's much quicker than any GUI finance application I've ever seen.

    http://newartisans.com/ledger.html
  • BM5k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My wife & I have been using Cha-Ching for a few weeks now, and its a great app for simply balancing your checkbook. We've been using the smart drawers to track how much we spend on certain things (using tags, of course) like our car/fast food/etc... It's helped us get a much better idea of where we spend our money than a simple check register.

    The app is very much in beta, but progressing quite nicely.

    The .3 release had menu items for import/export, but they didn't function. Hopefully we'll see the ability to import bank info soon!
    • CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for the positive review. It's nice to hear from somebody who actually uses the app. I may use it to teach my kids how to manage their money, but personally I am locked into Quicken at the moment and Cha-ching doesn't offer the online features I need to entice me to switch.
  • jiminoc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4on the features page it says

    "COMING SOON"

    nuff said
  • DrJuice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I tried Cha-Ching briefly but now I'm using checkbook from Splasm (http://www.splasm.com/products/productcheckbook.html) which is a little bare-bones, but does what I need it to do.
  • geezusfreeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Not very functional yet, but very very pretty.
  • Dolomite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If it doesn't do online banking... then how exactly does this compete with Quicken? Maybe saying Excel spreadsheet killer is more like it.. if thats how you do your finances.
  • crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It looks nice, but I wonder how the features compare...
  • BWhaler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Boy, I would love a Quicken killer.

    The 50 dollar upgrades for 5-7 features you didn't really want and the bug fixes you really did want were insulting but easy to ignore.

    But now you have to upgrade to continue using the online service. Disgraceful.

    Intuit used to be a great company. Now they are the Microsoft of the financial game.
  • flap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I tried cha-ching.

    It was crap.

    How is it even a competitor with quicken it doesn't really do anyhting except keep track of crap you bought...and thats all!
  • diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Beautiful GUI, but where are all the features quicken has? This program looks pretty simplified and basic to me.
  • nixfu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2
    For ANYONE who is not on Windows (or does not want to be)..... the answer is clear... for Solaris, MacOS, Linux, whatever OS.... Moneydance rocks.

    Moneydance, Moneydance, Moneydance...


    Fully automatic bank data downloads, integrated online billpay right in the GUI, super easy to use, very responsive developers and active mailing list, and reminds of the good OLD QUICKEN with the clean interface and not all the crappy lame web integration....ya know the whole reason why quicken got popular in the first place?

    http://www.moneydance.com

  • pmorain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree. This might be a remotely useful app for a Cargo Magazine subscriber (or anyone who's life revolves around discretionary spending), but it has NO budgeting features or any sort of useful integration with financing software or websites. Pretty lame sauce.
  • h0zae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2more digg spam - http://www.midnightapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=30
  • gaucho4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cha-Ching is a nice little finance tracker, but it's far from a Quicken-killer. Heck, it's not even a finished product yet! If you're looking for alternatives to Quicken look at Liquid Ledger or iBank. They're excellent and very full-featured. They're not nearly as bloated either. Additionally, iBank automatically backs up to a .Mac account.
    • TheGaiaProject, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1.Mac backup is a feature of Cha-Ching. And no one said Cha-Ching killed Quicken.. YET. Doesn't make it NOT a Quicken-Killer :) Cha-Ching is still in Rocky montage mode, working out.
  • Rand1956, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0An "infamous" Quicken killer?

    "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

    in·fa·mous – adjective 1. having an extremely bad reputation: an infamous city.
    2. deserving of or causing an evil reputation; shamefully malign; detestable: an infamous deed.
    3. Law. a. deprived of certain rights as a citizen, as a consequence of conviction of certain offenses.
    b. of or pertaining to offenses involving such deprivation.
  • zero_bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've used this app since they released their first beta and I'm abandoning it pretty soon. Every single update has a new UI and each one has serious serious flaws. If they put more time into actually planning the UI as opposed to just coding a new one each time, it could have come a long way by now.

    The feature set is very weak for an app like this (indeed, one could make the same set of features in Excel in about an hour, if that), and it's UI looks pretty but it behaves sporadically and is unintuitive at best. This is sad considering the core competency of this product is the UI.

    It could be great in the future, but right now it's just a toy. I mean, come on... in the latest "update" the update description said "changed UI to look more like Delicious Library". Delicious Library is great and all but it certainly isn't the holy bastion of user interfaces by any stretch of the imagination. Does anyone even use it on a regular basis? DL is a toy that's meant to be a toy. Cha-Ching is following the wrong leader if they want to break into the personal finance field.
  • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So you can make $$$ with this?
  • anchorboi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A typical Midnight App. Lotsa eye candy, poor performance and few useful features.

    Gave it a shot, doesn't even compare to iBank.
  • DucksofAnaheim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2RDF(Reality Distortion Field) is the idea that Steve Jobs is able to convince people to believe almost anything with a skillful mix of charm, charisma, slight exaggeration, and clever marketing
  • albertkinng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok, Let me tell you something... I got Quicken Installed on my Mac, and I also got Cha-Ching. I use Cha-Ching more than Quicken because I don't need all that business crap. I was looking for an app to do what I always do on my notebook, I was tired of using my pencil and my calculator so, I began to use Cha-Ching and it become the app I needed. Simple, effective and fun. Also they really listen to CC users, and thats a bonus! I always do a daily back up, and I'm good to go...
    For people like me that are looking for a way to track their money as easy as deposit, withdrawal and balance... this is the best App.

    It is a lot like an iApp, it's not Final Cut Pro, it's an iMovie, get it?
    • zero_bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not even iMovie. The only thing this app does that defines it as a financial app is add and subtract.

      By the way, internet-dwellers can spot a shill from a mile away.
  • victorin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How about http://mo.neytrack.in as "Quicken free online killer"¿?

    Check its features and suggest new ones!

    See the development blog at http://blog.mo.neytrack.in
  •  

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