Review: iBank
by Magnus
For anyone wanting to organize their personal finances with their Mac, the main choice has been Quicken (quicken.intuit.com). Recently some other choices have appeared, including iBank from Igg Software.
Your financial manager
IBank is designed to manage your bank accounts and credit cards, your retirement investment and your loans, analyze your income as well as expenses. You can see how you’re doing financially in charts, reports, and use the knowledge to better plan you future. That’s the far-reaching implication of using something like iBank but it has important effects in your everyday life too. It can print checks, integrate with iCal to schedule payments, and backup your financial data to a .Mac account.
A true Mac app
It’s clear from when you first start iBank that it’s a true Mac app. What that means is hard to define but you generally know it when you see it. Setting up financial accounts is a breeze with the setup assistant, and in a matter of minutes you’re ready to start sorting out your finances. The key to be successful with something like iBank is to categorize your income and expenditures. Whenever you enter a receipt, it should be categorized; whenever you’re paid something, it should likewise be categorized. Fortunately, this everyday activity is something iBank shines at making simple.
No connection to banks
One of the main attractions of using a personal finance software is to be able to connect it to your bank's system to download statements, and other financial information. That makes it easier to keep the information on your computer synchronized with your bank's information. Whether that functionality is at all offered by any UAE bank, I don't know. I do know that iBank does currently not offer this functionality, which is arguably its chief drawback.
Smart import
You can however import financial data in QIF format (Quicken Interchange Format), so if you can export the details from your bank's web site, then you can get it into iBank. In that import process, iBank's Smart Import Rules, can help a lot. Think Smart Playlists in iTunes and you get the idea. You match up the fields and transaction details and categories can be automatically assigned, something that saves a lot of time. It means during import, recurring transactions become a little more automated.
Information is knowledge
What you get out of iBank is obviously of great importance. You can create charts that show all kinds of information. This is where I feel iBank is lacking something. A chart wizard would help users in the beginning, for example.
Conclusion
For the price, iBank is a bargain. That is if you use it regularly and do the input well. Software like this can only help you along the way, not do all the work for you. If you want to get your finances in order, give iBank a try.
SIDEBAR
You can download iBank from
www.iggsoftware.com/ibank. It’s free to try, if you want to keep using it it’s $39.99. Igg Software provided a license of iBank for this review. We have raffled off that license at a previous EMUG meeting.