OmniBank

[edgamble]

Okay, I read how you guys have produced three new products recently and need some time to go back an add features to 'old' products. To that I say "BOLOGNA!"

OmniBank is the ticket. Quicken stinks, iBank stinks. Only you guys can do it right. I will pay for OmniBank today! [Note that I'm still waiting to pay for OmniFocus and since I have OmniFocus I will put your response to this posting on my 'Waiting-For' context.]

[edgamble]

Okay, I read how you guys have produced three new products recently and need some time to go back an add features to 'old' products. To that I say "BOLOGNA!"

OmniBank is the ticket. Quicken stinks, iBank stinks. Only you guys can do it right. I will pay for OmniBank today! [Note that I'm still waiting to pay for OmniFocus and since I have OmniFocus I will put your response to this posting on my 'Waiting-For' context.]

This suggestion is captured under my OmniFocus project of "Build the OmniGroup's New Santa Barbara Office".

OmniMoney, OmniInvest, OmniWealth, OmniFinance or OmniBankle

[chuckbo]

Guys, I second the call for OmniBank. Quicken is not good, and Intuit is evil. iBank has promise and tease but it doesn't perform well and there are some fundamental flaws. I'm in the middle of designing my own that I'll write in a database language, but I'd JUMP at the chance to pass my ideas to the Omni team and have it made into a really nice cash management (budgeting) program for individuals. I'm going to go ahead with mine and probably have something running when I have a couple of weeks to devote to it, but I recognize that it has limitations that I can't work around and would rather use OmniBank.

Chuck

[bugmenot]

I second that as well. It's especially annoying that none of these software packages are really able to get the online stock quotes from various places around the world. It's really annoying to have to enter the prices from different European funds by hand!

Btw. GnuCash is the best you can get with respect to getting quotes from different sources.

Cheers.

[edgamble]

Okay, I paid for OmniFocus but I'm still waiting for your comments on OmniBankle. I know, it happens all the time to me but, it sure is hard to imagine that somebody outside of your company could be spot-on with your next product.

Just wait until the next Macworld when Steve Jobs announces that AppleTV is upgraded to an HD game console and UnrealTournament 2008 is an Apple exclusive. Then I'll be 2 for 2 of late.

[roberte]

I would love to see what Omni could do with banking on the mac:

As already mentioned: Quicken stinks and all of the other options I've looked at have been terrible.

The closest to OK was Liquid Ledger, but it was far too buggy for reliable use and had interface issues.

The idea would be a personal money manager: with bank downloads, budgeting and reporting/graphs, with that Omni je-ne-sais-quoi. It wouldn't have to be complicated...

[Melan]

I actually came to this forum with intent to make a thread about requesting this. I would love to see this happen.

[frankiec]

I would also love to see this happen.

[pjb]

Quicken is promising a new app with up to date api's (i.e., cocoa based) and for all it's faults it actually does work as is (I'm using 2005 still). I'm sure the Omni folks could do a much better job, but then the company would have to increase in size by a factor of a hundred just for support staff, then they'd hire more lawyers, then they'd change their license, and raise their prices, maybe go public, and generally stop being the creative software house we know and love.

I do think they could, barring outstanding copyright issues, contribute a multi-dimensional spreadsheet to the community and not have to transform their culture.

I'd rather have Omni than OmniBank.

[pjb]

Maybe a better use of their resources still would be to call up ol' Will and help get DL2 out the door.

[cyleigh]

I came to this forum to suggest an OmniBank too! After deciding last week that I hate iBank I have now tried nearly every freaking finance app out there (except Quicken, cause I already knew I would hate it). Like a previous poster, I'm probably going to go with Liquid Ledger 2.2 (although Prospects is a very close second)... but since I own nearly the whole Omni suite, you can guarantee I would buy a OB in a second!

[Jeff Tidball]

For the love of all that is sweet and holy, yes, please!

I was thinking just such thoughts the other night, and am thrilled to see a whole thread of people who've already made the point.

Please, please, please.

[Pascal Harris]

I use Quicken because it came for free with my Mac. But it sucks so badly. It's U.S. only (Earth calling Intuit - there's a whole world out here. Parts of it quite wealthy. Other parts, not so much.) It's ugly. It's like the Windows of banking apps. The trouble is, I stick with it because I know it (and it was free). Lame excuse.

I would love a really decent banking app, with Quicken compatibility, the capability to import my data and just change the $ to £ without performing any currency conversion, and with the ability to connect to my online accounts (bank and stocks). Woot!

[sgiovannini]

Yes, I would love to see a properly-done Mac app that can compete with Quicken. iBank is close, but not there. I'm trying very hard to convert from Quicken to iBank, even paid for it, but I can't get there. After 15 years of using Quicken, my data must be imported accurately, completely and automatically (not happening).

But there are problems with developing a personal finance app:

- Figure that 90% of the Mac users who might buy a PF app are already using Quicken. Personal finance is a saturated market. People who want to track it on a computer are already doing so. New users will largely be first-time computer buyers or young adults.

- Since Quicken is so well established, a v1.0 app has to duplicate every significant piece of Quicken functionality or risk being labeled "promising" and not being purchased.

- That means online banking in v1.0, which is a huge undertaking not entirely under the control of the developer.

- Personal finance is all about the database. If any piece of the data is wrong or missing (or you suspect it might be), the software is worthless. Personally, I would never do it without a pro-level SQL engine. Developers have to focus on data first, interface second.

- It's nearly impossible to redefine how personal financial data is stored because any app that will survive must import Quicken data and therefore must copy Quicken's method of storing data. iBank has made a mistake here in implementing transfers in a different way. Nothing wrong with that, unless you want to import your Quicken data...

- It is very hard to leave a program you are so used to, even when you want to. I've used Excel for so many years I've found it nearly impossible to keep going in Numbers. I want the same menus, the same keyboard shortcuts...

- With all the development necessary for a 1.0, it will cost more than Quicken (which has volume and past development to build on, not to mention no support costs because Intuit just doesn't bother)... A LOT MORE.

There is a way to develop a new PF app for the Mac... focus on writing a 1.0 that is essentially a Quicken clone. Do what Quicken does with a different interface and better support (ANY support is better!). THAT will get the Quicken users. Innovations will come in later releases.

MS Word for Windows had compatibility modes for WordPerfect users, to get them to stick with MS Word even if they were used to WordPerfect. This might be necessary to get Quicken users past the evaluation period.

While I'd love to see Omni in this area, I can see why they're not there. iBank is making a gamble, and it's promising...