Home Accountz (PC/Mac/Linux)

Ever since Quicken decided to quit the UK I've been searching for a "simple", no, uncomplicated method of keeping my home monies in order. Home Accountz does this with ease and, at the outset, my 71 year old mind could fathom some aspects. A simple phone call put it right. They're nice people.

I read the reviews for the previous version of this software which were quite mixed. So I decided to have a look on their website and found I could download a free 30-Day evaluation copy which I have done. Unfortunately, after downloading the 80MB+ file and installing, it searched for an update and downloaded another 66MB! So, it's good that they're updating the software, but a shame that they don't put the most up to date version on the download link.

I exported my MSMoney data (about 10MB) and imported it into Home Accountz without any difficulty. There were a number of comments in reviews of the previous version about how long winded this process is, but I think that's people with unrealistic ideas on data migration. Just follow the instructions, tidy up any errors and Bob's your Uncle!

The way in which the data is displayed was also a criticism from other reviewers. It is different from MSMoney but it would just take a little while to get used to it. Home Accountz seems to do everything that MSMoney does, just in a different way.

Although I like MSMoney, it's no longer available and it's no longer supported, so I need to migrate to something else. Home Accountz seems to only have been out for a few weeks, replacing the older Personal Accountz, and I was very impressed with the functionality so far and the on-line forums where I searched for a few features that I couldn't find. It's really good to find a UK Company filling this gap in the market.

Missing features (or at least I couldn't find them) include: Password protection for the file; importing of data downloaded from the bank (transactions and statement reconciliation); and archiving of old/redundant data. Most of these are already promised as upgrades, so I will definitely buy and migrate to Home Accountz when it is a little more mature, probably in a few months time. I have been searching for a couple of years for an acceptable replacement for MSMoney and am very relieved to have found one!

I think this program is a bit of a mixed bag and the thing that will split people is: were you hoping to transfer from a previous package? My experiences are those of a Quicken user; Iam unable to comment on the process from Money.

First the basics. The program installs very easily. I like software which allows you full control over where you store things whilst offering simple defaults for novice users. Full marks were earned there. You should note that you can only install the software once. This is not as awful as it sounds, although you do have to visit the Accountz forum to find out which files you need to back up - these can be reinstalled if you change your PC. In addition, they state that you can contact them if you have changed machine and they will confirm your new installation.

I admit my first ten minutes with this software were completely baffling! I then started to work through the 'walkthrough' in the simple getting started guide. Things soon began to fall into place. (And also, to be fair, I've had 15 years practice of just doing things the "Quicken way"). I had a little hiccup when the date defaulted to 2020 (!) which I didn't notice for a bit. However I felt quite impressed with the sheer flexibility of the software. Really, you can arrange things just how you want them and change them pretty much any way you want to in the future. In this respect, I think it is a fair bit more flexible than Quicken. I was soon understanding how to enter stuff and how things worked together. For new users, then - or people willing to abandon a previous Quicken history - I think this is a pretty solid piece of software. It does vary a little between being intuitive in places and then pretty confusing at other times, but I never found it too difficult to sort out the confusions. As mentioned, there are user forums online if you want to seek some more help. The one weakness that I didn't like is that you can't enter share prices for any shares you own, only the initial purchase.

Having got to grip with Home Accountz, I decided it was time to try and import my Quicken files. Like many people, I've been looking for a Quicken replacement since they stopped selling it in the UK. I had knocked my Quicken file down to the last 3 years only, in the hope this might make life less complicated.

The process took hours. I didn't mind this. It's something you only expect to do once and I know my Quicken setup is relatively complicated (lots of memorised transaction, lots of categories, shares, share ISAs and about a dozen 'Goals'). You have to manually enter each of your accounts. You also have to manually enter all your categories, other than the ones that match Accountz' defaults (not all that many for me!). It is a tedious process but not a difficult one as all the information from both sides is on the screen in front of you. (This does beg the question that if Accountz can read all of your Quicken categories, why can it not just import that structure rather than making you do it manually?). It was easy to overlook mapping something and I must have pressed 'Proceed' about 5 times to be told I'd missed something - highlighting what it was I'd missed would have helped here. But, as I say, you only expect to do it once and I was prepared to spend the time.

Then I told it to proceed with the import. This only took a few minutes. But after that...

...oh dear! The first thing I noticed was the loss of several thousand pounds to my net worth. Hmmm. Then I looked down the list of balances for each account. Scarcely any of them matched the Quicken balances (which I know are correct). One of my savings accounts now appeared to be £180 in deficit. £300 had vanished from my bank account. One ISA was now empty and my Premium Bonds appeared to have been eaten. Oh, and I appear to owe £800 to the Stock Exchange, my shares seemingly vanished into thin air. On the plus side, my mortgage company seems to now owe ME money instead of the other way round!

In short, the mess is so overwhelming I absolutely wouldn't know where to begin. In addition, it's clear that Accountz simply cannot handle Quicken 'Goals' nor transactions that have split categories. But I am baffled how simple things like credit card balances can be totally inaccurate. In short, after a lot of work, the transfer of data was a total failure. :-(

In summary, this program needs two different star ratings. If you're new to home accounts, or are willing & happy to start afresh, I would give it 4 stars.

If you were hoping to transfer your data from another program, I would give it no stars.