When it comes to financial software I have been an Intuit fan for years.  In case you didn’t know they make the Quicken financial software.  I use a windows platform and I have heard from Mac users that Quicken isn’t as Mac friendly, but they don’t have many other options.  When it comes to software in general, Windows is still by far the leading operating system.  This is true in the financial software world as well.  However peaking over the horizon is a version of financial software known as Moneydance. 

Moneydance is a financial planning software that was actually created for the Linux platform but is functional in the other operating systems.  It is a multi functional tool that provides functions that may not be found in other financial software such as the ability to work with multiple currencies.  In fact they have users in over 75 countries.  In addition to paying bills and managing your bank accounts online, Moneydance will also allow you to manage your budget, schedule loan or mortgage repayments, track your investment portfolio and has the ability to import into Quicken software if you use it for tax purposes.

This software has been around for a few years and early Mac users felt it didn’t quite fit the bill as a great piece of software.

Read Goodbye Quicken here
Read Moneydance good but not great here

Moneydance has recently released their 2010 version and I have highlighted some of its new features:

• A new sidebar which shows account status and allows for toggling between accounts, reports, graphs and budgets
• Capital tax gains reporting
• automatic merge and categorization of all downloaded transactions
• more filtering options for graphs and reports
• Quick search feature on the home page

So what is the verdict on the new 2010 version of Moneydance?  There is some early excitement over the release of the new software, especially with some of the new updated features.  They claim to have addresses some of the issues of previous users.  The brand new version was released just about 2 weeks ago so most users are now testing all of the features.  As I have said before I am a Quicken man and I use a Windows platform, however if you are a Mac user this appears to be one of the best options available for you.

If you purchased a previous copy of Moneydance on or after March 28, 2008 then you are eligible for a free upgrade to the 2010 version.  If you purchased your copy before that then you will be able to purchase it for half price.  The actual cost of Moneydance is $39.99.  If you are a Mac user and are new to the world of financial software you can then download a free version to try it out.  You will be limited to 100 transactions but that should give you a good feel whether you like the software before you buy it.  If you are a Windows user, you can certainly use this software but I believe Quicken is a better option and since Quicken just bought Mint.com I think that is a winning combination.