As you’ve no doubt heard, iBank 5 arrived in late 2013. It’s the most complete financial management package available for Mac, offering a combination of new features, increased automation and an improved experience throughout. Some of the bigger changes include the following.
Bill pay: iBank 5 delivers the long-awaited ability to pay bills online: you can set up payees, schedule payments and set reminders, send checks to pay bills or vendors with a couple of clicks, see transactions appear in your register, track payments in progress and stop payments if necessary. Notes of import: your account must have an OFX connection for direct downloads; recipients must have a U.S. address; and your financial institution must support in-app bill pay. Ask your bank about availability.
Direct Access: Introduced in 2012 on iBank for iPad, this exclusive subscription service offers an optional, more advanced means to acquire current account data. If you already update accounts via direct downloads or web connect – at no cost – you may continue to do so! But Direct Access is streamlined, connects to thousands more banks worldwide, displays pending transactions, and lets you share a single subscription with iBank for iPad. You can use it for a little as 11 cents a day, and you can try it 30 days for free: in iBank go to File > Manage iBank ID to create a trial account.
Budgets: Budgeting in iBank took a great leap forward on the iPad, and now iBank for Mac has caught up. Your budgets are more powerful and flexible than ever, incorporating scheduled income and expenses automatically. You can make adjustments on the fly without altering your historic data; compare past, present and future budgets more readily; see budgeted vs. actual amounts… everything is more visual. And now budgets sync with iBank for iPad as well.
Video tutorials: iBank 5 tutorials are especially useful for new customers. The tutorial library includes videos on moving Quicken data into iBank, setting up financial accounts, using Direct Access and creating budgets; there’s also an advanced tutorial on envelope budgeting. Each video is brief but detailed – a quick look gives you an overview of the process shown, or you can stop-and-start if you’re following them step-by-step.