It’s been great!
Now… let’s talk about 2014. We plan on this being a big year for iBank. Normally we don’t share plans like these because it often raises more questions than we can answer just yet. So let me preface this by saying that these things are all in different stages of development and they will be launching throughout the year. As we have more to share, we will. Until then, here is a brief preview of 2014.
iBank for iPad 2.1 – We are planning some major features for next point release of iBank for iPad. The ground work for a lot of these features was laid down in iBank for iPad 2.0. One of the most requested features for iBank for iPad is search, so we will put that in iBank 2.1. The other often-requested feature goes by a few names: transaction templates, transaction auto-complete, and payee type-ahead. If you have used our other products then you have most likely seen this feature. It’s activated as you are typing in the payee field of a transaction; iBank will auto-fill the rest of the payee name, the transaction amount and the categories. This saves a lot of time over entering transactions by hand. Finally, let me just say that iOS 7 took us a bit by surprise. We first saw iOS 7, along with the rest of the world, at WWDC in June. This caused us to shuffle some of the development priorities of iBank for iPad. As such we are still fine tuning some of our iOS 7 code and you will see more of this with iBank for iPad.
iBank Mobile 2.0 – We really want to maintain the simple nature of iBank Mobile. It is designed to quickly enter transactions on the go, and we want to keep it that way. Yet we want to add a bunch of features that people have been asking for a while now – for example, budgets. We are also redesigning iBank Mobile for iOS 7. You will hear a lot more about iBank Mobile 2.0 as we get closer to a release.
iBank Mac 5.1 – We have received great response to iBank Mac 5.0. In general people love it… and to quote one customer, “Downloaded, Upgraded and Wowed.” However, a lot changed in iBank 5, and with changes of this scope, some unintentional disruption of the app’s usability is all but inevitable. This next point release of iBank Mac is designed to fix some of those issues introduced in 5.0; for example, being able to see what accounts have new transactions that were downloaded without switching to each account.
Cloud Sync – We have had across-product syncing for a long time, so long that it was really designed in a different age of computing. It was built with the assumption that the Mac was always the hub of any sync process, and it was optimized to work with MobileMe. When Apple ended MobileMe, we had high hopes for iCloud but the limitations both technical and contractual made this solution untenable. So for some time now we have been defining and designing what we want in a sync solution. First and foremost we want to remove the Mac as the hub, so you will be able to sync any iBank device to any other iBank device. We have a long list of other features but that will have to wait for another blog post.
These are just some of the things that we are planning for 2014. I hope everyone has VERY HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. See you on the other side.
Thanks,
James
- Direct Access 2 and Open Banking Support in the UK and EU - February 17, 2021
- A chunk of sync update - June 27, 2014
- 2013 In Review - December 17, 2013
Oh thank you so much !!!!!
“First and foremost we want to remove the Mac as the hub, so you will be able to sync any iBank device to any other iBank device. “
“iBank Mobile 2.0 – We really want to maintain the simple nature of iBank Mobile.”
Okay but please give it a uplift. It really looks boring and dry. Doesn’t encourages us to use the App.
How about adding more languages to iBank? Is that really such a difficult thing to implement – in relation to new sales opportunities?
My thanks for putting cloud synching in your work plan. I have missed the convenience of synching through MobileMe. Please ensure that I can keep my iBank for Mac files on multiple computers synched in addition to synching with iBank Mobile and iBank for iPad. I look forward to seeing these improvements in 2014.
Very glad you are considering updating iBank for iPhone, much easier to carry around a phone than an iPad (for me). Please make iBank for iPhone fully fledged, would like to see investments being synced. Good news about coming through on the syncing between devices.
“First and foremost we want to remove the Mac as the hub, so you will be able to sync any iBank device to any other iBank device. “
I really hope that you mean you want to ADD the possibility of cloud syncing to the already available wired syncing to the Mac. I’m sure that I’m not alone in wanting to keep my sensitive financial data away from any and all cloud solutions and will only continue to use the program if I can continue using my Mac as the (hard-wired) hub to sync my iPhone securely.
I’m just starting to use iBank instead of Quicken. I too agree that iCloud synching would be the best thing that could happen to this software. It seems like it will solve a lot of issues. Thanks. IGG.
I really miss the nice colors for the account icons that were in iBank 4. Will they be coming back in iBank 5?
As a recent 20-year Quicken customer convert, I think you could win big time if you do a good-to-great job executing the Cloud solution. Some advice — don’t get greedy and force individual users who want iBank on a couple of computers to pay for additional licenses. I’ll bet the average Quicken convert (like me) had the product 10-20 years, upgraded at least every other year…so that’s $500-1,000 in gross sales. So if you take a long view on your business model (I’m a subscriber, not a retail customer), you will generate substantial profits from that older-ish computer-only crowd. Also please do not force an iCloud-only implementation. Many of us don’t use iCloud and prefer more open API-friendly solutions like DropBox. Can’t wait to see what you bring to market.
I would also like to be able to see all my scheduled bills for at least a month ahead. A simple process from Vers. 2.0 to 4.7.5.
I hope 5.1 will enable me to see all upcoming bills for at least a month ahead, a feature lost in 5.0
I apologize. It is possible on 5.0.3 which just I downloaded. All I had to do was Change all my transaction templates to 45 days notification. They will appear when I click on Confirm Schedule grid on the top right and can br posted from there.
I think cloud synching is essential going forward, somehow I am no longer able to reliably hold my data on the cloud (google drive)and use it from several computers under V5, for this reason alone I back levelled to 4.7.4 and hold hopes that 2014 will deliver a stable V5.
You have a great product, I would like to see a release cycle concentrate on improving small things like a
line of credit view on my credit cards , improved reporting, better transaction split like Quicken did it etc etc
Great product. Would be even better if you could implement a tags system, or allow for multiple categories to be assigned to a single transaction (without splitting). Some of my expenses are business expenses for tax purposes and it would be fantastic to be able to mark them in iBank.
I, too, have to say I hate the bland colorless account icons in the nav bar on the left. What happened to the color? Now they are much harder to see. Also, the application is absolutely much slower for me than iBank 4. It just freezes for a long time every click I make. The only thing that might make me keep iBank 5 is the improved budgeting, but I’m on the fence.
I would like to see TAGS for transactions – that helps a lot in grouping and organizing finances (e.g. all transactions (transport, hotel, dining etc.) for a business trip can share the same tag so you can find all the expenses associated with that trip with a simple search (or creating a report))
I also would like to be able to have several NOTE FIELDS per transaction – all the transactions coming from my bank accounts have several note fields (especially if they charge for something in a different currency) and I need to be able to IMPORT those into iBank for reference.
iBank mobile needs the ability to TAKE PHOTOS OF RECEIPTS and attach them to the transactions (and sync that to iBank on the Mac). That way keeping track and organizing your business receipts would be so much easier.
I for one, love iBank. Thanks for keeping the updates coming.
I am currently sitting in a hotel (I travel a lot) and I am always unable to sync iBank Mobile to my iMac over my hotel room WiFi. This is always frustrating as I am often on the road for several weeks and cannot sync at all. I have no trouble syncing at my house.
Perhaps you can look into this issue in the future.
Thanks
Please don’t force us to only sync via the cloud. I would like the option of keeping my data out of the cloud and only on my computers/iPad/iPhone. Thanks for your hard work so far.
For 7 years customer and bought ibank mobile at 4-5 years ago I almost give up to wait ibank mobile updating and looking for other app for my financing.
Hope I will see ibank mobile 2.0 very soon or it’s time to change.