It has been a while since my last post, which can only mean one thing: we’ve been very busy working on features and versions that we aren’t ready to talk about yet. Don’t worry, when we are ready to talk about them, it will be here.
In the meantime, I want to give a brief update on all of our products and let folks know what we’ve been doing.
iBank Investor
This is our side-project app that doesn’t receive as much attention as our main apps. However, we have updated again. Our new version has a more modern UI, but retains the same great functionality. This new version has been released as iBank Investor 2.0. You can check it out here: www.iggsoftware.com/ibankinvestor/
iBank for iPad
I’m really, really pleased with our iPad app. The power and capabilities in it are still unparalleled by any competitor. I particularly love the on-demand reporting we have for investment accounts. Just drag the bars over a date range and get a great synopsis of what your investments have been doing, including buys, sells, dividends, cash in, cash out and more. Combine that with Cloud Sync and you have an outstanding picture of your finances, right on your iPad.
So what is next for iBank for iPad? We have our eyes focused squarely on iOS 9. Among some performance and bug fixes, our next major release will support the split-screen workflow that is new in iOS 9. When Apple introduced split-screen at WWDC 2015, we knew that iBank should embrace it to give our customers the opportunity to be more productive than ever.
iBank for iPhone
Since we released iBank for iPhone 2 we’ve been continually pressing to make it the best iPhone app for your finances. There aren’t any games or gimmicks. It’s all of your finances and budgets just how you want them with super fast search, Cloud Sync, and Direct Access account updates and aggregation. Our next big release of iBank for iPhone will support watchOS 2.
iBank for Mac
The next big release of iBank for Mac 5 will include some good bug fixes and a new in-app messaging system. This is a system we are actually building for all of our apps that will allow us to message our customers when a service is down. We’ve made it lightweight and unobtrusive. For example, if our iBank ID authentication service goes down, we want to be able to let people know. However, if you don’t use any services that require a free iBank ID, you don’t really care — we’ve handled this. You will only see the messages you need to know about (and hopefully there won’t be many!)
IGG Software Website
Our current website is getting close to being 5 years old now. It isn’t responsive, its design is a bit outdated and some of the Call To Action messaging isn’t what it could be. We don’t have any visuals to share yet, but I think just about everyone will agree our new website is a major improvement over the current one.
So there is a brief update on what we’ve been working on. This time of year generally has fewer announcements, so you can probably expect updated blog posts very month or two. When we have more topics to discuss, it will be here, so please come back soon.
-Ian
- Banktivity 9.5 and Monthly Subscriptions - October 18, 2024
- Coming soon: Banktivity 9.5 - July 19, 2024
- Continuing Investments in Direct Access - February 26, 2024
Ian, thanks for your update. No one can dispute that iBank is THE finance app for iOS and Mac clients, and its continued evolution is impressive and much appreciated. I’m very pleased that I switched from Quicken for Windows in 2013.
Although the changes you’ve described above sound beneficial, it would be appreciated (and good for your business) if you were to move the core functionality of the iOS versions closer to the OSX version. Although I have a Mac, I use my iPad whenever I can, by choice. Although it’s a superb app, it lacks much of the functionality available in the OSX release, or includes features that either haven’t been enabled or don’t work (your choice). The iPhone version lacks the ability to summarize one’s accounts determine net worth, which is something Mint had at its launch. These may seem trivial, but the would materially improve the usability of your products.
I hope you’ll consider adding them in the next release.
I’ve been an iBank user for many years now. I feel that updates have slowed down. Maybe because the number of products has increased, maybe because the number of support requests has increased.
I’m curious: Has IGG increased its engineering staff at all in recent years? It would be really nice to have more features added more quickly. Many of us are still waiting on some Report features that have been asked for numerous times, but never delivered. I’m sensing a bottleneck somewhere.
Love to see updates… Please continue.
And it wouldn’t be a blog comment without a request (one I’ve made multiple times in the past!) For iBank Mobile, please include the ability to only sync certain accounts (leave the rest on the Mac!) I have about 20 active accounts and about the same no longer used but still hidden in iBank. Mobile app takes over a minute to sync each time and is hung while doing so.
Thanks,
Jay
Hi Ian, thanks for the post… iBank for iPad, please can you shrink down the massive graphics throughout the app, it’s clunky and I find it really difficult to create and edit entries. It reminds me of a Disney theme park, looks great but difficult to find your way around, and when you get somewhere, it’s really slow! iBank for iPhone is a different story a great little app, which is now my go to… just needs a Summary of all the accounts like the old one.
Thanks for the update Ian! I think IGG is headed the right direction is so may ways, but need to catch up is other ways. iBank itself for Mac need a refresh. Some very basic things like being able to attach multiple attachments to a transaction and doing away with the “cover flow or old iTunes” look. Some of the features in the new Quicken for Mac are very nice and you should look at some of these features! A great example is your spending categories or chart of accounts. If I have an account and sub account that looks like this:
Clothing
Work
Personal
Other
When typing the category in a transaction you have to enter Cloth…. and then select from there. The Key is that I have to remember the main category…. In the new Quicken, you can enter Work or Personal and as you type those, the selection will come up. iBank really needs this feature!!!! My final two thoughts are:
1) The whole Direct Access thing needs to be reviewed. Banks like Capital One, Bank of Omaha, and many others you have locked and force direct access for a fee. This should be free like Quicken has. If a bank offers a direct connect, your software should allow and be updated to reflect those banks to use this feature. If you choose not to update, then IGG should just provide whatever service you are using for free.
2)You took the user groups away from your website where users could share information and help each other. You should bring this back. Like flip the switch and turn it back on tonight…..
Very happy with iBank updates but agree with others that the Mac version needs some work, particularly with charts & reports
The area that I find most disappointing (and has been like this for many years) is when you attempt to export any report. It’s messy and if you drag & drop a table into Numbers (for example) it should create a table instantly instead of a messy text box. Imported files (into Excel or Numbers) have transactions with the comments on a separate row – impossible to sort & organise easily.
The ability to ‘duplicate’ existing charts & reports (with a right click) and to have ‘groups/folders’ for reports would be nice too, particularly for EOFY reports.
I’m with Larry, it would be so nice to have autofill look for the subcategories as well. I have written emails to IGG about this in the past.
I also agree others that it seems iBank for Mac hasn’t received that same attention from IGG as it used to.
That being said… your shop is doing a great job of constant app development and support.
As a follow-up, I don’t want my earlier post to appear as if we do not appreciate everything you do! You all do great work and thank you for making great products! I know it’s absolutely impossible to please everyone! However, I do think we need a refresh on iBank for Mac. An appearance to the mobile apps would be great! Kind of like Apple…. Let’s bring the look and feel across the platforms to a similar experience.
Thanks IGG!
I’m in agreement with the folks who think iBank for Mac has been somewhat neglected. There are a number of features that have been requested numerous times by lots of folks but have not been addressed (clunky split transaction input is one example) The user forum would be great too – users could tell one another about short cuts they’ve found or workarounds for some of the other features that haven’t been fixed/updated.
That being said, I have been using the Mac version for several months and find it very usable, although I’m still using Quicken for investments due to the much better reporting capabilities. Keep up the good work guys.
A piece a sophisticated software like this always needs updating. One of my frustrations is I have asked to be able to edit name and merge payees. This is a basic must have which has been on the list for a while. e MS Money did this 15 years ago!!! If a payees name changes I don’t want to have to amend HUNDREDS of transactions individually. Also reports are very basic I cannot a report for a single payee on specific dates. Also the Budget needs looking at. Its cumbersome hard to understand and not really useful I don’t bother do use it. After 6 months it was a nightmare.You really needs to emulate lot of MS Money stuff. That ran like clockwork and had all we needed until MS pulled the plug. Thanks though for what is currently the best personal finance app.
Ibank for mac is a great software, but it need more upgrades to be perfect. As you can see, everybody want upgrades in the mac version not in ipad and iphone. These apps are more accessories than the core. One thing that i think could be a huge upgrade is the possibility to make a selection of transaction and it shows the sum of values.
I have been an iBank user for years. Although it is a very usable product, there are many features lacking. When I read the above post on the iBank for Mac updates coming, I am very disappointed. “The next big release of iBank for Mac 5 will include some good bug fixes and a new in-app messaging system.” First of all, that’s not a very “BIG” release. Also, what are “good” bug fixes? Are you planning some “bad” bug fixes? That seems like very odd phrasing. Also, an I’m-app messaging system does nothing for me–really. It seems like it’s a way to reduce your support costs–which is fine but adds no functionality to the product.
We need a substantially improved export function, as stated above, a robust search and replace feature that works much like Quicken and an archive capability. When will these features be available? I appreciate the diversity of products that you have but it seems that you, like many companies, are ignoring the product that got you here and focusing on the new shiny object. I don’t mind paying for upgrades if there is substantial value. Please find a way to staff your core development team and generate revenue from your existing customers who continue to stay with you through thick and thin.
I’ll add my voice to those requesting more attention to the desktop version. It’s lacking key features, reporting is quite limited and needs to be more customisable, more detailed graphs would be nice. One of the most important features from my point of view would be the ability to define the date range used in yearly reports (under ‘preferences’ perhaps). Not everyone uses the Jan-Dec calendar year – here in Australia we use July01-June30. Having to manually define the date range for every yearly report is a major PITA that is making me seriously think about reverting to the bad old days of running “that” Windows software in a VM.
The IOS apps are pretty and all, but their functions and reporting are so limited as to be near useless for anything other than a quick glance. Please keep developing the desktop app!! – thanks 🙂
Looking forward to fixes and enhancements on the Mac app. Just starting using iBank and love it, although there are reporting shortfalls (as listed above) and a few glitches working with multi-currency investment transactions (been a week and support hasn’t gotten back to me!). I understand the “fun stuff” developing for IOS or the Watch is more interesting than the core OSX App, but for power users with many accounts and investments, the OSX app is critical.
Were long time Australian users of iBank Mac and love it. Your team has been really helpful in the past when we had a corrupted file too. That support is great. We would add to the list of people calling for more frequent updates to the desktop app – I’d go as far as to say smaller releases more often. Some things in iBank are painful, and recently some txns have been mis-categorised. When you changes the way txn templates work for iBank 5, I think you broke some good functionality.
I’d probably also ask if you would consider turning iBank into a good web/cloud app?
Mac, a cloud-based app? That’s madness. Requiring a functioning internet connection in order to use this important application is a recipe for disaster.
The main priorities for me are mostly reporting/charting & exporting issues:
– reports are far too crude with very limited granular control
– charts also suffer the same problems
– the layouts look primitive and are no better when printed
– exporting data is messy, with rows & columns requiring significant fiddling (and deleting!) to make it sensible/usable in a spreadsheet or for sending to an accountant
– inability to simply duplicate a report (so you can rename it and change date ranges – for tax year purposes for example)
I love the updates that are being added but I have to admit I am disappointed to not see anything about the Envelope budgeting feature being added to iBank for the iPad. This feature alone is what drew me to iBank on my Mac. I’ll drop the product like a hot potato if it ever gets desupported. The envelope method of accounting for household budgets is, hands down, the most effective way to manage expenses. Simply seeing a month-to-month target of projected expenses compared to actual expenses does not help me plan and be prepared for future expenses when they arrive. Envelope accounting manages this beautifully.
When I am away from my Mac — perhaps shopping — it would be helpful to know the balance within an envelope to assist in the decision to make a purchase. The month-to-month view is not helpful in this situation.
I bought iBank for iPad somewhere back in the iBank 4 days but I’ve never been able to use it because it lacks this feature. It’s simply useless to me without it. I’d sure love to see this feature added.
The new website is great and very flashy; but as a long time iBank for Mac I’d much rather you invest time in fixing the many outstanding issues in iBank and perhaps even start adding to the functionality. The reports haven’t changed in years and are very very basic and sometime plain wrong. The bar charts are tiny and borderline impossible to use.
Finally, this ‘blog’ posting dates to 1 July. Its nearly 4 months old. The scant mention of iBank for Mac :
“The next big release of iBank for Mac 5 will include some good bug fixes and a new in-app messaging system.”
So some good bug fixes and a messaging system to help IGG ? Thats not a big release. Why would users want a messaging system ? Why not use twitter with #IGGserverstatus ?
Please IGG, the is so much scope of iBank – investments are crying out for improvements.
I am super frustrated with the scheduled transactions piece of iBank for Mac. Why can’t it automatically bring those into the register on the date marked, why does it take so very long to post each transaction when I’m doing it manually, and it would be wonderful if ONLY the transactions due THAT DAY presented themselves to be posted. Have a tab to show upcoming, but there should be a way to separate them. Because it takes so long to post each transaction, I often go into auto-pilot mode when adding them and post too many. This messes up the whole system, and I have yet to figure out a way to fix it without deleting and then re-adding the transaction. This is annoying and time consuming to say nothing of confusing!
I’ve been a loyal iBank user for many years now. And, I concur whole-heartedly with Mike, Colin, Gustavo, Paul, Pete, Donna, Larry, Troy and Travis (in this blog)… we appreciate the general power and effectiveness of iBank for Mac, but it really needs improvement. Hearing your enthusiasm for connecting iBank to the Apple Watch is slightly interesting, but disheartening at the same time.
Frankly, I got so tired of sending the same basic requests for enhancements to make the user interface smoother and easier on the old, now-extinct iBank User Forum, that I gave up (before you closed it). And now, I’ve learned to expect an irregular flow of chatter mostly about catchy, new, shiny things you’ve added — bells and whistles that may be exciting to you, but are do not reflect the many improvements so many of us have asked for to improve iBank’s basic functionality.
I even got excited when you release the Cloud version of iBank for iPad… until I realized that it is of NO use or value when I travel. I would still need to pay for a Direct Access subscription to be able to access and update my accounts when I’m away from my desk. So, while it seems great that you create or add these additional features, many of us would really like you to focus on improving the desktop version.
Thanks for listening.
I know that this has been suggested before, but let me bring it up again.
I am sorely missing the various transaction types in the iBank mobile app that are in the desktop version and were in the old mobile app. The current mobile app only offers Deposit, Withdrawal, Transfer, and Check. I like to use the types ATM, POS and OnLine, but I can only do this from the desktop app.
I have been using the Mac version for 4 years and have been disappointed with upgrades and unfulfilled requests. It seems that no one is listening to the customer. The reports and graphs are still sub-par. Lousy export to Excel and no vertical axis adjustment on the tiny graphs. Please work on the Mac version before a competitor gets it right.
One feature that I would like to see now that I’ve switched to a job that pays semi-mothly rather than bi-weekly is the ability to create a scheduled transaction that triggers twice per month – once on a selected day and the other on the last day of the month. If I have to attach two schedules to the same scheduled transaction, I need to have one of those options be “last day of the month”
I really want to love iBank. I honestly do. However, it does feel the core product is in need of some long overdue attention. The user interface doesn’t really feel well thought out. For example, the buttons to add or delete transactions are really small compared to other buttons on the application. The same for the Reconciliation functionality too. The lack of the option to Tag transactions is a show-stopper for me. Reporting functionality is OK but could be far better. Transaction reminders are a bit ‘basic’. Common Iggsoftware – you’ve got customers telling you what they want! How about showing them some love by responding to their comments and provide some meaningful updates on your blog on a regular basis, rather than how you’re spreading yourself thinly by diverting attention to a new product targeted at a relatively small segment of the market (I’m talking about the Apple Watch here).
Joining in with others, I just want to also comment on my disappointment with the desktop version. I”ll continue to post here, and elsewhere about the lack of attention to a major performance regression introduced in iBank 5. I’d love to use bank 5, but I’m stuck on 4.x because I use a built in feature (receipts) with transactions. iBank 5 can’t handle this in large databases, EVERY save locks the app for 10-30 seconds. I’ve reported it repeatedly and the “workarounds” are unacceptable. Still 4.x chugs along with no problem, it’s acknowledged by support yet it feels like iBank is focused on other “shiny” tools rather than developing a fix. PLEASE focus some serious resources on iBank Desktop. If you can’t get that working, why would I use any of your other products?
Unlike others, I am not a user of iBank though I am dying to be one. I have tried your trial version on the Mac, and come away with the feeling “it’s almost there but not quite yet” and am patiently waiting for v6. I have used Quicken for Windows for a number of years, and with my recent switch to Mac I am unable to depend on a compelling equivalent. My biggest gripe is: the direct access that costs $40/year but still doesn’t connect to banks I use (retail credit cards), or has a more comprehensive view of finances (e.g. 401k, 529 etc); also for an app that claims to support multi-currency, my international account’s balances are not converted at the proper rate in the balances window (5000INR shows up as 5000USD thereby distorting my net worth view. What is frustrating for users like me is Quicken’s total lack of attention for the Mac, the various websites like Betterment, Personal Capital, Mint etc all having some features that are quite good, and an app like iBank still falling short…Hopefully your app can raise the bar!!
Thanks Ian for a good straightforward bookkeeping program. It is not invasive, nor does it gather information to be used or sold. And you don’t require purchasing a new copy of the program every couple of years. It is not a PITA double entry system. I compared all mac programs available in 2011 and chose iBank to stay with as a platform.
While I agree with some of the constructive suggestions by other commenters, my one desire is that there is an option to have traditional reports: Balance Sheets, and I&E without graphs, and the ability to print in full reconciliation statements. Perhaps more recent versions of the program have addressed those items, but if not please consider doing so. You will find a larger user base, small businesses, churches and users that require more traditional reports for their work. I am pretty sure that the time and expense to add those few features will increase your sales and cut into Quicken’s base users. Happy holidays. And consider going on the Christmas Bird Count since you are a Birder.
I have the Mac OSX version of Banktivity, and am wondering if the iPad version has all the same functionality. I travel a lot and don’t want to haul my laptop if I can do everything with my iPad.
We have a lot of customers that bring Banktivity along on their travels with just the iPad. They aren’t identical, but you can do a lot on the iPad including: check/edit your budget, account balances, add/enter transactions, run basic reports across months, etc.
The new website is great and very flashy; but as a long time iBank for Mac I’d much rather you invest time in fixing the many outstanding issues in iBank and perhaps even start adding to the functionality.