The first product to be released with an “i” name was the iMac, 18 years ago. For many it marks a turning point for Apple. While it didn’t happen overnight, it marked the beginning of a long run of “i” names in Apple’s product line. Remember iDVD and iPhoto? And of course the iPod, iBooks and iWork? While there are a few Apple products still embracing the iNames (iPhone and iPad come to mind), the nomenclature had its run and, quite frankly, is feeling old.
iBank was first released 13 years ago and, at the time, the name “iBank” was perfect. But over the last few years a couple things have nagged at us. First, iApp names have felt dated and too tied to Apple. Second, we were never able to secure the iBank dot com domain. Third, the word “iBank” is used internationally to describe a type of money transfer, e.g. “you can just iBank me that payment”. And fourth, “iBank” is sometimes used as an abbreviation for investment bank. This all builds up to a steep hill to climb to truly own the name of our products.
So today we are announcing the end of the iBank name and the beginning of our new name for our apps: Banktivity. If you are scratching your head wondering how this name came about, it’s rather simple. It has the same core, “bank”, which we love and then it comes from joining “bank” and “activity” — Banktivity. Yeah, say it out loud, it’s OK. It’s hard to get used to a new name, it might feel foreign, that is all very normal. But say it a few more times and let it sink in, and before you know it, it will become second nature.
Banktivity
(You can say it again out loud.)
From this point going forward, new releases of our apps will use the name Banktivity. We are keeping the version numbers the same to help with any potential confusion. Specifically, our apps will be renamed the following:
iBank 5 for Mac -> Banktivity 5 for Mac
iBank for iPhone -> Banktivity for iPhone
iBank for iPad -> Banktivity for iPad
iBank Investor -> Banktivity Investor
This is a big change: we expect these names to carry us far into the future and hopefully we won’t ever feel the need to change them again. You will begin seeing these new names roll out in our products over the next two days.
Before I go, I want to be clear about something. This name change in no way signals some other cultural shift at IGG. We are still producing the same great apps, with the same dedicated team working hard to bring you the best personal finance software for Mac and iOS.
Here’s to 12 great years served by iBank and to an even brighter future for Banktivity!
-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
Kinda early for April Fools, isn’t it?
This is usually the kind of thing marketers do when a product is struggling or when there is truly a revolutionary change.
I believe iBank has a great reputation – changing the name risks leaving that reputation behind. Existing users will be aware of the change, but new users will not.
Bluntly, I prefer iBank. It is shorter, known and easier to remember.
Improved reporting , improved register, improved programmed payments, colour would have been greater priorities but I will go along even if the Ibank name is iconic !
I’ll agree! I would have leaped for joy if the strange new app name was coupled with substantive fundamental improvements in the user interface, reporting, easier transaction entry, global search, print flexibility, compatibility with how credit card banks record debits and credits (IGG does it backwards), ability to distinquish between liquid assets and hard assets in a Net Worth report, and the basic visual design.
I get really tired of see development time invested in added relatively useless bells and whistles instead of dealing with common user complaints, bugs and design issues.
Just because the name is changed and Iggsoftware might want to put out a new version with different interface changes next year or something, I hope that Iggsoftware preserves the basic look and feel of Banktivity 5 and not get gaudy like iBank 3 was. I find nothing wrong with data entry. The memos in the Category Report could have a wider field on the printout so that there is no truncation of longer memos which renders them useless and new reports could be created, but to put it simply, I really like Banktivity and its interface as it is!
Nice to get some love!
Not a fan of the name…but I will defer to the people who know what they are doing. Maybe we get lucking and there is some type of big release of new/improved features that go with the name change.
I have to say after using iBank 5 for Mac for 6 months that the reporting is terrible compared to my former first love, Quicken
Hope this is on someone’s front burner
@Mark I’d love to hear the specific features of reports that you’d like to see in iBank. The more details the better.
I’d love to see a report builder. Let me choose the report fields, rows and columns, sorting and grouping levels, and I’d never ask for another report enhancement again.
Ditto: Use all the features of a relational database…. How about user defined reports based on selected excerpts from transaction notes.
Separate request: Add a user selected auto multiplier for percentage—highlight an amount and select “p” or “t” resulting in a pre-defined percent of the amount added to the amount (i.e.: sales tax).
Comparison reports. This year to last year.
Tags!
Agree with Bryan and Raymond, and would add the ability to compare period X with period Y (custom). A simple report building tool would be a great addition.
I haven’t had a problem with reports and I use them especially at tax time. What I would love is to have summary reports without the graphs. Just a simple summary list would be great as the graphs have never given me useful info and my accountant could care less.
I agree with the others. Quicken 2007, and its precursors, had customizable reports and charting. iBank (or Banktivity) lacks reports and charts that allow different column widths, colors, and ability to re-arrange the information, amongst other things.
Make sure that we can customize reports to specific payees, categories and exclude all the others.
Simply being able to duplicate an existing report would be awesome. Copying “Cash Flow 2015” creates “Cash Flow 2015 copy” (with all the same categories and accounts). I change the date range, rename it to “Cash Flow 2016” and I’m off to the races. Currently, I have to manually re-construct last years reports every January – leaves too much room for error.
YES PLEASE!!! I have been asking for this since I bought this program 3 years ago!! It seems to me it would be a fundamental feature. I’ve never NOT had a save as or duplicate feature!
Hi, I agree with you. I tried iBank for 2 months, I think Microsoft Sunset was much better, had more options for reports and also other features such as Inventory and easy to set up payee details and consolidate payee’s names. A lot more work are need to make it better and stay on top of the market.
Jeeez… is that all you have to say? A change of name? How about acknowledging some of the feature requests that your customers have been asking for?
I agree with the others. This isn’t a good move, nor is it a good product name. You took a name that was symbolic of Apple, and had a premium feel, and tossed it into the garbage. Your new name doesn’t inspire confidence – instead it sounds like a joke. I’d urge you to reconsider. If you must rebrand, for goodness sakes, crowdsource for ideas.
you could find a better name with 5 minutes of brainstorm with your team. I hope that you not spend your money with a fancy/expensive creative consultancy. Even so, I suppose that there were some legal problems with the name iBank and it’s better to change.
Just one man’s opinion, but this feels like a mistake. Nothing wrong with iBank… you’ve created a brand that’s well-known and respected. The new name is silly by being too cute (no offense intended!)
iBnk, iGGFinance, iGGBank, N iBank, please no “Banktivity”
Guy-
Give the man a break. Nobody can argue that iBank (Banktivity) is well worth the money we paid for it. Yes, it’s got a ways to go in terms of features. But this is a fairly small company going up against GIANTS…their futures are dependent on success; their family futures are dependent on success.
Clearly they take their business seriously and put a LOT more thought into changes than we can, on the fly. Can we not do better, in support of the ONLY viable option to a dying Intuit, than p***ing cold water on the new name and whining about features we “demand”?
Civility and a bit of support will carry this product suite much further than “You made a mistake” and “Where’s my requested feature?”. I couldn’t care less if they named it PurseStrings…it’s their company, their risk, their labor.
just saying.
Thanks Rich, I appreciate it!
Ian – I don’t believe that any commenter here wants anything but the best for the product. I hope you’re taking the comments here as constructive as I choose to believe that’s how they’re meant. We believe the name you chose devalues the product and jeopardizes the great reputation you’ve built.
That was the intent behind my comment as well….
I agree 100%.
Thanks for saying that …I love iBank or Bankitivity as it is now called …have these whiners seen the disaster than is Quicken Mac lately …an upgrade from Quicken fowled up years of my records so I bought iBank and … while the user interface is hard to get used to … iBank works much better than Quicken …and faster …and gets the bank balances right which QM does not. I am thankful IGG got me out of Quicken ….
I’d suggest putting a reference to the name change in your release notes with the latest version. I opened iBank, it asked me to download a new version, I open it, and it’s called Banktivity. I wonder if I’ve been scammed? I read through the attached PDF, no mention anywhere in the Whats New section about a name change. I search around on the internet and finally land on this page.
I agree! I ended up here after searching the internet to make sure someone hadn’t hacked ibank and wanted to give me some ingenious apple targeted malware. Time wasted that could have been saved by a mere note to loyal customers.
It was written on the info panel, with a link to their blog, when you open the software, this is the panel thats middle top.
That’s only after you’ve already installed the new version, if you were trusting enough to install an app with a different name than the one you selected to download.
I understand the need for a name change. But “Bankitivity” is a poor choice. It’s bland, sounding like it was the product of a committee. It says very little about the product, which means an expensive marketing campaign would be required.
Banks are only a small part of today’s landscape for personal finance, and “Bankitivity” is too Bank-centric.
You could have done better.
Spot on… the “bank” centric aspect is limiting in my view. I use this app for tracking investments, budgeting, managing funds in brokerage accounts, tax reports, etc. which are not in my view directly or solely related to bank activity for example,
Agree with Cory S – downloaded new version and was surprised at the new name (not a good feeling for financial software) – need better communication.
BTW – still love the software – keep at it Ian!
I have to agree, you may want to reconsider your name change. I understand the need to change the name for legal reasons but you should have reached out to your users for suggestions or had some sort of contest. Love your products, not loving your you name.
“Banktivity” as a name sounds strained and amateurish. Did you test this name out in the social-scientific way—with focus groups and the like? Usually I find myself defending the product, but this time I have to join the critics.
Ian – fyi “Banktivity 5 for Mac?” still has, “iBank” in the header when opened.
Thanks, fixed already for 5.6.6.
So, why does the latest app update (5.6.4) still retain the name “iBank”? That’s the way it installed itself on my computer this morning.
Correction. The app update released today installed itself correctly in my Applications folder, but failed to delete the existing “iBank” app — I had to do that manually.
Had the same problem! Only when I saw the small print indicating “Banktivity” that I realized I was just trying to reload the same thing over and over again…. Would have been nice to have a small (but not too small) prompt to look for the .dmg under “Banktivity”…. Oh well! Still did figure it out in the end… But seems leek a lack of “User/Usability testing” in that area…. But thanks! Still love the application and albeit slow at times (i have large files) it does the work quite nicely….
Any chance you will do something to allow blank checks to be written without zeros in the amount fields? Sometimes an amount is no known and a check is carried and at the ready. (Quicken used to do this!) Thank you.
Imho, you can call it whatever you want, but please do not change the functionality. I am quite pleased with all and the best part of “Banktivity” is, it works very well with me without complaining 🙂
Where is the “Like” button 🙂
“Banktivity” makes it sound rinky-dink and sophmore-ish. iBank had a good reputation and a professional-sounding name. I’m afraid that the new name doesn’t give the same professional impression.
I agree
I kind of liked the old name, but change is good. Just one question – what do we do with the old iBank app on Mac? Just send it to the trash?
Yeah, you can delete it.
I’m relatively new to iBanktivity (~ 3 months), so I wasn’t invested in the old name. The explanation made sense to me. The most important sentence for me was “This name change in no way signals some other cultural shift at IGG. ” I’ve been very pleased with the customer support I’ve received during my conversion from Quicken for Mac, and as long as that customer focus remains, I’d be hard pressed to care any less about the labels.
These comments that we have to attach to a blog to communicate make me wish we still had forums.
Good decision to change the name. Bad decision on the new name. Too many syllables and too silly.
Hi Ian,
I would love to see custom date fields in the budgeting feature of this program. We get paid at odd times and I would love the ability to customize the start/end of my budget month. Also, I would love to have an easier or more straightforward way to back up my data without having to use Time Machine. A good old back up feature would be great, though exporting as QIF will have to do for now.
Thanks.
I have been looking for an answer to my issues with iBank Investor. It is showing OIBAX and TPINX at twice their value per share. My Banktivity for Mac shows the numbers correctly but the iPad makes it look like I have made a new one million dollars. The app is not useful if its purpose of easy reach knowledge of your holdings are skewed. Will Banktivity Investor correct this.???
Banktivity sounds like software you should only use just prior to Christmas. Poor choice.
I think the iBank name was nicer. I also have to agree with a lot of other users that its time to give the app a refresh, more color and some very needed structural changes.
well, maybe the name change will open it up to a windows version of the software, I for one would love a universal app, on my PC, then I can access from anywhere, instead of waiting until I’m in front of my iMac….
As a computer engineer, I’ve personally dealt with the pitfalls of a software name change rammed down our throats by management. It’s all over code, documentation, the web site, search engines, etc. It was a nightmare to fix. I’m concerned that all this labor will further starve feature development. Reporting is substandard (way worse than Quicken), automatic import rule generation still can’t be turned off, split memos are missing from rule-generated smart accounts, etc… The software also crashes so often that I don’t dare let it run unless I’m actively using it. I really like “Banktivity,” despite the steep interface learning curve and (obviously from these posts) the developers ignoring feature requests that languish for years. It’s a done deal now, regardless of what I think of the name. But, be careful what you wish for.
By all means change you name (though iBank was perfectly fine), but, really, ‘Banktivity’. That is not good. Sounds more like a game than a serious piece of software. You might have done better having a quick survey amongst the users. If I was shopping for software I wouldn’t maybe stop to take a look at something called Banktivity!
I understand the need to change the name (probably to avoid confusion with Apple products), but I think the new name is not very memorable. How about “IGGSBank” or “IGGSFinance” or something appropriate that flows off the tongue easily?
Would be nice to track my investments weekly (in a database-like table) manually, instead of automatic download of prices from the bank (feature virtually useless in the UK). I could then compare the ups and downs throughout the year.
I just downloaded the update, 5.6.5. It is asking me for registration information (which was stored in 5.6.4). Where do I find that? Then, when I try to open 5.6.4, it also asks for registration information. This ‘update’ is a pain in the a#$!
IBank was a good name – if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! I remember Borland changing their name years ago and losing a lot of customers in the process – please don’t make the same mistake! iCloud is available on Windows – if you want to go down that route, then build on your name and have IBank on Windows! Frankly, you don’t have any competition for personal finance software in Europe since intuit stopped marketing quicken here!
Congratulations!
The update worked for me; thanks…
Your (tech) support has improved dramatically recently.
Glad to know all’s well at IGG – and good luck!
Well, ok, but let’s leave it out of the dictionary.
iBank worked as a name. It was short, catchy, memorable, and easily recognized as a mac product. It was a major selling point for me versus Quicken. I have already forgotten the new name and had to scroll up. Ugh. A rebrand is for a failure looking to relaunch with a new hope or a current product that is radically changing. Neither is applicable here. Focus on your product and not the name.
Bad move iVank gad built s great reputation. You are thrown © get away Banktivity is just gimmicky
The name change is not very elegant but I do not think it makes a lot of difference and none at all to the product, which is quite good, and to the customer service, which is even better. One horrible problem with the program, which is still not corrected, is the inability to copy a prior budget and then make changes to the date range (ie. for the current year from the prior year) and then make whatever tweaks are needed. Presently, you have to print out the entire old budget to see it easily and then enter the new data manually for every account and expense item. It takes me forever to get it right and I keep making mistakes that would not occur if I could just copy last year’s budget. The on-line help people tell me that it cannot be done and that it is a great suggestion for “next time”. Well, this is the next version and that feature is still not there. It can’t be a big software issue to allow a copying of an existing “document”. Anyway, I would like to know what is new in this new version that was just pushed out with the name change but I haven’t seen any explanation.
@Stephen Just wanted to let you know you can copy your Banktivity (iBank) document in the Finder. You can open both documents in the app at the same time if you want.
what I was trying to do was copy my budget from last year; not copy my entire Banktivity file. The program does not allow that, or so I was told. If I am mistaken, I need more specific directions as how to copy a budget for last year so that I can make changes to it for the current year without needing to re-input all of the data. If that is not possible, this would solve a fairly glaring omission from the strengths of the program. Please advise
Same goes for reports. You should be able to copy a report and then simply change the date range. I don’t want to lose the original, but I also don’t want to accidentally select the wrong data so that they’re not really comparable. Copying reports would prevent this problem.
Also, folders for reports/charts so they can be grouped by financial year, for example.
As for the name… I guess it will grow on me but it’s more of a mouthful. Hopefully this ‘investment’ in a new name means that Banktivity is here for the long haul…
I’m in agreement with many of the users — rather than focusing on something as superficial as a name, please incorporate basic feature improvements we’ve been requesting for years.
Suggestion: Ask the users (not just developers) on the features they would most like to see.
Speaking of users, did you consider surveying us on a prospective name change? “iBank” was succinct and used fewer syllables while “Banktivity” sounds rather corny.
I have left iBank on Banktivity when wifi sync left. Don’t care about name, put effort into keeping old long-term customers satisfied.
Marketing run a foul…..
I have to agree with the majority of comments here. This name change seems unnecessary and to my ears (I’m an editor and linguist) very sophomoric; something a non-native speaker of English might come up with; not a good choice. How much time did that take up in committee to get resolved? Hopefully now the team can focus on more important things, such as the features and improvements users have been expecting for some time.
Thanks for addressing the issue of phantom dates in empty fields, when using the yyyymmdd date format, like: 20160128.
I also don’t like the name. IMHO it’s a dumb name and most likely won’t grow on anyone. Sorry, but the truth sometimes hurts.
And I don’t buy the excuses about confusion. Google ibank and the first thing that comes up is:
“The Best Personal Finance Software for Mac! Meet iBank 5
https://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/”
So people can find you. But I just converted to iBank and will see what the future holds.
iBank is a better name. Banktivity sounds silly and is hard to spell. I join others that wish for better reporting, which is the main drawback to iBank, not the name. I moved to iBank from quicken several years ago when intuit abandoned mac. The only thing I miss about quicken is the reports.
I’m sure they extensive market research with the existing customer base and potential customers to make the decision to dispense with 15 years of branding…
I was led to this blog when I opened ibank on my iPhone. The name is a mouth full but not my decision. My concern is the program. Since I had to switch from Quicken when I got a Mac, I found this on the internet. The did not mean anything. What did are the comments from users. I am satisfied with it. I just added ibank for iPhone and love how it it cloud syncs back and forth between the Mac and iPhone. Entering transactions on the iPhone while I am away from the Mac is a great asset. It is much quicker to check on iPhone then my MacBook.
The name was not important to me. Peoples reviews were what made me choose ibank.
Thank you for creating and maintaining the program.
I liked the name iBank. There was no doubt it was a product for the Mac. Having said that, I hope Banktivity will give me the ability that Quicken 2003 gave me to print a register with split detail.
I loathe the supported that Quicken provided for the Mac and after upgrading to Quicken Essentials, I swore I would never use Quicken again. iBank took some getting used to. It’s useable but I miss the functionality of Quicken.