Banktivity: Personal Finance Reviews

by 1974B.C.

I tried and tried to get Banktivity to do the right thing. It keeps downloading transactions and assigning categories based on past entries. Last I checked, the odds of me having the same split on categories at Target or Walmart are near zero. But worse it would overwrite the manual categories I put in with its own and I would have to repeatedly correct it. The mobile app seems to have the bug as everything gets corrupted when the mobile app syncs with our cloud file from macOS.

ALSO, if you are using the bolted-on envelope accounting be aware that this feature is not the foundation of the software but an afterthought and as such you are going to hit lots of gotchas. Biggest one for me is if I forget to distribute money from my envelopes for the month because I have fallen behind there is no way to do it retroactively without changing the date on my MacBook and then distributing the money. But if I distribute money in the current month I cannot see how I did last month when I do enter receipts and get caught up.

Banktivity is just a pain to use and I am searching for another now.

by 24922:)

I have never written an App store review before now, however, the most recent update frustrates me so much that I deleted it from my phone. The problem is the new summary screen that they're so proud of. Because I primarily use the phone app to enter transactions on the go, the summary screen is a useless, annoying distraction that I have to click away nearly every time I launch Banktivity . Furthermore, my financial status is my private business but thanks to the summary screen I now need to make sure I shield my phone from anyone who might glance down and see my net worth. Not just every now and then, but virtually every time I'm at a restaurant or a store or anywhere I enter a transaction on the go. I don't want my children, my casual friends, or my colleages to know my net worth on regular basis, but there it is, in my face, every time I launch Banktivity . Software developers should never introduce a screen of information that appears on launch, must be dismissed before Banktivity can actually be used, and cannot be disabled. Very very annoying.

by JLBiv

Cloud Sync frequently fails to work correctly (with no error or warning messages), leaving the balances and registers incorrect. After talking with support and doing some experimentation of my own, it seems I only have two choices. 1) Find the missing transactions in the desktop app, then delete and re-enter them. This can be quite the time consuming exercise. 2) Reset the Cloud Sync data from the desktop app. This doesn’t take as long as Option 1, but sometimes it fails, and Banktivity says that due to the Cloud Sync reset, I need to do a reset on the mobile app. But there doesn’t seem to be any way to do that. So I end up having to disconnect the mobile app from the Cloud Sync Data by deleting the file/connection, and then set everything up again from scratch.

tl;dr - Annoying and time-consuming synchonization bugs make this software a necessary evil for monitoring/managing finances instead of a welcome and helpful tool.

by App.review

I have been a this app user for many years—back since iBank 1.0. 4.0 desktop was probably the best and it has gone down hill since. The mobile app has always been poorly designed and they never listen to customer feedback. I have been requesting very simple changes that most financial software has had for decades. Each year I hear the same generic response. “Thank you. We will pass it on to our developers”. The recommendations never make it in to the next version or even an update. You shouldn’t have to request a feature that has been in financial software packs for decades. I finally deleted the unnecessarily convoluted mobile app that has useless bells and whistles and I won’t be upgrading my desktop version again since they charged me $40 to “upgrade” to “dark version” on Mac OS that had no additional functionality. I know grade school kids that could have coded dark version in a day.

by Firefighting09

My issue is simple. I use this app on my Mac everyday. I am trying to simply sync my data to my iPhone this app app to use the budget features. All I need it to do is to sync my transactions from my Mac to my iPhone so I can have my budget on the go.

When I sync, there are transactions that get either deleted or adjusted on both my phone and Mac. No I have to spend a lot of time figuring out where it was adjusted.

I have contacted customer service numerous times about the issue. I have deleted the sync documents and reloaded them to the cloud sync several times with that being the only solution offered. It will work for a short while and then it will mess up a transaction from months ago which I have to find and throw off budgets and account totals. Until there is a real solution or when customer service takes my issue seriously, I will be in search for a new software that can simply sync.

by Digitalnomad

1) this app 4 for iPhone is a resource HOG. (this app 3.5.9 for iPhone felt like a slow resource hog too, but at least it worked.)
2) On my iPhone 6+, It crashes on launch continuously. I’m lucky to even get it to launch now.
3) App won’t remember the default account you set. I’ve had to set the default account at least 5 times.
4) The font size is so small and thin in certain areas as to be almost unreadable. Seriously, screens are huge these days so make the font size bigger and bolder or allow Banktivity to respect the user’s selection of system font size in the iOS settings.

Argh! v3 worked (slowly), but v4… I guess I’m going to be shopping for a new finance app that syncs between macOS & iOS. The iOS app is my data entry terminal and you can’t enter data if Banktivity won’t launch, thus becoming dead to me.

Version 6.3
Well, they’ve done it again. They’ve forced a Summary screen on us that they think is amazing. Some people may desire that kind of thing, but not me. Banktivity used to open up to All Accounts which is the best view for me. Now to get to All Accounts you have to tap through the Summary screen, wasting my time. Oh… and of course there’s no way to designate not using the Summary view or making All Accounts your default view. Every couple of times I launch Banktivity , it opens back to Summary view. Ugh.

by Ufmikeyj

Do not download until issues are fixed. Usually have very little issues with their updates. SOOO many issues when doing bills the last couple days with it properly syncing my direct access accounts and non direct access accounts. Coming up with very off numbers, which then syncs over to the Mac version and goofs everything up. Have had to delete accounts and readd them several times to fix.

Very disappointing, but also kinda makes since since they’re touting it as a FREE update for the iPhone.

Also, all versions still have issues syncing properly with the Florida retirement service (FRS). Each device I use to sync using direct access gives me a different balance. I’ve deleted and done what was told to me by IGG several times, and it works for a day, then goes back to being wrong.

by Oneblessedguy

Lately the software has gone downhill a little. I used to recommend it to everybody. I don’t know anymore. The customer support just isn’t as friendly as it could be and the direct access doesn’t work half the time. I mean, you shouldn’t have to connect and reconnect and reconnect to direct access over and over again. And now they don’t support Capital One? This isn’t a credit union in the middle of back country roads! This is a MAJOR bank. But now suddenly it isn’t supported and I can’t connect to it for about three weeks solid. I asked when they would fix the direct access connect problems and i was told it would be sometime next week. I asked if they sent something out to let people know that it was working or that they got it fixed. I was told that they “don’t do that.” “Just try to connect in about a week.” Really, is it that hard to post something on the website or support site that says that these banks are fixed and should be working properly now? It just makes me feel like I am a bother to them. A customer should not feel like they are a bother to the place they are doing business with! It makes customers start looking for other places to do business with. -My 2 cents

by VM@RDU

I’ve been a this app (mac, iphone, ipad) user since the beginning when it was iBank. I gave up on Quicken for Mac after using since 1991 and converted to iBank. So, I consider myself a seasoned financial software user. Suggestions for much needed very simple this app improvement features tend to go ignored. Ability to Sort Schedule Transactions (ST) by Account, adding the Search capability to ST windowS and ability to Print the list of the Sorted by Account and also single account sort list all seem very basic. I’ve had several Fraud events on my credit card accounts resulting in accounts having to be closed. If you’ve been through such a thing, one can appreciate all that you have to go through notifying all those ST Payees in the impacted account of the new account number, etc. In addition, the fraud results in having to reconfigure the new account numbers in this app. It’s a laborious and basically manual effort due to this app ST not being able to sort by account, no search field, and display and print ST account list sorted and/or by single account! I’ve made these suggestions to IGG Software numerous times over the years to no avail. Otherwise, this app does a very good job.

by Shazam7:02

I really like this app for Mac and have been using for years and just in the past few month I got the iPhone app. I really like it too and that it does cloud sync between the platforms but I tried the Direct Access and I find it much more of a hassle than a productivity feature. It’s constantly saying it can’t connect to accounts that it previously worked on the day before, then when I try to refresh it and do that a handful of times it locks me out of my account. This has happened to a couple accounts and I’m just more annoyed with the feature more than anything. I’m glad it was just a trial and that it’s over now because I won’t be using that feature anymore, I’ll just stick to downloading manually because that’s much more reliable and consistent.

by TSViper

I left YNAB once they went to the subscription model. Since I hate "renting" software I immediately starting looking for alternatives that also offered the envelope budgeting method that YNAB basically uses. This software is the best fit I could find and it functions very well. The desktop software has a lot of great reports and is easy to reconcile with my bank statements.

I do however have a few requests on how the the iOS app can be improved to make it a 5 star app:
1) When entering an amount for a transaction I would rather not have to ender the "." For example: to enter an amount of $3.45 I have to type "3" "." "4" "5" instead of just "3" "4" "5". A minor annoyance but when I'm using the iOS app to enter 90% of my transactions the less taps the better.
2) I would like the category field to function just like the payee field - quick find? Where I can start typing the name of the category and it filters down the list of available categories vs. having to scroll through the whole list and find the one I want.
3) I find that if I sync or switch to Banktivity to often I have to enter my sync password again.
4) Sometimes the iOS app doesn't always sync properly and I have different totals and transactions than the desktop version. I then need to resync the document file to re-align everything again. This has happened about 3 or 4 times in the last year or so.

Other than that keep up the great work! Looking forward to future updates.

by Assault_is_eternal

I left Quicken for iBank a long time ago. I hadn’t upgraded from version 5 because all I use it for is to keep track of my finances; I don’t need any of the online features. When version 7 for the Mac went on sale, I figured that I’d give it a try. And it’s good. I generally like the interface, although I agree with other users about the splash screen having your net worth at the top. It’s not needed; I’d much prefer the option of just showing your accounts when you open the program. One of the features that I had expected was the ability to switch between this app and other apps without being logged out of this app. As it is, you have to sign it to this app every time you look at your bank’s app. I thought that version 6 had introduced a “multitasking mode” where you could choose to stay logged into this app while looking at other apps.

by Robbeaumont

Over I like the software. As a YNAB user, I also like there is an envelope budgeting option.
Those things aside, connecting (and maintaining connectivity) to USAA has been difficult. After a couple days trying on my own I was able to reach out to online support and finally got it connected. Thereafter it wouldn’t update, still waiting on a consistent resolution.
Scheduled transactions are nice to have but don’t resolve/match against a downloaded transaction. So I end up skipping a bunch of scheduled transactions. I guess I could post it early before it’s downloaded to match up but that seems silly.
Envelope budgeting implementation seems to be an early try. It’s got some of the features, but others are just odd. Maybe because I’m coming from ynab and I need to review the training more.

by Crspy82

I enjoy having access to Tags on iOS now. I was able to merge several categories and now use tags to differentiate the more finite spending within those categories.

I do not know if it is the new app or the fact I turned off Direct Access, but the syncing between devices (computer, iPad, iPhone) is much quicker and smoother than it used to be.

I was having some serious issues after updating to 4.0 and while the root cause is still unknown, I did find out that on the computer, do NOT save the .bank6 file on a cloud drive as this causes issues (likely what occurred with my file).

The support staff was great. They understood my issues and concerns (I had three years of data I did not want to lose.) and helped me keep it all!!! (Export record as QIF, build a new file and import). I did still spend the weekend fixing a few minor issues and reconciling everything again, but I was able to save all the important information (transactions, categories, etc).

by Bhdcp

this app iOS integrates seamlessly with the Mac version and is easy to use. I do subscribe to ICG’s Direct Access service which enhances Banktivity , automatically downloading transactions for all of my accounts. I’ve used this app for just over 2 years and am very impressed. Before that, I had used Quicken for 30 years on various platforms and finally switched to this app primarily because of the strength of its phone app and how smoothly it syncs with the MacOS version. (I never used Quicken’s iOS app because of concerns about syncing.) I’m really pleased with this app’s platform and Banktivity continues to improve.