iFinance is personal finance software that offers a good mix of budgeting, reporting and investment tools to help you manage your finances. However, this program doesn't have the best connectivity with financial institutions outside of Europe.
This financial software for Mac has options for connecting your bank, credit card or investment accounts directly to the software. iFinance uses a different protocol – HBCI (Home Banking Computer Interface) – to connect to banks. It's supported primarily by German banks. So unless your financial institutions are based in Germany, you may have to manually upload transactions and continually upload new transactions to keep them current. The company recommends downloading the trial version of the software prior to purchasing it so you know whether or not your banks are supported.
iFinance offers a mobile companion app for iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches that allows you update transactions as you make them. This app needs to be synced to the desktop program by being connected to the computer. This extra bit of work makes the app less useful than those of other finance programs for Mac we reviewed.
Once you've imported your transactions, you can begin creating your budget. iFinance gets you off to a good start by automatically categorizing transactions for you. This is a helpful feature that eliminates some of the initial setup that other Mac personal financial software programs require. If your accounts are in German banks, you can also use the app to pay your bills online.
After you've added your transactions, the budget requires more setup. You create individual budgets for every category. This is a little different format from some of the other personal financial software we reviewed, where each category fits into a larger, overarching budget. You can't cut the large budget into smaller chunks; for example, such as setting a spending amount for groceries within a larger budget. With that in mind, iFinance may be best suited for those who need to keep track of multiple budgets or those with very specific requirements.
iFinance includes reporting tools to help you analyze your finances. You can see your net worth, and track your cash flow and spending.
This Mac personal finance software can also give you a big-picture look at your personal investments. iFinance has tools that provide an overview of your portfolio and track the performance of your assets. It uses the Yahoo stock tracker to show you how your stocks are performing.
iFinance primarily connects with German banks, and the budgeting format is better suited for people who track multiple budgets. This program has good reporting options and basic personal investment tools.
