The Infinite Kind Blog

As many of you know, we’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the latest version of Moneydance, and we’re thrilled to announce that Moneydance 2011 is finally here! The new build has the same familiar checkbook-register interface and all of the features of our earlier versions, but we’ve made the software more intuitive, more customizable and, most importantly, added a whole host of new features that make the program even better!

Here’s a quick recap of some of the features that are new in Moneydance 2011:

• Direct import of data from Quicken Essentials for Mac
• Completely new interface for managing downloaded transactions, designed to minimize the effort required to keep your finances up to date
• Additional Graphs and Reports, including a transfer report to help you analyze money flow between accounts
• Multi-currency improvements making life easier when managing international accounts and investments
• Instant access to bank websites from within the program
• Enhanced report printing

So now that Moneydance 2011 is all ready to go, what’s the next step? Well, to try it, of course! If you’re a first-time Moneydance user, you can download our fully functional demo (allowing up to 100 manually entered transactions). Current Moneydance users can find out if they’re eligible for a free upgrade by entering their key here. Don’t forget to keep in touch, too! Moneydance loves social networking, and customers who “like” us on Facebook or tweet about @moneydance will get a 20% off discount code.

Stay tuned for blog updates as we celebrate this latest version of Moneydance and dive into some new features in our Moneydance in Action Series.

We’re so excited to be releasing Moneydance 2011, and are looking forward to sharing all the new (and old) ways Moneydance can help us track, manage and analyze our money. Thanks to the whole Moneydance community for helping to make this latest version what it is!

It’s been an exciting weekend for us at The Infinite Kind- one of us is at SXSW and the rest were hard at work polishing up and releasing the first preview build of Moneydance 2011.  So what’s new?

• Streamlined downloaded transaction matching, combining the best of the 2008 and 2010 strategies.
• Split register view- see unconfirmed transactions separate from or combined with your register.
• Automatic "best guess" categorization of all downloaded transactions.
• One click links to your bank's website for easy downloading.
• New reports, standardization of current report formatting, and allowing transfers to be included in the income and expense report.
• Automatically saving the last settings of your reports, even if they're not memorized.
• Improvements to printing, including the ability to print your budget.
• My personal favorite, cumulative stacked graphs in both the Income and the Expenses graphs.
• Many more smaller visual and behind-the-scenes improvements.

Please keep in mind this preview build is beta software and may contain bugs, but if you’d like to check it out or help us test you can download Moneydance 2011 here. For those of you who’d prefer to hold out for the full release, we’ll post again when it’s available.  As always, you can install the Moneydance Updater extension to be automatically notified when a new preview (or stable) release is available.

My 2 year anniversary of working with The Infinite Kind recently passed, and I’ve been spending some time looking back through our archives and seeing how much progress we as a company have made in that time.  To celebrate my anniversary, I thought I’d share with our users a little of how we’ve developed.

In the past 2 years:

• We've released 3 major updates to Moneydance 2010.
• We've released an iPhone and iPad app.
• We developed and released a new Quotes and Exchange Rates Downloader extension, vastly expanding the options for our users with non-US investments.
• We released SyncSpace for the iPad,  which provides an infinite drawing space that can be shared in real time over the net.
• I'm attending SXSW Interactive, where I'm meeting some of the best and brightest minds in the tech world today!
• We've expanded from a support staff of 1 to a staff of 6.  We've also tripled our developing staff.
• We moved to an integrated forum and support system, providing a higher quality support experience for our users, made voting on feature requests easier, and  built a fantastic forum community where users share information about how they use our program and offer their experience to other users.

But we’re not content to rest on our laurels.  Here’s what you can expect to see from Moneydance in the next few months

• An Android version of SyncSpace, making collaboration even easier!
• Videos and screenshots demonstrating some basic (and not so basic) features of Moneydance.
• The continuation of our "Moneydance in Action" blog series, expanded to demonstrate more complex features of the program.
• Expansion of our personal finance focused posts, and some fabulous guest bloggers.
• A new release of the iPhone and iPad apps with a new Dropbox based syncing system.
• And we're working with a partner to develop a Moneydance Android app!

Thanks to everyone in the Moneydance community for your support, and keep your eyes peeled for a big Moneydance 2011 announcement on our blog tomorrow!

Some personal finance blog posts are so amazing they are timeless. That’s how I feel about about Wise Bread senior writer Philip Brewer’s post from April 2010, “If Budgeting Isn’t Fun, You’re Doing It Wrong.”

When our customers ask about the proper way to use Moneydance for a non-traditional function I usually offer them a few options and close with “It’s up to you. Make the program fit your needs, not your needs fit the program.” I feel the same way about budgets- they are tools that different people use in different ways to meet different goals.

When I first read Philip’s post I was pretty dissatisfied with my life and wanted to shake things up, but didn’t think I could afford it. Just under 6 months later I stuck 4 rubbermaid totes of clothing, books, and assorted keepsakes in a friends attic. I boarded a plane to Iceland with a small backpack containing a few changes of clothes, my trusty netbook, a return ticket to the U.S. 6 months later, and a vague itinerary.

I like the more concrete points he makes about how we make spending decisions. Looking at the money we spend on the basics like feeding and housing ourselves as things we want and enjoy can help make budgeting a less painful process. The best point of the post, however, is the last paragraph. Basically, we’re probably not going to get our budgets right the first time; starting with that expectation will make the inevitable changes less frustrating.

Whether you’re a budgeting pro or new to the game, give the article a read. I hope you find it as useful and inspirational as I did!

Most of the Moneydance crew are personal finance junkies: Tom follows the stock market, Brian tracks currency exchange rates, Jon & Ben are both involved in precious metals, and I was a tax preparer for several years.  I’ve really been enjoying writing “Moneydance in Action,” but there are so many awesome personal finance tools and articles that we’re starting a second blog series.

Sometimes our posts will be our view of articles or other blog posts, sometimes they’ll be our techniques or experiences, and we’ll even consider having a few guest bloggers.   We’ll also be describing how we use Moneydance’s tools and features with these financial strategies.  If you have suggestions for posts or techniques you’d like to read about, you can contact me directly at angie@moneydance.com.

When I originally planned my travels in Europe I had intended to stay for just shy of 6 months, but I’ve recently decided to return to the U.S. at the end of January.  I’ve had a wonderful time exploring different countries, but have grown tired of the frigid Budapest weather and am ready to return to a slightly less foreign environment.  I’ll be traveling to Austin, TX in early February and plan to remain for several months to enjoy warm weather, great music, and some excellent dance companies.

This travel change will also shift the focus of our “Moneydance in Action” blog series.  I’ll be posting about my European travels for the next month or so, and will then begin posting on my experiences in the U.S.  This will involve less multi-currency and international use, but will also allow me to focus on more complex features, such as setting up an envelope budgeting system.  I’ll also be addressing more day-to-day uses, like online bill payments and creative uses of reminders.

Due to the complexity of this move Moneydance in Action won’t be posting again until early February, but we’ll be starting our new series tomorrow.  Thanks for traveling with me, and I’ll see you in February!