I've been using this application now for three and a half years, and have many thousands of entries in it. I came to it the hard way, after using Quicken since 1993 (in Windows) and finding that since the Y2K change to Quicken that it began to forget an occasional previously reconciled transaction every now and then, which made it impossible to balance my checkbook. This happened in both Windows and Macintosh versions. I've also tried most of the other Macintosh financial software over the last six years as well. Some like iBank had a very rough transition to Universal, and others either didn't have what it took over time or lacked the right mix of features to be able to quickly and easily track my finances in ten different accounts including investments, with transfers between them. Checkbook has never faltered anywhere! It has consistently produced accurate, very easy to use and track results, is very easy to set up, and does exactly what it says it will, inexpensively and effectively. It doesn't have all the reporting features of Quicken or neat pie charts like some, but the charts it does produce are clear and easy to read...and do cover all categories of info. This is an outstanding application that combines both ease of use with utter reliability and accuracy. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

A great app.

Behaves as you would expect it to, its stable, easy to use, has a totally consistent interface. To be recommended, especially at the price of $18 and often on 'special' for less.

The search, or filter is incredible allowing you to see in an instant what you have spent in any time period, or on any type of transaction.

A few issues though.
1. The icons have to be some of the ugliest I have ever seen on a mac app.

2. Updates are very slow. 2.0 has been promised as any day now for over 9 months.

3. The simplicity of the app creates problems as it is lacking some refinement. This would be ok in a 1.0, but not a 1.8 that has been out for 3 plus years and is still not at 2.0.

4. Types have to be set in each accounts preferences individually, and have to be added twice for deposit and withdrawal. They also can not be copied from account to account. Splits are very primitive, to the point that they are basically useless.

5. Transactions are color coded, but with only three colors it is impossible to see if a transfer is a deposit or withdrawal.

6. Missing the ability to turn columns on and off. All your accounts including loans and credit cards have a check column even though these account types do not normally have checks.

7. Not enough keyboard equivalents means that you are constantly moving from mouse to keyboard while reconciling.

This could be used as a textbook example of what a good Cocoa application can be like: simple, clean, straightforward, no bells, no whistles, just does the job with no fuss.

From an e-mail I sent to the developer on first using the app:


I downloaded a bunch of shareware financial applications and I'm going with yours for now. [...] You guys obviously know what you're doing. [...] The only financial application interface I really liked previously was Pocket Quicken for my Newton. Yours seems clearer even than that.
[...]
A first look at the application betrays a good practical knowledge of interface design on your part; clearly raised, sensibly sized buttons with good labels, consistency with other OS X metaphors etc. This application started behaving as I expected it to the moment I used it. I look forward to using CheckBook more.

Thank you,

QIF importing does not work properly. Some entries get random dollar values.