Cha-Ching for Mac2.0b104

Another interesting application where development have ceased with no word from the developer on future plans yet the application is still available for sale?! Proceed with caution!

After the ugrade to b107, Cha-Ching crashed upon restart and all data from the last three months are now gone. Don't rely on CC. Manage any critical data with it at your own risk. This is not the first time that something like this happens. Things never seem to go forward smoothly with this developer. 18 months later we're still waiting for a stable and trusty version. And the developer simply vanished from this earth, there's no update on their forums in the last 3 months. Hello?!? Can we talk about incompetence here?

I just have to say, this is the ONLY Mac app that I really regret sinking my time and money into. I went through so much frustration with this thing that I ended up switching to a web app for managing my money.

There is no fun and nothing to use at all :-(

40 bucks, what a steal! *cough* check recommend apps, save your time and/or money!

Wow. It looks like they actually remembered that they have a Mac OS X version of ChaChing. How considerate of them. /sarcasm

This will definitely qualify for the app slowest development pace.... they failed to deliver their promises every single time...

Worst Mac App ever. Tied with Disco (the burning program). Both apps were hyped like crazy pre-release, but once the programs actually were available, they simply did not deliver on the promises they made. Lots of Flash (GUI), but does nothing but Crash. I want a refund! Click the smiley if you think the Developers should refund every person who was mislead into buying this unstable, buggy piece of garbage.

I start it, and it crashes... Report here: http://freetexthost.com/moiioqvh4e

I agree with last 3 posts. Cha-Ching looks great but is unusable. I purchased this software when it first was released with the hope the developers would make Cha-Ching into the next Quicken but that has yet to happen. Development has been super slow and I don't even bother trying the beta's anymore because the previous beta's have been so disappointing. IMO, These guys should give up and move on to a new project. I have been using iBank 3 since Jan 2008 and it serves me well with my multiple accounts and portfolio's.

This is really bad, even for a beta. Multiple editing doesn't work on categories or tags and I am not editing thousands of transactions individually. Syncing with the iPod touch worked only once. Now Cha-Ching can't find the device at all. Really amateurish project which should be buried now.

Cha-Ching reminds me of the disc burning application Disco. Lots of hype, some eye candy, but little functionality and no communication from the developers. Do not invest your time into this app because you'll only end up having to invest more time extracting your data so that you can import it into an app that actually works (I use CheckBook Pro).

I had high hopes for this program. The website sounds great, and the reviews looked intriguing. I wanted an expense app that I could sync with my iPhone so that my wife and I could keep track of our expenses. THIS APPLICATION IS SO HORRIBLE that for the first time in many years, I actually signed up to macupdate so that I could give it a review to warn others. First, I tried the new "beta 2 v88." It crashed upon launch. Then I downloaded the beta version 7, (also called v68) that was still available via MacUpdate. This beta told me it expired July 39, 2008. NOT very confidence inspiring! I could not even get the main window to open. You click on things, it's as if the button is not even there. The transaction window comes back as soon as you hit cancel. It's like one big joke. I really have not, in over 15 years as a Mac user, seen an application this buggy. Even on the Windows side, it is rare to see something like this. The good news is that I tried this before downloading (and paying for) the iPhone app. I saved $2.99 but wasted my time. I can't believe anyone would give this a high ranking. Probably spies working for Cha-Ching. If you don't believe me, go ahead and download this and try it. You will see for yourself why this is the BUGGIEST Mac application ever released. JUNK! I still can't believe it. It is just downright rude to call this a beta. This isn't even an alpha.

Latest beta as disappointing as the previous beta's. It is lacking in so many area's. I am sticking to iBank for now and watching Squirrel as it develops.

I hope this isn't a case of misguided enthusiasm but folks (anyone who has suffered through this once promising patriot missile gone scud) I just downloaded this latest version and it appears that someone has put some serious work into Cha-Ching and (dare I say it?) it is actually starting to resemble the software many of us had such lofty expectations for. Yikes!

Hmm, the new beta expires September 31, 2008. Does this mean it never expires? :)

I was kicking the tires with 2.0 beta 2 and was disappointed that it was still very buggy. It has a lot of potential (the new features are great) but in just 10 minutes of minor testing I ran into several bugs (some that are still there from 1.x) and several new obvious bugs. I'm not sure I'd be willing to trust my banking to this program until the developer is willing to put in some real time testing it.

I try all Finance/Banking apps. My one dream is for some developer that can code to Apple/Mac/Cocoa standards, beat the functionality that the Intuit product has (shun to even speak its name) has. For I loath and cannot stand for products from Intuiit - poorest implementation of a Mac app EVER created. I ALSO received Cha-Ching via a bundle. The only reason I DID NOT uninstall it was that I have *HOPE* that this app, w/ its fancy eye candy can come close to the functionality in the Inutit product (stocks, sync, reports, paycheck, etc.). I hope v2 comes out and I am impressed. What will be a laugher is if the version does not provide much better functionality and one is expected to pay a fee to upgrade, THEN and only then will I finally uninstall it. Hoping... (somebody, anybody?) I am pulling for the makers of ChaChing and all others, but the trash is merely a click & slide away.

Way to go... I found in Cha-Ching the simple way to track all my accounts and now with the beta 2.0 Cha-Ching has improved a lot. What I like a bunch is the two windows, my account and my account live web site...very handy. Give a try it is worth your time... I guess that previous comments were from old version.

I got Cha-Ching with the latest MH bundle - and uninstalled this within the first 30 mins. Too buggy - the UI seems to be the only thing in the application that has been focussed on. For anyone planning to buy this separately, caveat emptor. Looks may be good, but functionality is less than zero.

Clean interface but, as of 1.2.2, feels like a Beta product: easy to crash, budget totals incorrect, some screens don't update until left and returned to, some screens behave oddly (as if unfinished, though they work) and missing minimum expected features, like loan accounts.

I agree with the last reveiw completely. This company MIDNIGHTAPPS and MAC HEIST seem to be the worst companies I have ever tried to get a reply from. I'm wondering if the MAC HEIST and the CONTRIBUTE to your favorite CHARITY sales approach might be just a scam.

It looks nice, but isn't really stable, has a lot of bugs and is sometimes hard and inconsistent to use. The developer reponse is one of the worst I've ever seen. The guys seem to make money and this is their only intention. Cha-Ching is e.g. in the current MacHeist bundle, but still buggy and rather unmaintained...

I like the program but like SOHO Organiser it suffers from too many bugs that never seem to get fixed. Would be nice to have a networking feature. That doesn't exist so the developers have used dot Mac instead. You can backup to dot Mac but try to restore and the app hangs... force quit. Try again... app hangs....force quit. Try again... app hangs....force quit! Try again... app hangs....force quit!! Screw it! I have to manually copy the Cha-Ching file in Application Support and drag it to the other machine. Sloppy.

This application can be summarized perfectly from a Dilbert cartoon: Dogbert: "Function means nothing. Design is everything. Quality is yesterday's news. Today we focus on the emotional impact of the product." Dilbert: "But it still needs quality, right?" Dogbert: "You are so-o-o-o hard to look at."

Great app, the tagging is really good when you want to get very detailed info on which drain your money left you trough - but at 40 bucks just too expensive. I voted for the mupromo discount, for the 15 bucks the beta went I'd buy it. But I want a app to HELP ME SAVE big money, not to SPEND big money on.

Very nice interface, but too many bugs.

A little expensive, but a great app nonetheless. It actually encouraged me to plan my finances. It's not for high-power users, nor does it pretend to be. An excellent app.

I'd never thought I would say it, but after dealing with these guys since the $15.00 beta, I would happily use Quicken now. Non-responsive tech support email even for something as simple as a serial number resend gave me the wake up call pretty loud and clear. I know I will definitely think twice before I make a purchase from another independent developer, thanks to these boys.

import of QIF crashes before it even gets to the open dialog box.

I too am a registered licensee and Cha-Ching is a great disappointment. This category of app seems to be one of the achiles heels of the Mac platform. Cha-Ching, in its earliest manifestation, seemed destined to change that. Per prior reviews, the interface is indeed a thing of beauty in comparison to other apps of this type but once you get beyond the eye candy things break down quickly. In spite of some neat features Cha-Ching lacks simple common sense attributes like being able to choose one's accounts as a value when setting up a smart folder. Due to that glaring omission you must create a tag to redundently tag all records from each account. Another glaring omission is the lack of nesting folders. I have tried using Cha-Ching as a petty cash account keeper for the trade shows I attend and exhibit at. The lack of a report generator forced me to use smart folders to show me my data in ways that benefit me, which I didn't mind at first. What started as a few folders around the first of the year has grown to nearly 40 in single file interface nighmare so unweildy I've quit using the program. The latest incarnation also rendered one of the more decent features, budget folders, totally useless. Add these to the already long list of oversights noted by other reviewers and what you are left with is a piece of software who's target market is people with nothing better to do than watch pretty drawers slide open and closed. Pretty pathetic.

Unfortunately my experience with Cha-Ching has been just as negative as the other reviewers here. The app has great design and looks slick on the surface, but is mired in severe bugs. But by far the worst aspect is the abysmal support offered by Midnight Apps - when they bothered to answer my emails at all, they responded not by answering the questions I asked but by handing me cookie cutter responses that helped me not at all. Customer supprot is clearly not a priority for Midnight Apps. I bought this app during its $15 beta period, during which time it was actually more stable than after it hit 1.0. As of the 1.0.2 release, I've been experiencing license verification problems similar in appearance to the MacHeist bug others have mentioned. Perhaps the problem has been fixed for MacHeist users, but I have been left out in the cold, unable even to launch the app, and unable to get a response from Midnight Apps. Cha-Ching is a great idea for a product - but poorly executed and poorly supported. Despite being a paying customer, I've given up on Cha-Ching and bought IGG Software's iBank 2 instead - a far more solid, if not as pretty, product. Give Cha-Ching a try and judge it for yourself, but beware that doing so is a point of no return: Cha-Ching can import financial records, but cannot export. Unless you maintain a redundant system for recording your transactions, they will be locked inside of Cha-Ching.

Just to be clear, the MacHeist licenses were fixed. Just send them an email with a screenshot of your loot and a copy+paste of the registration info on the loot page and they will add you to the database.

I have been watching Cha-Ching closely since its alpha release. Initially, I was quite impressed. The app had a unique, beautiful interface. It performed basic functionality quite well, and it was fun to use. I was a little weirded out that they were charging for an alpha/beta product, but I shrugged it off since it showed such promise and I was sure that this was the kind of application I wanted to support. Since it was missing a few features I really wanted, I held off on purchasing a license. However, I happily ended up acquiring one anyway during MacHeist. As the application hit 0.5, I continued to be impressed and was really looking forward to 1.0, hoping it would fill a much-needed niche in the Mac financial software community. However, as preparations for the 1.0 release came upon us, my excitement turned into huge disappointment. The developers heralded the release with a "week of new features". Every day they were going to announce something great until Friday, when they were going to release 1.0. The week started off ok with spotlight integration. Tuesday was a little disappointing with Bill Manager. Wednesday did nothing more than announce a newly redesigned interface (the old one was already great). And then Thursday was a joke post with no new feature announcement at all. I decided to check out the forums to see what was going on, and was horrified by some of the things I read. People were complaining about terrible support, lots of bugs, and similar disappointment at the newly announced features. And to top it all off, the developers announced that come 1.0, they were going to be removing the forums. I couldn't help but feel that the only reason for this was to get rid of the negative posts saturating the board. To try and quell the masses, the developers laughed about the joke post and promised that everyone would love the actual surprises that would be shown on Friday when the app was released. And guess what? Friday came and went and while the app was released, there were 0 surprises. The app was exactly like it was in 0.5.2 except with spotlight integration, bill manager, and a slightly redesigned interface. As for the forum, they decided to do something different in the end. Instead of deleting them alltogether, they just wiped them clean, removing all the negative posts in one fell swoop. Now that the history lesson is over, I do want to comment on the product as it currently stands. Yes, it has a beautiful interface, but it doesn't really have anything else. It the entire 1.0 release had never happened, I would feel a lot better about both the company and the product. But the release hurt. Now we have a product with a $40 price tag which is still beta quality. That, and I no longer trust or respect the developers. And, to top it all off, while the MacHeist participants were told they would have free upgrades until 2.0, it turns out that their keys no longer work in 1.0.2. The developer apologized and said they are working hard to fix it, but still, it has been over three days and there have been no further updates on the issue. In the end, I decided to purchase a license for iBank. While Cha-Ching has a vastly superior interface, everything else about iBank is better. There are tons of new features, far fewer bugs, and a company behind them that I can trust a lot more than MidnightApps.

When I make an outgoing transaction from checking account, instead of subtracting it from the initial amount, it shows the amount that is to be subtracted in "Current Balance."

Great product but after updating to 1.0.1 I can no longer import QIF files. I recently downloaded some data I need to import but nothing happens when I select import now.

A very easy to use and straightforward financial planning app. If you're looking for a bunch of features (VAT, asset management, profit & loss and all that jazz) then I'd suggest you use one of the heavyweight apps of which there are plenty, because this is not for you. If on the other hand you want to keep it simple, create budgets, accounts and an integreated online banking browser then this may just be what you're looking for. I have an irregular income from various sources and need to plan what's coming in and going out over the course of a year. Using Cha-Ching I can see which months I'm short and which months I've an excess, what's pending, what's been paid and what i owe and can make customised budgets. It's much easier for me than using a spreadsheet and means I can finally switch from Conto (a glorified spreadsheet) which I've used for many years. For those who are moaning about the lack of 'serious financial app features', then this is simply not for you. Most people want a well-made, simple and effective financial application. This offers us that and places itself neatly between the heavyweight apps and the simper shareware alternatives. $40 I think is too much to ask. However as long as the Cha-Ching developers don't get too carried away then this app should have a good future.

Version 1.0 costs $40. Way too expensive for us Quicken users to spend to switch. Provide discount for those of us using other financial software and we may switch. I recommend no more than $20 as an upgrade price.

The app is now at version 0.5 - which now sports QIF importing. Clearly, this program is a work-in-progress, and I think it will improve by leaps-and-bounds when version 1.0 appears. Version 0.5 adds a much-needed accounts feature, and it works well overall for savings, checking, and credit card transactions. There are a couple of minor niggles I have about entering a transaction (I should be able to add a plus or minus before a transaction to indicate whether or not the transaction is an incoming our outgoing one). I haven't been able to get the Bonjour folder sharing mechanism to work (I'm testing on a G5 Dualie and a Macbook Pro). But beyond those two complaints, I think the UI is spot-on and very intuitive. I've registered a family pack in anticipation of version 1.0 - when it's released. In the meantime, if you are looking for a very basic personal finance software manager, download a trial version of Cha-Ching and give it a whirl.

Curious if this application has importing options?? I use Checkbook and would love to switch NOW if it can or does import with accuracy.

Why did you totally change the look and feel from version 0.2? I miss the colors. This version just looks staid and boring, and the text is too pale. I don't like it, please switch it back or give us an alternate display option.

I like this app a lot. It's very fun to use. When working on financial matters it's good to have a little fun, right? The other nice thing about this app is that it's rather intuitive, and VERY Simply to understand in how to use right away. Complex apps can keep you from acutually using them -- and if you are not going to use a Finance manager, how can you benefit from one? The keywords feature is awesome, you can add as many as you want to each transaction, and you can view your transactions -- and expenses by keyword, just using the search field! Other niceties: Photo integration. Address Book integration. Smart Folders/Drawers. Plus it has support for recurring transactions -- both outgoing and incoming (great for billing tracking for subscriptions). I for one love this app -- and it's only in it's .3 version ... and rather robust, definitely usable on a daily basis. One thought though ... I would like to say, I prefer the .2 interface look and feel over the new one just released in .3. It's nice too, but it doesn't have the same "playful piggy bank feel" as the first one. It would be nice if the user could have an option to switch between the 2 -- in preferences. Lastly, the only other things I would suggest right now -- in terms of features, are to add a URL field to entries and Nested Folders. Enjoy this one ... it's well worth it!

I have been using this app literally since the first week of it's launch. I even own a lifetime license for it. I was not looking for a feature rich app as iBank and for the money I think this app is worth looking into and I am anxiously looking forward to where they are going to take this app to. Now I know some of you are thinking... yea they just say all that to get you to buy the app initially and then no development will be done to it but if that is going to be the case then I will be highly disappointed as I feel this app has a lot of potential and its such a juicy Applicious app. I would at least recommend this app to those of you who are looking for a simple financial management app for your expenses. Do not expect it to solve everything for you. It is an app to manage your finances in a fun way. This is NOT for the serious financial manager. I have come across a bug where sometimes when I try to add a transaction it just doesn't do anything and it just adds a blank transaction to the list, but that is the only bug thus far. A few essential additional features I would like are password protection to view my list of things I have spent money on or maybe even integration into Keychain so it gets unlocked when Keychain is unlocked. Other than that, if the developers of this app are true to their word then I am looking forward to other sweet changes to this app.

Looks GREAT. I know it's a beta, but I was able to use it for all of 15 seconds before everything broke and I had to re-lauch it. Could use drag n drop support for photos like how Address Book and others do it.

A lot of really great promise. I'd love to be able to import my Paypal history and integrate with online banking, but for 0.2? This is great. Really looking forward to seeing where this goes!

great potential...but very buggy! *note to developer -it's irresponsible to release an application, that has to handle your most sensive information, which has bugs in it! you really don't want to make a mistake with this one...

I need to take a closer look at this app-spend some time with it. But I have to say, at first glance, it looks beautiful. Gorgeous interface.

Nice! At first I thought, oh no, not another personal finance app, but Cha-Ching is in a league of its own. The attention to aesthetics and simplicity that has been put into it is truly refreshing, especially as it is in a genre of apps is usually convoluted by many tables and numbers. It's uncluttered, straight forward to use, and has a really cute icon. This one's staying in my dock.