MS Money alternative

[suj...@gmail.com]

I am so dependent on MS Money for my financial transactions that life would be unbearable without it! If Windows stop supporting it, is there an alternative?

[Cal Learner]

I expect we would either run a virtual machine that is running Windows XP, or Windows 7, or we would use Wine on Linux.  Nathan has that working. One of several threads on that here is https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft-money/c/3tZBMZeVsFA  He also has Wine running on Mac, but that has more limitations.

[M B II]

I will give a shout out to Nathan and share my linux experience briefly.    MSMoney had always kept me from strongly considering moving from windows to Linux.   I had toyed around with Ubuntu and libreoffice enough over the last decade that I knew they'd cover most of my needs and I suspected any hurdles would be overcome-able.    When I saw Nathan had gotten Linux MSMoney working, I pulled the trigger and started moving to Linux Mint Cinnamon.   I have been 100% linux since March w/o any significant complications.   I had a 2nd PC, thus I had my windows machine as a safety net, but found I didn't need it once I figured out how to create backups reliably with my linux PC.   

Nathan's work on MSMoney on linux was the key.  It has worked w/o any major issues.   It's not quite as visually polished on linux, but that is not a detriment as I WANT to be off of windows and its easy to overlook the minor differences.   I consider myself decently knowledgeable around technology compared to the broader population, thus I realize this type of journey isn't for everyone, but maybe my short comments here gives someone the confidence to explore it, if that is their desire.

My only upcoming challenge...tax software on linux...I'm hoping wine, and my abilities, allows it to function acceptably.   

[Stephen Google]

I've tested MS Money in a Hyper V Windows XP VM. However, I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will continue to work in Windows.

[Greg Grote]

Yeah, I looked around when I bought a Win11 PC last fall, and I was disappointed (and more than a little surprised) that there aren't really any great options that function the way Money does.  The one I decided I would go to if I couldn't get Money (I'm running the Sunset version) to run on my new PC was MoneyDance, but fortunately Money works okay with just a few quirks, which allowed me to kick the can down the road a bit.

And since then, I've seen a tip about a new package called Maxim Money that is still technically in Beta but has a free demo and two very affordable versions available for purchase.  I assume those prices will increase when the product goes to V1.0, so I may give that demo a go just to see if it might be a possibility, and maybe pick up a copy if it looks promising enough.

On Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 4:54:35 AM UTC-6 suj...@gmail.com wrote:

[N G]

Hi everyone,

For another perspective I was experimenting with some finance apps native to Linux, although they have versions for Windows as well.

Gnucash - Equivalent to MSMoney Home & Business, full double-entry bookkeeping. It can be used for invoicing and employee functions. Categories aren't categories, they're treated as accounts. It's a different visual paradox (all of these programs are to some degree). No easy import from MSMoney, must use export/import qif method. Feels like an accounting application, not a personal finance program.

Skrooge - Equivalent to MSMoney Deluxe. I think this is newer than the others but the draw for me was that I could import a mny file! It works but there are many complications. For example, I have accounts in different currencies so when adding the values of different accounts the non-dollar accounts should be converted to dollars and then added together. This didn't happen, they were summed without converting first. Let's say I have an account with a million yen (~$7,000) and add it to a checking account with $7,000, I get a subtotal of $1,007,000; it should convert the yen and give me ~$14,000. Because my accounts were imported, there are settings that can't be changed once the account is created. This probably isn't a problem normally but because I wanted to import my mny file this is unworkable. Skrooge does allow exporting to KMyMoney format, so I experimented with this to test KMyMoney.

KMyMoney - Equivalent to MSMoney Deluxe, it has the most promise for me, visually similar to MSMoney. It doesn't import mny files but I did experiment with an exported kmymoney file from skrooge and it seemed to work. Not without issues though, it also had the currency subtotal problem as mentioned with skrooge. (Probably because of Skrooge) My desire to avoid manual account export and import with this shortcut created just as much work to clean it up compared to the full export and import qif dance. Also, there are issues with updating security and currency prices online. As typical with screenscraping methods, when the website changes the tool fails. I may experiment with this more, maybe start using it with clean accounts in parallel on Jan 1 2026 with MSMoney.

I don't think Skrooge or KMyMoney have any tax functions so that could be an issue for some.

Even though these other tools have been in development for a lot of years they still don't come close to MSMoney in terms of functionality and ease of use. I really like the reports that I have setup in MSMoney, and maybe they can be recreated in these other tools. I think the showstopper for me is that I really like the Financial Planner functionality in MSMoney, so until a product can provide that I'm probably not switching anytime soon.

Nathan

[ronald brandman]

I have been testing the free trial version of Maxim for a few days now.

It is not as usage friendly as MS money but i guess that i am so used to money after 25 years that no new software would be as friendly.

The investment price update system works well using yahoo finance as the source and I have updated uk and canadian stocks successfully. I have not tried to update mutual funds and i suspect that will be a problem.Currently i use gaier which is superb for ms money updates .

Currencies have not updated so far and there are a number of glitches such as multicurrency investments values not totalling correctly in the base currency that you choose.

Some other problems that I will not list at this time

The response of the developer to email queries has been excellent with replies and solutions/advice often received within minuites.

The developer says that he is working on providing UK MTD capacity.That is vital for me and I suspect many UK users of money.

I suggest that other money users download the trial version and provide a report. .

ron b

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[suj...@gmail.com]

 

Interesting. Can you set base currency to UK Sterling? Can you import Money file?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/CA%2Bw4nHw%3DQsVmZL5NRTb8nwzdxoHkrzAnkkmyLj9jOEZPW46P7g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Sean Dayton]

This one is open source. Built by a couple of ex MS software engineers wanting  a MS Money replacement. Its worth taking it for a spin and see if it works for you. 

https://moneytools.github.io/MyMoney.Net/

[Dan Adkins]

Thanks for sharing that Sean!  Looks like a well thought out alternative.  First I'm hearing about it - how long has it been available? Too bad it won't import a mny file ;)

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/de35e34a-007a-4c3e-b3f8-4aff9c5fa80bn%40googlegroups.com.

[Sean Dayton]

I know it support multi currency. When You setup the accounts. It has an option to select the currency. Then it puts a flag symbol of the nation of the currency next to the account. I am pretty sure you can import your MS Money data if its exported in QFX. The author talked about this in a past  blog post. https://lovettsoftware.com/#posts/mymoney.net/  Here is the video demo if you missed it in the help documentation.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6BVF2x9FBA&feature=youtu.be&themeRefresh=1 

I started fresh rebuilding my past history gong back 10 years from QFX statement files that I created with Propersoft Transactions software that is used mainly by bookkeepers and accountants to convert statements and invoices for import.  

[Greg Grote]

Since MyMoney was created by ex-MS software engineers, it's too bad they didn't give it the ability to import MS Money data, and Money won't export QFX, so I guess (if we were to move from MS Money to MyMoney) we would have to use QIF and make sure we create the account files prior to importing ... but does that take care of everything else (e.g., categories)?

[Sean Dayton]

The app was created  specifically for the needs of the developers.  Its not a direct replacement  of MS Money.  It runs within .net framework and the  db is sql lite that will run on portable USB drive if needed. You have nothing to loose installing it and trying a account qif  import. For those outside the US needing tax support.Leave a request at the github  page. I noticed the tax table used is the last US  TFX  standard. The same one in MS Sunset. I'm sure there is TFX libraries for other countries that could be integrated with little effort.. When time permits. I may fire up a test db in vs code and look into it myself.

[Stephen Google]

I had a quick look at MoneyNet then uninstalled it since it's far inferior to MS Money.

[Greg Grote]

I'm guessing that my needs are pretty modest compared to others posting here, so I'll give MoneyNet a try ... I didn't see everything I want in the demo video, but will check it out along with Maxim in Dec and perhaps start using one of them in parallel on Jan 1 to get a true side-by-side.

[Paul Agar]

Is there a suggestion here that Money WON'T run on WIndows 11?

[M B II]

I'm 99% sure that is NOT what is being indicated here.   I've not done it myself, but I've seen others indicate that MSMoney works on win11.   

[Stephen Google]

I have no no problems running MS Money 2005 (last UK version) under Windows 11 25H2 on 3 PCs.

[Tom Roberts]

I have a Win 11 computer which also runs Money Sunset.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/microsoft-money/4ea9d174-2042-40b1-aeeb-cf96ef9610b4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Greg Grote]

Yeah, I'm running Sunset edition on Win 11 (I believe I'm still on 24H2) in the US. It has developed a few quirks, and I'm not as much of a tinkerer as a lot of you folks here, so I'm looking for possible options for a replacement so I can make the jump before it becomes an emergency, but I haven't found anything I like as well yet!

[Kristine Marsh]

I would also be interested in an alternative.  I have been running Sunset on MS Windows 10 on a MacBook (using Boot Camp) probably since 2015 and while I am considering buying an inexpensive Windows-compatible laptop just to continue running MS Money, I don't want to do that if MS Money will have problems on Windows 11.

[Greg Grote]

I've seen several folks here mention that they're running MS Money just fine on Win 11.  The only problem I've had with Sunset on Win 11 Home that I've had to use a "workaround" for was with my mortgage payments, but I've decided to start from scratch with MoneyDance (rather than attempting to import my Money data).  

I installed MoneyDance, purchased the license, and have set up my accounts and categories (setting up the categories was a refreshing experience ... there are some benefits to starting from scratch), so I'm ready to hit the ground running on Jan 1, but I'll run MS Money in parallel for a month or two, just in case.  

As I described above, Money is great, but I feel fortunate that I was able to use it for 26 years and I don't really want to create a special environment just to run it.  I plan to export all of the Money data that I might want to access later and turn it into CSV files.