My 13-month experiment with Simplifi is up Dec 22.

SRC54

There is so much I like about Simplifi but it is also maddening.  I had to re-up another year for Quicken as it is so much more reliable. Here in no particular order are my gripes/concerns about Simplifi.

1) We've been promised that Simplifi will soon support OFX/QFX imports.  So I thought last year I would import more of my data into Simplifi. Nope. Not there.  There is no import of Quicken transactions either.  Even [removed] has Quicken import.

2) Reports are the weakest part of Simplifi.  Even the few that it offers glitches the names of Payees that have special characters in them or all caps.  I pointed this out a year ago, but not fixed.  There's no way to print out a tax report at the end of the year.  Sure I can work around this but why should I?

3) Downloads.  Hey, these work pretty well but there are ominous signs that this will be coming to an end.  Already American Express makes it difficult because of MFA, and Fidelity is becoming troublesome.  How many more banks will follow?  On top of that, half of my accounts are now manual.  So many millennials are using these pseudo bank accounts, which are basically a credit card.  They don't download at all.  Coign, the conservative credit card and American Express's faux checking account (it's really a Debit card) won't allow downloads.  Coign doesn't even have a web site, just an app. Is the current aggregator business model still viable?  I like aggregators, but will younger generations do them or just have one of these phone apps?  What is Quicken doing to keep their business viable.  I did see that American Express is going to the Chase Bank download thingamajig so maybe Quicken is working on this.  I hope so.

4) Macs and PCs seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs.  Again, blame the younger generation and their iPhones and iPads.  One of the benefits of Simplifi is that one doesn't need a PC.  That's good in my opinion.  We need an app for iPad and for Android devices.  It needs to be scalable.  Using Simplifi on an iPad right now is very difficult.  I would like to replace my PCs with an iPad Pro.

5) Transaction entry on Web is problematic.  If you forget and hit tab instead of enter between fields, what you typed is LOST.  It's difficult to enter multiple transactions -- the ability to copy a transaction is NEEDED.

We have been asking for transfers within transactions for over a year now.  Simplifi treats this transfers as spending, spoiling one of its strengths (see last paragraph).  We also need recurring to handle splits and transfers as well.  This has also been promised but WHERE IS IT?

6) Hey, I like the Spending Plan.  It is SO MUCH better than budgeting.  Quicken here is so clunky!  But Quicken handles recurring better.  We need to be able to make one click to turn a Reminder into a transaction though as in Quicken.  Again, Simplifi is designed to download transactions and not enter them first.  But remember half of our accounts are MANUAL!

7) I would love to know what Quicken plans for its apps.  The obvious thing is for Quicken to be phased out and replaced by Simplifi.  I was shocked to see that Intuit still owns the Quicken trademark.  Huh?  They wouldn't sell it?  To me, that means that sooner or later the Quicken name will have to be dropped.  Yep, that's a supposition, but it seems a reasonable one.  I know we've been promised a ROADMAP, but that is taking months too.  Will it be years? Never?

I do love Simplifi's clean interface, the fact that everything is saved in the Cloud, the fact that it handles transfers correctly.  Quicken seems to think they are spending -- it says I spend more money with Chase because I pay them off.  That isn't spending; that's transfers.  Amazon is spending!  Simplifi does that right.

I was very excited about Simplifi one year ago because I believed erroneously that improvements would be forthcoming but they are so SLOW.  Even the new features take forever, ie, investment transactions.  They are coming and I am previewing them but I sometimes wonder whether Simplifi has only one programmer.

Well, I am sure I left a lot out, but here is where I stand.  Thanks.

RobWilk

You said intuit still owns the quicken trademark, but according to the quicken website:

"Quicken is a registered trademark of Rocket Mortgage, LLC, used under license."

I believe they probably own "Quicken Loans."

SRC54

@RobWik  Thanks.  It's clear as mud.  This is from the Quicken website:

https://www.quicken.com/legal/trademark

"Quicken and the Quicken logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intuit Inc.,  in the United States and other countries."

At the bottom, it says that Quicken trademark is owned by Rocket Mortgage.  Weird.

It's interesting that Quicken doesn't own it.  FWIW.

Coach Natalie

Hello @SRC54,

Thank you for sharing your feedback with the Community, although I'm sorry to hear that Simplifi isn't working out for you!

I'm sure you've already seen the Idea posts for most of the topics that you mentioned so I'll spare you from sharing them again, however, I did just want to comment on one thing -- when it comes to bank connectivity, Simplifi is working on upgrading to APIs for a lot of the major banks to streamline connections. We are also working with Plaid and Finicity to integrate additional connection options aside from just using Intuit. Hopefully this continues to improve for everyone!

When it comes to Quicken being owned by Intuit, Quicken actually separated from Intuit in 2016 and became a stand-alone company partnered with H.I.G. Capital. As of last year, we've transitioned from H.I.G Capital to partnering with Aquiline Capital Partners LLC. More details on this can be found here. The only partnership we have with Intuit currently is online banking aggregation services. 

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie

RobWilk

@Coach Natalie That's excellent news on working with "Plaid" and "Finicity."  I've noticed that they are becoming 'standards' on other services (other services include financial services that are not Simplifi competitors).  

SRC54

@Coach Natalie

Thanks for the comments.  I am glad to hear about initiatives to make downloads better.  I think going forth Quicken will have to find ways to convince newer technologies I mentioned into connecting with Simplifi/Quicken.  

My only point about Quicken name is the trademark. It may be that Quicken will be able to buy the name outright one day.  I was only musing about Quicken's (the company) vision. I want to simplify going forward.  And FWIW, I think Quicken is a dumb name for a financial program.  Microsoft Money was a better brand.  Enough of that.  It has little to do with whether I re-up with Simplifi.

What I was clumsily saying is that I believe that Quicken is old fashioned and that Simplifi is the future, and I wonder if the plan isn't ultimately to phase out Quicken.  Then Quicken won't have to buy the trademark.  Or maybe they will rename Quicken.  

As for the program I mentioned above and was edited out (LOL), I have tried them all and there are only two programs worth considering, and those are Simplify or Quicken.  The rest just don't measure up.

Will Simplifi finally work out its bugs in 2023?  That's the question.