MyMoney

I liked the article Petition requests Microsoft resurrect Microsoft Money because I felt the same way.

Even before Microsoft discontinued Microsoft Money, I started working on my own version of a Money app with a good friend of mine, JP Duplessis.  This was before the WinRT.  We decided to use the wonderful new C# Programming Language and all the fang dangled beauty of the Windows Presentation Framework together with the wonders of SQLite database to build the app and we’re pleased with the result.  Now after about 10 years of development we recently decided it was ready for the big wide world, and so we put the code up on github together with a ClickOnce installer.

It doesn’t have every feature Microsoft Money had, but you can download statements from your bank using OFX, it does show your NetWorth reports and investment portfolio, you can see spending trends, export Tax info to TurboTax, and do simple budgeting.  It does not provide Windows Universal version, and it is not competing with Mint for web only access.  It is simply a standalone good old fashioned PC app.  So it can even run without any interweb, if you want.

One of the things I like about the app is that it loads the entire database into memory so pivoting around from accounts, to payees, to categories, and reports is pretty much instant.  You’d be amazed how small this kind of financial data really is.  I now have 20 years of data in this thing going all the way back to 1997, and the database is not even 10 megabytes, and this is for my family of 5 people.

I guess I’m just spoiled or something, growing up with the PC revolution.  I like having instant response and no slow round trips to the cloud and back.  Sure the cloud is handy for anywhere access.  But you can get that too.  I store my encrypted database in OneDrive, so anywhere I can access OneDrive I can access MyMoney.

So we have been using this seriously for 10 years or more, and it “just works”.  I remember always struggling to balance my check book using Microsoft Money, there was always some stray transaction that messed up my balances.  I can honestly say I have not had this problem with my Money app – ever!  Every account balancing operation I have done has matched the bank statements perfectly.  It’s basic bread and butter like this that really needs to “work”.

I also personally find comfort in having such a mission critical app under my control, no 3rd party can rip it out from under me, or massively redesign the UI or force unwanted updates down my throat.  But it is still is very much a Garage Project for JP and I, with spare time and weekends, so don’t expect a 1-800 support number.  What I would love to see is a small group of experienced programmers give it a try, help polish some of the features (budgeting needs a revamp) and let’s see if we can get this app up to par for the masses.  If you like C# you will love tinkering with this app.  For example, I wanted to track sales tax (since it is tax deductible in WA state), so I added a sales tax column in a few minutes.  JP wanted to be able to track rental properties, so he added that in a weekend.  It’s this sort of thing that keeps us addicted to the MyMoney code base.  We’d love to see others join the party.