It's on sale at $24.99. All I need is something to create a budget and keep track of expenditures - no stocks or other investments. I do have a small business fixing computers, so if there was something better that would include personal banking and business expenses/income, I'd be interested in that if anyone would care recommend based on personal experience.

Ol,

Moneywell or any modern personal financial app will likely do the job. But, if you have a small business, you may want to consider using a full accounting application such as Quickbooks, Accountedge, Moneyworks, etc. It should handle your personal stuff as well as your business stuff. However, I'd be inclined to keep the personal accounting separate from your business accounting unless advised to do otherwise by an accountant. So, stick with a personal finance app for your personal stuff and a basic accounting app for your small business.

As for personal finance, I use Moneydance. It works well and I've been happy with it overall. Moneywell is good, too. Same goes for most of the other personal finance apps for the Mac. All of them will do the basics nicely. I hate to say it but even Quicken Essentials as improved though I'm hesitant to recommend it because due to Intuit's treatment of our favorite platform. My issue with all of them is their reporting features. In this regard, I find them all lacking. Quicken 2007 set the standard for reporting and I've yet to find any app that meets and/or exceeds that standard. Even Moneydance doesn't cut it in this regards.

Robert

I see Quicken 2007 is still available for Mac and works on Lion. One of my clients moved to a Mac from PC and it was a royal PITA to get the data moved over (luckily he had no stocks, etc that he cared to move - just wanted it to keep track of his checking account) to the Mac.

That, and a recent issue with QuickBooks on the Humane Society PCs that I maintain pro bono is enough to make me skip Intuit for anything. (The Quickbooks answer was to run in XP compatibility mode on the new Win 7 Pro boxes in oder to get clients to talk to the server computer for POS - which is in itself an ironic acronym for Point Of Sale)

If it's simple (one account, a few different categories of expenses), I'd stick to Excel, Google Docs or just a ledger. Just set it up like a checkbook register and record any income or expense on a separate row. Don't get too fancy with categories and maybe just start with these expenses: Necessities (rent, food, clothing, utilities), Discretionary (dining out, cable TV, movies), Work-related (software, supplies).

Software isn't going to help stay budgeted or with tracking unless you commit to entering the data. Once you have the raw data inputed, you'll have lots of options now and in the future. You don't need all the fancy reporting features of Quicken.

If I recall, Excel has a ton of templates for just this purpose. There are many free apps for iOS and Android that will help you track your expenses as well; this has the advantage of always being with you so it should be easier to do. Some allow you to take a picture of a receipt to help with documentation or you can use Evernote for that.

I use Quicken 2011 via Virtual Box but I have messy personal finances. I've used Quicken in the past for a small business using cash-based accounting method for more than 15 years. If you have to go with accrual-based then you should consider Quickbooks.