Squirrel App Reviews

Ive been a Squirrel user since 08, and this update is a pretty big miss for me, for a bunch of different reasons. Firstly, a complete rewrite of the app and redesign of the UI seem like a much bigger change than just going from 0.8.6 to 0.8.7. This feels like a major version bump, like going from version 1 to version 2. On that note, its strange that an app in the Mac App Store is still pre-1.0. Along those lines, the number of changes in this version that arent backwards compatible is both surprising and frustrating. I have two computers that I cant/wont upgrade to Lion for at least another few months, and this version requires 10.7.2 to run. Worst of all, the format of the database has changed and is no longer compatible with 0.8.6. So either I keep using 0.8.6 on Snow Leopard and Lion, and put up with the issues on Lion, or I switch to 0.8.7 and cant use it on my Snow Leopard machines. Again, for a non-major version bump, that amount of breakage is very unexpected. Another issue with the major infrastructure changes is that 0.8.7 doesnt support custom database file locations. Not only does that mean I cant keep the DB in my Dropbox to stay synced between machines (I shouldnt be forced to use iCloud to accomplish that), but it means I had to figure out where the new DB was buried in ~/Library just to get it to load my existing data. Way more work than it should have been, since theres no way to actuall import a Squirrel DB; not even with the Import command... As far as the app itself, none of the changes are absolutely terrible, but a lot seem like a step backwards. Ill start with the good stuff, though. The new view for budgets makes a lot more sense. The "Past Periods" chart still wastes too much space to be useful, but the individual budgets are nice. Its great that the account graphs can scroll all the way back through their history, rather than just being a limited period. And the fact that it works in Lion now is a welcomed improvement. The transaction list in Reports is an actual table now, which is nice. Theres a lot of bad stuff, too. The new entry form is vertical rather than horiztonal. That means theres less room in the spreadsheet to fit tags/commonts etc, *and* less room in the form for that same data. The form also isnt resizable, so on any given entry I can see at most one tag at a time unless I bring up the HUD. The new graphs are (I think) a lot uglier, and a lot less useful. They dont have x-axis (date) labels, so you cant actually tell what youre looking at unless you mouse over the graph. The account views seem to have dropped the current/future/reconsiled overview and the quick filter bar. The reports also look much less appealing, and dont have persistent labels (either category or amount), so theyre pretty useless for a quick overview. Even if you try to use them to make comparisons its a pain. The report graphs also render *much* slower than in 0.8.6, and the breadcrumbs to clear category filters make no sense. While the graphs do allow for scrolling, which is nice, they dont offer any way to zoom out, so theres no way to see more than ~3 months on one screen (on my 13" screen, at least). They also dont seem to graph future balances, which was great for a quick forecast. Again, these are things that were pretty much all there in 0.8.6, and have disappeared with the update, and feel like a step backwards. For me, theyre much more important than iPhone syncing and iCloud integration, so hopefully they just got lost in the rewrite and will be added back before long. There are a lot of little glitches that didnt used to exist. When some modal dialogs load sometimes dropdown menus will show some SQL-related code and then quickly get replaced by the actual display values. Sometimes the graph labels will get cut off, and other times the entire graph just wont show up. There are some pretty weird graphical issues with the graph hovers. The database upgrade seems to have forgotten several of my smart folders. While this app continues to show really strong promise, theres just a lot missing from this update that I rely on, and none of the additions or fixes are things I was desperately looking for. For now Ill be going back to 0.8.6 and just dealing with the weirdness on Lion. Once the Mac App Store version catches back up to that in terms of actual, useful features, Ill consider switching, even if it means Lion-only machines.

Squirrel is an awesome app that is suited for basic needs like keeping track of where your money is going and is very good at it if you are not a control freak. This new version has an greatly improved user interface that makes managing even easier. In my opinion it is as good as Quicken Essentials for Mac, which I use as well. They both ocuppy the position of best money management software for mac. There are a couple of things I miss, though, which is better forecasting tools and some features that were removed like sorting and filtering in some panel views.

I love Squirrel. Ive had it for a few years and I would never want to switch to anything else. I am looking forward to the iCloud enabled version!

Squirrel has been a very nice financial application on my Mac and iPhone. Its simple, elegant, and easy to use. The budgets and schedules help a lot. A star is deducted as the current version do not support syncing to iPhone.

I was so excited about this app. It seemed to get great ratings for the price. I was fooled. It always crashes on startup. Horrible app.

One review states Ihave been using for year"s- It still not a whole number version. It took several tries to get my .qif file to import. It finally imported without errors. Balences were correct in both Checking and Savings. There is no way to have splits There is no way to have check numbers Charts and graphs are eye candy. They dont show what was purchased with my monthly credit card payment Schedules does not allow the entry of third Wednesday, only daily, weekly or monthly. Social Security comes on a day of the week and month not a calendar date.

I never provide my comments on apps….but I feel pretty burned, having spent $24.99 on software that is much more sophisticated than an Excel spreadsheet. If you want an electronic check register, or want to categorize your expenses/income and then print out reports for tax purposes….then this is NOT for you. You cant even print!!!!! I had to export my transactions to a .cvs file and then import it into Excel to print!!!!!!! The only reports that can be printed are graphic (pie charts….worthless) and the register doesnt even have a field for check number!!!!! I am kicking myself for just not buying Quicken Essentials. I went online and read numerous articles and reviews and Squirell was rated pretty high….so I wonder what is it that these folks were actually tracking????? If you are accustomed to Microsoft Money and/or are serious about your finances, then dont waste your money. I recognize that this is supposed to be a basic app for finances, but you cant even print?

I wish I had downloaded a trial version of this first. I didnt like that there wasnt a column for check book numbers and there isnt any way to print the register other than doing a screenshot, which is cumbersome. Also I wish the categories could be made up as you go along. The kicker though was the crashing, which didnt happen until I was well into using it.

I love the app., it is excellent. Simple and effective with many features that have gotten better recently. I recommend it highly.

This is a great app, simple to use but very powerful.

Upgrading from 0.8.7 to 0.8.12 was a pain since I had used Drop Box syncing before. I had to manually delete some files, then copy my DB into the "official" old location, then it would update itself. Once I did that though, I found that scheduled transactions dont clear themselves out from forecasts after theyve been "created", which doubles them up in the register and throws off my balance. And the thing I loved the most about Squirrel, its charts, have lost all sense of orientation. I dont know what Im looking at unless I hover the mouse over the chart, but thats still not enough to get a real sense of whats going to happen with my money. Ive used this app for a couple years primarily because of how useful that projection chat was and to see it gone is heartbreaking. Squirrel is an otherwise a simple and useful app but theres not enough attention paid to the details.

Kind of regret buying this because theres no mobile sync and its going to take a long time it seems to bring it back with iCloud. Ive already started looking for an alternative.

What intrigued me about Squirrel was the ability to sync between my iphone and my mac. The site still adversities this ability under the iphone tab for the app. However, I find out that the sync option is non existant after purchasing the app. I am very disappointment by this. Especially since I like the desktop version. Im currenly working on getting a refund.

Bought this and the mobile version when sync was working, then dev decided to remove it from both soooo I feel like it was a bait and switch. I emailed the dev and he told me he was going to have it implemented around Christmas. I could no longer use the Mac version because I use it to track finances on the go. Now Im running into bugs where my numbers arent matching up if I put a Credit in the future. Theres no way for me to make the number match again so Im really peaved about that. Im going to looking at an alternative. Hopefully this time itll be $30 well spent.

Bought the Mac app and the iPhone app ONLY because it advertised syncing between the two. Total ripoff for me until that feature is implemented, as that is the ONLY reason I bought these apps instead of the other options out there!!!

The only real problem with this app is that it is almost impossible to update it in the App Store. It was much better when you could just update inside of the application itself.

This is a great app for keeping track of finances. Two sugestions for improvement: 1. Make it capable of syncing with the iOS app again. Why did you take this feature out in the first place?… 2. I use the keyboard a lot; when entering transactions, I hit the "Tab" key to advance to the next box. It would improve the workflow if it didnt skip over the "Category" box when doing this. I.e., when my curser is in the "Amount" text box, I hit "Tab" to continue entering info, but it skips over the "Category" drop-down box and goes straight to the "Tags" text box. This could probably easily be fixed. It would make entering transactions much smoother. Overall, great app, though. Recommended.

UPDATE: I originally gave a 1-star rating for the issue below, but I heard back from the seller/programmer within 24 hours. This great customer response and help boosts the product to a 3 star for company support. Im still waiting to hear from Macs support and consider the download problems more likely an App Store (Mac) issue then a programmer issue since no one else seems to be having problems downloading the app. ORIGINAL: Im really hoping to LOVE this program - but having purchased it tonight, it wont download from the App Store. Ive dried a dozen times, restarted the App Store, restarted my Mac…but with no luck. I still get the error and says to check my internet connection - which is fine and has no problems. So, Im REALLY hoping to update this to 5 stars when I can actually get the program downloaded and installed...

Version 8.4.1 Works well for me. Tried upgrading to the Mountain Lion version so I would have icloud backup. Hate it. The UI is totally different.

I like it so far, very simple - and thats the draw! But my graph shows many days in the red, and I know the balance for those days was never in the red! Graph view is the whole reason I bought this, and in the screenshots I see it working, but it is doing weird things for me. Projecting future balances is how I manage my money (what little I have), and decide what I can afford and cant. Alex, can you fix this? I loved the old school balance graph that Quicken had (but dumped) - please save us from Intuit!