Now that we have the official release date from Apple for iOS 8 (September 17), we can share more of our plans for iBank for iPhone. iBank for iPhone will be iOS 8 only and it should hit the App Store in early October!
This release will be a paid update and the app will cost $9.99. However, we plan on doing an initial rollout at $4.99 to let our existing customers (and new ones) get it for an “upgrade price.” It will require buying and downloading an entirely new binary (the fancy term for App). This also means that if you are syncing with iBank Mac, you will need to do a new sync setup to get your data over. We’ve also built in a QIF importer for setting up new documents only — we added this feature for our customers that use iBank Mobile as a standalone app because it can export QIF files.
Now that I’ve gotten some of the logistics of the release out of the way, I want to talk about the final feature set and show some final screenshots. Here are some of the best new features that will be in this release that I didn’t talk about in the last post.
DIRECT ACCESS
Yes, Direct Access is coming to iBank for iPhone. As many of you know, this is our optional, automated transaction downloading service. So now you can download the latest transactions in your accounts right into your phone while you are out on the go. On the main accounts screen, each account is badged with a green dot to indicate the presence of recently downloaded transactions:
VENDOR LOOKUP
At the heart of our iPhone product has always been the ability to quickly enter transactions on the go. Yes, some people like to be that on top of their finances — enter it as soon as it happens (I’ve been guilty of this on occasion). One of the features we’ve added to make this easier is vendor lookup. Now when you go to enter in a payee, there is a location services icon. If you tap it, iBank for iPhone will get your current location and get nearby vendors. It will present these to you in a list, or you can type to filter down the list, or just enter a new payee that isn’t in the list. If you select a payee that has been used before, we auto-fill the category and transaction. All in all, it makes for a very quick and easy way to enter new transactions on the go.
TOUCH ID
Passcode protecting files has been a feature in many of our apps to help prevent causal observers from seeing stuff you’d rather keep private. One problem with this feature is that if you are trying to enter transactions while literally walking out the door, the passcode screen adds another step before you can enter your transaction. Touch ID authentication now makes it really easy to get past the passcode screen. Of course this feature is only available on devices that have the Touch ID sensor.
MULTIPLE FINANCIAL BOOKS
Also new for iBank for iPhone is support for multiple financial books, just like iBank for iPad and iBank for Mac. So if you need to manage multiple documents, you can now do that right from the phone.
INVESTMENT TRANSACTIONS
One thing that always prevented iBank Mobile from feeling really complete was the lack of security transaction support. I’m pleased to announce that in iBank for iPhone you will now be able to add, edit or delete security transactions. The app also pulls stock quotes to provide near real-time investment price valuations.
MARK TRANSACTIONS CLEARED
This was a widely requested feature for iBank Mobile and we implemented it for iBank for iPhone. This is done by swiping any transaction to the right where a button is revealed to mark it cleared or not cleared. And for the record, swiping to the left reveals the standard “Delete” button to remove a transaction.
I’m really proud of this product. I’ve been using it for weeks and I love it. It’s fast, smooth and transaction entry is easy. iBank for iPhone will be out soon and I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on it.
-Ian
- Continuing Investments in Direct Access - February 26, 2024
- Banktivity 9: The Little Changes - September 8, 2023
- Retiring services for older versions of Banktivity - August 11, 2023
Is it compatible with Ibank 4.7.4 or only Ibank 5 and above ?
Will it still work with WebDAV or do we have to wait for your own sync solution?
This version still has WebDAV and Wifi support since our own sync solution isn’t finished.
Will the discounted amount be around for awhile? Some of us wait for a point release before upgrading our OS.
When will the ipad get import and export options. Should like you are giving this to the iPhone version…. Also when is your sync solution going to be implemented.
Will the iPhone 6 Plus work with iBank for iPhone or iBank for iPad ?
You mentioned that your sync solution is not finished yet. Do you anticipate haven that done when the app rolls out, or will we need to use WebDAV or WiFi initially?
Very relieved to hear that WebDAV and Wifi will still be included in this release.
However, your wording suggests you’re still ultimately determined to eliminate both, and thus alienate any customers of yours who simply will not accept being forced to use “the cloud” to store their financial data.
This unfortunately implies that we’ve been unable to persuade you to turn back from this course of action, so at some point we’ll need to stop upgrading iBank and seek out an alternative app to use, which makes me sad.
Have used iBank mobile & desktop ever since Quicken abandoned the Mac community. Love being able to enter transactions as they occur (eg, ATM withdrawals, debit payments, etc….). So I am ok with waiting a few weeks to be able to sync wirelessly once again. Happy to pay either $4.99 or $9.99 for the upgrade. However, will I have to upgrade my desktop software as well? And if so, how much will that upgrade be? Thanks in advance for what I anticip will be another great product, PRB
So glad the current product is still working with ios8 and 10.10. Didn’t even think about it when I did the upgrades. Can’t wait to see the new products!
My iBank Mobile has erratic problems syncing now that I am on iOS 8.02. I went to your support articles and see that iBank Mobile is not compatible with iOS 8. I didn’t see this comment in your blog above. Some kind of news and announcements section on the website with this kind of information would be nice. I don’t usually read support articles until I know I have a problem.
Will we be able to monitor investments thru the app? stocks and bonds in the portfolio, purchase price and mark to market price.
When exactly in October will we be able to get the new iBank for iPhone? (I’m an existing user)
Seems like it has been released today… for the US only. Ho hum.
Actually, it is available but for some odd reason it doesn’t appear in search results in the App Store when you search for ‘iBank’. The only way I could find it was to find another app by IGG (iBank Investor) and then click on the ‘Related’ button. Then, ‘iBank for iPhone’ appears.
Weird!
Anyway, looking forward to testing it out. 🙂
Are you using Foursquare (or a similar database) for local vendor information? Or are searches limited to the user’s past transactions?
Meaning, when adding a transaction involving a new vendor, does the vendor’s information have to be added manually?
Well, I installed it. Sync set-up issues still persist – took 3 attempts to complete initial sync.
No ability to set a default account – this was possible in the last version
no ability to hide accounts that are not relevant. – This was possible in the last version
No ability to manually sync from the main screen – This was possible in the last version
Major problem – bringing the app forward from the background requests password (or touch id) whilst showing all the account balances!
So much for security.
I thought the idea was to keep this tool simple. Clearly the developer didn’t understand that sentence. What’s been created is a mini version of the iPad app
I’m left inly to agree with Geoff’s sentiment – whatever happened to the ability to just enter a transaction, quickly, on my iPhone, an sync it, quickly, with my other instances of iBank?
What a shame!
I have to agree with Geoff and Nick, no possibility to choose default account and entering the transaction is much more complicated than in the previous version. For example the payee search function doesn’t find half of the payees I’ve previously used. In addition to that, the search function doesn’t find anything in case the search argument doesn’t start with the first letters of the payee.
Everything described above was better in the previous version, please fix this!
You can HIDE accounts by using the EDIT account feature , a slide button will show up and then you will have SHOW X HIDDEN ACCOUNTS on the main menu.
But PLEASE !! tell me how you search for transactions in an account or in the file as per the old version !! can’t find a search window anywhere and I cannot believe it would not have that basic feature.
Can’t believe there is no grand total or group totals (i.e. owe $2345 in CREDIT CARDS group)
I have just upgraded to the new version of iBank for iPhone, and I’m now running v2.0 of that, (I was a previous iBank Mobile user). At the same time I have moved my sync solution away from the soon to be sunseted CloudSync platform to DropBox (using DropDAV).
I finally managed to get my iBank for Mac data to fully sync to my DropBox file, and then for that file to sync with iBank for iPhone. All my accounts appeared in my iBank for iPhone app, and all the account balances etc were correctly in sync etc. All was well, I thought.
That was until I created a couple of transactions in iBank for iPhone, and synced that device. What happened was apparently NOTHING. What I mean is that despite the device appearing to sync, in fact there were no *.spoke files being written to the folder I created in DropBox. Thus those transactions that I entered / created on iBank for iPhone never get to sync with iBank for Mac. So it appears that I have one way only (Mac to iPhone) syncing solution.
Please tell me: – That’s not the design of the solution!
A little further troubleshooting has revealed that:
– When I set up the Sync I created a folder in my DropBox called “iBank4iPhone”
– When I now sync my iBank for Mac it puts all the required files in that folder (“iBank4iPhone”)
– When I now sync iBank for iPhone it takes all the files from that folder (“iBank4iPhone”)
– However, when I create transactions (or make changes to existing transactions) in iBank for iPhone and sync that device, it puts the *.spoke files that it creates in my root DropBox folder, NOT into the (“iBank4iPhone”) folder
– Hence, when iBank for Mac goes looking to sync (at “iBank4iPhone”), there are no *.spoke files, hence it does sync those transaction at all
– If I manually move the *.spoke files that iBank for iPhone created and placed in the DropBox root into the “iBank4iPhone” folder, then iBank for Mac does sync them correctly.
There appears to be a MAJOR design fault / fundamental bug here!
Is everyone else also experiencing this problem, or am I solo with this one?
Can anyone at IGG suggest the fix / solution (quickly please) – or tell me how I can get a refund and I’ll just go any buy a solution that does “the basics”? (I really don’t want to pay a fee, to end up using what amounts to a buggy Beta!)
Similar issues here…
– initial sync from iBank 5 to the iBank For iPhone app went smoothly using the standard WiFi sync (not Dropbox)
– appears to sync correctly when transactions added to iBank 5 on the Mac – I.e. They sync across okay
– however when transactions entered on iPhone app, these do not sync back to the Mac when a sync is done
The sync is set up and working – I can see that there is a sync action, just not data synced
I generally like the data input on the new app, but also miss the summary screen of the old app and the ability to limit the home page display to just key accounts.
I downloaded the new app, sync’d a bit over 25,000 transactions, added 1 to the phone and re-sync’d. Everything worked as expected. I deleted the new transaction in iBank, sync’d again and the change was reflected on the phone. Everything seemed to work as expected.
Jay
Looks like usability was traded for beautiful look:
– default account – why was this taken away? It was extremely useful for quick entry of transaction. I have around 100 accounts, now I need to browse the whole list to find my most used default account. Please bring that back asap.
– primary account list / slider button – why was this taken away? Now I have to go into each of my account – btw I have around 100 – and hit the slider button to hide it.
– transaction search – why was this taken away?
Not very impressed that simple basic key features were removed. Ever thought about how people are using your product?
I installed and synced my iBank 5.1.2 file with iBank for iPhone. The initial sync failed because my iBank Mac file was stored in DropBox. IGG’s Support Line suggested moving it to my local drive and re-syncing, which worked. According to IGG, a “Sync Services” error will occur if any cloud storage is used, i.e., iBank for iPhone and iPad expect the iBank Mac file to be on the Mac. It was further stated that data corruption could result from using cloud storage, although it could be used for a back of the local file.
My initial impression of the iPhone release is that it’s a huge improvement over the previous iPhone product, but it does have some notable shortcomings, including:
1. No Account Summary, similar to what is in the iPad version. Since a “Dashboard” or “Net Worth” summary is one of the most significant features touted for the iBank for Mac 5.2 release, it seems like this should have been included on the iPhone release. If for no other reason, it would allow one to confirm the accuracy of a sync between the Mac and iPhone versions.
2. Color saturation and adjustable fonts. Although I am a very happy convert from Quicken, Intuit does make better use of color and offers the ability to adjust font types and sizes. It would be helpful to those of us whose eyesight is aging to offer this functionality.
3. Sorting transactions by ascending or descending dates. This would also be helpful, as I frequently post recurring transactions a few months in advance and prefer to scroll through my accounts by oldest to newest dated items.
4. Describe “Assets” more granularly, e.g., allow them to be broken down as they are in iBank for Mac by property/real estate, autos, precious metals, etc.
5. Allow accounts to be organized as they are in iBank for Mac, rather than the current fixed method.
None of the foregoing is a deal-breaker for me, but their inclusion would make a 4-star app a 5-star app and greatly improve usability.
iBank for iPhone v2.0 looks great but…
– No function to search for transactions in the list view
– No ability to set default account for quick data entry
– No ability to see notes without manually opening every transaction listed
– No ability to manually sync account without exiting and re-entering the account
– When entering a previous known payee you have to write it starting with the first letter of the payee, otherwise the search function doesn’t search anything
– If you reorganize transaction by manually sorting (like on the same day) on iBank5, no reflections on the iPhone app
– If you reorganize the accounts by manually sorting, no reflections on the iPhone app (fixed alphabetical sort)
– No way to see past month’s budgets
I think you can improve more to have a better app, it’s like this is an initial weaken or uncompleted release because previous release was incompatible with iOS8 and the new iPhones.. I cannot think that no one has spotted that a “search” function is missing!
Keep up the great works and, please, listen to our needs! Thanks
Like others posting here, I too wonder why the decision to not include a search function for finding transactions. This is so very fundamental, yet is is missing. Also, why only the ability to look at the current month’s budget on the iPhone? Comparing past budgeting success/failure to present is a normal thing to do. More importantly is that experience I had with syncing only taking place in one direction: from iBank 5 to iBank for iPhone. From other posts I can see that I am not alone. After what amount to far too much time trying I gave up on SwissDisk as a WebDAV. Syncing from the iPhone to the laptop simply never occurred, never! Although it did work in both directions using Bonjour WiFi, this proved to be intermittent. Finally, I tried dropDAV with my Dropbox account and syncing now seems to be fine in both directions. However, it required spending extra money ($5 per month once the 14 day trail expires) in order to sink the freaking database from the iPhone to the laptop. Not such a glorious first showing for the new iBank for iPhone I would say. What do you say IGG?How about getting the basics right and then worrying about the rest.
For the iPhone version:
1. Look into the matter of smooth and proper syncing in both directions (that is, beyond interference from Bluetooth, firewalls etc since I have already explored these).
2. A financial record of accounts is a database of events known as transactions. Treat it like a database and make it possible to search the transactions.
3. The budgets of a financial record should be dynamic and not live in simply the current month. Make it possible to compare months insofar as budgets.
1. Please bring back the default account option asap! It facilitates quicker data entry for me, and apparently others as well.
2. Please bring back the ability to manually sync accounts similar to the prior version; the current implementation is much more difficult.
3. Please improve the search function.
Thank you
Although it looks much much better than bank mobile edition, the greatest lack for me is there is no total at all !