Squirrel is the first app that I bought after switching from Windows so I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Other than nostalgia its design and functionality have kept it as my app of choice for recording financial transactions.

The developer, Axel Péju, won an Apple Design award while the software was early in its development. Progress has been a little slow but the only major functionality still required is the ability to split transactions. The companion iPhone app works great and I have never had any synchronisation issues.

It’s interface demonstrates apple design principles at it’s best. It is elegant, functional and easy to use.

I tried  Money3 but had continual synchronization issues between the main program and the iPhone app which caused major corruption of the data files. It didn’t help that the iPhone app was so ugly, though it may have improved since.

MoneyWell is a good alternative to Squirrel with a great interface but it is let down by limited reporting.

iBank tries too hard resulting in a clumsy interface. Reporting was let down by the failure to correctly display split transactions.

There are a number of other software packages available but they are all lacking in someway. Its a sad fact but there is no complete finance software package available for the Mac. By the time that Squirrel version 1 gets released it may well be the first software that could take that title.