Sigh...I really want to like this application. I *really* do. It looks so good on the surface. Unfortunately, entering data is NOT intuitive at all.

This is one area where the developer should learn from Quicken. Having two fields, one for positive and one for negative amounts, makes good sense. Sharing the same field, requiring the user to select a "type", and then toggling positive and negative numbers is confusing and problematic. I continue to run into errors and all I can think is, why the heck can't I just type an ATM card purchase into the "Payment" field, and a deposit into the "Deposit" field???

And why don't field names change to reflect the context of the account? When viewing a checking account, it's Payment/Deposit. When viewing a credit card, it's Charge/Payment. That just makes sense. I hate having to use one field to enter both payment types and I have confused myself on several occasions.

Furthermore, requiring the user to select a "type" is very irritating, not to mention slow. Instead of using the two field, in/out, approach that Quicken uses, iBank makes you stop, select a transaction type from a pop-up menu so that it can toggle a positive or negative number. I don't want to see positive and negative numbers. How confusing!!! Every time I see that, I stop and double-check to make sure it's supposed to be negative. It completely slows me down and I can't figure out how this benefits the user at all.

And, despite the fact that I've worked with computers for 25 years and certainly don't consider myself a dummy, I can't get a statement to reconcile for anything. Is it a bug? I'm not sure. But I do know this: I've never had a problem reconciling in Quicken. It just works.

I don't think I can take iBank seriously until the developer revisits the data entry aspect of the application. Right now there are too many clicks, too many drop-downs, too much moving around, and the whole positive/negative number thing is just plain confusing. It doesn't need to be this difficult. And, more importantly, it should be a lot faster getting around and entering transactions. This is one area where Quicken excels. Tab through the fields, enter to create a new transaction. It's fast and easy. iBank is not.

There's a lot to like about iBank. I just hope it becomes easier to use.