Today sees the release of a new version of MoneyWell and some big changes.
After a lot of dillydallying, we’re very pleased to announce the return of sync to MoneyWell. This is available in MoneyWell 2023.1. To go along with this, we’re releasing MoneyWell Express 2023.1 for iPhone.
We know it’s taken some time. Here’s a sneak-peek of our “Release” folder from the last few weeks:
Headlines
- This is being released as a new version of MoneyWell
- It will be available exclusively via the Mac App Store (iOS App Store for Express)
- MoneyWell is moving to a subscription model.
- The subscription will cost $49.99 / year or $5.99 / month (or equivalent local prices as determined by Apple)
- As an introductory offer, until the end of March 2023 , you can get the first year for $9.99
We know a subscription will put lots of people off, but we need to make MoneyWell sustainable, and the existing model isn’t.
We also want to put MoneyWell back into the Mac App Store, and Apple has made it very clear that the “traditional” app upgrade model isn’t something they want to support.
Roadmap
We have a roadmap for future development on MoneyWell. Our biggest goal is for MoneyWell to return to sustainability so it can be our main, and eventually only, source of income. Currently that isn’t the case, which is one reason why progress is slow.
Over the next 12 months amongst other things we’re planning:
- Online banking: Direct Connect is slowly fading away as a technology. We’re in the process of adding the option for additional connection methods. This will be an optional feature with an additional charge. Initially it will be US / Canada only, but hopefully expanding to other regions if there’s sufficient demand.
- Onboarding: For people reading this article, it’s probably not an issue, but if you don’t already use MoneyWell, getting started is a huge hurdle, so we want to spend some time making it easier to get started with your budget. We’re hopeful this will be useful for lots of our existing users too.
- Budget sharing: Currently you have to be using the same iCloud account on all devices. We recognise this is a big limitation for some people so we’re working on enabling sharing between multiple iCloud accounts
- iPad: You may notice the omission of MoneyWell for iPad from this announcement. We haven’t yet been able to revive MoneyWell for iPad in conjunction with the new sync engine, but along with the other 3 things on this list, it’s a top priority.
Given our progress so far, we’re not guaranteeing that all of these will definitely arrive in the next 12 months; this is an overview of the major projects we’re working on.
FAQs
To help get the answers you need, we’ve split the rest of the information into a FAQ.
If you have questions which aren’t covered here, or any other feedback, please let us know. We’ll try to respond to everything, but we envisage this may generate more support requests than we get normally, so we may take a little longer to respond. Please bear with us.
Subscriptions
Why are you moving to subscriptions?
MoneyWell is currently not sustainable. Since we took over 4 years ago, it has averaged $500 a month in sales. On average that’s split 20/80 between upgrades and new sales. As a result, our small team can’t afford to work on MoneyWell full time and we have to do other things. At this point, MoneyWell is side-project.
We’re fully committed to MoneyWell and we want it to grow and become sustainable. Selling upgrades every few years is a great concept but there are a few problems:
- Apple doesn’t support it in the App Store
- We end up with fragmented versions of the app. This is a headache both for development and support. For example when we took over MoneyWell, over 2 years after the release of MoneyWell 3, active use of the app was split about 50/50 between MoneyWell 2 and 3.
- It makes us question when to release big new features, because we need to save features to encourage people to upgrade to keep the income coming in. We want the answer to always be: “When it’s ready”.
What happens if I stop subscribing?
MoneyWell will never block access to your data. If your subscription expires, you’ll enter “Free” mode. You’ll still have full access to all the data you created, you’ll be able to run reports, make amendments to transactions, export your data. It’ll also still sync.
I’ve been a MoneyWell user for x years. Don’t I get something for being a loyal user?
Thanks for your loyalty. We really appreciate it. Apple don’t provide a mechanism on the Mac App Store that allows us to offer individual coupons for discounted subscription. As a result, we’ve decided the best thing we can do is to provide an introductory offer: For the next month, you can get the first year of an annual subscription for $9.99. You don’t need any kind of code to get the offer, if you download the app via the Mac App Store and take out the subscription, you should get the discounted price automatically.
I don’t want to pay for a subscription. What will happen?
That’s fine. You can continue to use the version of MoneyWell you have now indefinitely. At some point it may not run on modern versions of macOS. We’ll continue to answer any support questions related to older versions as best we can. We still regularly get (and answer) support questions from people using MoneyWell 2, an app which was originally released 11 years ago and which was replaced by MoneyWell 3 nearly 7 years ago.
Please can you offer a one-time payment option. I’ll pay $aLot?
No, that’s not something that we’re going to implement currently. You’re welcome to continue to use the version of MoneyWell you currently have for as long as you’re able to run it.
I helped beta-test MoneyWell with sync. Don’t I get anything?
Absolutely. Please get in touch with us via the usual channels.
App Store
Why are you going App Store exclusive?
MoneyWell 3 was never available in the App Store. While getting to keep a little extra of the income per sale vs the percentage that Apple takes is nice, the time and effort in maintaining a payment processor, update checking system, licensing checks etc. outweighs that. We also hope the inconvenience to us as developers of having every update have to go through App Review is offset by the confidence it brings people in knowing that they’re getting software from a trusted source
I just bought MoneyWell 3 from your website. Do I have to pay again?
If you bought MoneyWell in the last 6 months, please contact support so you won’t have to buy it again.
If I buy the app from Apple, does that mean they’ll support me instead of you?
No. If you have an issue with MoneyWell, please continue to contact us as usual.
Is there a free trial?
We haven’t used the App Store “Free trial” mechanism. You don’t have to start a trial which automatically renews to try out all of the features of MoneyWell. As before, you can fully use MoneyWell for as long as you like. It’ll even sync. The limitation is that you can only add 200 transactions. If you like what you see, you can start a subscription which removes that limitation.
How do I get it?
Go here:
Sync
Can I sync with my partner / husband / wife / child / business partner / housemate
In this initial release, syncing will only work using devices logged in to a single iCloud account. If the devices you want to sync meets that criterion, you’ll be able to sync. Syncing between different iCloud accounts is coming soon.
Where is my data being stored?
We have a detailed support article which covers all of the details here. But in short, all of your data is stored on your computer or device that you are syncing with.
When you make a change to a synced budget, the changes are stored in your iCloud storage and downloaded by other synced devices signed in to that account. We never have access to your financial data.
See our privacy policy for more details on how we handle any data here.
App Changes
I’ve upgraded to MoneyWell 2023. Where is my document now?
MoneyWell has moved away from the “Document” model where you’re responsible for your file and can move it around. To enable sync to work properly, MoneyWell now manages your budget—the new name for a document. You can export it, transfer it to a different machine etc. but it will be stored in MoneyWell’s application support folder. See the support article here that goes into more detail.
Why do I need macOS 11 to install MoneyWell 2023?
Since we’ve taken over MoneyWell, we’ve done our best to keep the minimum version of macOS as low as possible, so as many people can install MoneyWell, but as time goes on it becomes increasingly difficult to do so while also supporting modern versions of macOS and making use of new features that Apple makes available to developers.
For this new version, we’ve had to raise the target to macOS 11 (Big Sur). You can see which devices are supported on Apple’s page here. Most Macs released in the last 10 years can be updated to macOS 11.
Why do you keep talking about my “budget”?
To distinguish between the MoneyWell 3 (and lower) “document” files and to indicate that MoneyWell 2023 and future versions now manage your files we are referring to the new format as a “budget”.
Why is “Undo” disabled?
The changes we needed to make to enable sync have meant we’ve needed to disable undo for now. Going forward, we hope to re-enable undo for “local only” budgets (those without sync enabled). Unfortunately, because of the nature of the way sync works, it won’t be possible to re-enable undo for a synced budget.
How do I migrate from MoneyWell 3.1.2
Instruction on how to move from the existing 3.1.2 version of MoneyWell can be found here:
What about feature “x” / bug “y”?
If you’ve previously written to us about a bug or a feature, we still have a record of that. This release has taken us a long time to get done (no really…) and we’ve been concentrating on the changes required for this. We’re aware that there are lots of improvements that can be made and lots of bugs that still need fixing. Now that sync is released we can spend time on those other important areas too.