Putney, Vermont – After more than a year of development and months of private testing, IGG Software has released the public beta of iBank 5, the forthcoming full-version upgrade to its popular money management program for Mac. Interested testers can now download iBank 5 Beta from the IGG website. Following this announcement, all new purchases of iBank 4 made via the IGG online store will include an additional license code for a free upgrade to iBank 5.

“Our goal has always been the same,” says IGG president Ian Gillespie. “We want to provide Mac users with the best, most complete finance management package available on any platform. iBank 5 brings it all together seamlessly, in a way that will please existing customers and impress anyone still on the fence about switching.”

Among dozens of new features and improvements coming in iBank 5, changes of immediate interest to both current and future users include:

– Bill pay.
iBank 5 will connect to most major U.S. banks from within the app, allowing users to schedule and send payments, track those transactions and categorize the expenses, all with easy in-app set-up and a few simple clicks.

– One-button updating.
A single Update Everything button on the iBank 5 toolbar imports all transactions from directly connected accounts, syncs devices, updates securities prices, and downloads current Direct Access data. Even users with many accounts, diverse investments and finances in multiple currencies may never have to enter another transaction manually.

– Direct Access.
IGG’s exclusive subscription service for automatically updating transactions in all accounts was introduced last year with iBank for iPad. Now coming to iBank 5, it connects to over 10,000 banks worldwide. In addition, a single Direct Access account allows users to sync that data between iBank 5 for Mac and iBank for iPad 2.

– Smarter budgeting.
With an all-new data model and streamlined user interface, iBank’s new budgets automatically incorporate scheduled transactions such as recurring income and bills. Users may view historic budgets accurately even as adjustments are made to future budgets, and budgets will sync to iBank for iPad 2 as well.

Among other features, iBank 5 also adds:

* enhanced investment support for bonds and options;
* an improved set-up assistant for more accurate imports from Quicken or other programs;
* superior handling of duplicate transactions from bank downloads;
* new integration with Reminders and Notification Center;
* inline imports that go directly to transaction registers, eliminating the import window;
* better use of import rules to speed categorization;
* and the ability, for all licensed users, to take advantage of IGG’s upgrade pricing from within the new app.

For optional, automatic updating of transactions, users of iBank 5 will have the opportunity to try Direct Access for free during a 30-day trial. Maintaining the service will cost as little as 11 cents a day: just $4.99 per month, or $39.99 for an annual subscription; that data can be synced to iBank for iPad 2 directly from the desktop app over local Wi-Fi or via WebDAV server.

The iBank 5 public beta can be downloaded from IGG Software by anyone interested in testing the app. Feedback should be submitted by email to the address given on the iBank 5 beta page. As with all beta software, IGG notes that the available build may be unstable and that prospective testers should take normal precautions to safeguard critical data. Nonetheless, iBank 5 can be run alongside iBank 4 without affecting the pre-existing version or its files.

Upon final release, iBank 5.0 will be available for download for $59.99 from the IGG online store, the Mac App Store and other outlets; the price for upgrades via IGG will be $29.99. iBank 5 requires Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and is fully compatible with 10.9 Mavericks.

IGG Software
iBank 5 Beta
iBank 4

IGG Software, Inc., was founded in 2003 by developer Ian Gillespie to offer intuitive, elegant and powerful applications for individuals and small businesses. Based in Putney, Vermont, it develops the iBank family of apps exclusively for the Mac and for iOS devices. For further information, review licenses, or to schedule interviews with Ian Gillespie or CTO James Gillespie, please contact IGG Marketing Director Scott Marc Becker.