Quicken vs. Microsoft Money: your opinion?

Posted by steensworld on February 16, 2007, 8:54 am

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I am trying to decide between Microsoft Money and Quicken. I will use
this to pay bills on-line and reconcile my checking accounts.

I would like the program to show a list of monthly bills. As each bill
is paid, I want it to be highlighted in a different color.

Which program should I get? I have never used either and would
appreciate the benefit of your experience.

Thank you,

Allen

Posted by Melvin on February 16, 2007, 12:42 pm

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They both work. Neither of them work the way you prescribe. Based on your
requirement, you'll probably need to hire a programmer and create a custom
solution from scratch.

But if that doesn't appeal to you, you'll find that both programs allow you
to "model" your personal financial situation through use of repeating
"scheduled" transactions that you can use to represent periodic bills and
your periodic paycheque, etc., and that they can remind you of upcoming
bills and differentiate between those that are paid/unpaid.

You need a certain level of personal commitment to use one of these
programs. My father and I have religiously used personal finance programs
for over 10 years and fit things easily into our daily lives. I have a
friend who tried it and it wound up to be a total waste of his time because
he didn't "get" certain concepts and didn't make the personal commitment - 2
1/2 years of data entry and all he wound up with was a pile of garbage data.

Both programs are on yearly upgrade cycles; so while spending $60 or $100 on
one of them might seem negligible, keep in mind that the vendors would love
for you to upgrade each & every year. I am sure I've spent more than $600
on Quicken upgrades to date. You might be wise to stay with the one that
has the lower annual cost, and then only upgrade every other year.

If you're not a very demanding user and you require a more "user friendly"
user interface, I 'd suggest Microsoft Money actually. If you have an
investment portfolio and want to model it, then I think you're better to go
with Quicken.

>I am trying to decide between Microsoft Money and Quicken. I will use

> this to pay bills on-line and reconcile my checking accounts.

> I would like the program to show a list of monthly bills. As each bill

> is paid, I want it to be highlighted in a different color.

> Which program should I get? I have never used either and would

> appreciate the benefit of your experience.

> Thank you,

> Allen

Posted by Bill on February 22, 2007, 5:34 pm

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New to the group and this post is exactly what I am also interested in. I
have MS money 2004 and to my surprise I got a pop up saying the two year
online service to connect to the bank for updates has expired. Upgrade is
required to Money 2007 to continue this service. Man was I shocked. Not that
I don't want to spend the $$ but it was unexpected.

The question is does Quicken also drop online connections to banks etc
either annually or biannually to force an upgrade? If not I will certainly
switch to Q2007 deluxe

Thanks

Bill

> They both work. Neither of them work the way you prescribe. Based on

> your requirement, you'll probably need to hire a programmer and create a

> custom solution from scratch.

> But if that doesn't appeal to you, you'll find that both programs allow

> you to "model" your personal financial situation through use of repeating

> "scheduled" transactions that you can use to represent periodic bills and

> your periodic paycheque, etc., and that they can remind you of upcoming

> bills and differentiate between those that are paid/unpaid.

> You need a certain level of personal commitment to use one of these

> programs. My father and I have religiously used personal finance programs

> for over 10 years and fit things easily into our daily lives. I have a

> friend who tried it and it wound up to be a total waste of his time

> because he didn't "get" certain concepts and didn't make the personal

> commitment - 2 1/2 years of data entry and all he wound up with was a pile

> of garbage data.

> Both programs are on yearly upgrade cycles; so while spending $60 or $100

> on one of them might seem negligible, keep in mind that the vendors would

> love for you to upgrade each & every year. I am sure I've spent more than

> $600 on Quicken upgrades to date. You might be wise to stay with the one

> that has the lower annual cost, and then only upgrade every other year.

> If you're not a very demanding user and you require a more "user friendly"

> user interface, I 'd suggest Microsoft Money actually. If you have an

> investment portfolio and want to model it, then I think you're better to

> go with Quicken.

>>I am trying to decide between Microsoft Money and Quicken. I will use

>> this to pay bills on-line and reconcile my checking accounts.

>> I would like the program to show a list of monthly bills. As each bill

>> is paid, I want it to be highlighted in a different color.

>> Which program should I get? I have never used either and would

>> appreciate the benefit of your experience.

>> Thank you,

>> Allen

Posted by Laura on February 22, 2007, 6:35 pm

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Intuit has announced that support for 2004 Quicken will end in May. Any user
that is using "Direct connect" to download directly into Quicken are
impacted. Those that download QIF files to be imported into Quicken don't
appear to be impacted. My bank uses the Direct connect method so I upgraded
to 2007.

> New to the group and this post is exactly what I am also interested in. I

> have MS money 2004 and to my surprise I got a pop up saying the two year

> online service to connect to the bank for updates has expired. Upgrade is

> required to Money 2007 to continue this service. Man was I shocked. Not

> that I don't want to spend the $$ but it was unexpected.

> The question is does Quicken also drop online connections to banks etc

> either annually or biannually to force an upgrade? If not I will certainly

> switch to Q2007 deluxe

> Thanks

> Bill

>> They both work. Neither of them work the way you prescribe. Based on

>> your requirement, you'll probably need to hire a programmer and create a

>> custom solution from scratch.

>> But if that doesn't appeal to you, you'll find that both programs allow

>> you to "model" your personal financial situation through use of repeating

>> "scheduled" transactions that you can use to represent periodic bills and

>> your periodic paycheque, etc., and that they can remind you of upcoming

>> bills and differentiate between those that are paid/unpaid.

>> You need a certain level of personal commitment to use one of these

>> programs. My father and I have religiously used personal finance

>> programs for over 10 years and fit things easily into our daily lives. I

>> have a friend who tried it and it wound up to be a total waste of his

>> time because he didn't "get" certain concepts and didn't make the

>> personal commitment - 2 1/2 years of data entry and all he wound up with

>> was a pile of garbage data.

>> Both programs are on yearly upgrade cycles; so while spending $60 or $100

>> on one of them might seem negligible, keep in mind that the vendors would

>> love for you to upgrade each & every year. I am sure I've spent more

>> than $600 on Quicken upgrades to date. You might be wise to stay with

>> the one that has the lower annual cost, and then only upgrade every other

>> year.

>> If you're not a very demanding user and you require a more "user

>> friendly" user interface, I 'd suggest Microsoft Money actually. If you

>> have an investment portfolio and want to model it, then I think you're

>> better to go with Quicken.

>>>I am trying to decide between Microsoft Money and Quicken. I will use

>>> this to pay bills on-line and reconcile my checking accounts.

>>>

>>> I would like the program to show a list of monthly bills. As each bill

>>> is paid, I want it to be highlighted in a different color.

>>>

>>> Which program should I get? I have never used either and would

>>> appreciate the benefit of your experience.

>>>

>>> Thank you,

>>>

>>> Allen

>>>

Posted by Bill on February 22, 2007, 6:43 pm

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Thanks for the reply.

Bill

> Intuit has announced that support for 2004 Quicken will end in May. Any

> user that is using "Direct connect" to download directly into Quicken are

> impacted. Those that download QIF files to be imported into Quicken don't

> appear to be impacted. My bank uses the Direct connect method so I

> upgraded to 2007.

>> New to the group and this post is exactly what I am also interested in. I

>> have MS money 2004 and to my surprise I got a pop up saying the two year

>> online service to connect to the bank for updates has expired. Upgrade is

>> required to Money 2007 to continue this service. Man was I shocked. Not

>> that I don't want to spend the $$ but it was unexpected.

>> The question is does Quicken also drop online connections to banks etc

>> either annually or biannually to force an upgrade? If not I will

>> certainly switch to Q2007 deluxe

>> Thanks

>> Bill

>>> They both work. Neither of them work the way you prescribe. Based on

>>> your requirement, you'll probably need to hire a programmer and create a

>>> custom solution from scratch.

>>>

>>> But if that doesn't appeal to you, you'll find that both programs allow

>>> you to "model" your personal financial situation through use of

>>> repeating "scheduled" transactions that you can use to represent

>>> periodic bills and your periodic paycheque, etc., and that they can

>>> remind you of upcoming bills and differentiate between those that are

>>> paid/unpaid.

>>>

>>> You need a certain level of personal commitment to use one of these

>>> programs. My father and I have religiously used personal finance

>>> programs for over 10 years and fit things easily into our daily lives.

>>> I have a friend who tried it and it wound up to be a total waste of his

>>> time because he didn't "get" certain concepts and didn't make the

>>> personal commitment - 2 1/2 years of data entry and all he wound up with

>>> was a pile of garbage data.

>>>

>>> Both programs are on yearly upgrade cycles; so while spending $60 or

>>> $100 on one of them might seem negligible, keep in mind that the vendors

>>> would love for you to upgrade each & every year. I am sure I've spent

>>> more than $600 on Quicken upgrades to date. You might be wise to stay

>>> with the one that has the lower annual cost, and then only upgrade every

>>> other year.

>>>

>>> If you're not a very demanding user and you require a more "user

>>> friendly" user interface, I 'd suggest Microsoft Money actually. If you

>>> have an investment portfolio and want to model it, then I think you're

>>> better to go with Quicken.

>>>

>>>>I am trying to decide between Microsoft Money and Quicken. I will use

>>>> this to pay bills on-line and reconcile my checking accounts.

>>>>

>>>> I would like the program to show a list of monthly bills. As each bill

>>>> is paid, I want it to be highlighted in a different color.

>>>>

>>>> Which program should I get? I have never used either and would

>>>> appreciate the benefit of your experience.

>>>>

>>>> Thank you,

>>>>

>>>> Allen

>>>>

>>>