Recommendations for a MS Money user?

Posted by Mark Horn on October 26, 2006, 6:03 pm

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Hello,

I've been using Microsoft Money since about Money 2000. I haven't
upgraded since M04 because M05 & M06 sucked badly. M07 sucks less
badly, but still has some problems that I really dislike.

I'm interested in trying Quicken. But I can't seem to find any way
to do this without purchasing the product. I've grown accustomed
to Microsoft's yearly trial version. (This is how I've known not
to upgrade to M05-07.)

How do you guys decide whether or not to upgrade to the next version
of Q? How can I figure out whether or not I'll like it without
first plunking down cash?

Here are my complaints with Money that I'm hoping Quicken might
do better:

* Transaction downloads will expire in M04 on 9/1/2007 (or 3 years
after I activated it - I don't know which will happen first).
Transaction downloads for M07 have very inspecific terms in the
license: "Microsoft provides Online services with the software.
It may change or cancel them at any time."

* Money is going more and more "online". Which means that I can
accidentally hit some feature and what really happens is it takes
me to a web page instead of a feature in money. Very annoying
while on an airplane (for example).

* In M07, after I've downloaded all the transactions from my FIs,
it takes 5 minutes before I can actually accept any of them.
When I try, I get a ridiculous error message. The only solution
is to wait.

* In all versions of Money, scheduled bills are linked with the
budget. This means that you can end up with some funky errors
if you mess with the date of a scheduled bill. For example,
if I budget $25/mo for Bills: Telephone, messing with the date
can sometimes resuilt in the budgeted amount being 2x (or more)
what you really want it to be. And there is no way to change it
in Money. You can export it to excel, tweak it and get the right
numbers but you can't ever fix the budget snafu.

My biggest concerns are the first two. Money is changing so much,
that I really don't want to upgrade from M04. But at some point,
I'm not going to be able to d/l transactions any more and that's
pretty critical to me. So as long as I have to make a huge change
anyway, why not evaluate Q? Any advice?

TIA.
- Mark

Posted by Dick on October 26, 2006, 7:57 pm

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Quicken now has a trial period ( I think it's 3 months) if you like it,
you keep it, if not return it for a refund.

> Hello,

> I've been using Microsoft Money since about Money 2000. I haven't

> upgraded since M04 because M05 & M06 sucked badly. M07 sucks less

> badly, but still has some problems that I really dislike.

> I'm interested in trying Quicken. But I can't seem to find any way

> to do this without purchasing the product. I've grown accustomed

> to Microsoft's yearly trial version. (This is how I've known not

> to upgrade to M05-07.)

> How do you guys decide whether or not to upgrade to the next version

> of Q? How can I figure out whether or not I'll like it without

> first plunking down cash?

> Here are my complaints with Money that I'm hoping Quicken might

> do better:

> * Transaction downloads will expire in M04 on 9/1/2007 (or 3 years

> after I activated it - I don't know which will happen first).

> Transaction downloads for M07 have very inspecific terms in the

> license: "Microsoft provides Online services with the software.

> It may change or cancel them at any time."

> * Money is going more and more "online". Which means that I can

> accidentally hit some feature and what really happens is it takes

> me to a web page instead of a feature in money. Very annoying

> while on an airplane (for example).

> * In M07, after I've downloaded all the transactions from my FIs,

> it takes 5 minutes before I can actually accept any of them.

> When I try, I get a ridiculous error message. The only solution

> is to wait.

> * In all versions of Money, scheduled bills are linked with the

> budget. This means that you can end up with some funky errors

> if you mess with the date of a scheduled bill. For example,

> if I budget $25/mo for Bills: Telephone, messing with the date

> can sometimes resuilt in the budgeted amount being 2x (or more)

> what you really want it to be. And there is no way to change it

> in Money. You can export it to excel, tweak it and get the right

> numbers but you can't ever fix the budget snafu.

> My biggest concerns are the first two. Money is changing so much,

> that I really don't want to upgrade from M04. But at some point,

> I'm not going to be able to d/l transactions any more and that's

> pretty critical to me. So as long as I have to make a huge change

> anyway, why not evaluate Q? Any advice?

> TIA.

> - Mark

Posted by Oilcan on October 26, 2006, 9:12 pm

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I thought Quicken has a 30 Day trail period?

I switched to M05 for six months. My data base became so corrupted and
came back to Quicken. I lost a lot of history which I have manually
recreated (mostly investments that go back to the 1980's).

In M05 the "Yodlee" interface was introduced. Quicken has done some
thing like that this year with Web Connect which it can be updated
through One Step Update. The process isn't quite 100% (I have yet to
get my AT and T Universal card to work), but I have 95% plus of my
accounts working okay. MBNA accounts are a new problem, but it is
really on Nations Bank's (excuse me, Bank of America) side.

There are some Web links within Quicken - but they are 85% less and you
generally know when you are going to the Web. M05, most of those links
turned out to be ads for additional services.

Quicken also sunsets the download of data. If yours is sunseting in
9/07, you could wait for next years Quicken which come out around
8/1/07. I am an early adopter with Quicken (user since 1995 minus 6
months) and have upgraded all but two years. Never really have had a
bad experience.

Mind you Quicken is not perfect, but I have a background in Accounting
so I can usually can figure out workarounds for my issues.

Dick wrote:

> Quicken now has a trial period ( I think it's 3 months) if you like it,

> you keep it, if not return it for a refund.

> > Hello,

> >

> > I've been using Microsoft Money since about Money 2000. I haven't

> > upgraded since M04 because M05 & M06 sucked badly. M07 sucks less

> > badly, but still has some problems that I really dislike.

> >

> > I'm interested in trying Quicken. But I can't seem to find any way

> > to do this without purchasing the product. I've grown accustomed

> > to Microsoft's yearly trial version. (This is how I've known not

> > to upgrade to M05-07.)

> >

> > How do you guys decide whether or not to upgrade to the next version

> > of Q? How can I figure out whether or not I'll like it without

> > first plunking down cash?

> >

> > Here are my complaints with Money that I'm hoping Quicken might

> > do better:

> >

> > * Transaction downloads will expire in M04 on 9/1/2007 (or 3 years

> > after I activated it - I don't know which will happen first).

> > Transaction downloads for M07 have very inspecific terms in the

> > license: "Microsoft provides Online services with the software.

> > It may change or cancel them at any time."

> >

> > * Money is going more and more "online". Which means that I can

> > accidentally hit some feature and what really happens is it takes

> > me to a web page instead of a feature in money. Very annoying

> > while on an airplane (for example).

> >

> > * In M07, after I've downloaded all the transactions from my FIs,

> > it takes 5 minutes before I can actually accept any of them.

> > When I try, I get a ridiculous error message. The only solution

> > is to wait.

> >

> > * In all versions of Money, scheduled bills are linked with the

> > budget. This means that you can end up with some funky errors

> > if you mess with the date of a scheduled bill. For example,

> > if I budget $25/mo for Bills: Telephone, messing with the date

> > can sometimes resuilt in the budgeted amount being 2x (or more)

> > what you really want it to be. And there is no way to change it

> > in Money. You can export it to excel, tweak it and get the right

> > numbers but you can't ever fix the budget snafu.

> >

> > My biggest concerns are the first two. Money is changing so much,

> > that I really don't want to upgrade from M04. But at some point,

> > I'm not going to be able to d/l transactions any more and that's

> > pretty critical to me. So as long as I have to make a huge change

> > anyway, why not evaluate Q? Any advice?

> >

> > TIA.

> > - Mark

Posted by John Pollard on October 26, 2006, 9:18 pm

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> Quicken now has a trial period ( I think it's 3 months) if

> you like it,

> you keep it, if not return it for a refund.

You have to buy Quicken; then you have 60 days to return it for
a full refund, no questions asked.

I would suggest waiting a bit before getting into the 60 period;
Q2007 is still getting its sea legs. Release 2 is out and I
believe there will definitely be a release 3 ... but probably
one or two more after that.

Posted by Mark Horn on October 27, 2006, 7:22 am

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> I would suggest waiting a bit before getting into the 60 period;

> Q2007 is still getting its sea legs. Release 2 is out and I

> believe there will definitely be a release 3 ... but probably

> one or two more after that.

This suggests that Intuit regularly releases updates and fixes.
That is a feature completely unfamiliar to Money users. In the 6
years I've been using Money they've only done it once.