web display of accounts and transactions

Posted by Chris Cowles on November 4, 2006, 8:40 pm

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Does Quicken support a means of uploading accounts and transaction data to
a server? I want to manage my Mom's finances in a manner that other family
members can view them. I assume I'll download most transaction data from
banks and brokers into a file on my personal computer, and that file would
sync with the content on the web. Being able to enter transactions from the
web, and those sync back to my personal computer, would be nice but not
necessary.

Please don't reply about what a terrible idea this is for security reasons.
I know the issues. I'm just asking if Quicken does what I ask. I don't have
it and am considering purchase if it does what I'm asking about.

Thanks in advance.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

Posted by John Pollard on November 4, 2006, 8:53 pm

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> Does Quicken support a means of uploading accounts and

> transaction data to a server?

"Accounts", yes; "transactions", no.

> I want to manage my Mom's finances in a manner that other

> family members can view them.

> I assume I'll download most transaction data from banks and

> brokers into a file on my personal computer,

Reasonably good start; but the assumption requires that your
particular fi's offer downloads to Quicken ... not all do.

> and that file would sync with the content on the web.

Yes, Quicken can do this; but only at the account level. No
transactions can be uploaded to Quicken.com (the web site where
this all takes place).

And while you can get most account balances correct at
Quicken.com; you will not be able to do so for any investment
account that holds securities whose prices can not be gotten via
Intuit's (indirect) quote servers (like bonds, for example).

> Being able to enter transactions from the web, and those sync

> back to my personal computer, would be nice but not necessary.

This is also available.

--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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Posted by Han on November 4, 2006, 9:06 pm

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> Does Quicken support a means of uploading accounts and transaction

> data to a server? I want to manage my Mom's finances in a manner that

> other family members can view them. I assume I'll download most

> transaction data from banks and brokers into a file on my personal

> computer, and that file would sync with the content on the web. Being

> able to enter transactions from the web, and those sync back to my

> personal computer, would be nice but not necessary.

> Please don't reply about what a terrible idea this is for security

> reasons. I know the issues. I'm just asking if Quicken does what I

> ask. I don't have it and am considering purchase if it does what I'm

> asking about.

> Thanks in advance.

I think that what you want can be done in at least 2 of rather roundabout
ways.

You can upload much of your data to quicken.com, I fairly sure. Then,
since you're not worried about security, you can share your userid and
password with whomever you want. I think that would be stupid (with all
due respect), but it could be done. Just realize that it may (an implied
caveat) give others the ability to act on the accounts, whether you
desire so, or not.

An alternative is to generate reports from within Quicken that reflect
Mom's finances at whatever moment you choose. That includes transaaction
reports, showing what has happened over time in the account. Reports can
be memorized, so that it would take very little effort to generate
monthly or weekly reports. For instance "year-to-date" reports. You
could then print the reports to pdf from within Quicken (if I'm not
mistaken), and share the files so generated by email or by posting them
to a website.

I wouldn't do any of this, because of security reasons, but you can do
whatever you want to. Just make sure you're not committing fraud or
enabling fraud. To me doing what you want to do is (with all due
respect) an invitation for someone to commit identity theft. You will be
the one who will be responsible for whatever will go wrong, and your
family members will most likely never thank you, just complain about
whatever you did. If you do want to go ahead, talk to a lawyer, and make
sure that your family members sign waivers, or whatever the lawyer
suggests.

Just my view, and I have absolutely no legal experience whatsoever. I'm
a biochemist. Oh, yeah, personally I never had problems, but I was very
careful to give full disclosure to sister and parents and only give
suggestions. Only when given the OK did I act.

Good luck!
--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

Posted by Chris Cowles on November 4, 2006, 10:05 pm

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The only people who would have online access to the accounts are my brother
and my Mom. It's my Mom's money. She can do whatever she wants with it. And
my brother and myself already are signatories on all of the accounts, so we
can do that, anyway. Putting it online simply makes it more transparent.

Like I said, I'm fully aware of the security issues. I also didn't say I
was going to do it. I asked whether it was possible.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

> You can upload much of your data to quicken.com, I fairly sure. Then,

> since you're not worried about security, you can share your userid and

> password with whomever you want. I think that would be stupid (with all

> due respect), but it could be done. Just realize that it may (an implied

> caveat) give others the ability to act on the accounts, whether you

> desire so, or not.

Posted by Han on November 5, 2006, 8:29 am

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>> You can upload much of your data to quicken.com, I fairly sure.

>> Then, since you're not worried about security, you can share your

>> userid and password with whomever you want. I think that would be

>> stupid (with all due respect), but it could be done. Just realize

>> that it may (an implied caveat) give others the ability to act on the

>> accounts, whether you desire so, or not.

> The only people who would have online access to the accounts are my

> brother and my Mom. It's my Mom's money. She can do whatever she wants

> with it. And my brother and myself already are signatories on all of

> the accounts, so we can do that, anyway. Putting it online simply

> makes it more transparent.

> Like I said, I'm fully aware of the security issues. I also didn't say

> I was going to do it. I asked whether it was possible.

> --

> Chris Cowles

> Gainesville, FL

I hope you were not offended, since offending was not at all my
intention. Also, I wasn't really asking for your explanation, though I
now more fully understand.

The real reason for my rant was that this is a very public forum, and
some people may be less scrupulous than you, and trick people into
revealing information that could be "misused".

Also look into spreadsheet conversions. Quicken is able to print to
spreadsheet files. Formerly also called csv (comma separated value
files), 2006 calls them "tab-delimited" files. The other possibility is
prn files, which I don't think are really different except for the
extension. These files can then be examined, manipulated, printed,
whatever in any spreadsheet program. I wish I had gotten my father a
computer when he was ready for it. It may have stimulated his thinking,
since he liked math. I would suggest making your original files read-
only, so they would remain unchanged, but can be "saved as" with a new
file name.
--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid