Comments on: How to Choose Personal Financial Management Software

on 1/14/2009 Quicken's hidden bad policy: i have quicken premier home and business 2006. It has some quirks but I have been using it for a year or so and finally learned how to take advantage of its ability to download info from my financial institutions (some still have to be done manually). I just got a pop up telling me that in a few months, I will no longer be able to download this information! What a ripoff! I don't expect to pay good money (not cheap) for a product, put the effort into learning how to use its features and then get a suprise years down the road that some of its features are going to turn off! This should be highlighted in the product's description so the public can make an educated decision when deciding products to buy.
This does not speak well of the Quicken brand so BUYER BEWARE! What else is going to show up as a surprise???

on 1/14/2009 Quicken's hidden bad policy: i have quicken premier home and business 2006. It has some quirks but I have been using it for a year or so and finally learned how to take advantage of its ability to download info from my financial institutions (some still have to be done manually). I just got a pop up telling me that in a few months, I will no longer be able to download this information! What a ripoff! I don't expect to pay good money (not cheap) for a product, put the effort into learning how to use its features and then get a suprise years down the road that some of its features are going to turn off! This should be highlighted in the product's description so the public can make an educated decision when deciding products to buy.
This does not speak well of the Quicken brand so BUYER BEWARE! What else is going to show up as a surprise???

on 1/2/2007 I have recently had a chance of using a Personal Finance Software package by Australian business Parcus Group - Personal Finance Associate.
The product is very good. For the AU$29 it costs, you get budgeting, financial planning templates as well as advanced features that typically cost loads more as separate software packages such as investment real estate calculations (mainly based on rental cash-flow analysis) as well as some value based shares valuations (based on Warren Buffet's stock valuation methodology)
Their website is www.parcusgroup.com
For anyone interested in their own wealth creation this product is definitely worth looking at.

on 12/25/2006 I just went through the process of installing quicken 2007 and i'm discouraged. After some initial success and excitement, I started getting down to actually using the thing and found it to be horrible software. Very disappointed. This software should not be this difficult...i have a degree in computer science and strong background in accounting. If I can't use it easily I don't know who it's designed for.

on 11/22/2005 You cannot reliably transfer information between the PC and Mac versions of Quicken. Most information transfers, but not all, making such a conversion problematic for any serious Quicken user. I'm looking for an alternative that works with both platforms.

on 11/22/2005 I am a Quicken user from the days of DOS, but today the product is a nightmare. The last version I used extensively was 2000. I bought 2001, but found it seriously deficient. I will not buy any Intuit products, including Turbo Tax, which I have bought every year for the last 7. Support is non-existent. And their practice of designed obsolescence by not allowing downloads from your financial institutions after a number of years is offensive to the consumer. They did not specify this on their original product information.

on 11/22/2005 Don't buy it! Investment management, in particular, is egregiously difficult. Entering investment transacctions, which used to be simple in Quicken 2002, has turned into a multi-step, error-prone process in Quicken 2005. The software is difficult to navigate and full of "he'p" such as gratuitiously renaming your payees based on some inscrutable and erroneous assumptions. I haven't found out how to turn off some of these "he'pful features" I found this in the process of searching for an alternative. If I could revert to Quicken 2002, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

on 11/22/2005 Setting up the accounts was confusing. I have a mix of stocks and IRAs at several institutions. My Fidelity account downloaded easily and accurately, but not USAA or ING. Quicken added a cash account for each account, even when I chose the "no cash account" option, which is VERY confusing. There is no option for "rollover" IRAs to keep track of the cash basis when I roll over my IRA accounts. INTUIT provides skimpy online help and no evening or weekend assistance. This software is great for banking, but it provides awkward, inflexible investment management. I wish I hadn't purchased it.

on 11/22/2005 Quicken is used for personal finance and QuickBooks is used for small business finance (i.e. invoices, etc.). Quicken does not integrate with QuickBooks. You can import/export a Quicken file to be used by QuickBooks IF you are changing programs. You cannot transfer information back and forth.

on 11/22/2005 Set up your accounts on the program to match your categories of expenses on your Schedule C if you have your own business. Don't mix personal and business expenses together. This will make it so much easier when you file your income taxes.