Background
A Microsoft Money user since Money 2005, I found myself on the “losing” side of a two-way battle between Money and Quicken for the personal finance software space. When Microsoft made the announcement that Money was no longer going to be supported or updated, I knew I had to make the switch. I wanted to change over to Quicken quickly so I could successfully run both programs concurrently for a few months.
My use of Microsoft Money Deluxe
I basically used the Deluxe version of Money to adhere to a budget, manage income and expense transactions, as well as forecast how much money I would have by a certain date. To accomplish the last goal, I used the Money program to created reports which I downloaded into Excel, and then kept up with formulas in an Excel spreadsheet. I did not use the bill pay or planning features.
My intended use of Quicken Premier
I wanted to make the step change that I avoided with Money because it would involve a lot of work – namely, this was treating all transactions as a change to net worth instead of a just an income or expense item. For example, in Money I simply treated my mortgage payment as an expense. In Quicken, I am now treating the interest payment as an expense and the principle payment as a transfer to reduce my mortgage loan principle. In other words, after working with Money for some time I realized I did not set things up optimally, so I used this forced change as a way to start over and do things the right way. I could have done this with Money as well, but I never did because I had so much history and other processes/macros set up. Also, I intended to do everything in Quicken, which is why I stepped up to the premier version from Money’s deluxe version.
The transition
My experience actually importing Money data into Quicken is not as bad as other reviewers have reported. All of my transaction history ported over with minimal effort. All in all, I would give this an 8/10. I will make some notes below that prevent it from being a 10/10 that hopefully Intuit can address:
* The Money transactions port over as ALL CAPS while the new Quicken transactions are in Proper Case. Quicken reads this as two different payees – so automatic bill setting and getting history by payee is not ideal
* Because of the point above, there are a number of duplicate transactions for the weeks that financial institutions currently report – usually the current 90 days.
* The default categories in Money transfer over fine and are sometimes changed to the default equivalent in Quicken, which is fine. However, for user-defined categories there is work to be done. For example, I had created City Income Tax as a subset of Tax in Money, but Quicken does not recognize it as a tax.
* I do not like how Quicken puts the cash part of investment accounts as a separate entity from the non-cash part. In Money, my IRA was simply one account and there was a subset of transactions that were investment or cash related. In Quicken, they are two accounts – which is an awkward way to handle it. When I try to change the new “cash” accounts to investment accounts, Quicken stops me saying it will delete all cash transactions. Not wanting to recreate 5 years of investment transactions, I let it have its way.
First Month Experience
If you are like me, it could take a lot of time to make the transition. I literally spent HOURS getting everything right, despite starting from a very clean Money file. Again, I think the bulk of this is because I fundamentally wanted to change how I worked in Quicken relative to Money. It would have taken a good deal of time to have made the change in Money too. However, I was new to Quicken so things were simply taking me even longer. The export to text feature is not nearly as good as Money’s export to CSV feature, but I hope to rely less on exporting anyway. As of now I have all transactions in, all bill reminders set, a Spending Planner created, and a good sense of holistic Net Worth.
The interface
Others have mentioned it, but the interface really is not as slick as it is in Money. The best way I could put it is that Money looks like it was created by professional programmers while Quicken looks like it was created by amateur programmers. However, with the clunky interface also comes greater flexibility to do/change things and more speed to create reports. I am more of a function over form kind of guy, so I think the tradeoffs are mostly positive.
Conclusion
Despite mentioning things in my review that I did not like, I am happy overall with the change. There really isn’t anything Money Deluxe 2007 could do that Quicken Premier 2010 can’t. It might do things differently, which longtime Money users might find quirky, but it does them (at least stuff I did). While it might look rough around the edges and take you a long time to get it exactly as you want it, it is probably a better program than Money overall. I am continually impressed by how flexible the program is and how many “I wish Money could do…”s that it can do. Put another way, after 5 years of working in Money, I am pretty much 100% on Quicken and have had it for just a month. I feel I have a better understanding of my net worth and my day-to-day cash flow. The program has enough features and reports that I no longer feel the need to supplement it with Excel work as I did with Money. In summary, I recommend making the switch, prepare to spend a lot of time getting it the way you want, and get to know some of the neat things that Quicken can do.
- Quicken Premier 2010 has all of the features of Quicken Deluxe, plus investment management tools to help track your portfolio performance and help maximize your investments
- Organizes your personal finances and makes portfolio management easier by bringing your accounts together in one place
- Helps you choose the right investments to reach your goals; identifies ways to minimize taxes on your investments
- Shows where you’re spending and helps you see where to save
- Helps you stay on top of bills and avoid late fees with alerts on upcoming payments
Quicken Premier 2010 has all of the features of Quicken Deluxe–plus investment management tools to help track your portfolio performance and help maximize your investments.
Provides comprehensive investing and planning tools. Click to enlarge.
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Helps you make better buy/sell decisions. Click to enlarge.
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Check in anytime to see exactly where your personal finances are for the week, month or year. Click to enlarge.
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See your most important info in one place. Click to enlarge.
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Getting started is a breeze. Click to enlarge.
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Avoid late fees and penalties. Click to enlarge.
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Easily manage and grow your investments
Includes all the features and tools of Quicken Deluxe, plus:
- Organizes your personal finances–and makes portfolio management easier–by bringing your accounts together in one place
- Helps you choose the right investments to reach your goals
- Identifies ways to minimize taxes on your investments
- Upgrading your Quicken? See “What’s New in 2010″ for the latest features and benefits
Features and Benefits
Provides comprehensive investing and planning tools
Easily track, analyze, and optimize your investment portfolio. You can see changes in assets, liabilities, and net worth with one click: we show how your investments are performing across all your accounts.
Helps you make better buy/sell decisions
We help you identify top-performing investments, so you can make smart decisions on buying or selling. For example, use Morningstar Ratings to compare mutual funds and see which ones best fit your investment management goals.
Shows you how to minimize taxes on your investments
Quicken Premier helps you get the maximum tax benefits on April 15th. It tracks cost basis, estimates capital gains, and exports your data directly to TurboTax for fast and accurate tax preparation.
Watch your savings grow
We make it easy to get on–and stay on–a budget. Set suggested spending limits and savings goals based on the information you enter into Quicken day-by-day.
An intuitive “Spending Planner” summarizes your actual spending and compares it to what you planned to spend for the month. Check your progress at a glance, and quickly see where you have room to spend or need to save more.
We can also help you create customized plans to reduce/eliminate debt–and to save for a house, college, retirement or large purchase.
See where your money’s going
We’ll show you what you have coming in, going out, and most importantly, what’s left over to spend or save. Check in anytime to see exactly where your personal finances are for the week, month or year.
View your accounts all in one place
Organizes your financial information by bringing your accounts together in one place–including banking, credit card, loan, 401(k), and investing accounts. Avoid the hassle of going to multiple websites; now you can see it all with just ONE password. Access over 6,700 banks, brokerages and other financial institutions–including PayPal.2
Never miss a bill
See what bills have already been paid, what’s coming up and if you have enough left in your accounts to cover them–all in one convenient place. Set reminders to pay bills on time and instantly check the status of past bills.
Enjoy free support when you buy, install or upgrade Quicken
If you need help purchasing, installing or upgrading your new Quicken personal finance software, free phone support is available. For more information, visit our Help & Support site.
Save money and shop smart
Our free service–Quicken Picks–seeks out the best online coupons and discount offers just for you, on the stuff you care about. You also get cash back on all your purchases, helping you save even more. You can sign up for Quicken Picks anytime within your Quicken software.
Easily import from Microsoft Money
If you’ve been using Microsoft Money personal finance software, we can help you transfer your valuable financial information to Quicken.4 With our easy-to-use Data Converter tool, you’ll be up-and-running with Quicken in practically no time.
What’s New in 2010
Already using Quicken? Reasons to upgrade now:
New–See your most important info in one place
The new Quicken home page puts all your most important financial information in one easy-to-understand window, so you can see how you’re doing at a glance.
Improved–Find the tools you need, faster
The improved menu and toolbar make it easier to find the tools you need to help organize your personal finances.
New–Getting started is a breeze
It’s simpler than ever to put Quicken to work for you–so you can reach your personal finance goals faster. With the new Guided Setup, you just answer a few simple questions; we’ll show you how Quicken works, and what to do next. You’ll see your total financial picture come into focus even sooner than you expect.
New–Avoid late fees and penalties
We help you avoid overdraft fees and penalties–by showing you how much you’ll have left in your account until your next paycheck.
Improved–Check for accuracy
We’ve made it easier to review your transactions, so you can quickly spot anything that looks inaccurate or out of place. If a transaction requires follow-up, you can flag it with a reminder.
Improved–Get tips from other Quicken users
With Quicken’s Live Community, you can get help and advice from other Quicken users without ever leaving Quicken. If you have a question about something specific you’re trying to do, just look to Live Community on the right of the Quicken screen for the answer.
