If you have been considering upgrading to Intuit’s Quicken 2007, don’t. More than a month ago, I upgraded from Quicken Home & Business 2006 to Quicken Home & Business 2007, and many things have not gone smoothly since the transition. Many of the new features that the company claims to have been added to the software do not work properly.

The interface looks nicer, and some of the default repors are designed better, but the software performs as if it has not been fully tested. Here are a few things I’ve discovered that don’t work properly.

Downloading transactions through Direct Connect for my 401(k) no longer works. After completing a Direct Connect session in which Quicken identifies that 401(k) transactions have been downloaded, every second Saturday, switching to view the 401(k) account creates two problems. First, the downloaded transactions are not there, although the software says they had been downloaded (by displaying a flag icon next to the account’s title in the sidebar). Second, the transaction screen continually refreshes, making it almost impossible to do anything else, such as add an entry manually or even switch to view a different account.

The 401(k) account does not offer downloads from the website, only Direct Connect. Therefore, I can no longer automatically update this account, and I’ll have to enter all 401(k) transactions manually. This is the only account I normally do not enter transactions manually.

For other banks that only offer Web Connect (customers visit the bank’s website to download a file contraining transaction details to will be imported), Quicken 2007 introduced a new feature called “Express Web Connect.” Theoretically, Quicken will visit the website for you and download the transactions. For the Quicken user, this should be very handy. In effect, it makes banks that only offer Web Connect function like those that offer Direct Connect.

Forget it, it only works for me about half of the time. It’s not due to the bank’s website being unavailable, as I can easily log on myself to download the file. This is what I will normally do, bypassing the Express Web Connect feature.

Supposedly, transaction downloads (Direct Connect and Web Express Connect) now take place in the “background,” which means you should be able to continue using the program while Quicken retrieves updates from the banks. In older version of the software, a status window stays open during the updates blocking access to the program.

In 2007, during “background” updates, dialog boxes continue to pop up and disappear during the connection, stealing the focus, and making it impossible to work in the program at the same time.

Strangely, every so often, Quicken creates a new empty “Checking” account, on its own, without any input from me.

Hopefully Intuit will have bug fixes available sometime soon. Until then, working with Quicken 2007 will be a pain. Don’t upgrade until you hear that the software has improved. Unfortunately, it’s too late for me to go back to Quicken 2006.

Here are some discussions about Quicken 2007:

* FatWallet: Quicken 2007… To buy or not to buy?
* FatWallet: Things That Make Quicken 2007 Go Boom
* Quicken Support Forums: Stick With 2006, 2007 is a Mess

Update: Intuit has updated Quicken 2007 to fix some of these errors.
Additional update: After living with Quicken 2007 R2 for a while, I’ve reviewed the improvements.

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