On Wednesday, I announced the release of Quicken 2008 by hosting a giveaway. As of yesterday evening, more than 60 people have entered the “contest” for a chance to win one of five downloadable copies of Quicken Premier 2008. Some wrote in with interesting comments, so I’d like to address a few.
Rue asked, “The Paypal link should be terrifically useful! However what did you mean by ‘in theory?’ Does it not work?”
In the beta version I’ve been testing, setting up PayPal for automatic downloads would only work for “new” accounts—those set up initially from the new version. My PayPal accounts were already configured in Quicken, so I had to create a new account mirroring the existing account. So I’ve had success downloading transactions, but I have not attempted to match downloaded transactions with existing entries in the software. I assume it would work as well (that is to say, moderately well) as matching transactions in other bank accounts.
Also, I have two accounts at PayPal—one regular business account and one for micropayments. Quicken allows only one set of credentials per bank.
In another week or so, I will post a full review of the final version of Quicken Premier 2008 using a fresh file rather than the one I’ve been using to track my finances for the last several years.
Scott asked, “As a beta tester, can you give any tips on how to get on their program? I’ve applied a couple of times and never really heard from them.”
From what I understand, the process is a mix of selection based on technical set-ups and random choices. They want the pool of testers to have a variety of operating systems, hardware, and even Quicken usage habits.
Reagan says, “Wesabe’s price (free) is great. My only issue with Wesabe is the lack of reporting options. You associate each transaction with one or more tags, then you can view a bar chart using one tag at a time… I would love to be able to see a monthly trend of multiple combined tags.”
Quicken 2008 supports tagging of transactions. The tags are completely configurable, and you can assign more than one to a transaction. Your “Projects” from Quicken 2007 are automatically converted to a set of tags you can use when you upgrade, and more can easily be added from the transaction entry form. While you can build reports based on tag criteria, in the beta version I tested, there was no pre-configured report. You’ll have to customize a default spending report to make use of the tags in reporting.
Rjw is considering coming back to Quicken. “I find myself tempted to go back to Quicken for Mac and give it one last shot… If I were chosen for a free copy (as long as its a mac version) then I will even provide you with a review in return if you want.”
Unfortunately, I only have Quicken Premier 2008 for Windows.
The giveaway will continue; rather than doing holding separate giveaways, I have enough responses to give away all five copies from the responses to one article. I’m glad to see there is so much interest. If you would like to enter, leave a comment on the giveaway post or here, in response to this post.
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11:48 am (reply)
I am willing to give Quicken a try.
12:14 pm (reply)
Hey,
Thanks for mentioning Wesabe (I’m one of the founders). You can make a multi-tag report on the current site, we just don’t make it easy enough to find or save. Go to one of the tag pages you want to compare, such as ‘restaurant’. In the graph at the top, enter the other tag you want to compare, such as ‘groceries’. You’ll see a comparison of your spending on those tags. You can do that with up to five tags at a time.
We’ll make this easier to find and save, so you don’t have to enter the comparisons each time. I agree on a net worth report, which we’re adding shortly.
We’ve stayed away from having both categories and tags since we think that’s too much work—doing more work with finances isn’t what anyone needs, in my view. The great part about using only tags is that you can be inconsistent and sloppy, and just type whatever words come into your head, and we’ll match them up for you. Also, you can use overlapping categories so that semmingly small area of spending pop out at you (for instance, my ‘sushi’ tag gets used a little too much—but I wouldn’t have that report if I could only call those transactions ‘Restaurants’).
Feel free to drop me a line at marc at wesabe dot com if you have any questions about this. Again, thanks for the mention.
Marc Hedlund, Wesabe
10:43 pm (reply)
Hi Marc,
I have been using Wesabe for a few months and really enjoy the service. I would love to see some better ING Direct integration and possibly even basic Zecco integration.
Also, the more reports the better. I love being able to drill down into all sorts of different spending and earning scenarios. That is my primary motivation for moving to a product such as Quicken (although I loathe the idea of yet another desktop app with data to backup).
Thanks,
Reagan
11:07 am (reply)
I had entered the contest, but I have a Mac. If you ever get a Mac copy, keep me in mind :(
6:52 pm (reply)
I have been hesitating on buying Quicken or any other finance software. I currently pay bills online using my banks website and I track financial information in Excel spreadsheets. Are the benefits of using this type of software worth the effort of maintaining it?
9:21 pm (reply)
I can’t believe that Quicken 2008 only supports ONE paypal account. You’d think that “paypal support” would mean the same it means for other institutions. I have five accounts at schwab and all of those can be downloaded, but I can only get one from paypal? Weak.
2:16 am (reply)
Hi, Reagan,
Since the time of this post, we’ve released the 1.1 version of our Firefox Uploader, which does now support automatic upload of ING Direct. Details here:
http://blog.wesabe.com/2007/10/24/firefox-uploader-11-released/
Hope that helps.
Marc Hedlund, Wesabe