Update: The giveaway has ended and the winners will be announced shortly.
Note: This is a long article containing an in-depth review of the new version of Quicken. If you are just interested in the giveaway of Quicken 2010 Deluxe, scroll to the bottom of this article.
It took me a long time to warm up to Intuit Quicken. When I first saw the software in the early or mid 1990s, I wasn’t very interested. That’s not the software’s fault; at that time I most likely did not see the need for tracking money I did not have. When I finally realized I needed to build some control of my personal financial situation, I first looked for free solutions.
After several months of spending less than I was earning and tracking my progress using freeware, I evaluated Microsoft Money alongside Quicken. Money looked nice and ran smooth while Quicken was clunky and unattractive, so I stuck with Money for a few years. After some time, I came to realize that Money’s features for dealing with investments were not as comprehensive as I would like, and for some reason it interpreted the downloaded data from my 401(k) incorrectly. I decided to give Quicken another shot.
While Quicken wasn’t perfect, it worked better with the transaction data I downloaded from the banks and offered configurable reports. So I stuck with it, and I still use a desktop version of Quicken almost every day. I receive questions about why I haven’t switched to popular Web 2.0 applications like Quicken Online (review here) or Mint.com (review here). These websites offer interesting features, particularly those powered by community aggregate information, but they lack some of the basic investing functionality that I get from the desktop version of Quicken.
Quicken 2010 review, first impressions
I received Quicken 2010 Home and Business in the mail yesterday and gave it a test drive tonight.
The upgrade from Quicken 2009, including downloading updates to the software online, took about ten minutes. Tens of thousands of transaction records needed to be converted to the new version, and this took the bulk of the time for the upgrade.
After the upgrade was complete, the software brought me to Quicken.com to register. Although I am already registered at Intuit, I was required to provide my information again before using all of the software’s functionality. Although required, the registration process was quick.
I was impressed with the new version’s look and feel. The interface is redesigned to be cleaner, and switching from one page to another within the software seems to move faster. One of my biggest complaints about Quicken has been its sluggish display but this seems to be greatly improved.
Quicken 2010 opens to a new main screen with three horizontal sections. The top includes a pie chart describing your spending within categories and the middle of the screen lists your anticipated expenses.
The focus here is on your cash flow: how much is left in your spending accounts at the end of the month. Here is the top half of my screen. Click on the thumbnail to view the image full-size (and note the exceptionally large tax expense thanks to quarterly estimated payments).
The bottom section of this screen is new. According to Quicken, it would take 5 minutes to begin tracking spending goals. I began creating spending goals, which seem to form a softer style of a budget. Unfortunately, because I use sub-categories, Quicken’s “average monthly spending” in categories like “Auto,” “Dining,” and “Entertainment” were inaccurate. As a result, the “suggested monthly goals” were not appropriate. I solved this by choosing my own categories, such as “Auto:Fuel” rather than “Auto.”
After assigning several categories to watch, here are my results so far for October. [click to continue…]
I’ve been a relatively faithful user of Quicken for the past five years after switching from Microsoft Money and other more basic personal finance management software. Even though I continue using this software to track my income and expenses and to share my finances with the world, I have never been silent about the software’s drawbacks.
Here are the latest Intuit Quicken products available for download or for shipping.
More Quicken products are available here.
Unfortunately for Mac users, Intuit is still working on an updated version of Quicken. Quicken Financial Life for Mac is slated to be released in February 2010. I should have my hands on the latest edition of Quicken Home and Business in a few days and I plan on reviewing the upgrade as soon as possible.
The news in personal finance today is that Intuit, the makers of Quicken and TurboTax, purchased internet start-up Mint, a service that has come into its own in the past few years. The two companies offer competing products: Quicken Online and Mint are both free web applications that aggregate your financial information across a wide variety of banks, credit cards, and investment accounts.
We’ve reviewed both offerings at Consumerism Commentary. We offered one of the first looks at Quicken Online as well as an early look at Mint, both from 2007. We’ve also spoken to representatives from each of the companies for the Consumerism Commentary Podcast. On May 3, we spoke with Aaron Patzer, the CEO of Mint and on June 7, we spoke with Barron Ernst, the product manager of Quicken Online. Both interviews offered interesting insights into the software and the philosophy behind the companies.
There has been fierce competition between the two companies as they raced to announce higher user numbers. Intuit challenged Mint not too long ago to substantiate their claims that they were adding 3,000 users a day. Any bitterness seems to have subsided for the time being. Mint seemed to be winning the battle over users, and it’s not a bad move for Intuit to buy the competition.
Each application has its own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I use the desktop version of Quicken to manage my own finances. I don’t believe the software is perfect, but I prefer it above any of the web-based applications.
With this deal, Intuit obtains customers it was unable to reach and Mint obtains the backing of one of the best-known software brands. Intuit will continue offering both web-based services for free, and there are no current plans to integrate one set of users into the other piece of software. How long will it continue to make sense to maintain two highly similar services under one roof? Consolidating the users of the two separate services into one larger user base would solidify the surviving software’s spot at the summit among other similar services such as Geezeo.
Read Quicken’s announcement | Read Mint CEO Aaron Patzer’s opinion
Adriel, the product manager for the new Quicken product for Apple Mac, has posted an update about the software’s development. There is good news for users of Quicken 2007 who have been anxiously awaiting an update for the software on par with the updates that Windows users receive each year.
First of all, the delayed product called “Quicken Financial Life for Mac” will not be released as planned. The new Quicken for Mac will be released in February 2010, incorporating some aspects of Financial Life, barring no further delays. According to Adriel, the programming team is incorporating user feedback during the testing phases for both the Quicken Financial Life for Mac and the new Quicken for Mac.
Mac users have an option to run a Windows version of Quicken in a “virtual computer” within OS X with the help of certain software, and the new Quicken for Mac should have a seamless upgrade option to migrate your data from the Windows version to Mac.
Quicken for Mac 2010 Update for August 2009, Adriel, August 11, 2009.
On the heels of Microsoft’s announcement that the company’s desktop financial management software, Microsoft Money (Plus) will be discontinued, Intuit is jumping on the chance to win customers by offering decent discounts on its Quicken products.
These discounts are similar to those offered earlier this year. It looks like Intuit brought them back shortly after Microsoft’s announcement.
I’ve been a user of the desktop versions of Quicken for several years and though I’ve complained about certain bugs and idiosynracies, I still think it’s the best software out there for managing the whole personal finance picture for an individual or family.
Here are the latest discounts:
Intuit is currently beta testing a new version of the software for the Mac, but I have not yet heard any news regarding its release date. Macintosh users have been neglected by Intuit for some time, with the most recent version of the software, released in 2006, is not as fully featured as the Windows version.
With the new conversion tool planned by both Intuit and Microsoft, upgrading from an older version of Money to Quicken 2010 when it is released later this year should be less painful than previous conversions.
Microsoft is ending its support of Microsoft Money, the desktop financial management software that feebly competed with Intuit Quicken. This comes as no surprise to me. Microsoft appeared to have given up on the Money product several years ago. Personally, I switched from Microsoft Money to Quicken in 2004. Although I was happy with Microsoft Money 2004 in the autumn of 2003, after trying the equivalent version of Quicken for several months I decided to permanently switch.
Quicken has not been perfect, but some of the interface drawbacks were outweighed by the superior reporting functionality and tracking of investments. I revisited Microsoft Money occasionally in the last few years but never saw a compelling reason to switch back. With Microsoft’s announcement, I am pleased with my decision.
After June 30, 2009, Microsoft Money Plus — the newer name for the desktop software — will no longer be available for retail purchase. The feature that allows bank activity to be downloaded and reconciled with the transactions entered in the software will cease to function after January 31, 2011. For those looking for a seamless switch, Microsoft is working on a file converter that will allow users to directly upgrade from Money to Quicken 2010.
While Intuit claims they are committed to to customers like myself who prefer the robust desktop application over the free and lightweight Quicken Online, I expect the company’s focus to continue shifting toward the more mainstream online product.
Announcement from Microsoft, June 10, 2009
Microsoft to discontinue MS Money, Ina Fried, CNet News, June 10, 2009
If you’re interested in tracking your money with Intuit Quicken 2009, and you’d like to upgrade to or install the newest versions, there are three days left before prices for the software go up. On June 1, no discounts will be offered on Quicken software, and if discounts do return later, they may be not as generous.
I’ve been an avid Quicken user for several years, after switching from Microsoft Money. It appears that Mac users are unfortunately still out of luck, with no new releases of Quicken for Mac since the 2007 version was released in 2006.
Here are the discounts, valid until the end of May. Note that some discounts have already expired.
More discounted Quicken products and other deals are available here.
I offered to write articles for Quicken occasionally, and the first of these articles was published yesterday. It focuses on trimming budgets and expenditures.
President Obama has proposed cutting the federal budget by $17 billion. That’s a large amount of money, but it’s a tiny slice, 0.5%, of the total federal budget.
Here is an excerpt:
I would love to cut back my expenses like POTUS, so here is what a 0.5% reduction would do for me: $20. That’s one dinner out over the course of a month or perhaps a movie date for two, not including refreshments. If your budget is closer to average, your 0.5% may be lucky if it approaches $5… I think you — and I — can do twenty times better. Cutting 10% from the federal budget would be a tall order, bound to infuriate interest groups and pundits… But cutting 10% from your budget won’t anger anyone…
Read the full article at the Quicken blog.
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