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Intuit Quicken Deluxe 2000
by Nibelung Quicken is one of those packages that I’ve been using for years, upgrading as I go, but, I suspect, never really making full use of the previous version before being talked into the next. Of course, Intuit are in good company here, MS Office being another case in point. My home accounts used to be a homespun MS Excel ... affair, which was merely a list of known my monthly commitments with room to add my income at the top of the list itself, with plenty of spare spaces left for visits to an ATM and credit card payments. Of course, being a spreadsheet, I could make the balance take care of itself, but it always struck me that there must be a better, purpose-built way. The monthly sheets were never much help at remembering quarterly bills like BT's phone charges, or annual ones like my AA subs (that's for my car, not my drink problem). That’s when a magazine disk of an early, and soon to be replaced version of Quicken, caught my eye, and since then, I have scrapped all my paper records, apart from bank statements, as these could be construed as tax documents, and therefore need keeping for two years. Setting Quicken up is a bit of a chore, especially if you have multiple accounts and your financial life revolves around regular payments, direct debits, standing orders and the like. You need to have a comprehensive list of these to hand, with the amount payable, and periodicity detailed. (Quicken will handle monthly – both lunar and calendar, quarterly, 4-monthly, 6-monthly and annually) If you know the actual date they are due, so much the better. If you’re not sure, get your bank to supply you with a list of known payments. The other thing you need is a specific point when you can safely say that your “paper” version is as up to date as it’s ever going to be, before cutting over to Quicken as your main source of accounting. You will need to give Quicken an opening balance am ount, and the future accuracy of what you are embarking on depends on this. Once set up, Quicken is a doddle to run. Your regular payments give you a prompt as they are due to be paid, and each account has its own tab, making switching between accounts easy. Those little extras like visits to the cash till can all be entered with ease, and once a new type of payment has been input and categorised, it will suggest this every time you input another from the same source. For example, if your first ATM visit was for £30, then this will be the suggested amount shown next time you start to type “ATM” in the entry field. You can of course change it to what it really was. Transfers between accounts can be recorded from either the “donor” or “recipient” end, and reconciling the current state of play with your latest bank statement couldn’t be easier. Just type in the current end balance as calculated by your bank into the first dialogue box of the Reconcile process, “OK” it, and a list of all payments not checked off since last time will appear. All you now have to do is to click on each one that matches your statement. “Typos” and omissions can be corrected by editing the account main screen, and returning to Reconcile. After so many transactions, the software prompts you to back up the details. You ignore this at your peril, since having forsaken “paper”, there is no real way back, without a lot of hassle! I back mine up to a separate d:/drive with the occasional further precaution of a back up to floppy – yes the files are small enough. One small tip I would recommend to anyone setting up a list of standing orders on Quicken: - If you are monthly paid, it’s useful to know how the month will turn out after all standing orders/direct debits are deducted*. Therefore, when asked for a payment date for each item, by all means put in the real date per month, say the 28th for the sake of argument, but ask for 27 days notice. This will give you a realistic feel for your cash flow throughout the month as all your payments will prompt to be taken off on the day after pay-day. Depressing I know, but this sort of software isn’t for financial ostriches! *As they say, there’s always too much month left at the end of my money! My only real criticism of Quicken would be that it isn’t a very “Windowsy” product, in so much that it doesn’t integrate with anything, like Excel for example. But then, since it does what I ask of it, who’s complaining? If this was Ronseal, it would do exactly what it says on the can! Read the complete review |
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Intuit Quicken Deluxe 2000
by jopassmore Since I have been earning money, I have always been slightly obsessed about keeping it under control (far too obsessed if you ask my husband!). In the early days, before I discovered computers, I would write down everything we spent or committed and try to keep tags on all our direct debits and standing orders. From there I moved on to a ... spreadsheet and then a simple database. That was when I discovered Quicken. Quicken has enabled me to feel in control of our finances. What I particularly like about it, is the ability to plan ahead. The 'forecasting' option allows you to enter details of all of your future income and expenses and then using information from your accounts, it will show you how this spending/income will effect your finances in the future. This is very useful if you want to take out a loan or set up a savings plan, because you can then accurately calculate how much you can afford. It also shows you how your spending actions of today may affect your finances in a few months/years. Another useful feature is the 'savings goals'. You can use this feature to 'hide' money in one of your accounts so that it does not show up on your accounts as money available. That way, you can save money whilst it is still really in your main account. The only problem with this is that you may forget you have hidden it! It is always nice to find money you have hidden though, when you are short! The 'scheduled transactions' section is handy as well, because it allows you to set up your standing orders and other regular commitments or income, so that it is automatically entered in the register on a specific date. This way you do not forget that a bill has been paid. I also like the 'reconciliation' section, which allows you to reconcile your accounts against your bank statements easily. That way your Quicken accounts are always nearly completely up to date. I wondered if the introduction of Internet Banking might make Quicken an unnecessary tool, but the financial modelling tools available within Quicken could and would never be reproduced by the banks on the web. Also, I always find it useful to have my own record of transactions because you can't always trust the banks to get it right all of the time! This tool can be extremely useful, but it needs to be kept up to date to be of any use. As they say (not sure who they are!), 'put rubbish in, get rubbish out'. If you are diligent in entering the information, you will find this software invaluable. Read the complete review |
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Intuit Quicken Deluxe 2001
by SueMagee I very rarely take against something, but when I do, that dislike is rock-solid, and it’s happened with Quicken 2001. I’ve used Quicken for as long as I’ve had a computer. It was pre-installed on our first machine, and we later up-graded to Quicken 98. My delight with it was overwhelming. It could do no ... wrong. No, that’s not quite right – there was one slight niggle. There was so much data in there that it took four floppies to backup, and this was fiddly and a bit time consuming, so when we replaced the computer and it had a CD re-writer it seemed sensible to upgrade to Quicken 2001 so that all the floppies could be disposed of. Before I tell you why I’ve reacted to Quicken 2001 in the way that I have, I’d better tell you what the programme does. Put at its simplest it’s a complete money manager. You’ll need at least 16 MB RAM and preferably 24 and up to 96 MB of free disc space to install, a double-speed CD-ROM drive (4 speed or faster recommended) and a video board and monitor capable of running 256-colour VGA (SVGA 16-bit colour recommended). You’ll also need at least Windows 95, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher and you’ll need Internet access if you’re going to use some or all of the online features. Installation is simple, whether you’re a new user or you’re upgrading from a previous version of Quicken. If you want to use the Internet features you’ll need to register, but that’s done quite simply online. The cynic in me wonders if the registration is simply a method of ensuring that you are a captive audience for any future sales promotion. There is a support system and this was what first annoyed me. The first recommendation is that you search Help, which is fair enough, but on a couple of occasions I was directed to a starting point which I couldn’t even find – even with five years’ experience of t he basic system. The handbook’s next suggestion is the “Product Support” phone number, but this costs 75p a minute including VAT and when you’ve got quite a few niggly problems I can see the bill mounting up very quickly. Strangely enough there is a free phone number should you wish to purchase further Intuit products, but if you’re just having problems with the one you’ve bought – tough. I couldn’t find any e mail address, which would have been my preferred way of sorting problems out. It’s up to you how much detail you want to track in Quicken. If you want you could use it simply to track your current account, keeping track of income and expenditure. You might want to use it to keep track of share transactions and to have access to online quotes of share prices. You might want it to do everything. I do. You begin by entering the details of all your bank and building society accounts, credit cards, loans, mortgage and investments, including an up-to-date balance for each. It takes about five minutes to set up each account, and even if your financial affairs are complex it should take you no more than an hour or two to get the basics up and running. It’s time well spent. You then enter every financial transaction as it occurs and Quicken will keep track of exactly how your finances stand. Once you’ve set up details of all your Standing Orders and Direct Debits they can be automatically entered in the correct account on the due date. It’s even possible to run a couple of small businesses from the same programme, as Quicken will carry three separate sets of data. To get the most out of Quicken you should categorise all your income and expenditure (categories are listed, or you can add your own). From this you can draw up a budget and see if you stick to it, or if you particularly want to you can draw up a profit and loss account for any given pe riod. It’s useful to be able to say “How much did I spend on books last month?”, but sometimes better not to know. The “categories” are at the heart of Quicken, but there’s no need to be too pedantic about this. I make a lot of use of the “Groceries” category and also “Household”. To some extent the two overlap, but I know that the total of the two categories feeds us and keeps the house in good order. I’m very careful, on the other hand, about what I put into the “Gas” and “Electricity” categories, as I can use these figures to check that I’m getting the best deals going. I added a category called “Dogs” which is quite useful if I ever want to frighten myself with the knowledge that the girls cost more to run than the car! The “Reconcile” feature is good. Please tell me that you reconcile your bank statement when it arrives, and don’t just put / throw it away? With this feature you enter the closing balance on the statement and a list is produced of all the items which haven’t already been reconciled. You click on the ones that appear on your statement, adjusting any discrepancies until “Reconcile” and the statement agree. It’s easy and it’s quick, but I do get annoyed by the graphic of two middle-class males in suits which appears to congratulate you! On Quicken 98 a bottle of champagne appeared – much pleasanter! If you want to transfer money between accounts WITHIN Quicken this is very simple; you enter the details as a transfer in the account from which you’re making the transfer, and the details all appear in the account to which you’re making the transfer. I had hoped that there would be more of an interface with online banking and the facility of downloading information from your Bank directly into Quicken is offered, but when I installed the programme Nat West was the only bank offering this facility and when I looked this morning even that had disappeared. It’s the Portfolio section which most annoys me on a regular basis. On the Stock Market shares are quoted in pence. J Sainsbury is 432p this morning. It is not £4.32. Quicken records in the latter form. Any data transferred from elsewhere has to be converted, or you run the risk of having that wild moment of elation when you notice that your shares have increased in value a hundred-fold overnight, followed by the disappointment of mentally having to cancel the holiday you’d already started planning. Yes, I know I’ll get used to that in time, but I’ve still got to mentally run two systems, and this one is out of kilter with all the others. I shouldn’t actually have to enter figures manually, because each share can be allocated a symbol, and it should then be possible to update automatically online. With some shares it is possible, with others it isn’t. I can’t be the only person with Bradford and Bingley shares. Oh, you sold yours? The symbol they are allocated by Standard and Poors, who provide the update is “BB”, and I have entered this, but Quicken will not update – it says that the symbol is incorrect. I have followed through to the Standard and Poors site from Quicken, and obtained a quote using those symbols. I have used the symbol elsewhere in Quicken to obtain a quote, but it will not do it automatically. When I try Edit>Look Up to check the quote I get “System not responding” and I have to close the programme down. I can’t connect to the Internet from Quicken to get quotes – every time I try it I’m timed out immediately I get a connection, and I can find no way of adjusting this. I have to make the connection outside Quicken and then open the programme. Can you see why I’m getting annoyed? There’s one final, albeit small annoyance. Every time I have a credit in the current account I then record all standing orders and direct debits which are due to go through the account before the next credit comes in. That way I can see if I need to transfer any funds into the account. The “Accounts Summary” page in Quicken shows not only the present account balance, but also the ending balance – which might be a couple of weeks into the future, but nevertheless that’s the balance that I work on, and that’s what I want as my Desktop in Quicken. There is the option to have either “Save Current Desktop” or “Save Desktop on Exit”, but no matter what I select the Desktop which is always presented is a pesky list of accounts which only shows the current balance and this is worse than useless to me. I’d love to uninstall the whole thing, but I don’t know how well Quicken 98 would cope if I tried to downgrade using the data I’ve had in Quicken 2001. Why wasn’t I satisfied with backing up onto four floppies? Read the complete review |
Personal finance / tax preparation Finance / Accounting |
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