Financial Software

[SoCalDukeFan]

I wonder what financial software you use for managing home accounts. Basically all that I want to do is manage my checkbook.

I was using MS Money but it is no longer supported. Switched to Quicken. I really do not like it very much. For one thing you have to pay every 3 years or so to upgrade. Secondly, simple things can be hard. For example, I also use Bank of America's on line bill pay system. I made a payment to a new account, and then discovered I had mistyped the address. B of A would not let me change the address because I was using Quicken and said I need to change it in Quicken. But it was not in Quicken. B of A let me delete and reenter, but it was a pain. I guess I was supposed to set it up in Quicken and pay from there.

Maybe I use some of the other Quicken features and I might like it better.

Or maybe since Dan Gilbert of the Cavs owns Quicken than maybe it is a poor product. I have also heard that it stinks for the Mac.

Thanks

SoCal

[moonpie23]

i've been using quicken for over 10 years….it's been great, but i do not like the new version………Quicken 6 was the last version i actually liked. I guess i'm used to the way it's set up. the reports are awesome….

however, i don't let my quicken do my online banking…


it's one of those softwares that, as it improved, it got a lot more complicated than it needed to be….

[YmoBeThere]

Intuit owns Quicken, they also own TurboTax and the personal finance website mint.com.

Dan Gilbert owns Quicken Loans a business he sold to Intuit and then bought it back from them. There are no management connections between the two.

I've been using Quicken since 1997, I'm annoyed by having to update to new versions every three years, something that wasn't really necessary in years past(I went from '99 to about 2005 on the same version). I'm not a huge fan of the most recent versions, I've found them to be a bit buggy. I do my bill pay online but don't use Quicken in doing that.

[Jarhead]

My method is low tech, I guess.

I use BofA online banking including the bill pay function. Each month, I download my account data into a Quatro Pro spread sheet I've used for years. Voila, I'm done. I follow the most important accounting rules, such as debits on the left, credits on the right, and the overlap will take care of the underlap.

[SoCalDukeFan]

Intuit owns Quicken, they also own TurboTax and the personal finance website mint.com.

Dan Gilbert owns Quicken Loans a business he sold to Intuit and then bought it back from them. There are no management connections between the two.

I've been using Quicken since 1997, I'm annoyed by having to update to new versions every three years, something that wasn't really necessary in years past(I went from '99 to about 2005 on the same version). I'm not a huge fan of the most recent versions, I've found them to be a bit buggy. I do my bill pay online but don't use Quicken in doing that.

For the clarification.

[tommy]

I've been using Quicken for maybe 20 years, and I really don't like it. There are many user-unfriendly aspects to the way the program works, many features that it should have but doesn't have, it is clunky, and yes, they make you buy upgrades every couple of years that really aren't necessary and do nothing to add to the experience. I have had big time trouble every time I've either bought a new computer, and when I switched over from PC to Mac a few years ago, it was a huge problem. The issue is that I have so much data -- 20 years of financial data -- invested with Quicken, that I'd hate to sacrifice all of that to do what I'd really like to do, which is say 'forget quicken' and start over with something else. And the worst part about it is that Intuit has zero interest in customer service, zero interest in helping people use their products, zilch, none, nada. It's a terrible company from that standpoint. If anyone were to ask me about what type of financial program to use, and they were considering going down the road with Quicken, I would tell them to stop and run the other way.

[YmoBeThere]

The bigger issue I run into is what are the alternatives? Like Jarhead, I do quite a bit of work in spreadsheets, mainly with my investments. I used to trade regularly and didn't find Quicken flexible enough. It has gotten better over the years with invedtments, but I prefer my spreadsheet views.

[duke74]

My method is low tech, I guess.

I use BofA online banking including the bill pay function. Each month, I download my account data into a Quatro Pro spread sheet I've used for years. Voila, I'm done. I follow the most important accounting rules, such as debits on the left, credits on the right, and the overlap will take care of the underlap.

Jarhead, great advice. Been with a Big 4 firm for now 37 years and teach accting at a local university as an adjunct prof. Always tell the kids (and staff) that the great thing about accting is that debits have to equal credits. If not, then you have a problem. (Thank you, Friar Luca Pacioli.) The only issue you might have is that the overlap of 10 million might be taken care of by an underlap of 10 million, distorting the gross amounts in your personal FS. (Just a caution that I also discuss with my younger staff - that a small diff might be indicative of larger issues, including controls in a public co. Some unsolicited accting thoughts...sorry.)

BTW, in answer to the OP, I have used Quicken for about 20 years and Turbo Tax (also Intuit) since the 80s. Not that complicated a guy, so Q works well for me although a few of the investment functions are not great (splits, corporate actions, etc). Use the update function to get transactions and prices from my brokers. Pay most bills via Chase, but manually enter into Q. Q is really my checkbook, portfolio holdings (not overly active a "trader"), and FS prep software (stmt of net assets, tax schedules, etc)

[77devil]

I too have been a long time Quicken user with the same ambivalence as others but I've never found a better alternative. I use Quicken off line to pay bills and upload the transactions to my bank's bill pay system. I prefer this option to using a bank online bill pay function.

[fuse]

Mint.com works great as a reporting tool.

[Ggallagher]

I've been using Quicken for about 20 years now. I've never used its on-line functions so the upgrade thing hasn't been an issue for me. The last version I upgraded to was Q-2008. Since just about every review I've seen of the later versions was pretty uncomplimentary, I've just stayed with the 2008 edition.