Converting from MS Money to Quicken

thanks.

"Laura" wrote

The short answer is "yes". You may want to check the archives in this NG to see what issues occur upon conversion. IOW, the conversion is often not

100% accurate, and some manual corrections may be necessary.

HTH

Laura,

Why are you thinking of switching? I've been thinking of switching to Money because I really don't like Quicken, even though I've used it for over 10 years.

My sister and I need to closely track our mother's expenses these days since we always forget to check for medical dedcutions, etc in her checkbook. She's using Quicken on the trust account but I am using MS money on the checking account. It would be easier for me to switch to Quicken than it would be to have my sister learn MS money. We may actually want to use Quickbooks for a whole picture but our bank only downloads to Money or Quicken.

Thanks for the heads up. I will check the archives.

Thanks for the link. Off to investigate.

"Laura" wrote

(snip)

Why?

To have multiple accounts under one roof or does quicken do that too?

Yes, but watch out - Intuit might just turn around and say "f*ck you" when you least expect it. That's what they have done to their Quicken users in the UK, simply abandoned their customers and discontinued the product...

Yes. But only one user can access them at a time.

Then that will work. At tax time she can just pass me her file and I can merge them.

This might be obvious, but just in case: check your version of MS Money. In general, the conversion is supported from an earlier version to a later version. Thus, converting from Money2004 to Quicken2005 should work. Converting Money2005 to Quicken2005 may not work.

I went in the opposite direction. I switched from Quicken to Money. Well, not quite. I am running both programs concurrently. It's a lot of work, but I believe that both Intuit and Microsoft are intent on screwing their long term customers, in various ways. I'm giving myself the option of relying on one or the other, depending on how awful the two programs become in the future.

My method was to wait for Money and Quicken to release their 2005 versions. They both appear at about the same time of year. I bought both products. Then,

1. Install Money 2005 for the first time. Direct it to import data from my existing Quicken 2004 data file. Suffer greatly, as the conversion process produced many problems.
2. Upgrade Quicken 2004 to Quicken 2005.

I suggest that you maintain both Quicken and Money for several monthes. You might find a bug in Quicken that you cannot live with. More likely, you will find some aspect of the program that appalls you. Both programs have their appalling aspects now.

When large businesses switch from one accounting system to another, they run both systems in parallel for awhile. Your financial data is as important to you as any corporation's data is to itself, so act accordingly.

"Laura" wrote in news:xoY4e.530092$w62.131421 @bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

No you can't. Quicken no longer supports merging data files. The QIF import feature in Quicken 2005 is now crippled and the QFX import can only be done through a bank download. That's why lots of people are upset and considering switching to MS Money.

Bummer. Maybe I need to reconsider switching and get my sister to use ms money instead of quicken. Thanks for the heads up.

thanks David. I am using MS money 2002. It came with my laptop from Dell. It is easy enough to use. If I get quicken from eBay it will be 2004. If my sister buys it new then it will be 2005.

We'll have to see how and if quicken will convert the data. There is only 3+ months worth of transactions so it would not be a big deal if I had to start over again or do it manually.

"Laura" wrote in news:Ae15e.531455$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

Don't do this either. Both of you need to be running the same version. 2005 does NOT import QIF files into investment and other more complex accounts.

2004 will. Both of you should use 2004 if you want any chance of interchanging your data.

You are overstating the negative here.

You can effectively "merge" data files with the exception of investment accounts. Q2005 supports the copy/cut/paste of multiple transactions from one non-investment account to another ... even if the TO account is in a different Quicken file. And QIF export/import is still available for cash, asset, liability accounts, credit-card accounts in Q2005, a couple of business accounts, and all the same Lists that were available before.

That's what I thought I had read. These are only being set up as bank accounts so we might be okay. We will be using the same version of the software. But it does sound like I want to get 2004 in anycase because of their QIF change.