I'm trying to decide between Quicken and Microsoft Money for my parents. The single most important feature for me is to help them budget unexpected expenses. If for example they have an unexpected dental expense of $1600, I want them to be able to enter that into the software and have it visibly show them that they have less money to spend in the next two months, even before they have received the invoice or paid it.
What features does Quicken have relative to this feature?
"Will" wrote in news:1LednYoEQepZAj_bnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Any future transactions which I am reasonably certain of that I will incur, I enter using future dates. That's for both expenses (utility bills among them) and income (such as paychecks). It gives me estimates of future balances. Not that they even turn out to be as rosy as I hope ...
innews:1LednYoEQepZAj_bnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
QW07 introduced a "Projected Cash Flow" feature which may provide what you are looking for. To effectively use this feature you must have all known/routine income and expense transactions entered as Scheduled Transactions. The user must include estimated amounts for variable items such as utilities, CC usage, etc. Unexpected income/expense items would be entered as the previous poster indicated - when they become known.
The user can scroll ahead a month at a time and see monthly summaries of projected income, outflows and 'What's Left'. The user can also view this info on a daily basis in a Calendar View and in a Daily Account Balance bar graph.
Personally just recently 'discovered' this feature and am tinkering with it. Initial impression is that it may be very useful for looking ahead. Seems to be a glitch in the graphical forecast which I seem to recall being discussed in forums but haven't gotten around to tracking it down as yet.
I want to amplify on what I think (hope?) Han was saying. In the register view of (say) my checking account, I typically enter (via scheduled transactions) future payments as well as anticipated paychecks. As Han said, if one knows one will need to pay a bill in a few weeks (months) time outstanding, you can enter it with a future date. NOW - here's the point. At the current date, a horizontal line is drawn by Quicken, and ALL future transactions (including running balances) are shown in the register with a slightly brown color across the PAYEE line (instead of the color you have in the normal color scheme) indicating a transaction that has not occurred yet.
Additionally, CURRENT BALANCE and ENDING BALANCE figures at the bottom of the screen indicate today's balance as well as the balance at the end of the furthermost transaction in the future. This is the method what I use to keep myself in check, as it were. It shows me that given all the information I know to date, my cash flow will cover all the future expenses that I know are coming.
Hope this helps!
Great amplification and explanation of wha I was thinking, but maybe didn't say the right way.
Thanks Andrew!
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