Q2007 vs Q2008

You can download a 60-day trial version of Q08 directly from Intuit. I am running Q08 Deluxe trial on a 2nd computer in parallel with Q07 to find any differences worth the expense. Of minor note, on the cash flow summary, they changed the way my reimbursements are tracked when booked to the original expense category. In Q07, they show as income, in Q08 they net out from expense.

Second, I like that PayPal has been added to the one-step download. However, when testing, I found that duplicate transactions come down. This happened when I paid with an e-check...the original payment transaction downloaded, but then when the e-check cleared, it came down as another new payment transaction. The offshore programmers missed this scenario in their coding efforts.

Third, I like the Financial Overview page and the Net Worth by Year information it presents. It gives a good snapshot and just enough detail to get a good understanding of the big picture.

One thing I would like to see is a snapshot graph of cash flow by month, instead of just Income/Expense. I want to see my actual cash flow graphically for each month. The I/E graph is useless, especially when I have a 16 month no interest personal loan for a home improvement item. I show a big expense for July, but my actual out of pocket for each month is the amount I choose to send in during the no-interest accrual period. The Cash Flow Details button on the Cash Flow page _almost_ does what I want, but I want to see it i a graph by month, rather than the textual details.

Budgeting hasn't changed, reports haven't changed, home inventory hasn't changed. I haven't yet run across much else that has changed that justifies the cost of upgrade from 2007.

I would suggest that you download the trial and look at the "What's new in Quicken" item under the Help menu. If you decide to convert your data for the trial, Quicken will make a copy of your pre-2008 data files. I still suggest keeping your own copy of Quicken data prior to the conversion, both on your computer's hard drive and on external storage.

It is worth the time. I upgraded and it took about five minutes, maybe less, including installing the software and converting my files from 2007->2008.

Z1Z wrote: I don't want to be frustrated.

Z1Z, what new features/functions do you find particularly useful in the 'upgrade' over 2007?

Thus far, none. I have been using Quicken since 1/1/95, so I have a lot of history with the program. I tend the use the most basic aspects of the software to track my spending through bank accounts and credit cards. I don't expect any 'gee wiz' enhancements from such a mature product. Frankly, there isn't all that much more it could do for me, it already what I need, and does it well. I upgrade every year because there are probably incremental enhancements that might not be obvious, but might increase reliability, stability, compatibility with operating system updates, etc. And, the cost of the annual upgrade is quite nominal from a program that has served me so well for so many years.

Thanks for the details answer Steve. I mostly want to make sure it's functional and doesn't have any significant bugs that could upset my financial tracking.

If I understand correctly, what you're describing is how to model a double negative? I do the same thing with reimbursements as you but I've never cared about the cashflow summary because it's always so far off from the truth. I never bothered to investigate why. I suspect the situation you're describing may be why it's always so different for me from what I expect.

Out of curiousity. Do you prefer this change in 2008?

That is very nice and I'm looking forward to it. Both my wife and I have PayPal accounts but we don't use them on a regular basis. This will help us monitor them.

Excellent. I have built several custom reports for this sort of big picture understanding and planning. I'm looking forward to this change since it's right in line with how I use Quicken.

I'm totally tracking you here. We think alike. I have long had issues with any of the monthly planning type tools because of this exact reason, and other similar ones. I have a similar heartburn with the budgeting feature. I also like the graphical views.

I've long struggled with that every year. I forgot when the big UI change year happened. Was that for 2003, or was it 2006? I forgot when that happened, but other than that big UI change each year is always slightly incremental. Althrough each year I like the subtle changes. Only one year have I ever felt it got worse. So even though not much has changed I'm sure I will upgrade simply to stay on top of things. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other Premium feature enhancements like better Morningstar data. I thought I read something about better tools for rebalancing. Did you check into this? I may have my wires crossed with something else though.

I won't bother with the trial. Either it's in working order and I'll upgrade, or they need a few more patches for it to become functional and I'll wait until then. My intent when I started this thread was to understand the stability of the program at present. In the past I have waited until January to buy Q + TT at the same time to maximize the rebates, but I don't care about getting that extra $10 or so compared to the effort. So if you feel Q is functional I'll upgrade today. If you think it still needs some patches, I'll wait.

Thanks for taking the time to reply with such detail.

Cheers, Scott

My experience is the application is more stable. Although Q2007 works in Vista, I found it unstable in downloads and frequent crashes. This was on a new laptop with a clean install! The upgrade went smooth and my downloads now work great! (I probably will eat crow now!)

I have only two issues 1) E*Trade Bank does not do Express Web Connect (it worked for awhile in 2007, but stopped working about 1 month before I upgraded to 2008) and 2) I can seem to get my PayPal account set-up - I find no help in Quicken or on the PayPal site.

I suspect most of the work in the upgrade was Vista related which is transparent to us.

Oilcan