Quicken 2007 Basic and investments

Was waiting for a user with QW07Basic to respond - so will offer opinions. Am currently using QW07Dlx but used Basic for several versions thru 06 and only went to Dlx this year because I got it for the Basic price. Have read the 'comparisons' you refer to and agree that you get the impression that Basic has very limited investment capability. My experience has been that this has not been true in the past - the 'comparisons are really advertisements and they are 'hyping' the more expensive versions [better margin I would guess]. If you are satisfied with Basic06 capabilities, I would not expect any loss of functionality with Basic07. Again, experience has been that Basic does not always get the newest features; e.g., document attachment capability. On the other hand, have not seen a case where Basic alone lost features; e.g., all versions lost the much debated QIF import capability.

You have options; the 60 day money back warranty; or, try it and upgrade for the incremental price if desired. Best option perhaps, if you use TTax, the TTax promotions will soon be out and you can usually find one that gives you Basic [or even Dlx] for free after rebate.

Steven Latus wrote:

Was waiting for a user with QW07Basic to respond - so will offer opinions. Am currently using QW07Dlx but used Basic for several versions thru 06 and only went to Dlx this year because I got it for the Basic price. Have read the 'comparisons' you refer to and agree that you get the impression that Basic has very limited investment capability. My experience has been that this has not been true in the past - the 'comparisons are really advertisements and they are 'hyping' the more expensive versions [better margin I would guess]. If you are satisfied with Basic06 capabilities, I would not expect any loss of functionality with Basic07. Again, experience has been that Basic does not always get the newest features; e.g., document attachment capability. On the other hand, have not seen a case where Basic alone lost features; e.g., all versions lost the much debated QIF import capability.

You have options; the 60 day money back warranty; or, try it and upgrade for the incremental price if desired. Best option perhaps, if you use TTax, the TTax promotions will soon be out and you can usually find one that gives you Basic [or even Dlx] for free after rebate.

Hi, Steven.

After using Deluxe versions of Quicken for several years, I switched to Basic about 3 years ago - and haven't missed the "deluxe" features. I recently upgraded to Q2007 Basic from Q2006 Basic. I've been running WinXP Pro and have been beta-testing Windows Vista for over a year I've installed and run Q2006/7 in each successive beta "build" with no more than minor installation hassles, and am eagerly awaiting the "gold" version of Vista Real Soon Now.

Of course, it depends on your own needs. My investments are a lot simpler since I retired, but I still have some CDs and several stocks in a couple of brokerage accounts. I download quotes daily, but don't download transactions or statements from the brokers. I tried that a time or two but found that it took more effort to conform the downloaded information to my old stick-in-the-mud method of accounting than it did to enter the transactions manually and reconcile the paper statements monthly.

Quicken's formulas for ROI and other investment ratios never looked right to me, anyhow. As others have discussed here in the past week or two, for example, Quicken's idea of "amount invested" for a particular stock takes some interpretation and understanding.

And Intuit has never understood Certificates of Deposit. :>( Not in Basic, but not in Deluxe, either.

RC

So Q2007 does have investment features like Q2006, it sounds like you're saying.

I couldn't quite believe it when I saw that feature comparison on the website. I could understand if Premier did more in that area than Basic (more planning tools and perhaps more comprehensive reports), but that chart, I feel, leaves a misleading impression that Basic and even Deluxe do not have investment capability.

Steve

Yes, I know I could always return it if I bought it in a retail store, but figured if someone already knew the answer I could save myself some hassle and a lot of time.

I, too, would expect that Q2007 Basic would retain the same investment functionality as is present in Q2006, but looking at that comparison chart, I figured I'd better ask the question.

Steve

Hi, Steve.

While there are changes in the UI, I don't see any difference in the functionality of Q2007B from Q2006B.

All the real functionality of Quicken is in the Basic version. The higher-priced versions add mostly advice, reprints of government publications (now available free on the Internet) and specialized reporting - and fluff. At least, that's my impression after about 16 years of using Quicken and TurboTax. Their version names have changed over the years; many of the functions (depreciation, payroll, etc.) in the current Home & Business versions could be very helpful to small business owners, but I'm only guessing about those since I haven't looked at them in over a decade.

The one thing that I miss in the Basic version is the Tax Planner. But that suffers from so many weaknesses imposed by the nature of our changing tax laws that its usefulness is limited, anyhow. Since most of the actions I need to take come at the end of the year, I usually just wait until the first version of TurboTax hits the street. Then I load that and import my year-to-date numbers and see what I need to do before year-end. But, as I said, my situation has become much simpler since I retired. My practice definitely will NOT fit everybody.

RC

We just downloaded Quicken Basic 2007 in our office today (no choice - a client had just sent us his data in Q2007 format) and I saw that it does indeed have the same investment functions as Q2006.

We're gonna have to get used to that new-age color scheme, though. ;|

We use BNA for tax planning so we don't need that functionality in Quicken.

Steve