Quicken 2008: Home Screen

If you are referring to the Home tab on the Home screen for Q2007, I think you can pretty much duplicate that by clicking the "Personal Cash Flow" tab, then clicking the "Cash Flow" button on the upper right.

To see that everytime you start Quicken:

Edit > Preferences > Quicken Program > Startup

and select "Cash Flow" in the "On startup open to" dropdown.

The Q2007 Home tab of the Home screen has a "Projected Cash Flow" display with a Scheduled Bills and Deposits below it. That's exactly what you'll find where I suggested in Q2008.

You're right, the Q2008 Projected Cash Flow screen is in a different place than it was in Q2007 (and no longer anywhere on the Home screen), but it is present (on the "Personal Cash Flow" tab) and it looks virtually the same as it did in Q2007, and it can be designated to appear when Quicken starts.

[I tried to send a couple of Wordpad files showing the two identical screens, but could not get a post with even just one of them posted.]

Gadzooks! You got 08 already John??

I was a beta tester. :)

Unfortunately, due to a snafu or two at Intuit, I did not receive any software to test until phase 2 of testing had already begun. That significantly shortened the time I had to test and prevented me from taking many of the "surveys" (some of which required that you have taken a previous survey during phase 1 of the beta).

I did get a call from Intuit about one bug I reported and they seemed very interested in getting the trigger mechanism correct. But it was very near the end of beta and I didn't really expect them to get it fixed before the final release (and they didn't). [The same bug existed in Q2007, but the first time I ever new of it was very recently (around the time beta for Q2008 began, a Q2007 user discovered it.]

I had no real problems with Q2008, though as I said, I haven't been able to test it nearly as much as I'd like.

There are several noticeable changes.

Navigation has changed quite a bit, but most everything from Q2007 still seems to be there.

"Classes" are gone; replaced by "Tags". As far as I can tell, Tags can do everything that classes did, plus you can have multiple tags per transaction ... and they are no longer a part of the category field, they have a field of their own.

And there is a new budget-like feature called "My Savings Plan". It appears to have a bit of the "envelope" budgeting capability, and some ability to "rollover" unused spending estimates.

Sorry, I forgot to add two other new features; neither of which I had any ability to test.

There is now a "529" account type.

And there is now apparently direct support for PayPal downloads.

I googled and saw the discount code for 36% off, but it turned out to be

20%, when I actually clicked through to the sale point (Premier). Still not as good as the Staples $20 gift card deal plus Intuit rebate. I guess we won't know until Q2008 appears in stores in a couple weeks or so.

I have to say I'm itching to have QP2008, but John's description of classes being gone and replaced by tags have me hesitating about an upgrade before the end of the tax year, as I have finally started using a couple classes to handle medical expenses which, unfortunately, have gotten to the deductible point for me.

Now if I could really find $36 off *that* would be a real draw! Never occurred to me to google discount codes. Thanks for the tip on that one!!

Regards,

Margaret

Chester wrote:

I only use classes in a very limited way and I have not attempted any thorough testing of tags in Q2008.

But when Q2008 converted my Q2005 file, it just converted my classes to tags.

One old class = One new tag. Other than the terminology, and the placement of tags in separate fields, I could not find any difference in results for my newly converted data and my Q2005 data - class-wise/tag-wise.

But in Q2008, you can, if you chose, have multiple tags for the same transaction. And tags are carried in a separate field from categories in transactions, and appear in separate fields in reports.

Q2008 does not seem to have carried the separate field for tags into Memorized transactions, which I don't quite understand (though you can still put a tag with the category, as you would have put a class there in earlier versions).

And Q2008 does not seem to allow a tag to be changed in a Find/Replace without regard to the category of its transaction. But you can "retag" transactions independently of their categories using a "Transaction" report, selecting the desired transactions, clicking Edit, then "Retag transactions". When you need it, that capability will be very useful.

In short, I don't think you should have any concerns about the switch to tags from classes. (But you have 60 days to test it out and get a full refund if I'm wrong.)

Still, I understand the conservative approach; it's probably close to my own.

Thanks for your explanation of tags, John. I, too, use classes in a very limited way. Funny how I just used them for the first time this year. I can't imagine myself returning Quicken.... Esp since I've upgraded yearly for more than 10 years now. But having the option is always a nice thing. :-) Having always been an early adopter (esp of Quicken), I probably won't end up waiting till the new tax year starts, either. :-)

Thx again,

Margaret

Hi, John.

Thanks for the update. I'll probably install Q2008 soon.

Unfortunately, I had to reinstall Q2007 today. It's a very long story, but the nearly-final chapter was that I had to do my first-ever repair install (also known as an in-place upgrade) of Vista. That took about 5 hours. And, afterwards, everything looked normal, but Quicken would not run until I reinstalled it - which was painless, except for the irritation at having to do it, especially since I'll be installing the new version in a few days.

RC

Ugh!

Sorry about the long computer repair, RC.

A few hours ago I used one of those 20% discount codes that we can find via Google, and purchased the download of QP2008. Everything went pretty smoothly, except it seems an extra investment account was created. After data conversion, Q asked what financial institution to associate with ACCT_13813, which was totally devoid of transactions. I still have QP2007 on my laptop, and of course, I made my own copies of my data file before upgrading, so I can go back to my pre-converted data file and verify that this indeed is a "non" account.

The class-tag issue I was concerned about seems to be a non-issue at that. All reports using classes work as they did previously.

What I *am* wondering ... and haven't been able to find out anything via Q's Help utility is that nice fat column with the little "It's Deductible" icon in it. I see that by right-clicking, I can add flags and/or notes to transactions, and it seems that *mostly* the tax-related transactions have the "It's Deductible" checkmark. But ... there are a number of other transactions with this icon, too, such as credit card payments entered as transfers from my checking account, ATM withdrawals, which I handle as transfers to a Cash account, deposits to savings accounts (again, transfers), etc. All of these transactions are completely non-tax-related. So I'm wondering what this little doodad is for. John? Anyone else who's had their hands on Q2008 a little longer than I?

So far, QP2008 looks pretty good. A little disorienting as is an upgrade to any software. But it seems there's a lot of ways to look at my financial information, and my converted data file is actually a little smaller than my 2007 file.

Thx and Regards,

Margaret

I never used 'classes' and am no sure exactly what 'tags' are for -- what do you use them for...?

Have been using it a few days now. It's a great update; that large calendar in the 'home' tab is useful. Very much prefer Quicken 08's way of displaying info over Money Plus.

I take it you're talking about the reddish circle with the fat white check mark in it, below the transaction date.

Since you're quoting the "It's Deductible" phrase, I assume this has some larger meaning. I vaguely recall hearing of an application by that name but I know nothing about it. Is that what the quote refers to?

I noticed the icon when I first converted my Q2005 data too; but in my case, every transaction that had it, should have it (without my having actually checked every single transaction) ... according to my interpretation of its meaning.

I believe that check mark is intended to note that there is at least one category for the transaction that has a Tax Form Line Item assigned to it. (You can even see that if you right-click the transaction then left-click "Tax Line Item Assignments".)

But you are saying that you have transactions with the check mark, yet no Tax Line Item is assigned.

At this early stage of my (in)experience, I can only guess data corruption. Either the transaction itself, or the Category in the Category List. (My first guess would be that corruption applied to your phantom "ACCT_13813" as well).

You could test the theory by trying a couple of tests. First choose one of those categories whose transaction has a check mark it shouldn't have, Edit the category in the Category List, clearing the Tax Line Assignement to all spaces with the spacebar (even if that field already appears to be blank). If that doesn't change anything, try deleting the transaction from the register and re-entering it.

I would also try using Q2007 on the pre-conversion data, making a Quicken Copy of the file, Validating the Copy, then having Q2008 convert the Validated Copy.

Right now I only have one class. My medical insurance has certain limits such that it covers so many office visits, etc. So I have a class "Ins" that way I can run reports to differentiate my entire medical expense history from what's covered by insurance.

Till my health and medical insurance changed so I now have enough to deduct on my taxes, I never found a use for classes before. I can see also that perhaps a family might want to use classes to keep track of who in the family uses how much of whatever category. But being a single person, I've found limited use for them. Still, when you need 'em, they can be very handy. :-)

Regards,

Margaret

Chester wrote: