Any advice on what benefits I would have from switching from MS Money 2005 to the latest version of Quicken?
-Does Quicken have a bill reminder or calendar that starts up with windows to prompt you about due bills, without automatically logging the bills into the register (regardless if you have the money in the checking account or not)?
-With Quicken do you have to log into any online services every time you want to update the account, for example; MS passport, Hotmail ect....
Quicken has Scheduled Transactions, which can be bills or deposits, with pretty flexible configs for recurring transactions. You can display this list on your startup page, along with a variety of other charts and lists in snapshot format.
Regarding the online services stuff, Intuit wants you to subscribe to pay-for services, but there is nothing that I would consider intrusive. Q requires you to create a user account in their system to enable your online features, but you can enter a bogus account, or even a free email account, and it will work fine. They place a small ad here and there, along with the default installation icons on your desktop (which can be deleted). Going online to download stock quotes or account balances does not use
I tried Money a couple of years ago, and the interface was utterly confusing to me. I have used Quicken since around 1991, and have no plans to switch to Money at this point. My suggestion is you give Q2005 a try (or wait for Q2006, due within a few months). It should be able to automatically import your Money data. You can return it to Intuit (within 30 or 60 days, can't remember exactly) for a full refund if you don't like it. Give it a try.
As Steve Larson mentioned, you must register with Intuit/Quicken.com to utilize any online services. And an Intuit server must be involved in any download you attempt (with the exception of QIF files which have been significantly disabled in versions of Quicken later than Q2004). But as far as I know, there is no "fourth party" involvement required; just you, the fi (one of the quote servers if it's prices you're after), and Intuit's server.
And *you* don't have to do anything extra in this process; if your fi's offer what's called "direct download", you can basically click a button in Quicken, provide Quicken with a password, and every account you have setup for direct download will download transactions with no further intervention on your part required.
If your fi's only offer the lesser capable "web-connect download", you will have to logon to each of their web sites manually and initiate your download manually ... but you still will not have to take any overt action to involve any third party; Intuit's server does its thing automatically, behind the scenes.
I used Quicken for about seven years. Starting with the 2005 versions, I am running Quicken and Money in parallel. Eventually, I will choose one of them and ditch the other.
The problem with Quicken is that Intuit has a plan to gradually reduce the ability of users to exchange data with other programs. Data exchange has historically been done through a .QIF file. Intuit is arbitrarily making it more difficult to use .QIF files every year.
The problem with Money is that Microsoft wants you to use Passport. But see comments below.
Other posts to this thread discuss Billminder. I don't use it myself.
You should realize that as of Money 2005, it is NOT necessary to use Passport. You can still connect directly to some banks and brokerages. Other banks and brokerages can only be accessed if you use Passport and Yodlee . But I can access Fidelity, Union Bank, and two different credit card companies without Passport/Yodlee. Of course, Microsoft could gradually make it more difficult to use Money without Passport. That's the problem with Money, as stated above.
Both Money and Quicken are in danger of becoming worse each year, instead of better. Quicken, because of the .QIF file issue, and Money, because of the Passport issue. In both cases, the software publisher has placed its own strategic interests above the users' best interests.
On Thu 07 Jul 2005 06:31:47p, David Arnstein wrote in news:dake12$n33$ snipped-for-privacy@reader2.panix.com:
I used Quicken for about seven years. Starting with the 2005 versions,
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And wouldn't it be something if the real showstoppers with each show up in 2006 and 2007 respectively after you have made the wrong/right choice previously and coverted all of your data (backups?), completed your new learning curve. There will probably always be something you don't like about the one you pick and something you like better with the one you abandoned with each new (bug infested?) release, with possibly new innovative restrictions.
As a long time Quicken user, I do not find Money's interface to be very intuitive. Quicken gives the user more options for customizing things
- for example, I found MS MOney 2005 to have fewer options for categories and if I understand correctly, their categories were pretty much carved in stone. I have a rather detailed budget, so custom categories with all the options Quicken offers is a must-have for me. This is not so for everyone though.
I find Quicken to be incredibly bloated, but I would rather have software with more functionality than I can use (I can just ignore unused features) than try to figure out a way to work around less functional software. Don't get me wrong, Money '05 isn't bad, I just don't think it is as robust as Quicken '05.
I disagree about Quicken getting worse each year; I think that Quicken will become better because of dropping QIF in favor of OFX, which offers a more stable transfer protocol. The problem with the QIF thing was in Intuit's lack of foresight and orchestration of this change. I think the QIF issue will iron itself out, but I do not think Intuit handled the uproar it created well at all.
I don't see how a loss of functionality can be painted as an improvement, unless it's something no one ever uses and the software manufacturer is trying to reduce bloat (ha ha ha, oh, I did tickle myself on that one).
Reading this group makes it pretty clear that a lot of people use QIFs to get data into and out of Quicken. I've been doing this for years, going back to when QIF was all that banks (and Quicken) had. I scrubbed my QIF data using MS Access to avoid bringing in duplicate transactions (and my algorithm still works better than Quicken's duplicate avoidance scheme). I added bits and pieces over the years, so that I can do data entry faster than using Quicken's interface, then load the data via QIF.
I also notice, in reading this group, that people sometimes have unrecoverable problems caused by direct linking with their banks, and I've never trusted it. I want to do my data entry, then see if the bank agrees with me. If it doesn't, then either they need to fix something or I do. That's the "right" way to do this, in my opinion, and I don't want to be forced to change it, and have to pay for the privilege besides. For a couple of revisions now, I've had to lie to Quicken about the FI names so it won't keep bugging me to hook up with them.
These are just a couple of reasons I want QIF functionality, and the removal of that functionality is a show-stopper for me (please pardon me for beating this dead horse).
I've seen several recommendations for Moneydance, and I'm working on loading my Quicken data into it. This is a tedious process, and I'm glad it only needs to be done once. So far, Moneydance reminds me of Quicken but without all the crap I never used, and with several options for exchanging my data with other applications. There are some things I'm going to have to get used to, like Moneydance using true double-entry accounting instead of that weird half-way version that Quicken uses. I've been using Quicken since version 6 for DOS. It's been a real love-hate relationship, but now it's over.
Here's a big raspberry for Intuit. Best wishes to them and to the people who continue to stay on the sinking ship.
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