nc10's Full Review: Intuit Quicken 2003 Basic Full Version for PC (270...
Quicken 2003 Basic Edition is Intuit's latest entry level version of their long lived financial tracking and planning software for home users. As of June of 2002, the various versions of Quicken accounted for 71% of all home accounting programs sold, and 74% of the dollar volume (data from the Quicken for Windows Press Kit). I have not found more recent data, but I strongly suspect Quicken has given up some of that market share lead to Microsoft Money, but even if thats true, its still one of the most useful programs any computer user could own, and along with Microsoft Money, is a program anyone with a checking account should be using. Quicken releases a new version every year, though most new features have focused on web based services and improving ease of use and the user interface, and few new "features" (Why can't we track US Savings Bonds automatically) have been added to Quicken to make the yearly upgrade a "must have" upgrade.
Intuit now offers Quicken in four versions for the PC:
Basic ($30) - Includes the basic tools for tracking spending, checking accounts, investments, and paying bills. You can calculate returns and plot bar graphs of investment performance with this version of Quicken, but not many more investment analysis tools are included.
Deluxe ($60) - Includes additional features to track and analyze investments
Premiere ($80) - Adds still more features for investors and others with more complicated finances, including generating tax schedules, evaluating potential investment transactions, investment tutorials, ...
Premiere Home and Business ($90) - Adds tools for business users, such as creating invoices, tracking sales tax, tracking mileage....
For more details on the advanced versions of Quicken, visit www.quicken2003.com. If you are considering purchasing the basic version and want to read more about what features it includes, you'll be disappointed to find it not listed on the Quicken or Intuit website.
If you buy Quicken, you can almost always find it being sold with some sort of rebate offer or combined in a special offer with some other product. I purchased my latest version "free after rebate", when purchased with Intuit's Turbotax software.
"In the box" you find the Quicken Software cd packaged in a DVD style case, with a Quicken brokerage brochure also inside the DVD case. Also in the box is a quick start guide/FAQ, and a preprinted check catalog. No manual is included.
Installation
The Quicken data I have on my computer (a 750 mhz Athlon system running Win ME) is the data that I would most miss if I lost my hard drive, and I back the data up routinely. I've been using Quicken since the mid '80's and still keep at over ten years of historical data in the Quicken data file I currently use. (I pulled out and archived most of my 1980's data a few years ago) I've got records of my IRA accounts, my wife's 401K accounts, different mutual funds I've owned over the years, two checking accounts, my kid's savings accounts, insurance accounts, and a mortgage. I have data back to 1992 in the file I use every day, and when I back it up, it requires 5 floppy disks. So, with this much data, I am always concerned about whether this data will make it through the conversion required with each Quicken upgrade, but I've never had a problem in the 8-10 or so upgrades I've done since about 1986.
After inserting the cd and launching the set up program, Quicken informed me that it had to remove my old version before installing the new version. I agreed and Quicken launched the Windows uninstall procedure to remove the 2001 version of Quicken on my system. The data files were saved.
After installer is finished, Quicken will launch and, if you are upgrading, first convert your old files to the format used by this new version. You'll then be taken to the Quicken Guided setup, and be given the chance to watch a slideshow video with sound that gives new users a chance to see Quicken's main features, or if upgrading, you can choose to see features which are new. The Guided Setup also leads you through the process of setting up Quicken to take advantage of some of its more powerful tools, including setting up accounts, setting or adjusting financial goals, and automatic entries for your paychecks or recurring bills. Some of this will overwhelm new users, or even many upgraders, and you want to decide how to set up this new version after you've used it for a while.
Quicken Basic seems to be as much a marketing tool for Intuit as it is a standalone product. The Quicken Installer will add 5 icons to your desktop, one for Quicken, and others for NetBank, Quicken Mastercard, a Quicken Brokerage (Siebarth), and TurboTax tips. Within the program itself you will see ads and links to buy more supplies or take advantage of additional online services.
Using Quicken
Launching Quicken
If you are upgrading, you'll notice that the main screen will look a good bit different from previous versions. On the left side of the screen will be a listing of accounts and balances, called the Cash Flow and Investing Centers, with your net worth totaled at the bottom. In the middle of the screen is a tabbed view window that takes up most of your screen real estate. You can set up these windows to be displaying a view (or views) of about any graph or report you want, for example, you can have a view window set up that displays income and expenses for the last 30 days, a graph of your investment portfolio value over the last year, and your networth, or all three. Quicken assigns one non customizable "HOME" view, that shows scheduled bills, a calendar, notes and reminders, a small online update window, and links to several Quicken branded services and supplies (another example of Quicken as a marketing tool!). I find the online update window useful, I use it as a reminder to download updated quotes for my mutual funds, but it can also connect you to any Quicken online accounts (credit card, online banking, investments) and this window tells you when you last ran an online update. If you like to follow your home budget on a daily basis, these tabbed views make it easy and very quick to get a quick summary or graph of your status. I wish Intuit would not have added the link to Quicken services and supplies (its a distracting advertisement), but otherwise Intuit has developed an interface that can present an amazing amount of information each time you start the program.
Checkbook Register
Clicking on any account in the Cash Flow or Investment Center column on the left side of the screen loads that account in the main window. As Quicken is still first and foremost a tool to help you track and control cash flow through your checking account, you probably be chosing that account a lot. Clicking on your checking account in the Cash Flow Center brings up a two tabbed window. The tab on top shows your checkbook register, and a second tab presents an overview of cash flow and balances, using graphs, for this account over any time periods you'd like to specify. Also shown are several other details for this account, checks due to print, last date you reconciled with your account statement, and links to online balances, online bill paying and other online features if they have been set up and are available.
Quicken offers a ton of features to ease entering checks, reconciling your account and keeping track of how your money is spent. Entering checks is very easy and very quick:
-Enter the date ( , - keys will increment date up or down, or you can click open a calendar and select a date)
-Check number (Quicken will automatically increment to the next check number if you want, or you can label a check to be printed, and Quicken will remember the next number in your series of checks to be printed). My wife and I each have a checkbook, and I print some checks with my printer, so our checks are not very "consecutive".)
-Payee (Quicken's Autofill pops ups a window as soon as you enter the first letter, and you can choose a previous transaction to fill in the rest of the data for this check, payee, amount, category, notes. If you pay a water bill every month, when you type W in the payee field, a list of previous payees pops up, you click on Water Company, and Quicken fills in the payee, amount, and category (utilities, for example) on the check. You can then change the amount or any other item, but filling in the data for most checks will only take a few seconds.
-Payment (or Deposit)
-Memo (add any notes about the check)
-Category (as you use Quicken, you will want to set up categories to assign expenses and income to. You can then print or view a report on category spending at any time, ie how much did I spend on food last year, or how much did I donate to charities. You can assign each payment to one or several categories.)
You can setup recurring or one time bills to be paid with Quicken. You can optionally designate they payee, amount (or have Quicken estimate the amount from recent payments, and category. Quicken will enter this bill into your account automatically, or remind you to enter it a user defineable number of days before the bill is due. This is a neat feature, say if you receive a bill 6 weeks before its due and want a reminder one week ahead of time, or if you just want a reminder to make sure you pay all of your utility bills each month.
Printing Checks
I use a program called Versacheck to print my banks routing information and my personal information on blank "3 to a page" check stock, then use Quicken to print out payee data on those checks as I need to pay bills. To print out checks from Quicken, you enter the payee, amount, and notes (if desired) into the check register, but instead of putting in a check number, select PRINT. Then when you want to print one check or several checks, select Print Checks from the menu. Quicken then reports how many checks there are to print, and opens a print dialog box for check printing. Quicken will allow you to print 1 check on a sheet of 3, and use the remaining two on your next print run. When you use that sheet again, and want to print more than two checks, requiring a second page, you'll need check the box telling Quicken you're starting with a sheet of two checks. There's also a printer setup option, for making sure your printer is "aligned" properly for check printing.
The printer setup dialog allows you to print a sample check, and then adjust the print alignment in 0.01" increments vertically or horizontally to ensure your printing falls into the proper location onto the blank checks. After making these settings once, my HP812 inkjet printer does a good job printing out checks each time, without readjusting these settings.
Reports and Graphs
The longer you use Quicken, the more powerful the reporting tools become. The Quicken Report center offers reports in several categories, Spending, Investments, Taxes, Debt and Net Worth, and Business, and a category called EasyAnswer, which sets up quick reports to answer 10 questions, like "What's my Portfolio Worth? and Am I Saving More or Less?". Each of the report categories offers 2 to 10 different reports, which you can further customize to include different accounts, dates, categories, comparisons, cleared or uncleared checks, etc. After customizing, if you find a report useful, you can save it for quick recall later.
Having ten years of Quicken data on my system can provide interesting (and depressing) reports. Our cable TV company raised rates again recently. I wondered how much I pay yearly now vs 10 years ago. Using one of the "EasyAnswer" reports, I opened a drop down tab and selected a category I set up for Cable expenses, and selected a second drop down menu to set the dates I want to look at, and I quickly found out I that I had spent $237 in 1992, and $475 last year, for essentially the same level of service (no premium channels). Wow, its doubled!. Over the same time period, my utilities have increased from $2000/year to $2800/year, a somewhat more reasonable 40% increase over 10 years. On the other hand, property tax on my home almost tripled over the same period. (I'd give some investment reports as examples also, I've run several to look at last years performance of mutual funds I own, but I can't bring myself to actually write down last year's results, still in denial, I guess...)
Quicken Basic provides effective tools for creating graphs of your financial status. You can create pie charts showing how your money is spent or earned, how your investments are allocated (bonds, stocks,..), or most other data that lends itself to pie charts. You can also create bar graphs that show how your networth or spending increases with time, investment return by year or other time periods. Quicken offers many ways to break down the data being graphed, by spending category, account, date, investment goal, type of security, etc. What Quicken Basic does not offer is a lot of ways to customize the appearance of the graphs, you can change the color of the bars, or use patterns if you have a b/w printer, decide whether a graph printout shows the name and/or description of accounts, how many decimal places are used and a few other things, but the graphing tools are not nearly as powerful as what you might find in Excel, for example.
Quicken has made a lot of different report and graph formats available in this version, but I don't think Quicken has made setting up graphs or reports any easier. I find myself spending more time looking for the graph format I want to use, I suspect most Quicken users will be occasionally frustrated looking through the graph and report options trying to find the report or graph they want to look at. Some data, like a graph of a funds price history, is not accessed from the Reports and Graphs menu, but a security view button that shows up when you are looking at the register screen for an account. When you click on the security view button, it brings up the security view for the investment account on your alphabetized account list, rather than the account you are looking at. It only takes one click to switch to the right account, but its an extra step that I find annoying.
Once most users get used to this new version, and get the reports they like set up and saved, you'll appreciate the ability to look at them quickly.
Quicken Online
I don't use many of Quicken's online options. If your bank supports online banking with Quicken (several in my city do, but not my bank), you'll be able to link up to your account, see updated balances, checks cleared, and move money between accounts. I do use Quicken's online price updates to keep my mutual fund balances updated. Once you provide Quicken with the symbol for a fund or stock (Fidelity Magellan is FMAGX, for example), you can schedule to have Quicken update fund prices, or do it manually with one click. Quicken then saves this price data, giving you another tool to evaluate a fund's or stock's performance.
Quicken also offers an online billpaying service ($10/month for up to 20 payments), a credit card that allows you to sync transactions with Quicken, and brokerage accounts.
Support
Quicken Support is both impressive and frustrating. No manual comes in the box. The online help files are well written and clear. There are a lot of FAQ's at the web site which presumably answer many common questions users have. An online chat service, user guides, and online video training guides for previous versions of Quicken (but not this version) are also available on the website. Phone support is available (sort of...), but its toll based, and only available when most users will be working or asleep, from 5am to 5pm PST Mon-Fri, for which a $2.00/min fee "may" be charged.
Conclusion
If you don't use a "personal finance manager" to track your finances, you should seriously consider getting a copy of Quicken. If you are a serious investor consider the Deluxe or Premier version. If you already have Quicken, and are considering an upgrade, you'll want to consider this version if you like the idea of its improved interface. There are no compelling improvements to Quicken's key features though (Quicken has not added technology to track savings bonds automatically, my #1 wish, for example). This version of Quicken has been tweaked to make setup of automatic bill payment, generating reports, and online updates a little easier. For most things, the customizable menus and tool bars also make using Quicken a little easier. I had no problems migrating to this new version, although I didn't really appreciate all the extra desktop icons offering Quicken branded financial services, or the ads within Quicken itself. Once you get past those, I consider Quicken 2003 another nice upgrade, one you'll want to take advantage of if you are 2-3 versions behind, but its only an incremental improvement.
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