Financal Software Question
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MossRoad
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I used MS Money for several years... then I was forced to upgrade it. It got screwed up beyond belief. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, but it was still screwed up. I even wiped the registry and started over. The problem is, it can store your info out in cyber world and once you have an MS money account, that info keeps coming back into the program, even if it is monkeyed up. Very frustrating stuff and I am in I.T. for 20+ years. 
woodchuckie
Platinum Member
I've used both but only for a basic check register none of the offered on-line stuff. Once I got used to each one it was as good as the other. They both offer the same auto entered entry's and reminders. Charts and graphs and categories. Whatever comes on my next computer is fine as they each transfer data from the other program if needed.
NuBota
Gold Member
Could probably make a case forth both in terms of features and ease of use since it is fairly subjective. I have used Quicken since the early 90's. Have taken a few stabs at Money when Intuit has ticked me off, but have always gone back to Quicken. Just seems like the most complete and intuitive product.
If your just tracking the basics, either will work fine. Both are supported by most financial institutions in regards to online banking.
If you go Quicken, you are pretty much forced into upgrading every two years. I just do it every year for updated tax data, etc. Also, Intuit has taken a kind of gestapo attitude to Online Banking. If your bank didn't use Intuit's software on their backend, they could provide a flat file you could import into Quicken. The have now disabled the import capability for most account types, so if your bank doesn't run their software, you can't download transactions.
Bottom line, Intuit is the "Microsoft" of financial software - consider that in terms of pros and cons. Very good product overall. M$ even tried to buy it back in the mid 90's - but was blocked by the FTC.
If your just tracking the basics, either will work fine. Both are supported by most financial institutions in regards to online banking.
If you go Quicken, you are pretty much forced into upgrading every two years. I just do it every year for updated tax data, etc. Also, Intuit has taken a kind of gestapo attitude to Online Banking. If your bank didn't use Intuit's software on their backend, they could provide a flat file you could import into Quicken. The have now disabled the import capability for most account types, so if your bank doesn't run their software, you can't download transactions.
Bottom line, Intuit is the "Microsoft" of financial software - consider that in terms of pros and cons. Very good product overall. M$ even tried to buy it back in the mid 90's - but was blocked by the FTC.
czechsonofagun
Elite Member
Depends what you need it for. I run accounting for my wife's small business with a book of spreadsheets linked together and auto sums and such.
The advantage was it was no black box like commercial accounting sw - I knew exactly what formulas were in there and what was going on.
The advantage was it was no black box like commercial accounting sw - I knew exactly what formulas were in there and what was going on.
Bird
Epic Contributor
I think I was using Quicken before Windows. Actually can't remember just when I started. Right now I only have my Quicken files back to May 1993 on this computer. And yes, I used to upgrade regularly, but it seems they just kept adding features that I never use, so it wasn't doing me much good. I'm currently using Quicken 2004. I upgraded to a newer version and, as far as I was concerned, it was so bad that I uninstalled it and put my 2004 back on.
smfcpacfp
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I have used both products for quite some time. I currently use Money. I used a program called Managing Your Money before that, but that company went out of business. I have been using money management software really since the beginning about 20 years ago.
Neither is perfect. Both are quite inexpensive yet have pretty powerful analytical tools. It is this low cost which is the problem. Why is this a problem? They both have built in advertising modules which help keep the cost low, but they are extremely annoying in my opinion. In my opinion they are both pretty comparable. I was using Quicken until about 2003. I believe I purchased the 2004 version but couldn't get my Quicken from the version I was using to convert to the 2004 version. After many frustrating hours with their support people in India, I used my moneyback guarantee and got a refund.
Interestingly, I bought a new computer that came with Money. I decided to see if Money could convert the Quicken database and surprisingly it did.
After my fiasco with the 2004 version of Quicken, I began to hang around forums that dealt with personal financial planning (pfp) software. I learned that until 2005 Quicken was using a nonstandard (their own) database format (pfp software is really just a database application) whereas Money used the industry standard database format.
Quicken realized this was part of their problem and switched in 2005. My thinking was that if I couldn't convert their database from one year to the next as I upgraded, what would it be like when they switched to the industry standard? Anyway I gave up on Quicken and stuck with Money.
However, I am going to make your choice easy. Microsoft is going to discontinue Money within the next two years, so don't go there. I will probably be switching (converting) to Quicken myself with the 2009 edition.
Neither is perfect. Both are quite inexpensive yet have pretty powerful analytical tools. It is this low cost which is the problem. Why is this a problem? They both have built in advertising modules which help keep the cost low, but they are extremely annoying in my opinion. In my opinion they are both pretty comparable. I was using Quicken until about 2003. I believe I purchased the 2004 version but couldn't get my Quicken from the version I was using to convert to the 2004 version. After many frustrating hours with their support people in India, I used my moneyback guarantee and got a refund.
Interestingly, I bought a new computer that came with Money. I decided to see if Money could convert the Quicken database and surprisingly it did.
After my fiasco with the 2004 version of Quicken, I began to hang around forums that dealt with personal financial planning (pfp) software. I learned that until 2005 Quicken was using a nonstandard (their own) database format (pfp software is really just a database application) whereas Money used the industry standard database format.
Quicken realized this was part of their problem and switched in 2005. My thinking was that if I couldn't convert their database from one year to the next as I upgraded, what would it be like when they switched to the industry standard? Anyway I gave up on Quicken and stuck with Money.
However, I am going to make your choice easy. Microsoft is going to discontinue Money within the next two years, so don't go there. I will probably be switching (converting) to Quicken myself with the 2009 edition.
Bird
Epic Contributor
Of course I'm using Quicken 2004 and didn't have a problem converting my files from 1993 to the 2004 version. But last October, I bought Quicken Deluxe 2008 and converted all my files to that. I guess it did the conversion alright, but it was such a mess of a program (for me) that, as you, I got my money back. And fortunately, I had made copies of all my old files so I didn't lose anything.