Quicken vs. Money
One of my new years resolutions has been to keep more up to date on managing my finances, since all too often I fall behind on entering transactions. So far, I have been doing really well. Since we are wanting to buy a house this summer and are starting to think more of the future, been looking into using the tracking software for more than just entering transactions, keeping track of balances, and having a basic budget. The problem is that I keep going back and forth between whether to use Money or Quicken. I already have Money 2005, but sometimes find it lacking, so I’m now looking at possibly switching to Quicken 2006, but not sure if it will suit all my needs either.
Quicken’s Pros: Detailed categories, such as breaking down “Auto” expenses to Fuel, Loans, Service, or Registration. This is big for things like tracking yearly auto/home expenses. Has nice detailed forms for paychecks with income/tax info. Allows attachments for printed paycheck stubs and such.
Quicken’s Cons: Its budgeting system simply uses rough estimates, rather than being able to have line item budgeted expenses for each category. It doesn’t look like you can reallocate your budget, ie, borrow amounts from the previous month or another category. Say you eat at home more than dining out, so you can barrow from the dining out category for the grocery category and not go over budget at all. Some of the reports are not very intuitive, especially when wanting to access additional information (ie, transactions for a category). Sometimes, in the one line register, the little button toolbar for “enter, split, etc” covers the previous transaction amount, which I might want to look at.
Money’s Pros: It has the kind of detailed budgeting system where you can include individual bills. It allows you to reallocate your budget around between categories or months. Its reports feel a little more intuitive as you dive in to get additional information. Its register is nicely laid out, easy to navigate.
Money’s Cons: Signing in to Passport to access your finances? Why? Doesn’t support a more detailed category system where you can have sub-categories, such as Automobile:Fuel. You can create a category named “Automobile-Fuel” and set it as an Automobile Expense, but not sure if it is quite the same.
I think I am leaning towards sticking with Money, since seems to have a slightly more customisable interface (more in terms of layout and what not), the more logical register, and the budget system is big to me. It may just take a little bit of work to get some things like the categories or the interface how I want them.
I wouldn’t worry too much about your Money Cons. The Passport signin is only needed if you’re installing a downloaded version. After it’s completely installed you can go back to using a regular password with no need to go online except to update your bank accounts. Also sub-categories are definately available. I’m on Money 2006 now, think I started with version 1996 or something.
ken
25 Jan 06 at 6:42am
Ken, I’ve been using MS Money since the 1999. It has saved my ass.
Your wrong actually about Sub-Categories. I have created many sub-categories, including one called Automotive : Gas that has all of my gas purchases in it (I spent $1,822 in fuel last year, excluding the $481 I spent in fuel for the Vacation : Gas category I logged fuel purchases in when I drove to FL and KY and GA last year).
It’s really really nice.
I agree, why signin with my passport? But hey, I love and swear by Money. Hehe. Swear by money.
ken
25 Jan 06 at 8:36am
I’ve been a Money user for over four years now. Let me alleviate your concerns …
Passport sign-in is optional. Using it allows you to use a centralized authentication system that works with other sites and applications. You can just as easily create your own password, or no password at all if you wish.
You can very easily create subcategories by typing them in as you enter items – "Auto: Gasoline" for example. IN this case, that transaction belongs to the category "Auto" and the sub category "Auto: Gasoline" That allows you to view your spending related to a larger group – total expenses for your car. Picture a pie chart showing you your expenses for your car – gas, maintenance, etc. It’s a finely tuned program for analyzing how you spend money – not just for balancing your checkbook.
ken
25 Jan 06 at 9:51am
I’ve been using Quicken since Day One. It has become progressively crummy with each release. Intuit’s developers have absolutely no understanding of usabilty, they change the name and UI of nearly everything with each release. The ability to customize the program is a ludicrous joke. Insulting actually.
I think its about time I really gave Money a real serious test drive.
ken
25 Jan 06 at 4:32pm
The money requires you to buy upgrade inorder for you to download from the banks directly. That is pretty sappy thing from Microsoft.
ken
7 Feb 06 at 11:22pm
I don’t know what version you got, but I am downloading from my banks just fine. If you are talking about them dropping support for Money 2004, I can totally understand why. It gets harder and harder to continue to support older software when new stuff comes out. I do not blame one bit.
ken
8 Feb 06 at 8:24am
Thanks… I think I will purchase Money 2006 instead of Quicken.
ken
7 Mar 06 at 10:57pm