Quicken vs. Microsoft Money

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You've probably heard me mention that I use Quicken to track and manage my personal finances. Here's a piece from Kiplinger's that compares Quicken and Microsoft Money. The highlights:

For the second year in a row, Quicken's developers hit the road to meet with thousands of users and implemented more than 100 changes to its 2006 software. Unfortunately the new version of Quicken offers only a handful of "gee whiz" upgrades. The remaining changes can be categorized as functionality tweaks.

The most notable improvements are creating electronic attachments and more streamlined, easier to read income and spending reports.

Q06's coolest function is one-click mini reports. Want to know how much you spend on dining out every month? Click on the "category" block of one of your registry's restaurant entries. You'll see a snapshot of how much you've spent in the past 30 days to three years (set to the time period you prefer). Want to get even more specific? Click on the payee for a similar report -- to see how those trips to your favorite burger shack add up, for example.

New banking regulations allow checks to be processed and delivered electronically. Many banks now deliver only copies of checks with your paper statements and provide electronic versions online. With Quicken '06, you can download those e-copies and attach the images to items in your registry. You can also scan and save warranty information, receipts, or save electronic statements with their corresponding credit, investment or bank accounts. (This feature is not included in the Basic edition.)

So they seem to like it, huh? But will they recommend a purchase?:

So should you buy the latest version? It depends on how you use the software. If you want a comprehensive program to track your spending and organize your bill paying, then, yes, the new features make Quicken '06 much easier to use. Experienced financial software users will love the customized reporting features and the overall power and flexibility of the higher-end product lines.

If, however, you purchased the 2005 Premium version to follow your investments then save your money. There were few noticeable improvements in 2006.

First-time financial software buyers should also keep walking. For this group we recommend Microsoft Money 2006. Money's Web-based design is much more familiar and easier to navigate. Money also enables users to pay bills from multiple accounts in one place. One drawback: You have to upgrade to new Money versions every two years to maintain this and other .Net Passport-based features. After two years, though, you may be ready to check out Quicken's more advanced features. Both companies make it very easy to convert data from one program to the other.

But there is no question Quicken remains a step ahead. During their demonstration, Quicken's spokespeople picked off Microsoft Money 2006's new features and explained how Quicken had come up with the same functions years or decades earlier. For example, despite few new upgrades this year, Quicken's investment tools remain superior to Money's.

I'm not sure exactly what they said here. I got:

1. Buy Quicken if you already own an older version and need some new features.

2. If you have last year's Premium version, you basically have everything for this year -- so don't buy it.

3. If you're new to personal finance software, buy Microsoft Money.

4. Quicken remains the best.

Aren't #3 and #4 contradictory? I know they mean "Quicken's best if you know how to use this sort of software" (at least that's what I think they mean) but is Money really that much easier?

Here are my thoughts:

1. I bought Quicken years ago because it was the market leader.

2. I find it pretty clunky. Great for checkbook records, credit cards, basic investments, and categorizing expenses. But the second you want to do something "creative" or "different", forget it. And the investment recording section is clunky too.

3. So when I got my Dell a couple years ago, it came with a free version of Money. I decided to switch over (since I'd had it with Quicken). Now I'm no Robert Scoble, but I'm no slouch with a computer either. Yet when I tried to convert, all my investment data got messed up. I tried it a couple times, then just gave up. Now I'm confined to Quicken. Better to be with the devil you know, I guess.

4. If I was to do it all over again, I'd get Money. Unless Quicken made me a really good deal. ;-) Seriously, I don't think there's much difference between the two.

What do you think?

Comments

[geoff]

I think the question is: Who is a regular advertiser with Kiplinger? I'd suspect that they don't want to irritate either.

[hedged]

I use Microsoft Money 2005. It's my first try and I've never used any previous versions of either. Personally I found it difficult to figure out exactly how to make sure all my accounts balanced. Using the online updating alone frequently screwed up the balances at my accounts (particularly BrownCo). Now I make sure to manually check every entry which is autoupdated.

It's decent software but it could definitely be vastly improved. It's also pretty buggy and frequently crashes. I lost my whole data set and had to start over after 6 months of use.

I think I might try the next version of Quicken if I can get a good post-rebate price (they tend to put these things on sale a few months before the next version is due to come out).

[Caitlin]

I find Quicken buggy and unintuitive but seven years into record-keeping and I too feel "confined". I couldn't even import my quicken for windows data file into quicken for mac after I switched computers last year without losing a LOT of data (data files are incompatible, they have an "importer" and a lot gets lost in translation). So I run quicken under virtual PC and its horrifically slow. But..as you said...the devil you know! Not yet sure if I will upgrade, sounds like they have some new features that are quite nice, but not sure if it's worth the price.

[James]

I'm getting tired of Money myself. Too much flash, not enough tool if you get my drift. I had 2003 and it suddenly went haywire. I could not recover my data no matter what. Then, like a lemming I got the new version 2005 and tried to import my data... still no luck. I was very pissed to have to start over again. Two years lost! I had to re-enter all my investment info. I generally don't feel it does as much as it should, the reports are limited still, and there are more bloody adds all over the place. I don't really care for the integrated internet features, if I wanted to do research ... I do it my way on my preffered sites.
There needs to be another way.

[Eric]

I switched from Quicken 2001 to money 2005 and deeply regret it. Money is cluttered, full of options that are just sales links and not tools. The import and reconciliation process for a simple banks account sucks compare to the old quicken tool. It also chanckes the check register dates from what you entered to what the bank clearing date is. This screws up reconciliation and history big time. It does not tell you this either you have to find it out on your own when things don't balance. The import merge process is terrible compared to the older Quicken process and is not user friendly in correcting mismatches. I am going to scrap MS Money, thank God I didn't pay full price for it. I treid to teach my wife how to use it and fully realized just how disorganized and UN-intuitive it is. I am going to search carefully for a replacement product while using the old Quicken 2001 again.

[Larry G]

Back up. I mean only Only money 06 Has auto backup to a RW CD . Older quicken does.. All Quicken Users can buy on line back up.. My new computer doesnt have a floppy and I don;t want one..

[SSM]

I have used three versions of Money and became more and more unimpressed. With Money Premium 2005 I finally decided I had had enough of Money, the program is like any other Microsoft product, big, clunky, flashly but useless. the invesment auot update never worked right it made my brand new laptop as slow as molasas it always messed up importing. I lost two years of data converting to Quicken Premier and Small Business (and no the conversion feature did not work especially on my investments). It was worth every minute of lost data, Quicken is far more user friendly and does a great job with keeping track of the invesment, it also does a better job syncing data. I have no complaints thus far.

[GCV]

I've been using Quicken since 1993 - the first Windows version. Every few months it either forgets all my payees or screws up my investments and I vow to change over to Money as soon as possible. So now, I got Money 2006 and ran the conversion. Great, I am now mysteriously $200,000 richer. The conversion worked for everything but my investments which are a mess so I can't trust the conversion. So back to Quicken I go. I am trapped in that horrible product. It is buggy, overly feature laden, and clunky. But after playing with Money for a bit despite the screwed up conversion, it seems to also be clunky and doesn't have the same amount of investment tools. I also found the web integration to be more focused on selling other products than providing value.

Why can't there be a simple, streamlined, financial software package that simply does the job it needs to do? No complex features nobody will ever figure out how to use. No links to web sites that nobody will ever subscribe to. Just a simple clean UI that does the job. Is that really all that hard to ask for. Less please. I am willing to pay more for less. (Hmm, I am an XML software developer after all... hmmm)

[FMF]

I had EXACTLY the same experience as you. I tried to convert when I got a new computer (Money came free with it) and the conversion was a complete mess.

From what I've read (and the comments we've received here, Quicken isn't great, but Money is hideous.

Maybe you've got a new business idea there. ;-)

[Joshua K]

I've tried to do a thorough review from a new user's perspective of Money.

[BMT]

Currently Use Money 2006 Small Business - Have had major invoice printing problems! Everybody knows how hard it is to navigate Microsoft's web site to find the answers to problems. Was thinking of switching to Quicken, but now it looks like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place - thanks to both companies!

[MafiaDon]

I've used both and prefer MS Money because it is less "clunky" and more user friendly. However, I've taken it a step further, I now use "Yodlee" an online aggregate service to compile ALL my financial accounts automatically in one place. The reports are basic and boilerplate. Meaning, no flexability in the reporting at all. You get what they give you, period. Call me lazy but it is far more easier to log in every morning to check your accounts on the web in one page than to manually download EVERY account to Quicken or MS Money.

[Mike]

I've been using a spreadsheet I've set up and refined over the years to track my financial standing.

About a year ago I tried out Quicken and found the learning curve more than I cared to climb. Tried signing up to download my bank account info, after working once it quit so I gave up on it and went back to my spreadsheet. Then this month the bank adds a fee of $9.95 for using Quicken to access my account info. No thanks and I had that shut off.

Perhaps there is some advantage to Money or Quicken if your taxes are complicated. I don't find mine that difficult -- the only other forms I file are schedules A & B and it's easy to set up a spreadsheet to do the math.

I've gotten away from tracking every single penny I spend. That was good to set up proper habits. Now I track broader category savings goals and it works for me. Have also set up estimations of retirement income so I can properly save for that. Also began charting net worth on a montly basis.

Perhaps most would benefit from using Quicken/Money, but I get along fine without.

[Aftal]

Am I missing something, or is it true that you can't track your Schedule D capital gains on investments in Money, without using Gainskeeper. Also, is it true that Quicken will let you to do this internally without going to some external program? If I’m wrong, can anyone tell me how to track capital gains on investments within Money?

[FMF]

Are you talking about capital gains on stocks you've sold or what your potential capital gains would be if you sold them?

[sam]

Quicken is great. I used MOney 2003 for a few years and found it to be too fluffy and no muscle. Now I'm using Quicken 07 HOme and business and find it to be easy. THe only huge problem has been the automatic download of transactions. Works for awhile and then stops working. When I called tech support, they simply said that it will be fixed in a few days. But they weren't lying. It was fixed in a few days. They've been at this much longer than Microsoft money. Go with Quicken.

[John Cook]

I use Money 2006 and decided to switch to Quicken. Problem is I have both a US bank and a Canadian bank to deal with. I found out to use Quicken I have to buy the US version and the Canadian version as well. they are exclusive. in addition I could not import my Money data to Quicken as it will not allow me to use a qif file and that is all that Money will export to. so I guess I am stuck using Money 2006 whether I like it or not! Just my two cents!

[gary]

ive just got what seems to be the original microsft money in a bundle of software, -does anyone know if there is a way to get the program to automatically add multiple entries from the same company into the same category, so i dont have to go through each individual entry and enter the category manually ?

eg i want the program to put all payments to "british gas" as "gas and electricity"

[Bob Beauchamp]

Intuit makes both Quicken and TurboTax. Recently Intuit influnced the California State legislature to repeal free tax preparation it has offered to California's very lowest income residents, presumably because this service could cost Intuit a tiny amont of revenue. Naturally if Intuit is that greedy then they certainly want you to become dependent on their products, then constantly increase their cost directly and indirectly, as they have done by switching their financial download format to one for which they charge banks fees to use, and substantially increasing the cost of electronic filing with TurboTax. And of course they make conversion to MS Money or anything else impossible. If you haven't yet become adicted to Intuit (TT or Quicken), just say NO and walk away!

[Steve]

I've been using Quicken for many years (since Quicken 6 on floppies). Intuit has a way of "forcing" you to upgrade if you want to keep using some features, mainly on-line download support. I used 2000 until financial download functionality was changed. I have been using 2004 since. In 2005 support for qif imports was dropped, ostensibly, to keep users from have duplicate registry entries. Unfortunately one of my brokers only provides qif downloads. Now support for downloads for older versions is being dropped altogether so one needs to upgrade to 2007 to continue to use this feature. It is a big time saver so I will probably upgrade. The down side is that support for Windows 98 has been dropped so now I will need to upgrade my OS as well. :( (I'm cheap and try to use things as long as I can before replacing them)
I agree that Quicken is kind of clunky. And with every upgrade one needs to relearn some of the functions. Having use Quicken for so long I think I'm pretty much stuck with it.
Aside: has anyone ever tried the Mvelopes on-line system?