Monday, December 26, 2011

Not As Advertised - Microsoft Business Software Review

By Brianna Garcia


I have everything on 1 page to start with. I can switch from one account to the next with one click. I can't remember the last time I had a corrupted database or a program crash, and I still have all that data since 1993 in my system. There is really no way I could maintain a system this large in a spreadsheet or a self-programmed database. I have 18 years of data in QfM05 in dozens of accounts. The first problem was that, rather than taking it's time to digest the whole file, the Import procedure expects you to confirm the import of each account independently, without giving you an Import All option. I was fairly content with Home and Business 2008. The only reason I downloaded 2011 is because I want to access certain accounts that 2008 cannot, such as my 401K with ADP, my kids 529's with New York State, and a savings/loan account with Sallie Mae.

I haven't tried most of the reporting pre-sets yet, so I can't review those. We started using Quick Books Pro in the mid-90's. In the end, I was able to do a clean install of Quicken 2011 on another computer, convert the file there, and then migrate it over to my primary computer. Since I have installed the program, I've found that several features I really liked, including single button action to reconcile an individual account or to download online transactions are now all hidden in a drop-down menu. Some accounts have no transactions at all. Other accounts are off by more than a million dollars. I bought the 2011 version which no longer works with Bank of America. It did work for a few days then Bank of America threw the switch and now says they do not support it. You play the hunt and search game and it can be very frustrating at times. After using Money Plus for years, that is to be expected.

I didn't want to buy this, I'll admit, but the banks have been dropping MS Money support, so I have no option but to switch; the only software the banks now use is Quicken. I wasn't looking forward to it, because I've worked with Intuit products before, various versions of QuickBooks.

This isn't as exact but then it only takes a few hours, and that's probably all the time I have, what with a family, a job, and a small business (in which I am losing my shirt, I now realize, possibly). Thank you - Quicken - this is a fantastic product!

I wrote for support, no answer. I will be returning the software, and return to my 2002 Quicken Home and Business which works just fine. To my surprise, and delight, Quicken did a splendid job loading all my accounts (and I have many of them: 8 credit cards from various Banks, 3 bank accounts, 8 investment and retirement accounts). In most cases, Quicken was able to set the online banking connections to my financial institutions.

Having paid good money for this software, I'm steamed that they now subject me to ads as well. I don't mind the free-if-you-view-our-ads software business model in general, but do find it offensive if the software cost plenty of money. Most financial institutions will let you download the past ~90 days of information into Quicken. If you want any information earlier than that Quicken has NO easy way to enter this information in bulk, and suggests that you get to manually entering info one transaction record at a time.




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