The 2008 Personal Accounting Software Review
The 2008 editions of Intuit's Quicken and Microsoft Money definitely are the top two contenders in any personal accounting software review that you conduct today in the US at least. In this contention it is important to clarify that the small business category of accounting software has been excluded. So, Peachtree misses out although it is topnotch in its own category. This contention has been made after a preliminary review which considered the 2008 editions of various personal accounting applications available in the US. So, the final review pits only the top two among them.
Among the two, Quicken 2008 pips Money 2008 by a whisker. Nonetheless, it appears that during the past few years the Microsoft product has improved very much. So, next year it will be even more interesting to compare the two of them. In the 2008 Quicken edition, Intuit has added a new navigation bar to quickly move from one section to another. It has included a new tool for you to reach your savings objectives and it also features desktop alerts for bills. It is available in 3 different avatars, namely Starter (approx. $30), Premier (approx. $90) and Deluxe (approx. $60). The Starter edition is for newbies and they will find it has a very user-friendly interface for learning the ropes. It is a stripped-down edition so you will find that it does not boast of the rich features found in the other two versions. However, it has all the basic ones required in a personal accounting application. But if you want to really have all the facilities, backward compatibility, and downloading integration, you need to plop for one of the other two versions, depending on your requirements. Quicken Deluxe is the best for the detailed tracking of bill payment, 401k/IRA account, checking savings, or budgeting records. Quicken Premier is better if you want to maintain outside investment records or property transactions. It can create charts that display performance investments. It can also perform portfolio analysis and track losses and profits. The few scowlers in Quicken include transaction register ads, costly phone support, and little bugs. However, overall it is the best personal accounting software in its category as it allows you to download data from PayPal and communicate with your iPhone. The Mac version of this award-winning software has been delayed so Mac users will have to make do with the 2007 version. Microsoft Money (approx. $20 to $60 depending on the version you buy) on the other hand is an equally-strong application, well almost. The 2008 edition includes a recently added tool for easy retrieval of customized snapshots of your finances on your desktop and features desktop alerts. It is only available for the Windows platform. Money does not have the handy tagging feature that Quicken has and which lets you group expenses together. Money also loses the shootout in this personal accounting software review because Quicken allows you three years worth of downloading of data. With Money you need an upgrade every two years. |
