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Show Me The Money - Microsoft Money Vs. Quicken

Posted by simoniker on from the do-not-pass-go dept.

prostoalex writes "The weblog entry 'Show me the money' is an interesting tale of Microsoft Money from a developer who now manages software development in the Tablet PC group at Microsoft. Having worked before with Money, which was assigned a task of beating Quicken, Philip describes the disasters that happen when marketing and advertising people rule the software development: 'Money's success or failure was judged using the same metrics as MSN's websites. Metrics like minutes viewed per month. Like ad revenue. Like click-through. Stickiness. I am not making this up.'"

13 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Money software by WesG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most people don't use either because their bank/credit card doesn't support them.

    The biggest thing I have found useful is online bill pay.

    Yay

  2. Sorry for the possible tangent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This just adds credence to a problem that Microsoft seems to be suffering from. The Marketing and Advertising divisions of Microsoft dictate the direction of the company. Sure, there needs to be some work done with their code-monkeys to stop these exploits from even being created in the first place, but maybe the programmer's jobs would be easier if they did not have to perform on a tight deadline created by those who have nothing to do with the products' creation. A shame too, considering that not all MS software is crap. I'm not an apologist, I'm just not afraid to admit that it's not entirely the fault of the coders that they have working for them.

  3. Where's Money's roll today? by Albanach · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As banks produce better and better online banking systems, is there still a place for Money / Quicken?

    Sure there are folks who have disperate accounts and complex fincial arrangements where that might make sense, and they're the 1% actually using these products. For everyone else, a decade ago there was a demand because people wanted to keep track of their finances between bank statements. Today you just click online and your bank shows you exactly where your finances are.

    As banks try to differentiate themselves in the online marketplace, you can bet they'll expand their offerings until they compete with the offerings from Intuit and Microsoft. Perhaps those firms should stop trying to sell millions of copies to customers and instead try and sell server based software to the banks to produce a customer interface, or are they already doing thatas well?

    1. Re:Where's Money's roll today? by eSims · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Short Answer: Yes.
      Long Answer: Read Below

      Those of us whom accountants might say have even somewhat complicated tax returns require a program to help categorize and summarize all of the various transactions. Now my Bank doesn't have enough information to do that... and they don't need it either (*dons tinfoil hat*)... and if they did I would find another bank (*removes tinfoil hat*).

      I run Quicken all year long and when tax time comes around it's a matter of running the right reports and taking the results and putting them in the various schedules. Even the IRS is often satisfied with the reports generated by Quicken, though they may ask for actual receipts and such during the audit.

      The point being that Quicken (sorry guys, tried moving over to OSS and wasn't satisfied with current state) gives me detailed Tax related categorization and summarization that my bank statement (online banking service) doesn't.

      --
      I .sig therefore I am!
    2. Re:Where's Money's roll today? by NickisGod.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Today you just click online and your bank shows you exactly where your finances are.

      This is why people end up paying bank fees and bouncing checks so often. Automatic payments, delay in deposits, etc. Balancing your books is just as important today as it was fifteen/fifty years ago. Any online banking system I've used tells you how much the bank has (more a less an instant statement). All so often, however, we set up automatic payments, we have direct deposit, financial movements a statement won't reflect because they haven't happened yet, and you need plan for these. I have no doubt online banking will reach this sophistication, but there will always be a place for the bank's balance and your books balance.

      By the way, I have Bank of America, and I love their report of pending debits/credits, it's helped me plan for unexpected (fraudulent, like cancelled health insurance and an ISP who decided to continue charging me) debits from my account by transferring money from my savings, avoiding fees/etc. that make things messy.

      Is there an online system that works like a register (where you can enter a check that may not post for three days), or do they all simply reflect balances and posted transactions still?

  4. Re:Hold on by TechnoVooDooDaddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    MS Money is basically a browser-app these days, complete with "ads" for stock/portfolio management websites cleverly disguised of course. I liked it well enough, it came free with my notebook from dell, until i started hearing Internet Explorer "clicks" when i was "browsing" my accounts. A few clicks later, i realized i was actually on an internet site. putting my personal banking information that close to the internet without me being clearly aware of any delineation made me nervous.

  5. Money vs Quicken by Gannoc · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Quicken has much better set-up, more support, and a more professional look. Money has the ONE "killer" feature for me. It can show a chart, based on your bills and paychecks you enter in, showing how much money is in an account.

    I use this to look at my checking account, and make sure that my lowest point of money each month remains at a certain level. Its very obvious weeks in advance if your checking account is going to drop below the minimum balance, etc.

    I used quicken for a few days and couldn't find this feature, so I went back to Money.

  6. Re:I dont need some fancy finance program... by nuggz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used to do that.
    I've found Gnucash to be vastly superior.
    It easily tracks my expenses and account balances.
    To do that in a spreadsheet would be more complicated.

  7. Re:Beware of geeks bearing gifts by sane? · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Those 'propeller-beanie techies', as you put it, are often more grounded in reality than the marketing and advertising liars that incompetent management often attempt to 'put in charge'.

    Market weenies are too much of 'today' - they are forever trying to catch up with where others have been, reacting rather than acting. They should NEVER be anything other than support to something with a development time greater than six months in the IT world. The drive for something to be delivered in a year's time should always be someone who can imagine that far out.

    And on a related point, do you notice how you feel quite happy using abusive terms for those with technical skill? Do you ever call marketing and advertising 'liars' (as I did above)? If not, why not? It's an apt description - but maybe they would complain to much, it wouldn't be socially acceptable.

    Until you start having respect for those that can do, you will never learn to work successfully TOGETHER, and you'll continue to think conflict is the best collaboration.

  8. GNUcash by neongenesis · · Score: 5, Informative
    I Started using GNUcash on Linux for exactly the reasons that were stated. I wanted basic checkbook balance, a view of how I manage and mismanage my paycheck, and a little projection of how the bills would eat into the bank account by next paycheck so as to budget toys.

    The learning curve was fairly high, not being an accountant and not knowing anything about this Double Entry Bookkeeping thing.

    I had used Quicken before, and found it OK, but I don't normally run windows...

    Once I made it through the Included tutorials and documentation, I have used GNUcash regularly for the last year or so and am a very happy user.

    It is unfortunate that GNUcash is not on enough radar screens to show up in a weblog like this one. A REAL comparison would be nice.

  9. He's right, dammit by Alioth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A friend I know runs a small business. They use MS Money to keep track of small finance items, sort of like a cash book.

    They still use the 16-bit version of Money from the Windows 3.11 for Workgroup days. Why? Because it's simple, and all it does is the books. They won't upgrade because all the later versions of Money want to go on the internet and do other fancy things making it harder - not easier - to use. This is one of the points that the article mentions first.

    Personally, I use gnucash and it does for me :-)

    --
    Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  10. Re:I dont need some fancy finance program... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I keep all of my cash in my left pocket. The rest of my "personal worth" is tied up in my gas tank.

  11. Use MONEYDANCE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have been a Quicken user for longer than most people around here have been out of diapers. I started back with Quicken 3.0 for DOS.

    Ever since I discovered Linux, I have wanted a replacement that I could live with. I tried lots of stuff running Quicken with Crossover, GNUCash, etc..

    But Moneydance wins. It looks a little primiative but it really really is nicely done. It runs on any platform Linux, Windows, MacOSX, Solaris, HPUX etc.. It has a great development company. Email them and they will email you back in a day or less with detailed technical information. Try that with Quicken and Microsoft.

    There is also a very active and helpful online community for support.

    It supports most all online banks systems because it totally emulates quicken to the banks. It even has integrated online bill pay that works great with my BancOne account.

    Try it... for $29.99 its one the best peices of software out there. If your not against paying for anything its great.

    There is also a free 30 trial that will import all your data from your old program.

    http://www.moneydance.com