review: quicken personal 2009 – personal financial software

Posted on May 27 · Comments

I recently read a post on Free Money Finance about how FMF has moved on from giving his wife an annual power point presentation about their financial situation to using the reports generated by Quicken instead.

When I suggested a similar set up to my husband, I got a frown and a low growl. No power point presentations on our finances then. But it got me thinking about updating our personal finance software.

I have been happily using Excel spreadsheets for our personal budgeting for so long now that it’s never really occurred to me to use anything else. Quicken seemed to be a good place to start investigating alternatives, so I downloaded the software on 30 day trial and gave it a whirl.

What you can do with Quicken

Automatically download bank statements and reconcile transactions. Most major Australian banks are registered with Quicken so that you can track your bank accounts and credit cards.
Organise your finances by tracking income and expenses. Allocate income and expenses to customised categories to track where your income comes from and where every dollar of your money goes. Schedule payments so that you never forget a bill.
View, print and save reports to get an instant look at your financial health.

Manage loans easily. View principle and interest and see how changes affect your loan and cash flow.

You can set up Quicken to track tax deductions matching the relevant ‘Tax Pack’ questions. Print a report to make filling in your tax easier.

Like any good personal financial software, Quicken has a budgeting tool that you can use to track your financial goals. Use scenario analysis to see how changes in your finances will affect your overall budget and view mini reports and trend graphs to keep track of your progress.
The 2009 edition has a nifty Vista gadgets feature so that you can track scheduled payments without opening Quicken.
Quicken includes an emergency organiser where you can store important personal information and home inventory for insurance details.

It also includes a Savings Planner, which can be used like the envelope system. You can trade off or re allocate funds, track your progress in saving for a specific purpose as well as track your overall savings. It can also be used it to track spending in specific categories.

My thoughts on Quicken

graphs I was initially pretty excited by the sheer amount of detail and analysis that Quicken can provide. All those coloured charts and tables of numbers and customisable reports – an OCD dream.

But then I started using it. While there are heaps of snazzy features that I really like, I found using it a little laborious.

Setting up any budgeting and personal finance system, especially one with this much detail is going to take some time. Quicken has an easy set up wizard that helps make the process easier, but it still takes heaps of time, especially if you are also learning how to navigate the software.

As far as using the software goes, I didn’t find it very intuitive to use. As an accountant, I’ve used a lot of accounting software products yet still found this one a bit confusion. For a while I couldn’t work out how to record a transaction. The “cha ching” sound kept going but my reports were empty of transactions. I couldn’t tell what was going on and it got pretty frustrating. I’m still not sure how I worked it out.

There are three major downsides for me to using Quicken. Firstly, Cash transactions are tricky to deal with in Quicken where all bank accounts are reconciled. Secondly, breaking down categories into infinitesimal divisions (like breaking the groceries category up into individual items like bread, milk etc) becomes a bit unwieldy in Quicken. Both these things can be done, but it gets a bit messy. Lastly, entering transactions, splitting them up, allocating them to categories, reconciling the bank account takes a lot of time. I wonder how many people are that dedicated and have enough time to do that much work. And that’s coming from someone who is pretty fanatical about keeping a budget.

On the plus side, I really like the way Quicken tracks your loans. It’s quite easy to update your loan information for extra repayments, payment adjustments or changes in interest and see the effect these changes will have on the loan and your cash flow.

Also, if you have the time to enter all your information and keep it up to date, Quicken can easily produce a lot of detailed reports, graphs and analysis on your finances. And I like the way it handles items related to tax.

While I was initially dazzled by the features of Quicken, I will be sticking with Excel for the time being and keeping my $95. I found that almost everything that I can do in Quicken I can do in Excel (and I’ll be adding a few extra features to my spreadsheet now!) Some of the things that I like to keep track of, I found easier to do so in Excel.

I’m also not convinced that this is a programme for the absolute budgeting beginner. All the bells and whistles can be pretty distracting and it makes it harder to see what’s actually happening with your money. Navigating software can make personal finance seem confusing and harder than it should be. Paring budgeting down to the basics and handling it yourself, I think, makes it easier to learn and easier to see what’s going on, which is why we keep a budget in the first place.

Quicken Australia Product Information

If you’re interested in Quicken Personal 2009 you can purchase the software from major retailers or download it from the Quicken Website for AUD$95.00 (Quicken Personal Plus has added features for tracking investments and retails for $189.00) Get the 30 day free trial first and give it a test run to see whether it’s right for you.

Note: This is an independent review of my personal experience with Quicken Personal. I am not affiliated with Quicken and make no financial gain if you decide to purchase this product. I did not get any remuneration for writing this article.

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Category: budgeting and finance · Tags: personal budgeting