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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Love This Product - Business Directory Software Critique

By James Coleman


I've got no accounting savvy to speak of; I was just keeping track of all my finances through spreadsheets, which was going alright, but I thought it was time to try and unify and organize my efforts. As the incumbent standard, I chose Quicken 2011. And, in fact, it's got some bugs right out of the box. You have to install the patches (which you can do thru the periodic product updates) to get rid of the bugs.

Didn't work, I suspect because Quicken did something in the Windows Registry to disallow the downloaded transactions even under Q2008. So I had to restore my entire computer installation (my entire Disk C) to the last Acronis backup I did a month ago, then tried again with the restored Q2008; this time it worked like it used to. But if you have 3+ years of financial records in excel you wanted to import into Quicken you will have to find tools to convert CSV or excel data into QIF format. To do so, you need to Google for some random 3rd party tool that you think you might be able to trust.

To tell the truth - it made me realize what an idiot I've been (possibly) spending as much as I have on things of possible useless value. So far it hasn't really helped me reform immensely but somewhat I think. It seems as though they pulled a hunk of code from 1990 and reworked it to shove something out in the market. The software doesn't use basic Windows user interface or commands, which is why it reminds me so much of old DOS software.

The really problem is just how poorly it downloads transactions from financial institutions. I have to review everything it does.

But overall, no weird error messages or restarting, it just worked. One major gripe with 2008 was how bug-ridden the one step update process was. The new version was supposed to run faster and work with twice the number of financial institutions. But this is not what I experienced. None of the available "help" options are of much help, and there is no documentation that I can find unless I go to the bookstore and buy a manual. Their support stinks.

It will save it under that day's date or just as a file. I did not like however, the way Quicken 8 made you update to next version. The reports seem a complicated, the menu seems to just be rearranged, seems to be very difficult to find what you're looking for without going to help. I really hope quicken works on some new features soon, till then I'll keep upgrading every three years. I'd love to know why this product even exists. And I'd really love to hear about a viable alternative. I am not happy with this version. I sent an email and the response I got from them was incorrect. 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.




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1 comment:

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