chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (11/09/88)
This is just a quick note of praise for a Quicken, by Intuit. What is Quicken? Believe it or not, it's the proverbial "checkbook balancing and check writing" program that every computer maven has always said will be the backbone of the home computer, right next to the recipe database. Personally, I never thought I'd EVER bother balancing my checkbook on a computer. What a waste. Except that I do some freelance writing and stuff on the side. And I have to track subscription moneys for OtherRealms. And expenses for both -- or else I'll have a very unhappy IRS sending me letters asking me to justify my taxes. I've been doing this with a hacked together Hypercard stack, but it was unwieldy and ugly. So I took a look at Quicken. If you're beyond keeping your books manually (or, like me, too lazy) but you don't need accounting software, Quicken is wonderful. For every transaction you can define a number of different categories that fit what you're tracking (interest expense, postage, article payments, phones, etc, etc) and divvy up the expenses and income. Categories can be marked as tax-related items. They've got a procedure you can follow to track your credit-card purchases and 'petty cash' disbursments as well. There are hooks to plugging in budget numbers; you can get it to print checks automatically via either imagewriter OR laserwriter. Recurring transaction setups. Lots of neat toys. All you need to do is keep track of receipts and take the time to keep Quicken in sync with your checkbook. For me, this is about 10 minutes a week -- less time than I was spending manually. Whenever you want, you can print out reports showing what's going on in each category. If you're records are reasonable, tax day becomes trivial -- no mad searching for the receipt box and trying to remember what's what. It's one of the nicest, cleanest pieces of software I've seen. It takes a really simple concept, implements it in a functional, useful way. It's dirt cheap (something like $50 at computerware) and solid as a rock -- and tax deductible if you use it for your outside stuff like I do. The ONLY thing I can't get it to do is print out a check register sorted by check number. It insists on sorting by date. This, as we say in the computer-writing biz (recently retired....) is at best a minor nit. It's amazing. For the first time in the history of mankind, my checkbook has been balanced to the penny for six straight weeks. I finally know how much money I'm making from my freelancing (not enough) and how much I'm spending to do it (too much -- but that's not surprising). I never thought I'd bother balancing my checkbook on my computer -- but Intuit looked at the jokes and rhetoric and turned it into a product that anyone who's doing more than just bringing home a salary (but not enough to require an accountant or 'real' books) will love and become dependent on. Quicken's got one of the stronger recommendations I can make. It's one of the few programs I didn't realize how much I needed until I got it. Chuq Von Rospach Editor/Publisher, OtherRealms chuq@sun.COM It's not justice you want, Roderick! It's blood!
c60c-3bq@web-3c.berkeley.edu (11/10/88)
Where is Intuit, or what is their phone number? Does MacConnection carry this program, or do any of the other (reputable) places carry it? How much does it cost? (Cost-benefit-analysis mode, now.) Please, provide more information in your "reviews". --- Alex (disguised as B.T.)
chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (11/10/88)
>Does MacConnection carry this program, or do any of the other (reputable) >places carry it? How much does it cost? (Cost-benefit-analysis mode, now.) For those folks without access to such obscure magazines as MacUser or MacWorld, yes, it does. $35 plus $3 shipping. Phone is 1-800-mac-lisa (aka 622-5472). >Please, provide more information in your "reviews". I tend to believe that if a person is smart enough to read USENET, they're also smart enough to be able to find a computer store where they can buy a given program that interests them, or find a copy of a Mac magazine with the mail-order ads. I was interested in discussing the program, not shilling for either Intuit or MacConnection as the preferred place to buy things. Evidently, some folks are too lazy to do any research for themselves. Chuq Von Rospach Editor/Publisher, OtherRealms chuq@sun.COM It's not justice you want, Roderick! It's blood!
kiyun@mirror.TMC.COM (KiYun Roe) (11/11/88)
The summary says it all. I was looking at MacMoney, but now I'd like to know how Quicken compares with MacMoney.
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (11/11/88)
In article <76699@sun.uucp> chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: >This is just a quick note of praise for a Quicken, by Intuit. I agree 100% with Chuq on this. I saw Quicken demoed at a user group meeting and it looked so good that I bought it. (In the Bay Area, it is available from Egghead and ComputerWare.) It is not only good for balancing a checkbook, but it can also keep track of charge card accounts, etc. One thing about the demo that impressed me is that they had (apparently) done some research into other programs and what people wanted in a home accounting program. The result is a program that is very fast to use. I tend to enter transactions every couple of days, and it takes about 5 minutes to balance an account. They also made a flexible program. You can go back and change any entry you want. It understands about negative account balances. If your account doesn't balance, it adds an appropriate transaction, so that you don't have to track down the mistake right away. While reconciling an account, you can enter new transactions. The company also offers computer checks (although I don't have them), which makes paying bills very easy. I should also mention that they recently sent me a free update in the mail. -- Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B Cupertino, CA 95014 AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr
binder@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tim Binder) (11/11/88)
In message <206@internal.Apple.COM>, Larry Rosenstein writes: >It is not only good for balancing a checkbook, but it can also keep track of >charge card accounts, etc. My question: Will it cross-post entries between checkbook and charge accounts. I.E. If I pay my Visa bill from my checking account, will the amount automatically be deducted from the charge card account. I'm currently doing this sort of thing in Dollars & Sense (1.4 I think), but the Mac interface sucks (i.m.h.o.) & I've already shelled out $50 in the past to upgrade it -- I'm not going to continue doing that, since the program is a bit beyond my needs ($50/update each time! c'mon guys!) Thanks, Tim __ /\ \ Timothy M. Binder | "He's dead honey / \ \ binder@eniac.seas.upenn.edu | 'cause Mommy / /\ \ \ CI$ 71106,1124 [but VERY rarely] | killed him." / / /\ \ \ | / / /__\_\ \ known in the SCA as | / / /________\ Gwydion Rhys ap Rhianwen | \/___________/
holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) (11/11/88)
In article <6127@netnews.upenn.edu> binder@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Tim Binder) writes: > >I'm currently doing this sort of thing in Dollars & Sense (1.4 I think), but >the Mac interface sucks (i.m.h.o.) & I've already shelled out $50 in the >past to upgrade it -- I'm not going to continue doing that, since the >program is a bit beyond my needs ($50/update each time! c'mon guys!) > If you're talking about the upgrade to 1.4c, they owe you money. They inadvertantly charged me about $57, when it was supposed to be $5. I called customer service (followed by a letter) and was credited the difference. I don't have the number handy, but if anyone else is in the same situation, give them a call. Fred Hollander Computer Science Center Texas Instruments, Inc. holland%ti-csl@csnet-rela The above statements are my own and not representative of Texas Instruments.
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (11/12/88)
In article <6127@netnews.upenn.edu> binder@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Tim Binder) writes: > >My question: Will it cross-post entries between checkbook and charge >accounts. I.E. If I pay my Visa bill from my checking account, will the >amount automatically be deducted from the charge card account. It will not do this automatically. You can write out selected transactions from one account in SYLK format, but I don't think there is a way to read those transactions back into the program. I don't do this much, so it isn't a problem for me to do it manually. -- Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B Cupertino, CA 95014 AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (11/13/88)
In article <16770@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> c60c-3bq@web-3c.berkeley.edu writes: > >Where is Intuit, or what is their phone number? > >Does MacConnection carry this program, or do any of the other (reputable) >places carry it? How much does it cost? (Cost-benefit-analysis mode, now.) A MacWarehouse catalog I have at work lists Quicken for $35. Call 1 800 255-6227 to order. They use Fed Ex just like MacConnection (shipping = $3.00). This is where I've bought most of my software. Shirley Kehr
rob@poseidon.ATT.COM (rob) (11/15/88)
In article <219@internal.Apple.COM>, lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) writes: < In article <6127@netnews.upenn.edu< binder@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Tim Binder) writes: < < < <My question: Will it cross-post entries between checkbook and charge < <accounts. I.E. If I pay my Visa bill from my checking account, will the < <amount automatically be deducted from the charge card account. < < It will not do this automatically. You can write out selected transactions < from one account in SYLK format, but I don't think there is a way to read < those transactions back into the program. I don't do this much, so it isn't < a problem for me to do it manually. MacMoney, which I have been using for almost a year with absolutely NO problems (knock on wood...:-)) does cross-postings quite nicely..... .....rob
flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) (11/17/88)
Apropos this discussion on Quicken, does anyone have any direct experience comparing Quicken to MacMoney? Or does anyone know of any detailed reviews that contrast the two? From the descriptions, Quicken seems similar to MacMoney, except that offhand there are a few additional capacities. The one that stands out to me is besides having 250 category codes (which can be optionally marked tax-categories for producing reports for tax time), you can also have a second dimension of ID codes, for breaking up those categories differently. Someone mentioned that Quicken allowed you to print a logo on laserwriter checks, I don't think MacMoney includes this. There must be other differences. I'm interested because I was just getting ready to set up using MacMoney but would rather use the most flexible system. thanks, Margot Flowers Flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU ...!(uunet,rutgers,ucbvax,randvax)!cs.ucla.edu!flowers
flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) (11/17/88)
To clarify a potential ambiguity, in article <17975@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> I write: >From the descriptions, Quicken seems similar to MacMoney, except that >offhand with MacMoney ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >there seem to be a few additional capacities. ... ...
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (11/18/88)
In article <17975@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> flowers@cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) writes: >Apropos this discussion on Quicken, does anyone have any direct >experience comparing Quicken to MacMoney? Or does anyone know of any >detailed reviews that contrast the two? Several financial packages were reviewed in the latest issue of Macazine (I hope that's the right one - I got 3 magazines all within a few days). The cover highlights the review. In addition to these two packages, they review Managing Your Money and I think one other. Sorry, I don't have the magazines at work (I have to wait a long time to get them back from my boss.) Shirley Kehr