Quicken: tell me everything you know....

[newmomto1]

Please tell me everything you know about Quicken.
How does it work?
Can it only be accessed from one computer?
Could it be accessed from a Blackberry?
DH pays the bills at work, can he enter info there & I enter info at home?

I am TOTALLY clueless about this stuff. But, I need a way to figure out where all our money is going. It needs to be something that both DH & I can use & have access to.

TIA!!!!!!!!!!!

[sariana]

I'm not sure if this helps, but the below is from our Quicken Help menu under licensing.

"Intuit grants you a limited non-exclusive license to install and use a copy of the enclosed Not for Resale Software on one (1) computer used by a single household. You may make one (1) backup copy of the Not for Resale Software for your own use. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, you may not resell, or otherwise transfer for value, the Not for Resale Software."

That sounds to me as though you could NOT have it on more than one computer at a time (such as yours at home and DH's at work or whatever). There is, however, and import/export feature that allows you to create and transfer data. If you purchased two copies (or licenses), you could transfer data between them. I don't think it would be worth it, though.

FWIW, we have been using Quicken for over a decade, and it is very helpful. It is especially convenient come tax time. We purchase TurboTax and just import the data from Quicken.

Quicken also makes it very easy to track the monies in our household, including all our investments.

I can't "tell you all I know," but if you have a specific question, I'll try to help. I would recommend the program, even if you cannot use it on more than one computer.

[dhano923]

deleted -- wrong thread!

[LBW]

I've been using Quicken for a long time, and I like it a lot as a checkbook register. My Mac version saves the data file on my hard drive, so I can't see how it would be possible to access the data from another computer - unless you were on a network. I think, to access the data from home, work, and a blackberry, you would need data to be hosted on an off site server. I'm not sure if this is an option offered to PC users. And if it is offered, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be doing it.

I do use my bank's (USAA) online bill pay service to pay as many bills as possible, and then enter the amounts into Quicken. The two work well together. I can download updates from USAA and they are reconciled right into Quicken.

How is your husband paying bills now? Writing checks and entering into a checkbook register? If so, you should just ask him to bring everything home and go over it with you. If he's using work computers, I personally don't think that's a good idea, because they are not secure - ie. others in his company can access your personal info.

Good luck!

[maestramommy]

Dh started using Quicken when we got married. A few features I love:

1) you can download your cc record online. It's actually more up to date than the statement you get in the mail

2) you can put your checkbook record in there too, so everything's connected

3) You can have the main record on your computer, but have a traveling drive in case you need to work on another computer

We use a flash pen to do the work, but then we always update our computer records, kind of like reconciling your PDA to your database.

As I said in the other thread, it takes a bit of work to set it up with all of your expense categories. Dh basically had to manually enter a couple of cc statements to set all of the categories. But once their in, the software automatically recognizes a "store" as a category. For example, TJ's will always pop up as "grocery" although I can manually change it if for any give purchase I bought something that was not grocery. I can also split a purchase, so that a certain amount was for household, and the rest was for personal care, stuff like that. That way you can more precisely divvy up the purchase into correct categories.

We also take out a certain amount of cash once in a while for stuff that can't take cc, like farmers market or something. Dh saves the withdrawel slip and we try to remember to write purchases on it. Then each month he enters that into Quicken when he also balances the checkbook. I tend to forget, so there is a certain amount of slop in this area. But so far it has only resulted in a wee bit of noise in the final results, and we're always well in the black, so it hasnt been a problem.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We use Quicken online -directly through the website, so it can be used anywhere. DH pulls it up on his iPod Touch while I'm running into the store for a gallon of milk. So, that version will get you access from any computer.

If you go that route, check ebates, etc. We got a small rebate by going through them.

[cellenly]

okay, i wrote this long post about quicken, but now i deleted it by accident thinking i was deleting a double post. i don't think it's in me to rewrite it right now.

[cellenly]

deleted multiple post

[cvanbrunt]

We use a free shareware program that is way more flexible than Quicken. It does a lot of the stuff Quicken can do but it does it automatically, like balancing the credit card statement. Its called Moneydance.