Scan & Fix 50 registry issues FREECNET Editors' review
With Quicken 2010, Intuit strives to make its flagship money management application easier to navigate and simpler to set up, thanks to spruced-up visuals and a refreshed start-up wizard. Although already a solid balance-keeper and financial assistant in previous versions, Quicken 2010 adds a few new features to visualize your monthly budget and assets.
The Quicken 2010 product family includes Quicken Starter Edition ($29.99) for tracking budgets and upcoming bills; Quicken Deluxe ($59.99), which includes tools to help you save up for a large purchase; Quicken Premier ($89.99), which helps track investments; Quicken Home and Business ($99.99); and Quicken Rental Property Management ($149.99). We evaluated Quicken Deluxe 2010.
Installation
At almost 70MB, Quicken Deluxe 2010 takes several minutes to install. Installation was painless up to the point when the software junked up our desktop with four icons: the Quicken icon, plus another three unwanted shortcuts advertising a Quicken credit card and other additional services.
Features
Quicken's core features continue doing what they've done for years: chiefly, importing your financial information to help you automatically and manually track your spending and savings. Not just a simple ledger for balancing your bank book, Quicken's additional tools also help alert you to upcoming bills and to your overall budget.
In the 2010 edition, Intuit has applied some cosmetic changes that streamline and simplify the software. One change is a sleeker setup wizard to guide you through the process of importing your financial information, adding bill reminders, and setting up budgets. This wizard is moot if you're a returning user importing years of data from past Quicken versions, but new users will have an easier time getting started with this version than in years past.
A cleaner-looking home screen greets new and returning users, summarizing your financial standing in a glance. Pared-down navigation options also make it easier to find what you need. The most active new feature in Quicken 2010 takes a stab at automatically categorizing your transactions, like assigning Safeway to the Groceries category and your doctor's visits to the Medical category, with a little help from you if there's any doubt. In implementing this feature, Quicken plays catch-up to savvier online management apps, like Mint.com--which Intuit has since snapped up and plans to integrate--and its ilk. A new infographic in Quicken also helps you avoid late fees by displaying both how much cash is left in your coffers and which upcoming bills you should brace for.
Apart from the bill reminder and the autocategorization, it's Quicken's top layer, and select tools, that see the benefit of Quicken's design changes. Scratch the surface, however, and many of the app's second-tier tools--text-heavy calculators, planners, and lists with tiny font--feel as if they haven't been updated for years. The old-school layout may not bother legacy users or those who aren't put off by blocks of texts and charts, but others who have come to expect graphic representation of their data and clean design--say, the likes of former competitor Mint.com--may be inclined to shut the window and move on rather than wade through text.
As with past versions, Quicken Deluxe 2010 pulls in financial data from your banks and savings accounts. There are tools to create graphs and reports to itemize spending and banking, and to plot transactions on a calendar. There's also a debt reduction planner and a tax-planning wizard. Quicken could use a few more online social Net links, too, such as an option to sync reminders to an online calendar.
Intuit isn't blind to consumers' changing expectations in management software, online or offline. Quicken 2010's refurbished look does help, and conservatives who feel more comfortable keeping monetary details stored locally on their PCs rather than encrypted in the cloud lose nothing by downloading a free trial. For strictly online users with only personal finances (not investments, property, or small businesses), Intuit offers a free, online version that's similar to Mint.com. Quicken Online has budgeting, tracking, and reminders, encryption, an iPhone component, and the added capability to prep the data for tax time, assuming you also use one of Intuit's TurboTax products.
If you've used Quicken before, you can import data from previous years. The same goes for anyone switching over from Microsoft Money. With Microsoft Money killed off (additional details), Quicken is the best desktop alternative.
Service and support
Quicken support is unchanged from previous years. E-mail support is free, and Intuit promises to respond within a day. Chat help is also free and is available 24-7. Phone assistance is $24.95 per call. However, some support calls are free, such as if you're having problems installing the program or converting data from earlier Quicken versions.
Overall
Quicken Deluxe 2010 remains a useful, if not exciting, management app equipped with rich balancing and budgeting tools. As for the future of Quicken, Intuit's recent acquisition of flashy online finance manager Mint.com could spell the merging of Mint's online budgeting and reminder features. Mint's exciting visual style could also draw younger users to future versions of Quicken, assuming Intuit goes that route, making future versions of the classic, but dated, money manager truly fresh.
Publisher's Description
From Intuit:
With Quicken Deluxe, you'll be able to see all your checking, savings, credit card, loan, investments, and retirement accounts in one place, so you'll know exactly where you're spending your money. All without looking at multiple sites and statements: Quicken downloads your income and expenses from your bank(s), so you don't have to enter transactions manually.
Quicken 2012 offers a clear and organizedpicture of users' complete financial information, including spending and bills, in one place. Coupled with an updated bill reminders tool, this transparency lets users take control of their financial lives and avoid costly mistakes,such as late fees and missed payments. Enhanced budgeting and debt reduction tools allow them to plan for a fit financial future with the simplest, fastest and most powerful version of Quicken to date.
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All versions:
1.3 starsout of 55 votes
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Current version:
1.2 starsout of 18 votes
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My rating:
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"Account data not available for previous tax year"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
Customer support online chat is very polite while telling you they cannot help you
Cons
You can only download the LAST 90 DAYS of account data, making it useless for doing your past year's taxes.
Summary
Since Intuit's Quicken has been around forever, and now is touted to mesh perfectly with Intuit's Turbotax, I decided to do my 2011 taxes using data downloaded from my various checking and credit card accounts. A few mouse clicks, and I'm done, right?
So I bought both Quicken 2012 Starter Edition and TurboTax Deluxe for Federal and State Returns in April 2012, at about the time most people would have received all their 1040's and 1099's and started their 2011 tax preparation.
I thought, let's get started by downloading all my 2011 data from all my checking and credit card accounts.
Not so fast!
It turns out that you can only download the LAST 90 DAYS. So as of the end of March, 2012, NO DATA FROM 2011 is available to the Quicken purchaser for 2011, which is the reason you bought it in the first place.
Intuit Customer Service chat assistance directed me, very politely, to go to each of my account companies (checking and credit card accounts) to see if they can provide my needed data in Quicken's QFX format. But they all said, sorry, sir. No can do. But you can download each month's data individually in PDF format, and then copy it over into a spreadsheet.
I do not recall anything on the packaging or in the advertizing that stated "UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN DOWNLOADING YOUR DATA AT LEAST EVERY 90 DAYS, THIS SOFTWARE WILL BE USELESS IN PREPARING YOUR 2011 TAX RETURNS USING TURBOTAX".
Am I alone in experiencing this Catch-22? -
"Beware! Not ready for release!"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
A buggy release forced me to delete large, long-standing accounts and begin all over again with a much smaller file. Of course, this was a disaster, but I'm trying really hard to come up with something positive.
Cons
The new 2013 download automatically deleted my 2009 version and then completely ruined my data file through sync issues that resulted in hundreds of duplicate transactions and account balances that were inaccurate by thousands of dollars. I tried deleting all of the duplicate transactions, but that would have taken weeks. Instead, I deleted all of my accounts, one-by-one, and then started all over again. Years of financial data are lost forever. This product is not even beta quality. Quicken should be ashamed.
Summary
I was encouraged by the addition of an iPhone app, but Quicken has big, big issues with the way it syncs in the cloud. After just the first sync, I was left with almost 300 duplicate transactions (I know the number because they all showed up as uncategorized) and account balances that were off by tens of thousands of dollars. I'm going to lose a week of my time to clean up this mess. I would revert to 2009, but 2013 deleted that before destroying my entire financial portfolio. Stay away from this product!
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"A Complete Disappointment"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
It has a mobile app...finally.
Cons
It screwed up my balances. It deleted transactional history and also created duplicate transactions. The migration was in no way seamless. I had to deactivate all of the automatic update functions on each account and then reactivate. The automatic update wouldn't download, so I had to contact tech support to get the mondo link.
Summary
Companies should not release a product until it is ready to be released. I should have been warned that I am a beta tester.
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"Total disappointment, budget completely broken"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
The automatic updating of bank accounts is a nice feature,and the product never crashes. But I desperately wish I could downgrade to Quicken 2011.
Cons
Quicken ruined a good product by going to a rolling budget model that makes no sense in the real world. There's no way to plan for the current year, no way to see total income vs total expenses on the planning page.
Product is also flaky, with repeated patches failing to correct issue with negative numbers in budget reports, and with items disappearing from the reconciliation window.
Also - product does not allow you to downgrade to 2011 and keep your data , and won't allow more than one Quicken version to exist at the same time. So migrating is a one-way trap door.
No mobile device syncSummary
STAY AWAY! Stick with Quicken 2011 or wait for 2013. I have been using Quicken since the earliest Windows versions and this version is terrible.
I've wasted hours and hours of my life fighting with the budget, and I'm having to fire up Excel to figure out what my budget actually is. -
"Thank God for cnet and all you review submitters."
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
None, didn't purchase, thanks to the people who took the time to submit their review.
Cons
Forced to purchase Q2012 if I want to continue online banking.
Summary
After reading these stunning reviews I will keep my Q2009 version and do manual entering.
Thank you, cnet and submitters. -
"Please share Quicken feedback"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
We are a group graduate students who are preforming market research on personal financial software for a class project. Please answer the quick ten question survey about personal finance and help us for our project. Thank you. This survey can be found at he following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N7K6X97
Your help is much appreciated!!!Cons
We are a group graduate students who are preforming market research on personal financial software for a class project. Please answer the quick ten question survey about personal finance and help us for our project. Thank you. This survey can be found at he following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N7K6X97
Your help is much appreciated!!! -
"Q2012 is a disaster"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
Very automated. You really don't have to do anything to start up, Quicken goes to the banks sites and down loads all pertinent info for you.
Cons
Budget is probably the most important feature of Quicken, but they ruined the functionality in this release.
Summary
1) Rolling Budget. You can only budget from the current month forward. i.e. This is April 2012; if I want to correct January 2012, I'm out of luck because the advanced budget only displays January 2013.
2) Related to the rolling budget, is the way specific, average, monthly and yearly inputs are treated. Somehow "yearly averages" causes the budget version used to generate reports to change; I'm not sure why.
3) Negative numbers in a budget. The advance budget uses negatives but doesn't display the sign (- or Red). You can't tell which categories are positive or negative by looking at them--you must experiment to see what the "leftover amount" changes to. Very difficult to trouble shoot errors.
4) You can't budget to the cent. This creates substantial cumulative rounding errors
5) The budget page shows a bar graph which you can't modify. It is always inaccurate because credit card charges are not considered as expenses. Only a credit card payment shows as an expense. The Budget reports appear to treat the credit card transaction correctly.
6) There are several automated features which I don't understand, but they apparently adjust the budget based on my input in way that I can't track or control. Smoke and mirrors has no place in financial software.
Take a look at the Quicken feedback page. https://getsatisfaction.com/quicken/topics Search for "budget" and view the many unhappy users. -
"Do not purchase this version!"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
the new features they have (claimed) to have added are interesting, and, if Intuit works out the bugs, could well end up being actual enhancements. Of particular promise is the perpetual budget feature.
Cons
The features DO NOT WORK! Go to a discussion forum and you will see experienced users of Quicken frustrated that Intuit shipped this buggy product. Call their support line, and they will have you describe your problem, then explain there are "no known issues" in that area which they know to be untrue.
Major issues include the budget tool will not let you set specific values for select months. You can either stay with the values created in (and imported from)an earlier version, or enter new "monthly average" values, rather than specific values. If you enter specific values, they are reported as negative values in any reports you run. Makes it kinda hard to budget a vacation when you have to average out what you will actually spend in one week over the whole year in your reports. Intuit has been aware of this problem since (at least) October 2011, and it remains unaddressed. Additionally I have problems with Web-connect to download banking data after it worked flawlessly in version 11Summary
If you have not used Quicken before, I recommend it as a helpful financial management tool. That said, there are a couple of things you should know.
1. Intuit deliberately builds three year obsolescence into this product. You must upgrade at least every three years ($50-$100) regardless of your level of satisfaction and comfort with your current version.
2. Much like the largest operating system software provider on the planet, customer support can be very frustrating as they deny any knowledge or awareness of software bugs and issues, so you can end up feeling like a dummy (until you go to message boards and see dozens upon dozens of people with exactly the same issue as you)
3. This version is terrible. If you can find 2010, or 2011, by all means try that out. It works great, and will continue to do so for another year or so.
If you are currently a Quicken user and wondering whether you should go ahead and upgrade to V2012, the answer is much simpler
NO! -
"Would give zero stars if I could"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
Still trying to think of one...
Cons
Forced to upgrade. Now I can't download online banking transactions. Which essentially makes the software useless to me. I have used Quicken for years and have never had these types of problems. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!
And don't bother calling Intuit help support, they are more useless than the software itself. -
"Unable to correct errors to budget reports"
Version: Quicken Deluxe 2012
Pros
Used to be excellent program but gone downhill. Riding on their past reputation has seriously effected the quality of the program
Cons
Forget trying to resolve certain errors. After many attempts trying to resolve errors in the budget reports portion I finally gave up. They need to step back and instead of trying to come out with 'better features' correct the ones they already have.
Summary
If you don't mind the aggravation of having not all the program working then buy it. If you are looking for an efficient program, especially when keeping track of your finances, go somewhere else.
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