Quicken announced in a press release yesterday that come this fall they were going to be starting an online version of their financial management software. It has currently been undergoing tests by a closed set of people, but starting September 10 they will be opening the doors to thousands of others who eagerly await Beta testing. That’s just one day after the Quicken 2008 software hits the shelves of retail stores.
I’m not too fond of using online services to manage my money, but Quicken has a good reputation behind them which they’ll need to earn the trust of people. Would you use any online service, even a secure service like Quicken, to store your personal financial details?
I used to have Quicken in it’s early days, but it quickly became more extravagant than I needed. I’m kind of a control freak when it comes to my finances, and it’s something that I want done my way. So for at least 4-years now I have been using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all my finances…down to the penny. All non-cash transactions are logged in my workbook among a multitude of sheets, with custom backend code handling much of the processing.
When I open up the workbook I’m presented with a nice overview of all my finances, and I can see in a glance when bills are coming up. Honestly, when people see my spreadsheet they think I’m crazy for making it myself, but without it I would be lost.
So what do you use to keep track of your finances, and would you be willing to throw that information up on a site (even if it is secure)?
Source: Webware [via DownloadSquad]
My dad is a financial planner and has instilled in me since the beginning to use Quicken.
I couldn’t live without it.
Been using Quicken for home finances since Quicken 6 or 7 for DOS… back then, converting from my Lotus 123 sheets was a challenge.
I’ve been steadily upgrading ever since — right now, I can review about 12 years of activity in my Quick Windows.
For my side business, I use the free MS Accounting 2007 Express ([ideawins.com]) and have been pretty happy with it. I got tired of of the QuickBooks “shake-down” every couple years.
I just started using Yodlee a couple days ago, and I LOVE it. It’s a good blend of simple and advanced tools to keep track of purchases. It also has a cool budget tool where you can set a budget for specific categories of purchases and have it email you when you reach a certain % of that budget. Awesome!
I used Quicken way back years ago and I liked it. However, for some reason I had switched to MS Money and I am so used to it, I can not go back to Quicken. I tried once, but just did not like it as much.
I do not have a good feeling about having my finances online, so I will never do them that way.
I’ve also used MS Money a few years back after having done Quicken for several years. I actually liked it more than Quicken because I thought it was better organized.
I have been using Quicken to pay bills online since it was a DOS application which dialed up to Compuserve. It has been a rock solid product ever since.
However I have been wanting an online version for years. I actually trust Quicken to keep my data safe more then I trust myself, and I have about 5 workstations – being able to access Quicken from all of them (even under Linux!) would be a godsend. The Mac version aint so great either (it cant even import windows version files – wtf!), so Im sure Mac users will appreciate it.
Also the exploding options of downloading bank data and paying bills online has been way too confusing for years. Hopefully this will be easier to manage, since I assume Quicken support will be able to view my accounts, etc. if I need them too and recommend what to do.
YNAB is all you need!