Rating: 
Summary: Don't throw your Quicken away
Review: I wasn't too sure if I wanted to switch from Quicken to MS Money, so I downloaded the trial from Microsoft's website ...As a recent user of Quicken, I wanted to see if Money was worth shelling out for my new, home-built PC. Being on a LAN, it was a relatively quick download. Installing it was where the interesting stuff began.Money doesn't let you run the first-time-setup wizard more than once. I had two credit cards and one checking account, and I didn't have the latest statements handy when I was installing it. So when I tried to modify my accounts later on, I was completely bemused. In comparison, my Quicken program lets me run a wizard each time I want to add an account--great when I got a new credit card after installing the program. Money also does something I don't like--it adds a lot of shortcuts to your desktop--at least three at last count. It also added a sort of "Live Money" taskbar button. I don't know what other people tend to do, but all I want in a financial program is finance tracking. I want to see where my money went and whether I'll have enough money at the end of the month, without having to log onto 3 different websites and doing some math. I don't want my financial program to link itself to my MSN Passport and connect to MSN Money unless I tell it to, and sadly, Money doesn't tell me that I have a choice in the matter. I suppose if I were more inclined to fiddle around with the settings, sooner or later I would find a way to turn it off. But I would prefer to be asked before it's done. Just a quibble. Money's pretty, and offers a lot of intergration with MSN Money if you like that sort of thing. It's sort of unfamiliar eye candy, but worth a look. And with the rebates [offered], it's much cheaper than Intuit's offering. That said, I still prefer Quicken for quick familiarity and the layout's ease-of-use. Let's not make me take a class just to learn to use my financial software, Microsoft. Good job, but you can do even better.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Version of Money to Date
Review: I have been using Microsoft Money for eight year's now and each version just keeps getting better. This year's version is more of a update or polish over last years version. If you own Money 2002 it might not be worth the upgrade as most of the changes are enhancements and tweaks but for all other versions it is well worth the upgrade. The web intergation and bank intergation is by far the best out there. Simple and automatic. The software downloads the statement directly to your register while you're online even if Money is not open. The debt reduction planner and buget manager have been a tremendous help and are simple and straight forward. The interface is web based and simple to use compared to Quicken's clunky and cumbersome interface. If you purchase the deluxe version you're also treated to a few freebies. One year of free online bill pay from MSN, a free credit report and a year of free credit monitoring. It is well worth the extra fifteen or so dollars to purchase the deluxe edition.
Rating: 
Summary: A wise solution for budgetting!
Review: To be honest I spend money as I look at it, but MS Money takes care of that. A wonderful solution that provides informative tutorials on how to budget ones self more efficiently. Money has evolved over the years into an enormous resource for helping users get their financial investments together. The application is becoming more and more integrated allowing users to take care of such task as paying bills online, buying a car, house or any other type of household activity concerning how you spend money. It organises the users investments. It's also a wonderful budgetting tool, comparing itself to Quicken. But the thing about Money 2003, is the interface, it's more pleasing to look at and based on my observation more easier to use based on it's intuitive wizards. I really recommend you purchase money if you don't have it. I implore users. If you are a Quicken user, stick with it, I think Quicken is more powerful than Money regardless of the many bells and whistles it has. If you are new to the budgetting software I try Money because of the ease of use, but for long time Quicken users stick with what you use to.
Should you upgrade?
If you recently spent money buying Money 2002, don't worry to upgrade to it yet, wait six month's to a year, their is really no reason to rush but if you are still using a previous version of Money prior to version 2002 it's a worthy upgrade. For version 2002 users the reason why I don't recommend you upgrade is because of Microsoft's unpredictable upgrade cycle just as you might purchase this new version of Money, news about Money 2004 start's circulating, I don't want you to make any mistakes wasting your money, here.
Rating: 
Summary: MS Money 2003 - Don't bother
Review: I bought this program as a replacement for an ageing version of Quicken, but I am beginning to wish I had not bothered. I have had corruptions in which I had to export all transactions from all accounts, create a new file, then re-import. Just lately though, Money keeps dropping transactions or adding its own. The result is that what Money says I have is completely different to what my online bank statement says I have. This happens even after I have reconciled against my latest statement. The reconciled balance changes completely and I have to back track to find what transactions Money has dropped or added, and all this when I have set it up to automatically download transactions from my banks online banking facility.
Rating:
Summary: A lot of harsh reviews for a great product
Review: I've been using Microsoft Money 2002 for quite awhile and I really liked it. I decided to upgrade to Money 2003 and its even better. If you're wondering what Money can do for you, let me tell you. It can automatically download your transactions from your bank and credit cards so you can easily reconcile your accounts. When your bank (like mine, BofA) won't let Money auto-download it offers a manual download that works the same. Money can help you create budgets where you can easily track expenses. It can help you create a debt reduction plan so you know exactly how much you need to send in order to get out of debt by a certain date. You can keep track of all upcoming bills. I'm not sure I could live without it now that I've used it for so long.
Rating:
Summary: Useful software, has its downsides.
Review: My upgrade to Money Deluxe 2003 from Money 97 went almost flawlessly. At first, I didn't like the upgrade, but decided to get used to the new presentation. Sure enough, after several months, I am now comfortable with the 2003 interface. I love the online NAV updates for my mutual funds, and the menus are relatively easy to navigate once you become accustomed to them. The only bug I've experienced is after I run the "update online quotes" utility. If you don't wait for the investment allocation bar to fully resolve before hitting the portfolio option, it freezes up on me. That aside, one glaring problem still remains from the 97 version. When entering a new buy transaction for an investment, MS Money calculates the shares purchased out to six decimal points, yet we all know that financial institutions round up or down to only three decimal points. As a result, when you correct the transaction to reflect the actual amount of shares purchased, the investment amount will often change to a penny above or below the actual amount, forcing you to enter the transaction separately in you checking register. On another downside, the cashflow forecaster is completely useless. Whatever AI the program uses for this calculation is quite flawed. But I probably wouldn't use it even if it worked, so I can't complain too much. All said, this is probably the best software available for tracking your investments and spending. I thought of giving Quicken a shot, but I just can't do it with all the negative reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Money 2003 is a disaster
Review: Money 2002 had problems, but 2003 is far worse. The initial install refused to use the Money 2002 backups, or archival files. Worse yet, when we deleted 2003 and reinstalled 2002, we found that 2003 had corrupted all of our backup files, and none of the 2002 backups (5 of them) could be read. As usual, Microsoft support was useless... they said what we already knew.... Yes thats a known bug, and you'll have to recreate everything from the beginning. Big help. Stay far away from Money!
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