Rating: Summary: Enormous waste of money Review: I had been using the Money 95 version since its inception and found it very simple but useful for managing day-to-day finances. I decided to upgrade to 2002, and boy! what a mistake. The program is too cluttered with useless bells & whistles, and the budget features continually crash the program. I have been sent entirely new software from Microsoft addressing the problem, yet it continues. If you work within a budget and find the monthly reports vital (like I do), this program is astoundingly bad. In fact, I'll either switch to another program or dump this version and reinstall '95. What a waste of money.
Rating: Summary: Slow even on a 450mhz processor Review: In addition to the annoyances others have observed, Money 2002 on an AMD-K6/450mhz with lots of ram takes an extraordinary time do think about what it is doing, e.g., reconciling simple downloaded transactions.I'm very impressed that some reviewers have had a good experience! This program is certainly not for everybody!
Rating: Summary: Unnecessary Upgrade Review: Okay, the software is reliable(yes it's a Microsoft product, I know, but it neither hogs memory nor freezes up) and also very useful for anybody attempting to manage their money. But if you already have Money 2001, there is no compelling reason to upgrade, only a cosmetic difference, and if anything it's a step back. They make you log into Passport to access the program! It almost makes one wish that Microsoft was included in the war against terrorism......because that's what all this .net nonsense and product tying seems to be! I'd trash them some more, but I fear for my life....they might remotely activate the Blue Screen of Death on my computer....
Rating: Summary: Bugs cost me 2 months of data Review: After spending 3 months diligently entering data into Money 2002 deluxe, I began to have problems. First, a message 'please reload Money, a file named REPORT.DLL is missing'. Huh? I tried to reload but the same message still exist everytime I log in. Then came the nightmare. I have set up all my accounts online so I can download statements from banks, brokerages etc. After 2 months of smooth downloads however, I was unable to download statements! A message saying that I need a later version of Microsoft's strong encryption and a hyperlink to take me there. Fine. I followed the hyperlink and it was a dead link. I tried to look up strong encryption in both Money's site and the software's help section but could not find anything. I've always heard that Microsoft's products are buggy. Now I am convinced. Save you money and skip this one. I think bill gates want us to beta test his products for free
Rating: Summary: Doesn't work--had to uninstall and return it Review: I have been using Money Deluxe and Business 2000 and thought I would give this upgrade a try. I was fine with the previous version of the product, except that I wanted an improvement in transaction downloads and budgeting. What I found out was that I couldn't get automatic transaction downloads to work. That was only a cosmetic feature for me, however. When I manually obtained the new transaction downloads, I was initially pleased. They were inserted (in bold) directly into my register. All I had to do was accept or edit the new transaction. However, a few days later, these transactions didn't show up in my register even though the program stated that there were downloaded transactions. I called Microsoft and they went through a repair process. That didn't work, so I re-imported the Money 2000 file that I had previously worked on. I thought there was a bug in the new file and I would start again. That seemed to work for a few days until the same thing happened over again--the phantom transaction problem reappeared. I called Microsoft again and was escalated to a support engineer that promised to call me back a few days later. They did and they were very nice, but what they told me disheartened me. They stated that this was a known problem. It turns out that the bug is related to business invoices that access the checking account register. In other words, if you download a transaction that matches up with an invoice, the problem occurs. The only was around this is to delete all the business invoices (which to me if a large task) and create a separate register to manually handle invoice payments out of the normal checking account register that I use. I decided not to go with this painstaking option and felt that the older version of Money made my life simpler.
Rating: Summary: If it's going to be Ad Supported it should be free Review: I purchased Money 2002 as an upgrade to Money 2000.. Now I'm wishing I would have stuck with 2K. The biggest grip I have is the fact that on every page there's advertisments for MS partners or MSN etc. If that's not bad enough, everytime you update Money from the Internet you get these nice icons placed on your desktop for Ameritrade and such.. Delete them and next time you update there back. If MS wants to sale ad space by placing ads on it's products and forcing users to live with their desktop setting the way MS wants it to be, then the product should be free.. Kinda like those "Free" Internet service providers... But then again, MS tends to force it's users to live with a lot. Secondly, if your like me (pay check to pay check) knowing what bills lie between those pay checks is a must. In Money 2000 this was a sinch, just glance at the detailed view and your set, in 2002 it's a lot harder. You still get the detailed view, but it's a slimmer "simpler" view, you do get the nifty calander at the bottom, so to view what falls between different paydays, you have to click on each of the bolded days and scratch down the bills on a piece of paper. My overall suggestion, if your using an older release, stick with it. 2002 Upgrade is a waste of money.
Rating: Summary: Neat Review: Money is a fairly neat package. I actually don't necessarily like new versions since they add just more clutter with lots of useless features and prevent the user from getting things done. However, with some fiddling most can be switched off. The Business features are not the greatest but alright for pro services contractors not having a huge flood of transactions.
Rating: Summary: Quirky, self-promoting, and what's with the ads! Review: I purchased this program mainly to manage investments and determine capital gains. What a mistake! It's incredibly cumbersome and repetitive for data entry. Moreover, it's very difficult to troubleshoot and reconcile account balances. Making it even more annoying, it continues to push you toward other Microsoft products and even has advertising for non-MS companies. You purchase the software but then you have to endure advertising? This is Microsoft at its worst.
Rating: Summary: Great Product for Personal Finances Review: I purchased Money 2002 Deluxe as an upgrade to the existing version I was using - Money 2001 Deluxe. The features in the 2002 version that was most helpful to me includes: 1. Being able to undo an action (e.g. especially for those times when you delete a transaction in error) 2. Having more printing options, especially in the "forecast" cash flow section. I've always found the older version had limited printing capabilities. 3. Being able to flag transactions for later follow-up or making notes, similar to to-do action items. 4. The home page is more customizable, so I could "see" at a glance my spending habits, to-do actions, cash flow, etc. 5. The Bills and Deposits section is much more improved - though it takes a bit of getting used to in the beginning. The feature I didn't like is Microsoft integrating the money file with a Passport account. While it adds another level of security, i.e. having a password to access the money file, I think it is just Microsoft's way of pushing their Passport technology. Fortunately, Money can be used offline - so it's neither here nor there regarding the passport option. All in all, I think it's a great product.
Rating: Summary: Save your Money! Review: This has got to be the biggest waste of time I have ever come across. This program does a great job of replacing a check book and a spiral notebook and it only costs (...)! It has no features for small business applications and is a real pain to set up. Just imagine an IRS audit only not as fun. The customer service from Microsoft on this product is laughable. The best feature about Microsoft Money Suite 2002 is that you save (...) if you don't buy it. I gave this prouct 1 star because there is nothing lower.
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