Rating: 
Summary: You'll be glad you paid for it;-)
Review: I used Quicken extensively for years and loved it a lot. Few years back, when my portfolio started to melt like ice on salt, I quit using Quicken as I was scared to see my stock losses grow each day. Recently, a very good deal on Money 2003 Delux at CompUSA prompted me to get back to the habit of tracking my financial life. It's just been 2-weeks and I already like it a lot. I don't know how well it compares to Quicken 2003 but I sure am happy for getting it. The best thing about Money 2003 is the interface. I like the web look and feel. You can customize the views and display the features you want on home page. With some credit cards and banks, you can setup automatic downloads that will sync your account with the bank. Saves you from a lot of data entry. You can display your budget views on the home page. At times, I can just get all the info. I need on the home page and not worry about running reports. You can setup a passport account at MSN's Money website and you will be able to entry your expenses online when you don't have your PC with you. When you get back to the PC, your Money syncs with the new entries you made online. You can also use the Car View to track info about your cars. On the downside, there sure are few annoying bugs but they didn't bother me much as most of them have work around. This is my advise to anyone who runs into minor problems using money. Delete the transaction and re-enter it and all related problems may be solved. Finally, the microsoft support is excellent. Also, you can use the message boards at http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.aspx. Just make sure you select Desktop Applications and then Money to view the Money board.
Rating: 
Summary: OK only.
Review: This program has been useful for tracking my day to day expenses and income. However, with my skills I could write a better and easier to use program if that was all I needed. As far as what I actually bought the program for, cash flow analysis and investment and retirement tracking, it is third rate. The pre-tax deductions from my paycheck do not translate directly into the retirement contributions. Also, I have to do an individual purchase of stocks in my 401k each paycheck. In reality the contribution is by percentage into each mutual fund. Money 2003 will not allow you to select percentages and automatically purchase mutual fund shares. Also, the portfolio analysis is the usual "don't sue us" pap. In order to track my total net worth in any kind of intelligent way I had to buy the cheesy investment tracking version. This should be standard as it is below par and not worth the extra money. In addition, the cash flow analysis is primitive and not flexible enough for my purposes. Finally, I have had a total failure of the program in which I had to reinstall all the software. No data was lost, but I have more inportant ways to spend my valuable time. Quite frankly, I believe financial software is overdue for some competition.
Rating:
Summary: Online quotes just stopped working
Review: After using Money 2003 for a year the online stock quote update function just stopped working. No warnings, no message, no nothing. After searching the web and reading the fine print I discovered that it will stop working 1 year from the date of registration or first use. Typical MS tactics. I am going to pick up a copy of Quicken.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine software except for one thing.
Review: Overall I'm pleased with my purchase of Money Standard 2003. It's a very useful tool. The account register allows for categorization of all transactions, which produces interesting reports on how all your money was spent and the bills section makes sure you won't forget to pay those many bills on time. However, if you read the fine print on the bottom of the box you'll notice that it says that portfolio quotes downloading functionality and the ability to synchronize your data with MSN Money expire 1 year from first use of Microsoft Money Standard or September 1, 2004, whichever is earliest. Now what is the point of that?! It sounds like part of the software becomes useless after a year. But since I will have gotten it for free after rebates (not counting the time value of money), I suppose I can't complain too much.
Rating:
Summary: Useful software, has its downsides.
Review: After using Money for some years (previously Money 99 FS) upgraded to 2003 Deluxe. It would not read my previous money file saying it was corrupted. After countless hours with support (they did continuously keep me updated) they said the upgrade was not supported. They even looked at my 99 file and couldnt find a reason why it wouldn't read in 2003. Anyways, I did the upgrade the hard way - export/import. Currently everything seems to work good. One botheration which another reviewer pointed out is that the shares purchased should be rounded to 3 decimal places instead of six. It always messes up the sale if you have partial purchases like DRIP etc.
Rating: 
Summary: BUGS !! BEWARE!! or get a full refund...
Review: this goes on from Money 2003 into 2004 and will probably be there 10 years from now In transactions with BONDS the accrued interest which you put in at time of purchase doesn't go into any further calcualtions so your income calcs overstate the actual income (this affects all reporting in portfolio and tax segments).
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste money - get Money 2003 Deluxe version instead
Review: Money 2003 would get five stars for me had it not included Kiplinger's Home & Business Attorney. This program is so horribly unbeleivably bad I cannot phathom (a) how Kiplinger is still in business, and (b) how Microsoft came to include this in their otherwise outstanding package. The Kiplinger stuff was obviously written for Windows 3.1 and has not been updated since then. It is *still* using the 16bit version of InstallShield. When run on Windows XP, The installer hangs at 99% for 8-10 minutes before proceeding. This is a well-documented problem with InstallShield from long-ago. After installation, the installer just hangs forever. I gave up at 15 minutes. The Attorney program itself is horrible. It brings up a ... editor that does not even understand spaces or long filenames. The buttons look like Windows 3.1. The program runs in 16bit emulated space, so that definitely means Windows 3.1. The OK button on many dialogs is HUGE and mostly blocked by text entry windows. Truly has to be seen to be believed. Get Money 2003 Deluxe instead. You'll still get TaxCut and the Money 2003 program, which are both very nice programs.
Rating:
Summary: Finally can fire Intuit and Quicken as my Money Manager
Review: I have been using Quicken for many years and now Money has easily beat out Quicken. The conversion of my Quicken data was seamless and the Microsoft support was without question the greatest I have received from any vendor. Of course this is easy since Intuit's support has continued to go down hill with almost all support/question calls now billable for both their home and professional products. Money has added support for equity/index options something I have asked Intuit to do for 5 years without success. Lastly Microsoft's suite package continues to provide more value to the consumer while Intuit has eliminated their suite (including TurboTax) in order to obtain greater sales.
Rating:
Summary: Money 2003 Deluxe& Business weak for business
Review: I purchased Money 2003 Deluxe & Business to include my wife's self-employed service business. The regular 'home' part of the program is fairly good and has lots of feature. The business part lacks quite a bit in several areas. The invoice designer wouldn't save a modified version on my Win 98 machine but works on Win Me on my notebook. Modification are rather limited. Certain fields have to stay in a certain frames within the Invoice. Worse, payment of invoices doesn't allow to enter a check number. When a payment is received and put into an account it becomes divorced from the invoice. The invoice shows having been paid but it is no longer associated with the actual payment entry. Makes it very hard to look and and figure out when problems arise. Also the business reports are almost un customizable except in a few minor things. Very frustrating. Accounts can't be designated as business accounts, distinguished from home accounts. Also 'project' information can not be put on invoices. Fields (such as customer name) are limited in size. Some Businesses have more than 20 or so characters in their name!
Anyway, it looks like we will be buying the Quicken equivalent. From the 'tour' of the Quicken site at least we can enter a check number against an invoice!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, so glad I switched from Quicken Deluxe 2002
Review: I have to admit, I was definitely reluctant to switch to MS Money. I love Quicken and have used it since it first came out. I switched to the deluxe version around 1995 and have bought the upgrade pretty much every year. I was about to buy my 2003 update when I was encouraged to try MS Money. Since I do always search for the best product, I hesistantly placed my order. I got it and can just say WOW. No regrets here on switching. I was really expecting to junk it and stick either get Quicken 2003 or stay with Quicken 2002. It does take a little getting used to MS Money. But, after a day or two, you are rockin' and rollin' as you would be on Quicken. Does this program do much that Quicken doesn't? Well, no. BUT, when you factor in the integration with MS Money Online, then you have a clear winner. Quicken.com is no where near as good as Money Buy it, try it, and you'll be a convert too. Admittedly, I haven't used Quicken Deluxe 2003, but the demo I downloaded didn't offer much more. All the reviews I've read really think both programs are about on par. Like the reviewers, I too believe the big advantage with MS Money is all the great things it does on the web. Free tax filing by H&R Block is an added bonus as is free first year of MSN online banking. Though I doubt I'll switch from my free internet bank.
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