Rating: 
Summary: A Big Performance Gain Over Money 2002
Review: My favorite version of Money to date has been 2000. It had a clean user interface with lots of useful features that didn't seem to go overboard. Subsequent releases of Money have been plagued with "featuritis", as the war with Quicken continues. Money 2002 is by far the worst victim of this disease. Microsoft added so many new features with little concern for their cost on performance. It got so bad that entering and editing data become almost as slow as handwriting it in a checkbook and using an abacus to calculate the results.Finally, with Money 2003, Microsoft has begun to marry features with performance that returns to the speeds we loved in Money 2000. The interface and bells and whistles are similar to 2002, but the performance gain is exhilarating. If you've waited to upgrade and passed over previous versions, but have been itching to use some of Money's sophisticated online banking features, Money 2003 will be worth the leap.
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: 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: 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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