Rating: 
Summary: easier than Quicken
Review: I've tried to use Quicken for a numnber of months and have not really gotten anywhere. I have found that Money's documentation is more robust, and, once you understand its logic and how to navigate its menu paths, it is easier to set up. I also like its abundance of reports and customized views that allow you to slice and dice your financial data in many different ways.Finally, because I like to be able to use financial data in Excel to build financial models of investments, I like the fact that I can easily export data from Money to Excel. (I'm sure Quicken has a similar feature, but I am not sure how to use it.) The thing that frustrates me about both Quicken and Money is they are both vague on how to set up your financial accounts to download into the program. I have figured out one financial institution's process because I found a link on their web page that gave me instructions. If either Quicken or Money developed a feature that would point a user to the exact place on a financial institution's web page where there were such instructions, or where a customer service email/phone number was, I would give both programs 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Needless complication of what used to be a good program
Review: I've used Money 2000 for about 3 years now, and finally decided it was time to upgrade to 2004 Deluxe. Big mistake. Microsoft has made the budgeting features of Money nerely impossible to use. You used to be able to get good reports out of it but most have been replaced with busy readouts that are unintelligible. It's hard to interpret what the few reports are trying to tell you. For example: under Money 2000 my budget balanced with $300/month to spare. According to Money 2004 (using the same budget I created in Money 2000) I'll apparently be in poverty with $400/month of red ink. Another annoying complication is the way Money 2004 fails to connect and update stock prices about 75% of the time on my machine, a feature that even my old copy of 2000 was able to handle. Bottom line: don't upgrade from previous versions unless you own stock in a company that manufactures headache medication. If you're not a previous MS Money user, you may want to try Quicken first (or at least try the free trial downloads of these programs before shelling out $50).
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed.
Review: Is Microsoft even listening to their customers? I agree with the previous review. This version adds a few things that you don't need and call it an upgrade. I downloaded the trial version and will not pay for this upgrade. The interface is exactly the same. There are no usability improvements and no improvements in the look of the product. Sure the Gainskeeper is useful but requires extra money for full use. The Experian credit manager does not even work if you have too much credit information (They will not produce a report!). Hopefully, nobody will upgrade this year and force Microsoft to make some real improvements even if they have to borrow ideas from Quicken.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed with microsoft money 2004 deluxe
Review: Itried ms money 04 deluxe but encountered problem after installation when I was reaching the final stage of data entry for my accounts. Apparently the software is geared to access data with hooks to microsoft net passport and msn money site. although I have a hotmailaccount it gave me en error "money has encountered an error and will shut down.... this errror is related to a mspfct10.dll file problem. Msn email tech support could not solve it and they tried the ususal tricks related to another dll file problem witnessed with this product. There is a sample account in the system folder of this software which one can use and it functions without a problem,but you loose the additional functionality by noy logging to the account and web via passport.Also downloading statements to the accounts was unreliable and sometimes inaccessible. I returned it to ms after 10 days of B testing. I would stick to quicken new user edition which is easy to function but still is inadequate
Rating:
Summary: Completely satisfied.
Review: Let me start my review by saying that the newest version of Money 2004 is a great piece of software. I have had it for about 6 months now and love it. I have never had personal finance software and so I cannot compare it to anything else such as Quicken. I will desfribe some minor downfalls of this program that do not really bother me. I particularly like Money for its ability to generate expense and income reports, easy account maintenance, uploading transaction history from online bank and credit card accounts, investment reports, easy-to-update stock quotes, and analysis tools. Cash flow and budgeting features, customizable reports (pie charts, bar charts, linear text), start-up page, Monthly-Spending-Expense feature are also important and useful. I also like the fact that Money is very well at catching duplicate entries of transactions. Some minor downfalls: Doesn't seem to be compatible with some of my online banks. Will not allow to directly access online accounts. I am not sure about safety of auto-access anyway. The only one that works is ING. I have to manually download transactions. Safety is also an issue so I try not to browse e(not talking about logging into my account from within built-in Money browser). Money does not report earnings on investments such as CDs and Savings Bonds. Inputting your interest rate will only be cosmetic. It will not allow you to compute your earnings. Conclusion: Great software for personal finance and investment. Keeps tracks of everything, generates many reports, includes analysis tools, many free offers such as Experian and MSN BillPay. I purchased my copy at Costco Co for around $50 - $20 Costco Rebate (MS Rebate was also available).
Rating: 
Summary: Great product...not a great upgrade from recent versions
Review: Microsoft Money 2004 Deluxe has a clean, well-organized interface. There are lots of web links that make getting information on your portfolio and Internet-accessible accounts a breeze. Unfortunately, if you are a current Money 2002 or 2003 user, the price of the upgrade may not be worth it. Very little appears to have changed in the last few releases with the exception of additional web links and a year's subscription to Money magazine.
Rating:
Summary: Awful Experience
Review: My new PC came with Money 2004. I was very happy with my old Money 99 but I thought I'd try it. I'm so sorry I upgraded! You can also download an 60 day trial but you'll run into the same problems. Once you upgrade you can never go back. If you're using Quicken or an Older version of Money, Money 2004 makes it extremely difficult for exporting data back to Quicken and there's no way back to older versions of money. On the Money 2004 FAQ, it leads you to believe you can, but you can't and then you find yourself 60 days in and find out you'll either have to buy or spend time reentering all your transactions for the last 60 into your older version. Don't Do it! Also 2004 is a subscription service so expect some features to expire.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Upgrade! If your'e happy with your older version
Review: My new PC came with Money 2004. I was very happy with my old Money 99 but I thought I'd try it. I'm so sorry I upgraded! You can also download an 60 day trial but you'll run into the same problems. Once you upgrade you can never go back. If you're using Quicken or an Older version of Money, Money 2004 makes it extremely difficult for exporting data back to Quicken and there's no way back to older versions of money. On the Money 2004 FAQ, it leads you to believe you can, but you can't and then you find yourself 60 days in and find out you'll either have to buy or spend time reentering all your transactions for the last 60 into your older version. Don't Do it! Also 2004 is a subscription service so expect some features to expire.
Rating:
Summary: Budget functions are very weak
Review: No aspect of financial management is more important than budgeting. The flaws in the budgeting features of Money 2004 are severe, and as a result this software is utterly inadequate. By way of illustration, after spending a couple of hours inputting our basic financial data, I constructed a household budget for the coming year, and a list of our cherished financial goals. Having done so, I discovered, not surprisingly, that the sum total of all the things we'd like to do are beyond our means for the coming year. Clearly, it was time to print out the budget and our goals, so that my wife and I could look at them all together, and make some tough choices. Unfortunately, the program does not provide for this. Our only option is to scroll through the budget looking at the small sliver of it that is visible in the window that Money opens on the laptop screen. Each time we modify the budget or the goals, we have to switch back and forth between screens for the budget and the list of goals. It seems to be possible to print an expense report comparing outlays already made to a predefined budget, but you can't print out budgets in advance of spending. It's amazing to me that a multi-billion dollar industry leader would shortchange such a basic function. You can be sure that Microsoft's financial department prints out budgets for study and modification before spending starts. But MS couldn't be bothered to make that basic planning tool available to the households using its products. I chose Money because the Amazon reviews were so negative for Quicken. At this point I think I'll go back to using spreadsheets to construct my own budgets and cash flow projections. It's timeconsuming, especially because of error-checking, but at least I can perform this basic task of financial management.
Rating:
Summary: Do you need it? Try it out, before you buy!
Review: No matter whether you are a current user or interested in becoming a new user, you may want to try this program out, before you buy it.
Microsoft has on its website a 60 day trial version of Money 2004 Deluxe. This should give you enough time to try it out. Since the file format changes every year you won't be able to use the Money 2004 file in your current Money version, if you're a current user, so either do double maintenance with both programs for a while or determine very quickly, if the new version is worthwhile getting.
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