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: Don't buy this for the business features
Review: I have used MS money for several years, and found it to be an acceptable product. This year I upgrade to the business edition to help manage my small business. Unfortunately the program features provided for business are not complete enough to be useful. The limitations of the invoices are a good example. There is no way to record a discount given to a particular customer. Also, there is no way to record the credit card fee subtracted from each transaction. Finally the invoice is so rigid there is no way to annotate particular items with explanatory notes. Also, several of my financial institutions are set up to interwork with Quicken, but do not interwork with Money.
Rating:
Summary: Good reports are the real power...
Review: This program steps back and kicks Quicken ...! I've used both MS money 2003 and Quicken Pro. Money wins hands down. The user interface is complex. It took a little time of trial and error to get my accounts right. I decided, shortly after setting everything up once, to start over from scratch because through use, I realized new features and power that I needed a correct setup to take advantage of. There are ways to correct a flawed setup, but I did not learn them till after. The interface is slightly complex because this program is built to run reports. Good reports are the real power behind stored information. Anybody can just store a bunch of data, but the intelligence comes from seeing what is stored, and that is done through reports and charts and flows and other displays. Money allows you to forecast cash flow, plan for experimental financial events, chart retirement and child education. There are so many invaluable reporting tools that it makes the program seem difficult to use correctly without instruction. Fortunately there are audible instructions the first time you use a new feature, and online help. But really, I can't get over the charts and reports that are available. And then beyond reports there is phenomenal scenario capabilities that help you look into the future. If your financial institution supports it, you can auto-synchronize your online bank account with Money. It's the next step to exporting and importing your bank data. It really simplifies balancing your check register. There is an Invoice designer included in this Business version that is supposed to be improved from the last release. I looked at it, but was not impressed. I tried to customize my invoices to suite the specific format that I use which involves the way I list professional services rendered on my invoices, but the designer was too rigid to allow me to adjust text fields. I was expecting the ability to customize the fields' properties and such, but was left disappointed. I would say the Invoice designer only good for changing the way an Invoice looks. As far I could tell, the Invoice Designer is limited to allow changes to the color, size and position of fields and text, unfortunately. I hope that more flexibility is something they plan on adding in future versions. Over-all there are far too many good things to say about this program. It does have limitations, but the features and abilities far exceed the others on the market.
Rating:
Summary: MUCH Better Than Quicken
Review: Let me first say that I have been a diehard Quicken user for the better part of 9 years, and I am not a particular fan of Microsoft. But I have to give credit where credit is due. I decided to try Microsoft Money because Quicken's interface has recently become so cluttered with advertisements and nonsense that it has become almost impossible to navigate. In addition, my experience with Quicken Deluxe 2003 has been so incredibly bad (support, bugs, crashes, etc.) that I had to try some alternative. At first I was going to buy Microsoft Money Deluxe 2003. But, for just a little extra, I decided to try the Deluxe & Business version instead. I have a small internet side business and I thought this would be a perfect fit. First, let me address the home portion of the program:
This is an incredible step-up from the equivalent version of Quicken. The interface is simple, the program is not "buggy", and the online help is more than comprehensive enough to get you through even the toughest of problems. Because I was already using the 2003 version of Quicken, I was not able to automatically transfer my Quicken file, so I cannot comment on how that particular feature works. But I can certainly tell you that setting up all of my accounts from scratch (and I have quite a few) was more than simple. All of the online banking features worked flawlessly, and I was up and running in about 3 hours - start to finish. And with much less frustration than with Quicken. As for the business portion of the program:
This area is, admittedly, not very advanced. It is good for very small side businesses (such as mine), but for anything more comprehensive, you may want to look elsewhere. I think the problem with marketing these two features together is that a lot of people may be expecting too much out of the business portion of the program, so they tend to write-off the whole thing. This program is intended only for the very smalest home business owner. If you are looking for anything more comprehensive than that, my advice would be to invest in the standard or deluxe versions of Micrsoft Money for your personal finances, and look elsewhere for a more comprehensive accounting program for your business finances. But if you decide to go the frugal route, expect to get what you pay for. In conclusion, Microsoft Money is, in my estimation, 10x easier to use than Quicken and is laid out in a much nicer fashion. In addition, there are no bugs that I could find, whereas Quicken was giving me constant problems (browser conflicts, lock-ups, etc.) Take it from a long time Quicken user - It's not too late to switch. Go buy Microsoft Money today.
Rating: 
Summary: save your money, buy a different program
Review: Frustrating program, frustrating help system. Most features do not work. Worthless for business.
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!
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