Rating: 
Summary: Microsoft Money: Worship it as your god
Review: Money 2002 offers great charting and reporting features, excellent portfolio management, and a configurable front page. It also offers salvation from the strange, grotesque creatures that only I can see, and that's worth at least $50, possibly $60.
Rating: 
Summary: Some of the other reviews are far too critical
Review: I was a little put off by several of the other reviews listed here, but decided to take a chance and buy it anyway since I really needed the business side of the software and have been using Money 98 for several years already. The only thing that I can imagine is that the people who didn't like the software were just overwhelmed by the sheer number of new features - most of which are accessible from the front page.Installation was very smooth, as was the conversion of my old Money file. I actually find the front page quite handy and have kept Money open all the time for the last few days so that I can play around with the options there whenever I get a spare moment or two. The software is set up to help you become proactive in terms of your finances and take control. If all you want is a checkbook register, I understand you can turn off alot of the extra features, but if you do that I think you're under utilizing the software. The only drawback I see about the business side of things is that there's not a whole lot of documentation. The options are pretty straightforward though, for anyone with even a slight exposure to business concepts (like invoicing, accounts receivable, etc.). I've quite enjoyed setting up customer accounts and am finding the software a motivator to try and improve my business just so I can play around with the features even more.
Rating: 
Summary: HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE!
Review: I am not one of those Microsoft haters. I have found their products to be generally very good, BUT not with Money 2002. I have used Microsoft Money for five years. My last upgrade was 2000, and it was just fine. I recently purchased a new computer that had 2002 installed. So I upgraded, being happy with the previous upgrades. It is a nightmare. Microsoft has taken every convenience and removed it. Instead of being able to send all your on line payments at once. Each one is sent individually. What were they thinking?! It's also loaded with ads. I've paid already, I don't need ads. Also, when upgrading it corrupted my files. When I tried to return to the stable and friendly Money 2000, I was informed that I could no longer use on line banking services because my account had already been upgraded. No turning back. Now I'm stuck with some sadist's version of ease. STAY AWAY!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Happier w/ 2001
Review: So far, I haven't run into anything besides minor annoyances. The only saving grace for my upgrade from Money 2001 was the price after rebate -- free. So far, my biggest problem with 2002 is the constant effort to direct me to Passport and MSN. Internet Explorer pops up a "MoneySide" sidebar that I finally figured out how to turn off after over a month. I can't say how much I resent this "feature." I would prefer to pay retail price for a product that won't advertise constantly. The only new feature I find myself using is customizing the "home page." It's a very nice feature, but I'm not sure if it was worth the aggravation I experienced in my first month. From my perspective, upgrading from 2001 would not have been worth it if I had to pay anything over [$$$].
Rating:
Summary: Better data exchanged for rotten performance
Review: Money 2002 corrected some of the calculating errors in Money 2001 such as bills not being included in the budget report even though they appear on the budget screen. However, the performance in the budgetting section is HORRIBLE. It takes my computer 30 seconds to make even the slightest change to the budget. Apparently it's related to the number of bills you have. I was so frustrated I switched back to 2001. I would rather live with faulty reports than spend an eternity trying to generate an accurate budget. Money 2002 still doesn't total columns in the investment reports either, so I keep having to get out the calculator to find out if my tax forms match the data on the computer! What's the point of using a computer?!
Rating:
Summary: You'd Be Better Off With a Sharp Stick In Your Eye!
Review:
I made this "upgrade" from Quicken 2001 Standard. I bought Money because I had a rebate that essentially made it free. At "Free," it's severely overpriced. I cannot intimate the level of frustration this package has caused me. Even now, as I write this review, my browser has a new window on the left-hand side asking me, "Do you want to access your cash flow or budget information as you shop? Sign in with the Passport you use with Money." Jeepers Creepers, guys... I just wanted something that would track my checkbook and let me plan a budget for my family finances... I didn't want to have a new edition of Internet Explorer installed (unless I missed the option on this one, it installed it by default). I didn't want to sign up for a Passport, and I didn't want all my browser defaults erased. But alas... that is but the beginning of my frustration. The register only shows about 4 transactions at a time unless you use the "one line at a time" option, and then you can't see all the details. There's a window to the left that will not go way, and in 600 x 800 resolution, it just takes up too much room. I may be in the minority here, but my financial institutions do not support a connection through anybody's program, and I would just like a decent tool to track stuff offline without living in this ultra-slow... waiting for the internet to respond... mixed environment that combines local processing with internet "support." Here's a real "head's up." If you don't have a really fast processor with a lot of free disk space and a pretty fast internet connection, SKIP THIS ONE. I'm going back to Quicken 2001. Quicken's bad enough, but at least when I roll over in bed, I don't jerk the cover off Bill Gates. ;) This one is a monumental loser. Like I said... overpriced at "free." Quicken has MUCH MUCH MUCH more flexibility in its customization (down to being able to change the field order on the register). Additionally, Quicken shows many more transactions on a screen. And face it, guys... no matter what the "rest" of the program does, the register is where you spend most of your time... recording all the checks and transactions you've made. I only regret that I cannot give it negative stars...
Rating: 
Summary: recently switched from quicken
Review: After using Quicken for many years, I recently upgraded to Quicken 2002 Home & Business and was so disgusted with it (see my review over there) that I finally decided to download the trial version of Money 2002 Deluxe and give it a spin. As several other reviewers have noted, the interface of Money is much nicer than that of Quicken, and I like the panel on the left that has the frequently used options. One thing I miss about Quicken is the right panel which keeps tabs of which accounts and other windows that you recently opened, which I used a lot to one-click to my favorite accounts and reports. Now in Money, it is 2-3 click process of either pulling down the menu to access the favorite accounts/reports, or first clicking on the account/report list icon then clicking on the account/report you want to view. Another more significant thing to consider is the different Financial Institutions that are signed up with Quicken and Money. As Quicken has been around longer, I believe that there are more places that you can directly download into Quicken. For example, Citibank: in Quicken you can download directly your account activity, but in Money, you have to go to Citibank's website, log-in, download a QIF file onto your harddrive, then import into Money. Same deal with PNC Bank - you can download directly into Quicken, but not Money. As you can see from the numerous reviews, neither Money nor Quicken get high ratings, but if you're going to choose between the two, you should definitely visit their websites and see what the status is with the financial institutions that you bank with. As for me, I'm so fed up with Quicken crashing all the time that I'm going to stick with Money for the rest of the year and see how things go.
Rating:
Summary: Danger Will Robinson, Danger !!
Review: This version of Money upgrades to a new communications protocol between you and your bank. It is NOT fully debugged, and has many limitations, including only letting you transmit one electronic payment at a time. If you are an existing Money user, stick with your current version until the bugs are worked out. Not even Microsoft tech support could solve my issues on this one.... I am going back to Money 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Never got off the ground...
Review: Installing Money 2002 Deluxe on my Windows 2000 Professional machine was rather painless. However, when I tried to run the program I got only as far as the prompt page that asks for selecting to either start a new file or import from Quicken. Regardless of what I select, a useless error message that says "Money has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" pops up and the program terminates. I have been unable to do anything with the program and I am still waiting for uSoft support to respond to my online inquiry.
Meanwhile, my old Quicken 2000 program runs on the same PC without a hitch. Btw, the only other program that consistently crashes on that PC is also from Microsoft - PictureIt Platinum 2001! Btw, the PC has all the numerous uptodate patches, so I can only conclude that Money is just an unstable piece of software.
My recommendation is to stay away from Microsoft.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than Quicken!
Review: I was surprised at the number of bad reviews for this product. I have been a devout Quicken user for half a dozen years and was so frustrated with Quicken 2k2 I tried the switch to Money (I tried it once before and wasn't impressed - this was much better). Money is by no means perfect - I am particularly annoyed at the constant "sign in" for Microsoft Passport that they plug so heavily. You can't start the program without this thing trying to access the internet. But in all, I think it is much better than Quicken. Particularly the budget areas, which I rely heavily on, are much easier to use. A couple of years ago Quicken changed their budgeting features and ruined them horribly. It's true that once you upgrade to Quicken 2k2, you cannot import your file to Money 2k2. But when I had an earlier version of Quicken, the import worked fine. It's a testament to how frustrated I was with Quicken that I was willing to skip the import and basically start from scratch. I still keep Quicken around to access my old data.
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