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.
Rating: 
Summary: No Microsoft Support
Review: I have used MS Money for many years upgrading every 2 to 3 versions. I recently received notice that Microsoft will not support online banking for the 2003 version. It is frustrating and disturbing to be forced to purchase an upgrade to process basic banking transactions. They have lost a customer to Intuit here.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Software, But Still Needs Improvement
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!
Rating:
Summary: A nightmare of false assumptions
Review: I have been a user of Microsoft Money for a number of years, and have finally decided to return to Quicken after spending countless hours (on more than one occasion) debugging bizarre issues and unwinding transactions that Money has decided (often mysteriously) to name or categorize FOR me. I spent three days tracking down a vendor who had apparently charged me $490 over the course of a month only to discover that the transactions were normal ATM withdrawals that Money had just decided to import from the online bank as being from that particular vendor. As a small business owner, that sort of stuff is just way too scary to tolerate in any software package. Stay away unless you are a super-basic user, or super, super advanced and willing to deal with it.
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: I had trouble printing a partial sheet of checks.
Review: After purchasing Money 2003, I had difficulty printing one or two wallet size checks remaining from an 8.5 x 11 inches sheet of three checks. Money requires a sheet containing three checks to be inserted in a normal portrait configuration and a sheet with one or two remaining checks to be inserted in a landscape manner or at 90 degrees. In addition the checks must be aligned so that the left side of the sheet (or the top of the remaining one or two checks) is against the left side of the paper tray as viewed from the front of the printer. My printer is a HP OfficeJet R80 and requires envelopes to be placed in a slot on the right side of a paper tray. This places the paper feed mechanism on the viewer's right side. Money's check printing software requires the paper feed mechanism to be on the left or center of the paper tray. After speaking to member of Microsoft's "Escalation Team", a work around for the problem is: (1) Insert the remaining checks in a portrait configuration (same as a sheet with three checks). (2) Limit the number of checks to be equal to or less than the number of checks remaining on the sheet. Print additional checks in accordance the procedure for a full sheet of checks. I decided to resume using Quicken (which has no check printing problem), and received a refund for the purchase of Money. Upon the release of Money 2004, I have downloaded an evaluation copy and found that the problem is still not resolved. Prior to my check printing attempt, I was impressed with the Money program which converted my Quicken data and offered features that were desirable. I was even ready to tackle the Quicken charge card transition, which didn't appear real easy. As long as I have this printer I won't have to.
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Summary: MAJOR CODE ERROR IN LIFETIME PLANNER
Review: BUYER BEWARE! I spoke with 3 Microsoft support technicians and never did get a resolution to a major problem with the Planner section. When attempting to prepare a phased Retirement Plan, the program apparently has a mind of its own and would insert its own version of retirement $ inflows in downstream years. I stepped through the program with various technicians so they could see that the program really does spontaneously insert its own versions of retirement $ inflows. The support technicians seemed to recognize the problem, but offered no resolutions. From my point-of-view, the program code/algorithms are unreliable and not to be trusted. What internal miscalculations are happening in other sections of the program? I plan to dispose of this program and purchase an alternative.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than Quicken
Review: I have been a Quicken user for fifteen years, loyally upgrading every year. But I finally got tired of the clumsy interface, the confusing report/subreport capability, difficulties in tracking my 401k paycheck contributions, etc. I switched to Money 2003 (and had to convert each account, since there is no converter for 2003). What a difference! The user interface is excellent & highly customizable. The focus on graphical representation makes analyzing the data easy. While functionally rich, the program never seems overly complex because the functionality is inobtrusively layered into the right spots.
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While I have probably not found all the defects in Money, I am very happy with my decision to convert from Quicken.
Rating:
Summary: Aggressive Marketing, Too Wizard-y, Loss of Privacy
Review: What happened when I investigated whether I could hook my online billpay feature of my checking account into Money's program left me breathless and confused. In a few short minutes, a Wizard swept me through a series of vague and rapid-succession screens that apparently left me with an MSN/Hotmail user name connected through Microsoft Money, an MSN Money online account, a Microsoft .Net passport, a Microsoft Messenger membership and an apparently paying subscriber for a Microsoft "premium" online bill payment service. Microsoft Money connected to these various entities and services and exchanged my information with them. The high-pressure software hustle included a screen that asked me if I would like to know more about free online bill payment features, in which I ended up stuck at a screen that asked me which bill payment program I wanted, in which the $$-fee "premium" program was the _only_ selection, and it couldn't be "unselected". I also couldn't back out or proceed without programmatically disrupting the wizard. (I don't like to disrupt online transactions by pulling the plug as that can result in a broken process where you have no receipts or confirmations and the status of your registrations are in some undefined state that can take a long time, if not forever, to resolve.) Microsoft Money not only displays its own and third-party ads in its user interface but its aggressive Wizards sweep you into Microsoft product/online services marketing sequences, using bait-and-switches. Money also has links to Microsoft products and services displayed along with Money program feature lists and program displays so that a new user clicking for features wouldn't know he or she were starting up a marketing applet. The marketing sequences are ambiguous and misleading, proceeding as if they were core program features Wizards. In fact, several Money features require subscription to the online Microsoft services, whereas Quicken permits greater independence from its online products. Like most Microsoft products, the thrust of the development effort appears to be in dumbing down the user's job to make it as no-brainer as possible, in this case through the use of extremely proactive Wizards that do a lot of thinking for you. The attempt to match the no-brainer user interfaces with the technical accounting software below was at best only partly effective. There were some logical errors in how the GUI-guided processes (i.e. "Wizards") connected to the core financial processing routines underlying them, and these errors could not be corrected after the record was established, rendering some features unworkable. For example, when adding a mortgage, I opted to track payment from the conception of the mortgage, and entered the original mortgage value, etc. only to find once the wizard was over that the program instead loaded that value as the current outstanding principal. Since it could not be changed, I deleted it and redid the entry instead opting to track the mortgage from the start of this year, which worked, but was not the feature I preferred. The toolbars and menus were poorly designed, with unsystematic organization and inconsistent naming conventions. For example, its toolbars were an immature and disorganized aggregation of too much stuff, with some stuff that was arrayed side-by-side being at mismatched logical and functional levels. Some tags were so ambiguous in their catch-all naming, it really complicated efforts to find clickable ways to do even simple things. It's as if, after being overly invested in the use of Wizards to drive user interfacing, the developers had no coherent use cases or application design concepts, and things just got shoved here and there until every feature's button had a someplace to sit. Accounting software is technical and can be complex, and Quicken's user interface is more balanced, matured and accessible at many levels. Quicken is the clear standard in all respects. I didn't see any of the glitches or performance problems the overheated pro-Microsoft reviewers criticizing Quicken described. Quicken connected to the online accounts I asked it to hook up with and updated itself and my definition of that account. It's very accessible as there are several ways to the same things, making it easy for someone to figure things out on the fly. I will definitely have to spend some time with the "Help" feature and will probably buy a Quicken How-to book, but the software is very similar to professional accounting software in look and feel and I am quite confident with the choice. I would agree Microsoft Money is better for people who need wizards to take over and do one's technical or analytical thinking. If you are dependent on that MS Word paperclip that interrupts you, announcing things like "It looks like you're trying to write a letter. Would you like help?", you would probably be happier Microsoft Money. But for those people who understand that you can use a program's "Help", a book, and/or a combination of online resources to learn even complicated, technical software, all those dumbed-down and glitchy Wizards Microsoft Money uses are inefficient and limiting whereas Quicken is tight, mature and effective, and still the standard.
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