Rating: 
Summary: Congratulations, you've found the biggest waste of money!
Review: If I ever had a recommendation not to buy a product this is it. The questions you may have of course will be passed and passed around Microsoft support until you have absolutely no answer. I am taking this disaster off my computer and burning it. Do yourself a favor, go buy a ledger and pencil before you waste your time on this software.
Rating: 
Summary: You get what you buy.
Review: I have been a quicken fan for many years. Money has some nice additional features. One reason I will not go with Money is they will not allow you to define and assign my own group. Microsoft defines the groups and will not let you change tham. I want the advantage of definging the groups that make sense in my life and run reports based on these groups.
Rating: 
Summary: Upgrade from 2002 - Maybe, Maybe Not
Review: This is one of the most "usable" MS products out there. Complain all you want about their business practices, licensing policies or whatever, someone on the Money team really knows how to design a useful tool and an intelligible UI at the same time. It's hard to say your really excited about an upcoming software release and still keep a straight face. Still, I couldn't wait to pop up the hood and have a look at Money 2003. Perhaps it's a case of expecting a really great product to be somehow greatly better, but I was disapointed to find more or less the same thing. One improvement I noticed is better reconciliation of imported statements - something that still remains a little off. Despite this and a coule other positive tweaks here and there, I'd wait to upgrade to v2003 if you're anticipating something "greatly better". On the other hand, if you really want to keep up with the Gates's, or you can't resist the rebate (both reasons I fell prey to), then by all means have at it. This is a great product from someone who really know what they're doing. * Note: I don't use Money's (MSN) online services, so this review only applies to the desktop app.
Rating:
Summary: Save yourself. Buy Quicken.
Review: I absolutely hate Microsoft Money. I had used an older version of it in the past and found it unreliable and frustrating. The newer versions are just as bad. It is inconsistent with assigning categories to things; you can't reconcile with your online balance; the budgeting tools are very limited; I have a lot of trouble with it adding bills into the budget twice because of problems such as the bill scheduler and the budget planner not quite working together correctly; it's inconsistent with it's ability to recognize two transactions as being similar or not; and, basically, it has made me want to scream way too many times. I'm now going to buy Quicken for the 3rd time. (I have an uncanny ability to lose Quicken disks and then change computers.)
Rating:
Summary: bugs, bugs, bugs
Review: switched from Quicken 2000 based on favorable magazine reviews. Had reasonably smooth import of data (employee stock options didn't translate at all, and had an odd error with a scheduled transaction that inexplicably changed from US$ to Can$ (!) but otherwise OK). But then the crashes started! In about 5 hours use, experienced perhaps 10 crashes, including a couple that completely locked my system. This product should still be in beta! Don't buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: WATCH OUT For the payroll function!!!
Review: In the Money 2003 Deluxe and Business version they offer payroll function. WATCH OUT. what they don't tell you upfront is that you have to PAY [$] per month for paycycle(who gives the payroll function) ON the box you will find they tell you its extra, on the back there is a little 5 by the payroll, It took me about 10 min to find where this little 5 went to, well it was on the bottom of the box in little print, you see it does say there is an extra charge for paycycle. BUT YOU STILL don't know if its just and extra feature you can get or the only feature for payroll....ITS THE ONLY FUNCTION!!! BEWARE!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good Program that has one fatal flaw
Review: Money is an excellent program, as I had switched to it from Quicken. I feel it does a better job in terms of reports, use & feel, and has many more options. However, I recently came across the one major flaw that I had heard previously about. I had to re-format my OS hard drive due to a system crash. I had three Money backups - one on my other hard drive, one on floppy, and one on CD. A year's worth of work is now down the drain because Money will not recognize any of the previous backup files. I had heard of this software glitch from others, but I am here to tell you that it is true. I guess I am going back to Quicken. Even with all of the automated tools, this is a lot of work. I don't trust the backup system anymore and am not looking forward to re-entering all of my data over again. What a shame, because otherwise, this is a nice program.
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: Three words: FREE BILL PAY
Review: That's right, the free bill pay offer via MSN is worth more than the price of the software alone. In 3 months, I have already paid for the price of the software, after rebate, since I cancelled my other Bill Pay. The integration is awesome, and even better since I use Money for the Pocket PC.
Rating:
Summary: Warning for Pocket PC 2000 users!
Review: I use Money in conjunction with my Casio Pocket PC and was more than happy to upgrade to the newer, faster, stronger version of Money which I do yearly. One problem: the Pocket PC version of Money 2003 only works with Pocket PC 2002 users! Bummer! This won't matter to 90% of you out there, but for those of us still using older pocket PC's, this is very important information. Either stick with an older version or shell out some big bucks to upgrade your Pocket PC.
| 
