Quicken 4.0:  Slick 'n Quick



Author: Joe Duroux

Date: November, 1993

Keywords: Intuit software application program review personal finance
financial analysis

Text:
Quicken is the most popular personal finance program for the Mac.
Version 4 adds some financial analysis features, but it still acts like
Quicken and is even easier to use. Its core is the account register -
like the kind that comes with a check book. Figure 1 shows a register
for a Bank account. There are other types for Cash, Asset, and Credit
Card accounts, and now also for Liability, Portfolio, and Mutual Fund
accounts. A blank line is available at the bottom for the next entry,
or an existing entry can be edited by clicking on it. A file can
contain up to 255 accounts.
Entries can be classified according to categories and subcategories for
organizing and sub-totaling reports. The category is shown in the lower
left field of the entry. The lower right field is for a description of
the transaction if desired. A transaction may be split among several
categories, like interest and principal for a mortgage payment. The
list of split categories may be displayed and edited. And every account
is automatically represented by a transfer category [in brackets].
Using a transfer category in the active account automatically transfers
the categorized amount to or from the represented account. There can
also be classes and subclasses of transactions, providing another
independent type of classification. A class appears in the category
field following a slash.
Quicken has many neat features that make it a pleasure to use. One is
the ability to memorize transactions and display them in a list. Double
clicking on a name in the list produces the memorized entry in the
active register. In Version 4, every new entry is automatically
memorized, and if you start typing one that is memorized, it appears as
soon as you type enough letters to identify it. There is an easy
procedure for reconciling an account after receiving its periodic
statement. And budgets can be prepared for comparison with actual
income and expenditures. You can even create reminders to let you know
when bills are due.
A wide variety of reports can be displayed and printed, with
customizable formats and a choice of subtotal levels. One type of
report shows only categories defined as tax related. With Version 4 and
System 7, a report can also be 'published' so that other applications
with full System 7 capabilities can 'subscribe' to it. Or files can be
exported from Quicken as Text, Excel (SYLK), or TXF (Tax Exchange
Format) files. But while the reports are useful for preparing taxes,
caution should be used in exporting Quicken data directly into tax
software. Some tax return entries may be only partly represented by
Quicken accounts. Standard IRS line labels must be matched to the
categories, updated every year along with the tax software, and then
used only once. You can't use current Quicken account data for tax
planning, using last year's tax software, because Quicken can't
estimate totals for the whole year in advance. Those estimates have to
be made separately.
Quicken 4 also does graphs, and very easily. Figure 2 shows a breakdown
of expenses for a chosen period. I generated an account for only one
month and chose a small number of categories for simplicity. This
'Income and Expense' chart type also includes a bar chart for comparing
monthly figures for a longer period. Several other chart types are
available, including one that tracks the values of investments over
time. The charts can be 3D blocks if desired, and can be displayed in
color. But if you want to print them in monochrome fill patterns, as in
the figure, turn off your color display when printing.
There are five financial planning calculators in Version 4. They are
designed to do ''what if'' calculations for loans (generating complete
payment schedules), loan refinancing trade-offs, investment and savings
strategies, retirement planning, and planning for college expenses.
Also, when a loan account is set up, either as borrower (liability
account) or lender (asset account), it can automatically calculate the
breakdown between principal and interest categories as the payments
progress.
Quicken can also be used in a business, and it may be all the software
that a very small business needs. It can even do basic versions of
accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll. A separate manual
is included that describes the various business techniques. I haven't
tried them, but I would expect them to work as well as the rest of
Quicken because they use the same basic software engine. One thing that
Quicken has always been able to do is print checks, using a data base
of check recipients related to the memorized transactions. For my
personal use, it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. The standard
Quicken checks don't fit into small bill return envelopes and the
smaller checks won't work on my DeskWriter. But for a business,
printing checks alone could be worth more than the price of admission.
You can print payroll voucher checks, recording split transfer
categories for different types of withholding. You can also print an
address block on checks to show through a window envelope, and even
artwork, like a company logo, at the top.
One of Quicken's electronic gadgets is a software link to the CheckFree
Corporation. It allows bill payments to be sent by modem to the
CheckFree Processing Center, where they are transferred electronically
to payees that accept electronic payments. Checks are printed and
mailed to those that do not. The current charge is $9.95 per month for
up to 20 payments, plus $3.50 for every additional 10 or portion
thereof. It's a way of hiring someone to pay your bills for you.
A new electronic gadget is a Quicken credit card (Visa Gold!) that
provides an electronic statement for entering data directly into its
Quicken account. But to do this, you have to wait until you receive the
monthly statement and enter all of the charges at once. And the
electronic statement is only for the one credit card account. You still
have to enter all other Quicken data by hand. There is NO ANNUAL FEE
for the card. Only a monthly charge of $3.00 for modem delivery or
$4.50 for floppy disk delivery in lieu of an annual fee.
I consider Quicken one of the great bargains in software. I'm not a big
fan of the electronic gadgets, but if you ignore them, you'll still
have a great product. Mac Connection is selling Version 4 for $39.95.
Quicken 4 works on any Mac with at least 2M of RAM, a hard drive, and
System 6 or later. Available from: 
Intuit
P.O. Box 50630
Palo Alto CA 94303-9844

Copyright © november, 1993 by Joe Duroux