Take Your Quicken® Financial Data Anywhere With Spb Finance Quick Edition

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/press/pressreleases/2004/jan06.html' target='_blank'>http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pre...2004/jan06.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Building upon the success of Spb Finance, Spb Software House announces the release of Spb Finance Quick Edition, an enhanced version of Spb Finance that offers seamless synchronization with Quicken® data while retaining all the powerful features of Spb Finance.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/d01.gif" /> <br /><br />Seamless integration with Quicken was a critical goal for the software development team at Spb Software House. "We had a straight-forward goal when it came to synchronization", says CTO Vassili Philippov, "in that we wanted the customer to be able to put their Pocket PC in the cradle, and be finished with the process. No imports or exports, no complicated procedures. Seamless and simple - that was our goal." When Spb Finance Quick Edition is installed, an ActiveSync conduit is also installed. This conduit handles the background synchronization of Quicken accounts, transactions, categories, classes, memorized transactions, and budgets."<br /><br />Because I work for Spb Software House, I try to avoid posting on "our" software, but things are a little slow today so I wanted to get this up right away. :D Spb Finance Quick Edition is a big development for those of you who were big fans of <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,17513">Spb Finance</a> but wanted the ability to sync with Quicken. Well here it is! I'm obviously biased, so I won't gush about this software, but I'll let you decide if it's worthwhile.<br /><br />You can <a href="http://www.pocketgear.com/download.asp?product_id=6208&associateid=204">download a free trial</a> or <a href="http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=6208&associateid=204">purchase the application</a> for $19.95. [Affiliate]

[bdegroodt]

Finally someone gets it right! Awesome! Thanks Jason (and to your team of codies). Is this going to go up on Handango by chance? I have Handango dollars to use...

[Jason Dunn]

Finally someone gets it right! Awesome! Thanks Jason (and to your team of codies). Is this going to go up on Handango by chance? I have Handango dollars to use...

Unfortunately, due to some licensing restrictions, it can only be sold on PocketGear.

Sincerely,

Jason Dunn
VP Marketing
Spb Software House

[trachy]

Any chance this uses the entire Quicken database file (qdf)? Or does it only extract portions of the qdf from the PC? This is my main gripe with Pocket Quicken. With availability of flash memory what it is, it only makes sense that we can keep a working copy of the qdf (and thus a backup copy) directly on the PPC. Heck, my personal Quicken database has 4-5 years worth of transactions in it, and it's only about 6Mb.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I can't recall as it was a while back, but are there plans for a version that will sync with MS Money as well? I have my data in Money now so I'd obviously be very interested.

Having said that, if there isn't a Money version on the way, I may have to look at switching to Quicken so I can use this. Pocket Money is so weak!

[Jason Dunn]

I can't recall as it was a while back, but are there plans for a version that will sync with MS Money as well?

Let's just say there will be a third edition of Spb Finance that will make you happy. ;-)

Sincerely,

Jason Dunn
VP Marketing
Spb Software House

[bendigo]

I agree....I have been using MS Money and want to sync data to my pcoket pc...

Anyone know off any pocketpc software or updates coming out that is better than pocket money or MS money for pcoket pc...??

~cheers
Gordon

[famousdavis]

I can't recall as it was a while back, but are there plans for a version that will sync with MS Money as well?

Let's just say there will be a third edition of Spb Finance that will make you happy. ;-)

Sincerely,

Jason Dunn
VP Marketing
Spb Software House

Ooooo...I'm intrigued. I have used MS Money since Money 98, and I'm way too comfortable using it to ever think of switching to Quicken, even if I thought Quicken was better (which I don't think).

Last year, I had such difficulty keeping track of finances because I didn't have the face-time with my desktop. I had the same problem logging activities for my family's homeschool on an MS Access database I wrote for that purpose.

This school year, I use a PPC database to sync with my desktop, and so now when I have a few minutes to spare, I log my homeschool entries at my convenience, away from my desktop. I've been up-to-date this whole school year as a result.

Portability was key. So an MS Money app that interfaces well with my desktop MS Money file would be purrrrrfect.

[markan]

Inesoft's Cash Organiser (http://www.inesoft.com) already synchs with MS Money and is a pretty strong package in it's own right. I don't know how it compares to what Spb will produce, but I look forward to the competition between the two packages. :D

[amg]

I've been using LandWare's Pocket Quicken for a while now (having previously used it on the Palm platform) and am extremely happy with the integration with my desktop Quicken program.

How is SPB's product better/different than Pocket Quicken?

[Jeff Rutledge]

I can't recall as it was a while back, but are there plans for a version that will sync with MS Money as well?

Let's just say there will be a third edition of Spb Finance that will make you happy. ;-)

Sincerely,

Jason Dunn
VP Marketing
Spb Software House

Outstanding! While we're "just saying"...care to "just say" about how long until I'm very happy? :mrgreen:

[T-Will]

Hmm, if Money Sync is on the way then I'm really gonna have to look into this!

[Thinkingmandavid]

If someone purchased this to synch with Quicken, and then decided they wanted wanted to change money programs, would they be able to still use the same software? I am assuming this finance program has been used with other finance desktop programs.
I currently use quicken, but if I ever decided to change programs, I would like to do so without having to invest extra money.

[darrylb]

Inesoft's Cash Organiser (http://www.inesoft.com) already synchs with MS Money and is a pretty strong package in it's own right. I don't know how it compares to what Spb will produce, but I look forward to the competition between the two packages. :D

I had an honest look at SPB finance a while back and compared it to Cash Organizer. I've been using CO since April. I found that CO was superior to SPB finance because it had considerably better reporting and the functionality for budgeting and categorizing was much more efficient. I found the category based budgeting in SPB's product was really cumbersome by comparison. I use CO for heavy budgeting and it really handles it well, including income vs expense reporting to the nth degree.

Just my 2c

[vassiliphilippov]

Any chance this uses the entire Quicken database file (qdf)? Or does it only extract portions of the qdf from the PC? This is my main gripe with Pocket Quicken. With availability of flash memory what it is, it only makes sense that we can keep a working copy of the qdf (and thus a backup copy) directly on the PPC. Heck, my personal Quicken database has 4-5 years worth of transactions in it, and it's only about 6Mb.

http://www.pocketpcdn.com/downloads/syncoptions.png

In Spb Finance Symchronization options you can choose whether to synchronize all transactions for the selected accounts or only since certain date.

Vassili Philippov
Spb Software House

[ctmagnus]

My one complaint in the few hours I've been using this:

It doesn't do invoice accounts!

Even Pocket Quicken can handle Invoice accounts, although it displays each entry as a split rather than a separate item.

[peppzilla]

I just got through playing with the standard version for a few minutes, and I can say that it is exactly what I need. I have Cash Organizer and it has been good, but Spb Finance is simpler looking and feeling. I don't want a stand alone app, I want something in which I can enter transactions easily and find them again if I need to. When this syncs with Money, I will buy it.

[trachy]

In Spb Finance Symchronization options you can choose whether to synchronize all transactions for the selected accounts or only since certain date.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess what I'm looking for though, is an app that literally synchs the entire qdf. If I'm understanding the screenshot you posted correctly, even if I were to select all transactions it would extract them into an Spb work file, right? Ultimately I would want the qdf to be synchronized back and forth from the PPC to the desktop, so that if something happenend with the desktop version of the file, there would be a backup copy available.

I know, I know. The easy solution is to just have backups. :-)

One question. Assuming I'm right about you having to extract data from the qdf, is that done because of size concerns or because it would be too difficult to read/write directly from/to the qdf?

Thanks again, Vassili.

[vassiliphilippov]

e question. Assuming I'm right about you having to extract data from the qdf, is that done because of size concerns or because it would be too difficult to read/write directly from/to the qdf?

You can enter transactions in both desktop Quicken and in Pocket PC Spb Finance and then synchronize them. So we cannot just take Quicken file, use it on Pocket PC and then copy it back to desktop PC.

One more reason - Quicken file format is undocumented.

Vassili Philippov
Spb Software House

[jmkeuning]

I was comparing Spb and Landware before the holidays because I knew that I was going to purchase one or the other. I bought a few items from Spb so had a 50% off that I was going to use on Spb Quick. However, I ended up going with Landware for no real reason other than they seem to have some affiliation with Quicken and I had no idea when Spb was going to release this new version. I've been using Pocket Quicken and it's working great. However, I am interested in upgrades and if Landware doesn't kick out a bigger and better version soon I may switch to Spb.

[ctmagnus]

I am interested in upgrades and if Landware doesn't kick out a bigger and better version soon I may switch to Spb.

The only thing keeping me from switching is the lack of invoice accounts. Even being able to just view them in Spb Quick would make me switch.

[magicbird]

I have visited the website and do not see it has this particular feature. I am looking for something which can sync, as well allow me to update information about my investment/stock transaction data.

Pocken Quicken does show them, but I don't know if they allow you to edit the data.

Pocket Money shows the data, but do not allow you to manually edit them except thru their website.

Thanks for your input.

[arbitrajeu]

I have visited the website and do not see it has this particular feature. I am looking for something which can sync, as well allow me to update information about my investment/stock transaction data.
Spb Finance Quick Edition does not synchronise Investment accounts, sadly.

Personally, I don't have that much in the way of stocks, so it doesn't bother me just to be able to update them on my PC. It does make my Net Worth look pretty sorry on the PPC tho...

[edramsey]

I am testing pocket quicken and the spb product simultaneously. The spb product synchronizes whenever *any* data is synchronized on the pocket pc. This gets very annoying after a while. It should be possible to sniff changes that are made to the main qif on the desktop or the pocket pc and only synchronize if there are changes.

Another nit, the today values don't include pending transactions in their total. This is good and bad. I would like to either configure which it displays *or* display both (which I prefer). I schedule payments all through the month and would really like to know current and future balance. (of course, I can always assume future balance will be zero :-)!

Also, on budgeting, my sub-accounts get truncated before I can tell what the category is. Pocket quicken manages to display the full category. I *do* like that you total budget columns (and that you pull the quicken budget rather than make me re-enter the way pocket quicken does).

Pocket quicken had a discriminating synchronizing function, but leaves the dialogue up until you press ok (which really stinks). But, it doesn't keep synchronizing at the drop of a hat.

Still evaluating.....

[peppzilla]

OK, there is one thing I would like to change. I would like to be able to type in the category and class drop-down lists. It would be much faster than scrolling through the long list.

I don't know about the synchronization, though, since I don't use Quicken.

[doughboy]

I, too, am having problems syncing via ActiveSync to Quicken 2004. The icon shows up in my AS list and I can adjust the settings, but everytime I attempt to sync, I receive the dreaded "performed an illegal operation" message "QW caused a stack fault in module KERNEL32.DLL". The entire computer (Win 98) crashes and must be rebooted.

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,
Doughboy