Quicken 2004

[doughboy]

Since I rue the day I upgraded, I just felt the need to caution all of you Quicken users about upgrading to Quicken 2004.

* the program takes significantly longer to react to input, reports that were instantaneous now take about 20 seconds to develop, and the program is a memory HOG.
* if you upgrade and later decide to go back to your older version, you cannot. The QIF file developed by Q2004 is not backwards compatible.
* the Accept All button for downloaded transactions discards the synced transactions.

History:
Initially, I used Quicken 2000, which I loved. It did everything I needed it to do, but I could not get the trial version of Spb Finance to sync with it (Quicken v2000 and older not supported). I upgraded to Quicken 2004 and could not resolve a syncing problem that crashed by computer every sync.

Since the trial version of Pocket Quicken had synced nicely with Quicken 2000, I decided I would just reinstall Quicken 2000 and fork over the $40 8O for Pocket Quicken. Well, the file format for Q2004 is not backwards compatible with Q2000. Unless I wanted to recreate 2 weeks of transactions, I was stuck. The folks at Landware were kind enough to supply me with a 7 day trial extension code. The transactions do sync but the Accept All button for downloaded transactions in Q2004 simply discards the transactions coming over from my iPAQ. Each transaction must be accepted separately using the accept button.

Just had to vent.

Thanks guys and gals.

[Kati Compton]

Hmm. I haven't had trouble with Quicken, but I also don't sync it to my PDA (I don't need to be in *that* constant contact with my finances - nor do I wish to).

My main issue with it is that it can't really graph the performance of a mutual fund correctly (or a stock, or a savings account most likely). So, even if I do a "cost basis" report, it doesn't show me the rate of return. There's big jumps where I add to a fund, and that's not what I want to see - it's not "profit".

It's possible I'm missing a simple menu option.

But that's my OT rant on Quicken 2004.

[Pony99CA]

if you upgrade and later decide to go back to your older version, you cannot. The QIF file developed by Q2004 is not backwards compatible.
Of course, that's only partially true. All you have to do is keep a backup of your pre-Quicken 2004 records and restore the backup.

Since the trial version of Pocket Quicken had synced nicely with Quicken 2000, I decided I would just reinstall Quicken 2000 and fork over the $40 8O for Pocket Quicken. Well, the file format for Q2004 is not backwards compatible with Q2000.
I use Money 2004 now because it syncs with my iPAQ without needing to buy a Pocket PC program. I use Quicken 2000 as a backup, because it does many things faster and better than Money.

For example, why won't Money do a "sort by date, then by order entered"? If you sort by date, the secondary sort is only by check number. :-(

I also wish Money's split transaction window had numbered rows and an Insert Row capability.

The biggest problem with Quicken 2000 is that Quicken no longer supports updates -- no stock quotes, no stock news and, I assume, no program updates. I also don't like the very limited memo fields.

Steve