The Official Quicken Personal Finance Software Blog

Launching Quicken Podcast

Hello all,

We've officially launched the Quicken Podcast.  Check us out at http://www.quickencommunity.com/quickenpodcast. In these podcasts, we'll be featuring experts on personal finance and discussing topics with them. We would also like it to be an opportunity for you to ask questions of the experts. If you have any burning personal finance questions, please feel free to send them to us at forumfeedback@intuit.com. We're hopeful to include some questions for our experts in the podcasts as we get going.

Our expert for the first five podcasts will be Michael Rubin. Michael is the author of Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck (http://www.paycheckbook.com) and the founder of Total Candor (http://www.totalcandor.com/welcome_from_quicken_community.php). He's also appeared as a personal finance contributor on numerous media outlets, including: Fox News Chicago, radio stations across the country, and national media including CNNmoney.com, The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney.com, and Investment News.

For the first 5 podcasts, Michael will be talking about getting started with personal finances, and sharing relevant advice to getting started with savings, dealing with debt, and taking the first step towards personal finance success. If you enjoy Michael's personal finance advice, you may also want to check out his blog at http://www.totalcandor.com/blog, and you can subscribe to his email newsletter at http://visitor.constantcontact.com/optin.jsp?v=001q-Lt4sL9omNKyGuPC4OdlbhvMQU2Zgol.

We'll be launching the first five podcasts on a weekly basis.

If you have topics or ideas for future podcasts, please send them to us at forumfeedback@intuit.com.

Cheers!
 

Introducing Quicken Online!

We're happy to announce that Quicken Online is now live!

Try it for FREE when you sign up today!  Then only $2.99/month.  It's less than a latte!  Check it out at www.quickenonline.com. 

What's New with Quicken

Hi there, it's been a while.  Of course, we have not been sleeping all this time!  Here's the latest news from Quicken.

The big news is Quicken Online is in Beta!  We have thousands of registered Beta testers who are managing all of their finances in one place.  Feedback is going great and we can't wait to start telling you more in the weeks ahead.

We are still taking requests for the Beta or you can submit your email to get notified when it becomes available: Quicken Online Notification.

For those of you who are passionate users of our desktop Quicken (and we know you are), the new Quicken 2008 is now available at Quicken.com.  Learn more about what's new for 2008: Quicken Personal Finance Software.

We have lots of updates in the weeks ahead including events and news.  Keep posted via the Quicken Online Blog or sign up for Twitter (twitter.com/quickenonline) to get updates on Quicken Online.

Tell us your thoughts and ideas, too.  We're here to listen!

CHEERS!

New Quicken 2006 Releases (2 & 3)

There have been two updates to Quicken 2006 in the last week or so (release 2 and 3).  Make sure you update to each of them, because we have fixed some issues that you helped us identify. In the download itself you will see the list of issues resolved.

With that announcement, I just wanted to share how disappointed I am every time we realize an issue or bug is shipped (as is our entire team!).  I promise that we learn from each mistake and will get better for the next time.  The saving grace is our ability to maintain and fix problems with our product patching mechanism… which you can use directly through Quicken.  I can’t image the old days when Quicken had to send out a floppy disk to its customers or even no update the product at all.

I just wanted people to know that we are working really hard to get things right and we appreciate the help that you provide in letting us know about the problems you are seeing (and the suggestions you have).

Advisors recommending Quicken... how do you do it?

Recently a couple of us from the Quicken team went to the annual Financial Planners Association conference in San Diego.

 While we were there we talked to dozens of planners who recommend Quicken to all of their clients.  It was fascinating to hear how and why they recommended it (including what it was about Quicken they thought would help their clients the most).

Almost all of them highly recommended it to help people control their spending and stick to a budget (even if it wasn’t a budget in the traditional sense).  There were specific systems these planners created.  One example… recommending husbands and wives use separate credit cards and download each into Quicken to see who is spending what.  I thought it was a very creative approach to controlling spending.  In fact several planners talked about the need for Quicken with married couples is especially high.

Just an interesting observation from a very interesting conference…  Anyone want to respond with how they recommend Quicken?

Ask and you shall receive…

OK, good news on the customer requested improvements.  Some hardworking members of the team put together a list for you and it is available a week earlier than promised.  Our goal was to get as much of the information available without detailed descriptions.  Please use this list to discuss what you think on the Quicken User Forums (and while you’re at it help us identify some for next year).

Now you can check out the list http://quicken.intuit.com/commerce/catalog/fragments/quicken/products/faq_q_121.jhtml

List of improvements are coming... I promise

Getting a web site together and consolidating the list of over 121 improvements in a way that will make sense to you, our customer, is unfortunately taking time.  Preparing the content and the process we go through to update our web site, to be honest, is slow.  I can tell you that there is a great team of people working really hard and making this happen as fast as possible.

We’re doing this because we are glad you have called on us for the specifics.  Until now all the enhancements have been tracked in product design documents, issue tracking databases and in the heads of a lot of out most creative team members.  The few people who are demanding this comprehensive list on our forums are paving the way for others in the next several months (and teaching us how to better inform you in the future).

We plan on having the whole list up on the Sept. 19^th.  Here is a sneak preview of some of the items…

5. Quicken 2006 automatically uninstalls prior versions of Quicken during installation

15. Mileage rates are now always updated automatically

32. Added option to automatically enter numbers with decimals into registers

57. Added 12-month trend graphs within category and payee spending reports

99. New model portfolios for asset allocation

113. Improved performance of Quicken start-up

Open to your checking account & Cut and Paste

In the last two weeks a few of the team members and I have gone to the homes of 17 people to see how they use Quicken.  It is always our goal to improve this product.  To do that, the best tool we have is to talk with and observe people with their own personal information at their desk (or kitchen table ;-)).  This is how we can really understand what we do well, and more importantly what we don’t do well. 

During those visits several of the people we talked to really wanted to do two things that Quicken could already do (but they didn’t know that).  And now to my point… here is my first post with tips and tricks to getting more from Quicken.

• Tip 1 (Quicken 2005 & 2006 only): Opening Quicken to your checking register – Yes I know most people go straight there so why not open Quicken directly to it.  Edit menu> Preferences> Quicken Program.  The first page you see is called Startup, simply select the name of the account you want to see first.

• Tip 2 – Using cut & paste shortcut keys Ctrl Z/X/C/V – Very useful for me especially when I am cutting and pasting something from the web.  Edit menu> Preferences> Quicken Program.  Select Setup and change the Keyboard mappings to “Windows standard (Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste)

Quicken 2006 Improvements

I have read forum posts and talked some customers about their interest in seeing a list of the first 121 customer improvements for Quicken 2006.  It is great to hear you are so interested!

Several of our 121 improvements are listed on Quicken Personal Finance Software however, there currently is no place to view them in their entirety.  We love the enthusiasm regarding seeing them all listed, or at least the first 121, and are working on a way to make them more apparent.  If you using Quicken Community we encourage you to start telling others about the improvements you see in the Quicken 2006.

Quicken 2006 is here!

At last I can share the newest version with all of you!  Quicken 2006 is available today 8/1 on Quicken and you’ll see it in stores in the next week or two.

I’ve told you how excited we are about this version (I have been anxiously waiting for this day to come), so now let me answer the question “What’s new in this version,” that many of you have been asking on the Quicken Community or through our product feedback website.

Check out some of the new features at Quicken Personal Finance Software.  This has pictures and descriptions of how to use them.  In the next couple of months I’ll write  some of the other improvements, but let me share some of my overall favorites…

1. Get instant insights into where your money is going (directly in the register).  Clicking on an icon next to a payee or category will give you 30 days worth of spending, the last 6 bills paid (with the average payment) or whatever is useful.  If you had trouble seeing where your money was going, or could do it but had to work hard at it, you’ll love this feature.  I’m addicted to it (especially with my wife’s Starbucks habit and how much I eat out).

2. We’ve redesigned the Report Center. All the information you need at tax time, to see where your money is going or to monitor your investments is at your finger tips.  We’ve added 5 new spending reports, including the ability to see and compare to averages.  If you save reports, you can now create folders to quickly get to the ones you use most.

3. You can now attach images and electronic documents directly to a transaction or account.  Very cool, I know.  Use it for account statements, cleared checks (from your bank web site), receipts, warranties, bills, web purchase confirmations (like from Amazon) and pretty much anything else…

4. Here are some of the other improvements.  Many might not make marketing materials, but I know lots of you will enjoy them (because you’ve told me they've been a problem ;-)):
   1. Press F11 and you can minimize most everything around the account register to maximize your working space.
   2. Edit in place in the investment register, not just form entry anymore.
   3. Keyword “Find All’ short cut added to the toolbar (I love this for finding bills and recategorizing payments).
   4. Review spending and customize reports by payees (not just category).
   5. Save reports and invoices as .PDFs
   6. Renaming Rules (Online menu> Renaming Rules) now looks at the memo field.  Those who have this problem know what I am talking about.

I have been waiting to share all of this for so long I may have gotten a little carried away (the post is way too long). The rest will have to come later.  If this reads like a sales pitch I apologize, my excitement is genuine. 

Check out Quicken, there is tons of information up there to help you make your decision.  I also encourage all of you to discuss what’s new on Quicken Community if you decide to get Quicken 2006.  It will helps others understand what is new and help us continue to improve the product.