The Official Quicken Personal Finance Software Blog

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.

Quicken 2006 is coming…

I’ve received several emails and read many questions online from people curious about when Quicken Personal Finance Software 2006 will be available.  I can tell you that the team is working hard, as we speak, and the new version will be available early August (first on Quicken, and of course as fast as your local retailer can get it shelved).  I've got to say everyone on the Quicken Team is very excited about this version!  Once it is released, I will let everyone know a little more about it.

The more you tell us, the better we’ll be…

“Help me, help you” –Jerry McGuire

This famous movie quote is one that product managers jokingly use here at Intuit.  As cheesy as it sounds, it is so true.  Knowing how everyone uses Quicken, what do you like, what do you dislike and what are the exact reasons something is important to you helps us determine how to best concentrate our efforts… no item is too big or small (and I don’t just mean in the product either).

Help us, help you by giving us feedback! Go to this web site and have at it -http://www.quicken.com/voc/.  Tell us what you like, dislike, and want to see more of.  Anything from rebates to product features, support questions to compliments (my favorite of course ;-)).  We have teams of people who review this information every single day and your feedback directly influences what each of us does in our daily work.  While we don’t respond to every submission, you can be assured that we are reading them.  Engineers, marketers, business leaders, technical support representatives… everyone.

Some examples of what we do with this may help… Many of you have been asking for extended support hours because the times you want to contact us are not “normal business hours.”  As a result the hours of operation for our online chat have been increased.  Another example… many of you told us you needed a way to follow-up on certain payments you enter into Quicken.  As a result we included the feature to add transaction flags, notes and alerts in Quicken 2005. 

These are just two of hundreds of things we are doing based on the feedback we get from you.  Like everything else, if we didn’t know about these specific things we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about them.  Help us, help you by continuing to provide feedback.  The more you do, I can promise, the more you will like each additional release.  Honestly I need the help from our experts… you!