Intuit QUICKEN 2004 PREMIER HOME AND BUSINESS (Intuit-278852)

• Reviewed by: loisandjoel

  Strengths: Extremely easy to navigate and use

  Weaknesses: None that I could find

  Overall: Quicken 2004 Premier Home & Business is awesome. While it may take you some time to input all of your existing fund information and set up all of the links with your financial institutions, once you have, it is extremely easy to keep track of your finances. I highly recommend Quicken 2004 Premier Home & Business.

• Reviewed by: briitz

  Strengths: This version has a nice interface, helpful guides, and business related features.

  Weaknesses: Although not really a fault of the program itself, various financial institutions use different methods for connecting to the program.

  Overall: I was previously using Quicken 2001, and the new interface is particularly appealing. This version also makes good use of guides for setting up accounts and exploring data. Although not really a fault of Quicken itself, various financial institutions seem to use one of several different methods for connecting with the program--if there were a higher level of standardization, interacting with the program would be simpler. I haven't had a chance, or a need yet, to try the business related features, but having them as an option is appealing should one choose to integrate that aspect of financial life. Overall, this program does its job well, and I have enjoyed using it.

• Reviewed by: druff1

  Strengths: Easy to use and intuitive

  Weaknesses: Charges for online items are in poor taste compared to Money 2004

  Overall: Automatic downloading of accounts is the best reason to purchase this product. It is easy to use and has good help screens to explain all the things this powerful software can perform. Money will be competitive once it has the auto download feature, but for now this is the best.

• Reviewed by: Knightrid

  Strengths: Not having to go through 12 month transactions when I need to file my taxes to figure out whether to itemize my deductions.It also works well with TurboTax.

  Weaknesses: None so far.

  Overall: I was using Money, but it doesn't work well with TurboTax. Also, the program is very esay to use. I've also used the Quicken website that provides a number of useful investment information.

• Reviewed by: bradhfl

  Strengths: Electronic banking at it's best, easy software install, great screen designs, easy to use, excellent financial tracking tool, great for business invoices, excellent investment alerts, 60 day guarantee

  Weaknesses: Some setup of accounts in Quicken was difficult, instructions not much help, business categories were not all together-had to set them up manually although they were properly mapped to schedule C

  Overall: Setup of the accounts in Quicken was a long process which took me a good weekend for about 20 accounts. The investment setup was a nightmare for those wanting to track their original cost basis from purchases they made years ago. For those of us holding investments through this market downturn, knowing the cost basis is very important. Had I not had my original records from Ameritrade, I would not have been able to set these accounts up properly. (Ameritrade only had the last year of my data on their servers for download) The longest part was setting up the business A/R account and getting invoicing to work properly for our business. Because of Quicken's customizable nature, I was able to change the invoice to work for our company but it took a lot of playing with it to get it to work. The instructions provided on CD was not very helpful with this. Now that it is setup, it works excellent! The best part is how many banks it is compatible with in comparsion with the MS alternative. (I had nothing but problems with the MS alternative corrupting my data file and their repair tool did NOT fix it) Quicken downloaded transactions from all of my banks, credit unions, and investment accounts, which is a first for any financial software I have used in the past. The investment alerts are awesome as it automatically compared one of our mutual funds to simular mutual funds and alerted us that others in the same category have been doing better over the years. (A major plus) Having business and personal accounts all in one place makes things ten times easier. Overall if I had to do it again, I would definitely go with Quicken!