03-14-2007, 01:53 AM
I use Excel extensively, but it is a bad match for personal finance management since it is a "flat" database, and has none of the many tools needed for tracking, reconciling and budgeting your accounts. In the early days I used Lotus 123 (precursor of Excel) for money management, but both of them are far too limited to do this job well. Quicken is infinitely better than a spreadsheet and is relatively easy to understand. Quicken is quite amazing in the way it can graph or tabulate many different parameters and then allow you to click on parts of the graph or table to get a new graph or table that will dissect the particular item you clicked on. For basic personal finance it fits the bill perfectly, though Moneydance might be just as good.
That said, the bad things about quicken are:
1. For a long time the file format and several of the features were incompatible between mac and PC versions...the two programs were very different from one another. I don't know if they've fixed this.
2. Much like m$, they roll out a new version every year or so, without adding useful new features, and in many cases fouling up features they already had.
3. They have started the practice of disabling online features after a couple of years so that you MUST upgrade if you want to keep automatic downloadable stock quotes, etc. This is really annoying and is done only to keep the $ rolling in. I very much resent them deliberately wrecking the program to force me to give them more money.
That said, the bad things about quicken are:
1. For a long time the file format and several of the features were incompatible between mac and PC versions...the two programs were very different from one another. I don't know if they've fixed this.
2. Much like m$, they roll out a new version every year or so, without adding useful new features, and in many cases fouling up features they already had.
3. They have started the practice of disabling online features after a couple of years so that you MUST upgrade if you want to keep automatic downloadable stock quotes, etc. This is really annoying and is done only to keep the $ rolling in. I very much resent them deliberately wrecking the program to force me to give them more money.