Microsoft Money Premium 2004

Forget it! Here's why:

1. A pain in the neck to set up.
2. It wouldn't import my Quicken data.
3. Couldn't review and modify what was being set up.
4. Documentation inadequate.

Need I go on? I'm not a novice, so if I had trouble, I expect that so will most others.

Quicken is far from perfect, but on the whole it has been solid, powerful, and fairly easy to use. The latest versions have annoying ads, but I find that easier to live with than the Money interface.


Serious flaw in reporting   February 16, 2004
 42 out of 49 found this review helpful

I've been a Money user for many years. I love the design and find it easy to work with.

Imagine my horror, then, when doing my tax reports this year I discovered that Money failed to list all my tax expenses. I noticed this only because a major expense was missing from the report, so the error was glaring.

When I then went to check, I found Money failed to list around 20% of my expenses. If I had not discovered this error, I would have ended up paying $5000 more tax than necessary. I haven't checked past years' returns, yet, but if this flaw has existed in previous versions, then I've been overpaying my taxes for years thanks to Money.

I have checked and rechecked over a dozen times to ensure the error is not my own. It's not. The missing expenses are correctly categorize as tax expenses, they are in accounts which are included in my tax reports, and they are for the correct reporting period. Strangely, Money will report a similar expense and then skip the next, similarly categorized expense.

If you're going to use this product, treble check your reports at tax time.


If Only I Had a Chance to Use It   January 6, 2004
 11 out of 28 found this review helpful

I got a copy of MS Money 2004 for Christmas as requested. I've used MS Money 98 for a long long time, and I figured it was time for an upgrade.

I installed the program, and installation went perfectly; no problems. However, as soon as I tried to launch the program I got an error message, and the program wouldn't even run. I tried a few things (I consider myself quite computer savvy), but none of my solutions worked. I still got the error message.

My only choice was to beg for the mercy of Microsoft. Since I wasn't about to pay for the expensive phone call to talk to a live person, I decided to use their online assistance. So far I've dealt with two different technical assistants, and neither one of them seem competent. The second individual is actually quite condescending. Hopefully I'll get a third helper that's nicer.

I'm still receiving "help" from Microsoft, but none of it is working. I've NEVER had any problems with ANY other software working on my PC, so I know it's MS Money 2004.

Until Microsoft can fix their faulty program, I rate MS Money 2004 1 star. The only reason I'm even giving that one star instead of none is because I really liked MS Money 98, and I figure it couldn't have gotten any worse (If it worked).


Microsoft Money isn't worth it!   December 28, 2003
 18 out of 25 found this review helpful

I bought Microsoft Money Premium because of the reviews listed here, was a former Quicken user. Sorry, but I had nothing but problems with it. Couldn't get it to connect to my E*Trade account or my Fleet bank account, only Fidelity. Their solution was to have me talk to E*Trade, yah right! Problem is on Microsoft Money's side as my Fidelity account has no problem interacting with Fleet and E*Trade. Also documentation was terrible and I'm an IT person that writes software for a living.

Bought Quicken 2004 online and had it running and connected to all accounts in less than an hour, no problems. Save yourself the headache and get Quicken 2004. Have had no problems whatever running it on Windows XP SP1.


Do it Microsofts way or else!   December 26, 2003
 21 out of 23 found this review helpful

I've been using MS Money products for about a year now after switching from Quicken. I was tempted by the lower costs and on-line freebies. While the product overall works ok, I believe that the reviewer that made this comment

>>>2. It's a typical Microsoft product. That means the software tries to outsmart you rather than letting you work the way you want to. <<<<

makes a very good point. This is very frustrating to me because we don't all think alike. I've always been able to set up Quicken exactly the way I wanted and it was always very intuitive. I've never felt that way with Money. Just this week I was trying to get Money to set up my budget the way I wanted it. Paychecks can be entered in several different ways. I told Money that I was paid every other week. After entering the bi-weekly amount it then proceeded to calculate a yearly total and then avereaged it over 12 months. This then is the budgeted income amount that shows up on budget reports. Being that there are some months with 3 pay periods instead of 2, this averaged amount is never what I am actually paid. It's just one of the frustrating little ways that Money trys to outsmart you. I'm going back to Quicken.