Customer Reviews

Quicken 2003 Basic

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I recently had a worm on my computer and was forced to reformat my hard drive. After reformatting I realized that I could not find my old copy of Quicken 99 to reinstall. I'd used that program for the past few years for basic checkbook functions as well as credit card transactions. I use Quickbooks for all my higher end business accounting. Before automatically going to buy the program I checked some of the reviews here and I was really scared to try this product. But since I already had my old quicken 99 data backed up I thought I'd have to take a chance and try it. I have to say that I'm really glad that I did. One of the other reviews I read talked about not being able to enter hand written checks or not being able to enter a missed transaction in the middle of reconciling. Both of these are just not true. I've done both of these things the same way I did them in Quicken 99. If you need to enter a transaction in the middle of the reconcile process you just minimize the reconcile window and enter the transaction in the account, then restore the reconcile window. If you need to make a change to a transaction that's in the reconcile window, just double click on it. To me it's quite "Intuitive". As far as the review claiming you cannot enter handwritten checks, this is done the exact same as it was before. Just open the account register enter a date, enter a number, payee... etc.

Don't get me wrong, I've had my beefs with Intuit products through my business. They do use their products to market other services. Even though this is a pain for the consumer, it is smart business practice. Their customer support "is bad." I've used it for the Quickbooks product I have and it's not pleasant. But this is BASIC personal finance software for "a good price" Even on the outside of the box, there's a list of all the functions the Quicken 2003 software family can do and only "Track your checkbook & spending" is highlighted for the basic version. So they are being honest from the beginning. If you want software that tracks investments or does business functions this is not the software for you. If you want to keep track of your checkbook, bills and credit cards it seems to do it quite well.

I have used Quicken from the beginning and updated annually, but I'm tossing 2003 Basic and going back to 2002. Quicken 2003 has adopted a Microsoft-style "do it our way" format that makes their product harder to use.

This user unfriendly version takes away user control of the desktop, and much of the intuitive navigation that made earlier versions winners.

2002 was a vintage year for Quicken, but the 2003 version should be avoided.

I have always loved Quicken programs, but no more. Having installed 2003 Basic on my new computer a few weeks ago and hating it ever since, I am literally throwing it away and going for something new. When I said I wanted Basic, that is what I meant. Instead, the register page is so cluttered with extras, I can barely see the register and there is no way to hide the extras. The program prompts me to connect to the internet constantly and there is no way to get it to stop. It uploads, downloads, reconfigures, gives me messages that says my account balances don't match those on Quicken.com. huh? How did they get my account balances? Intuit has no real support. For example the support department is closed on weekends. I don't know about you, but that is when I balance my finances.

Like many (most?) Intuit products, Quicken is written in the "be reasonable - do it our way" philosophy. The learning curve is steeper than it should be for such a simple product. And if your bank (like mine, Bank of America-WA) isn't listed but provides Quicken .QIF files for download, you can't download them via Web Connect (which Quicken designed for exactly this purpose). Or how about if you want to track PayPal transactions? You have to set PayPal up as a "Cash" account, with no provision for .QIF file downloads (which PayPal supports) via Web Connect. Dumb.

Now, in both of these cases you can download the files separately and import them into Quicken (which is what I did), but the whole idea of Quicken is to automate that process.

Bank reconciliation is not well-designed for the case where you forgot to enter a transaction. The program appears to force you to cancel the reconciliation process, enter the transaction, and start over. There's a way around this (to add a transaction without exiting the reconciliation process), but it's non-intuitive (no pun intended).

Quicken is designed around the idea that you will PRINT your checks on your computer. If you hand-write a check, there's no way to directly create a check-register entry with a check number; you have to create a check TO BE PRINTED, and then, instead of printing the check, you go back and EDIT the check register entry to include the check number. Not very user friendly if you don't want to "do it Intuit's way" (print checks on your computer).

I bought Quicken because it's essentially free with the rebate that comes with TurboTax. Although Quicken is useful to me and I will continue using it, I wouldn't pay much for it.

I read the comments from the 2003 users where people suggested buying the 2002 version-I did buy Quicken 2002-and it[s bad] too! I can't imagine how bad the 2003 version must be that people thought this was better. From what I can tell, Quicken Basic is just a tool the company uses to sell you more expensive software that might be useful and [pull] you into using their financial services. IT IS A MARKETING TOOL FOR QUICKEN-NOT SOFTWARE YOU SHOULD PAY FOR! Anything you try to do, Basic will tell you can't do, unless you upgrade to Deluxe. In addition, my overall impression is that Quicken despises their customers. I cannot imagine using a company with such low morals to handle my portfolio. This software won't do anything your bank's Internet site can't do, other than put all your information in one place. You will be disappointed if you actually pay for this software.

This review is written from the point of view of someone who does not use the online features of Quicken. I'm sure those features have value, but if you want to use them I recommend you find a reviewer who can tell you about them. If like me you just use Quicken to record your financial transactions then read on.

The fundamentals of Quicken haven't changed much between this version and 1999, which was the previous version I used. However, I think users of older versions will find this one irritating in several ways. First, Quicken tries very hard to make all your accounts online. This means that you can't create an account that does not refer to an online institution without a bit of extra trouble; and once you've created the account, every time you try to reconcile, it wants you to download information from the web. If you're tracking the downloaded information in any other way, as I am, this is just an irritant.

A second irritation is that once you do set up an account online, you are forced to change your password for each account. I actually agree that this is good security practice, but the user should be notified ahead of time that this will happen.

The screen area devoted to the actual Quicken layout is smaller. Much of the extra area is devoted to what are essentially advertisements for more Quicken products and functionality. With a bit of work I was able to figure out how to increase the area displaying transactions, but it's still less than it used to be.

The old tabbed layout, with right hand tabs for open accounts, has been changed to a left hand menu that is not shrinkable beyond a certain point. The bottom inch of the screen is reserved for clickable icons for your online accounts; this menu can't be removed -- a tremendous irritation as I never use it. There is no way to mark an account as "not an online account any more".

Reconciling is much as before, but the old facility whereby a carriage return would mark a transaction as reconciled and also move you down a line is gone. This is the single most annoying change for me; it more than doubles the time it takes to reconcile.

Overall, Quicken is a wonderful program, and I strongly recommend it -- it does great things and will save you time. But this version is, for me at least, a real step backwards. If, like me, you don't plan to use the fancy online features, I would recommend buying an older version if you have confidence it will run on your computer.

I've used Quicken since 1994 when I bought my first computer and Quick 2.0 came preinstalled. Since then I've tried MS-Money twice. I keep going back to Quicken. It's intuitive, logical and makes reconciling the check book a breeze. I admit that my finaces are fairly simple and others may need the deluxe or small business versions of the program, but I think for the average person the basic program is perfect. I don't upgrade every year. I don't think there's a need to. I upgrade about every two years. So, if you haven't upgraded recently or have never used Quicken give this version a try. The program is very stable. I haven't had problems with bugs or crashes in any version. I recommend it.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Ivan Thompson's review. This product is not ready for action. Or maybe it's Intuit that's not ready anymore. I've used Quicken for more years than I can remember, have upgraded frequently, and have been happy with the choice. However, this 2003 version installed badly and did not allow me to register the product, which in turn meant I would not be able to use it to retrieve bank and credit card transactions from the Internet. There was no help to be found at the Intuit site, and no way to contact the company in a way that would evoke a response to my specific issue. Therefore, I'm going to have to go over to the other side -- i.e., Microsoft Money -- as much as I regret doing that. Intuit: Go back to being the friendly, supportive, and competent company that you used to be!

After reading some of the negative comments I just about did not buy Quicken 2003 Basic even though I had a $30.00 rebate making it free. My wife takes care of all the finances and usese Quicken 99 on her computer to keep track of it. So when I received Quicken 2003 I installed it on my computer just in case there were problems I could just uninstall it and not worry about it. I installed it and updated it on my computer with no problems what-so-ever. I rarely used Quicken 99 since my wife took care of this but I still had no problems using Quicken 2003. I read no directions since everything was simple and straight forward. Someone mentioned that you cannot hand enter checks but I had no problem at all doing this. I transferred the data from my wifes computer to mine and it worked perfectly. (Over 5 years of data). I then loaded it on my wifes computer with no problems. It does everything we need it to. It takes care of our checking account, savings account, credit card accounts and personal loans. I set up a personal loan I have for a friend and it even breaks down the principal and interest amount for me with the option of compounding it daily, monthly or yearly. I have to recommend it because it does everything it advertises. As far as customer service I do not know because I have not had a need for it. If you can use a checkbook and have just the smallest amount of computer knowledge this program should work great for you. Especially at the end of the year come tax time when you can print out a year of expenses itemized however you choose.

I've used Quicken for a number of years, and it generally worked OK. The interface was always a little quirky and you had to learn that certain operations never worked quite the way it seemed they should. However, I spent a few years overlooking that, until I decided to start using the online banking option. I bought the new version, Quicken 2003, and couldn't be less satisfied.

My only serious gripe is that over half the time I select "Update Now", to download new transactions and upload new bill payment orders, Quicken crashes! I religiously patch it, load a web page first to make sure my cable modem hasn't gone to sleep, I stand on one leg, but to no avail: I invariably get a popup with the text "An OLB error has occurred in the last task .." I press OK and it crashes. Not exactly how you want the software handling your banking to work!

My recommendation: don't upgrade or buy something else.