Customer Reviews

Microsoft Money 2007 Premium [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Here is my review of Microsoft Money 2006 Premium, that is, last year's model. Honestly, after I installed Money 2007, I simply could not find any differences from Money 2006. Whatever improvements Microsoft put in, I don't use.

Here is what you must do to have a good experience with this product:

1. Never use Microsoft Passport.

Passport is a universal password that can be used to sign on to multiple bank accounts, brokerages, merchants, and God knows what else. It is a security disaster. Avoid it!

Your installation of Microsoft Money will be a bit awkward if you want to avoid Passport. Some users believe that Money won't install unless you get a Passport. This is false, at least for Money 2006 and earlier versions. You just have to be careful (and resolute!) while you install. See also item 6. below.

2. Never store your financial data online with Microsoft

MS Money allows you to keep all your financial data stored on Microsoft's computers, as well as on your home computer. This allows you to access your MS Money data when you are away from your computer. For the unlucky user, it leads to virtually insoluble computer nightmares. Apparently, the local and remote copies of your data can get out of sync. It becomes difficult or impossible to overcome data corruption on Microsoft's computers. You fix up your local data, and it gets scrambled again when you connect to Microsoft's computers.

If you observe 1. above, you will not have to worry about 2.

3. Never use Yodlee to download account information from financial institutions

Yodlee (spit) is a company/method for downloading your account information from banks, credit card issuers, brokerages, etc. The way it works is that it impersonates a web browser and surfs your bank's (or brokerage's or ...) web site in order to suck in your account details.

The problem is that your bank's web site is designed for browsing by humans, not software. Small design changes to your bank's web site can cause Yodlee to scramble the data. Frustrating for you.

Many (but not all) financial institutions will download your account transactions directly into MS Money without the use of Yodlee. Yodlee gives you access to a larger collection of financial institutions. But it is not worth it.

If you observe 1. above, then you will not have to worry about Yodlee.

4. Keep several backup Money files

Microsoft Money stores all of your financial data in a single disk file on your computer. This is convenient for you. Money also allows you to store several backup copies of this disk file. I suggest that you configure Money to store 4 (depending on how paranoid you are) backup copies. What this means (for example) is that if you work with Money one time on each of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then you will get a total of 5 copies of the file that holds your financial data. The oldest (backup) copy will reflect the state of your MS Money data from Monday. The newest (not a backup) will reflect the state of your MS Money data from Friday.

Why do this? Because like all Microsoft products, Money will occasionally scramble up your data. If you are not able to unscramble (there is a "repair" feature that you can try) then your only hope is to revert to an older copy of your data, and kiss your most recent updates goodbye.

You might not discover the corruption right away. That's why I suggest keeping multiple backups.

5. Back up your computer disk

This suggestion is not specific to Microsoft Money. But I feel obliged to mention this anyway. The more you use MS Money, the more you have to lose if your computer malfunctions. You can lose disk data due to a worn out disk drive, or an electronic failure in the computer itself. Your computer can suffer from fire, flooding, or theft. Your data can disappear from simple mistakes by users, or by the children of users!

So you have to back up your disk data. Most home computer users don't bother. But this bears repeating: the more you use an accounting program like Microsoft Money, the more you need to back up. Get to it!

6. Purchase the normal, CD-ROM version of Money, rather than the downloaded (electronic only) version.

WARNING: unconfirmed by my personal experience. Amazon.com sells this software product in a box containing a CD-ROM and some sketchy paper documentation. You can also download the software directly from Microsoft. But I have been told that the direct purchase from Microsoft requires the use of Passport. As I state in 1. above, I believe that Passport is a bad idea. So it is probably wise to purchase the physical, CD-ROM version from Amazon.com.

7. Find a community of knowledgable users

Like all mass market software, the technical support available for this product is useless. You should find a discussion forum for users of Microsoft Money. This is where you will go for help with problems that you cannot solve by yourself. I suggest that you read through the forum posts even when you don't have a Money problem. Look for major problems that might affect you. Forewarned, you might be able to avoid such problems.

Personally, I use the usenet news group microsoft.public.money. It can be found through microsoft.com or groups.google.com. Generally speaking, the intelligence level in this ng is solidly mediocre. That's in the nature of the Microsoft user community. If you find a better forum, please write an Amazon.com "review" of your own and share it.

Good luck with Microsoft Money!

I am a seasoned user of "Microsoft Money" since 2001 and used Money-2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 versions. On the subject of convenience and integration of multiple financial activities, Money (and for that matter even Quicken) does fantastic job.

However, with 4-5 years of usage of 'Money', my money file has grown to nearly 21MB. With this size, I am getting pathetic performance which is consistently annoying. I have a laptop with 1.6GHz dual core CPU and 1GB RAM, however very basic activities such as looking at monthly report, budget report etc. takes 2-4 minutes to display on the screen ! Even if I go back and try again, it will again hang for 2-4 minutes. I will be lucky if I get 'any' operation finished faster then 5 seconds/transaction. The problem is with specific version but the way Money is designed to store its information. There were some comments on improving performance by using Database to store information but Microsoft chose not to invest money on that.

Another annoying thing I observed with Microsoft Money is with every newer release you will get fancier but more BUGGY software. So far I found '2004' release best in the bunch but once you upgrade the version and make new entries it is not feasible to go back to earlier version.

Let me give you example that will explain the problem. Most common activity one will have is it to download data from financial institutes. Money will connect to these institutes and get the data. It will turn back in 2-3 minutes with newer data and status as 'done'. On the "Account List" you will see, for example, 5 new transaction and when you go into that account there is 'nothing' yet ! Reason being, data is still in flight but status shows 'done'. After 2-3 minutes you will get the data in the account. When you try to accept the transaction it will say "data is still in flight" but you got status 'done' ! In short, after getting data downloaded from the institute, you won't be able to 'accept' them for nearly 5-6 minutes. I am surprised to see Microsoft is selling software w/o testing such basic functionality ! FYI, I noticed this bug only in 2007 release.

I wish to have a better software for my need w/o losing existing data but Microsoft hasn't decided to have better (not just newer) version yet. Quicken seems to have similar issues and it doesn't allow any migration facility for me to move my existing data from last 6 years. I can just wish that Microsoft Money 2008 comes with higher performance and basic testing.

If you are a first time user, prefer to compare both Money and Quicken for yourself before locking your data in one of the them. With 'Money', once your file grows larger, performance deteriorate significantly.

One last point-- even with above limitations, I am better off using this software then not having it at all. Microsoft is doing a good job of marketing its positive points so I won't spend time on that.

I have been a Microsoft Money user for many, many years. (Going back to Money '98? I forget.) I reluctantly upgraded to Money 2007 Premium earlier this year from Money 2004 when I read somewhere that Money 2004 was no longer going to be supported. (I also read that Money 2005, Money 2006, and Money 2007 had issues. Hence my reluctance to upgrade.)

For years, I have sync'ed Money with my online accounts on nearly a daily basis. I'm that kind of focused on keeping my eye on my money, and Money has historically served me very well in this habit. Money 2007 does not.

Since installing it, I have:

1) Battled with my prior bank for nearly two months to get them to figure out by Money 2007 does not synchronize with their systems.

2) Installed and reinstalled Money 2007 on several different workstations to test the synchronization issue with my years-old Money file and new, empty Money files. Always fails.

3) Now I have *switched banks* thinking the syncing issue was my bank's fault. It wasn't. It's Microsoft Money's fault.

Syncing fails *every* time with a helpful OBRES 22063 error. Oh, yea, that
one! We all know just what that is.

I have read every Microsoft knowledge base article I can find. I have perused public.microsoft.money and other usenet groups. I have Googled. I have read blogs. The only thing I find is that lots of people have this problem with lots of different financial institutions, and Microsoft is doing nothing about it

In Money 2004, this worked flawlessly nearly every time. Why did it
break?!?!!

So if you're looking to have Money synchronize with your accounts online, look elsewhere. But if you're all about putting everything in manually, this product will serve you just fine.

Buy a copy of Quicken instead!

I have used four previous versions of MSM, with the first two being the best. Later editions are more complicated ( they say feature filled ) and more buggy. Primarily, I use this product to keep track of my stock portfolio. The last edition that I had, MSM 2005 Premium would not record a stock spin-off, even though it had a command for doing so. MS said that they new of the problem and did not plan to fix it. I had to upgrade to MSM 2006 which fixed that problem. Now I discover that the program will not update prices on such well known companies as Johnson & Johnson. This also, a problem that MS knows of, but they will not predict a solution timeline. I wish I had a better program to go to, but I have more that six years of investment history in this program which does not easily port over to say, Quicken. Bottom line, it works -- sort of-- sort of the way Windows does.

This version is aweful! I've been using it for 4 months now and it constantly crashes. It seems that it always happens when I try to match a downloaded transaction with a scheduled bill. No update/fix available so far. What's worse is that this version has no significant new features than my previous version (2005). I mean, I bought it with the thought that there will be new cool stuffs, but all the features that I regularly use have no improvements. The new features are either not necessary (spending tracker - you can use the old budget sheet) or too confusing to use.

I had read some of the negative reviews and decided to use the trial before buying anything. I used the fully functional trial of Microsoft Money 2007. I think it was the worst software product I have ever used.

1) Updates with scottrade , bank of america do not work
2) Try adding a investment portfolio (hehe good luck)
3) Import for .QIF files does not work (From scottrade)
4) For some strange reason, at times Money cannot connect to the internet , even though every other windows program can. (And it isnt because the time on the computer is wrong)
5) Microsofts confidence in their own product can be seen by the fact that they prompt you to save the entire Money account into a different snapshot every time you close Money. :)
6) For some reason, Money is setup like a web application. Not a desktop application. This isnt a major beef, just that it feels a bit slower.
7) Loads of other reasons , which I am unable to point out since I am writing this review from a Linux machine

So in short, even if youre sick and tired of quicken, and want to get some Money love on the rebound, have a one night stand with Money 2007 in the form of a trial before you put your hard earned cash down for this truly crappy product.

A user of Money 2001 I thought it was time for an upgrade. And while I liked many of the features and enchancements that this version brought, it also brought some issues that regretfully have not been resolved by Microsoft. The new "simplified" register is great, making entry easier. The fact that the software really works hard to integrate with the new web-based banking that is offered and tries to consolidate all those various accounts is a plus. Downsides are creating recuring Bills is now quite the chore. Also I encountered a problem after installation that the software wont update correctly. This is a major annoyance so after calling MS we still had no solution other than create a new account on the computer, install MS there, then use it under the primary account. I did the reverse of the solution which is to install it under my primary account and then just use a second account to do updates. I would give it 6.5 out of 10 for ease of use, then again its a big change from 2001 and I might get a handle on it later.

Money 2007 is a great overall personal finance product. I've been using it exclusively for many years and am very satisfied with my choice (over Quicken).

Some key points:
- If you have a previous version and are experiencing slow performance, this version is much improved.
- The Lifetime Planner is a great tool. I have used it to lay out my long term plan, which helps me make better decisions in the short term. In my research, I've read that the Money feature is much more robust and valuable than the Quicken version. I'd recommend researching this feature on a product description page (Amazon or Microsoft) for more info.
- Budgeting and reporting tools are solid. Not much left to want here.

Overall a great product. The performance increase was worth the upgrade and the Lifetime Planner feature is the deal-breaker for me personally in terms of choosing between this product and Quicken.

If you are a long time user of MS Money as I am, then you will find little changed in the new version. I used the product daily to manage my own and several family accounts. I previously used Quicken, and I prefer Money for a much simpler human interface. I was hoping that the dreaded "Money is already running" bug would have been fixed in this version, but alas it is still around. It seems to happen most often when you backup the database, which I do on a regular basis. An annoying "feature" has appeared in this version. After downloading transactions, Money takes a considerable time "updating accounts." The only notice that this is going on is a blinking indicator on the upper right part of the status bar. I find myself trying to accept transactions before Money has finished the updating, only to notice that the indicator is still there SLOWLY blinking.

I am not the typical user of Money, so these annoyances will probably not affect most users.

I only wanted MS Money 2007 Premium because I need Schedule D reports (gains/losses on investments). I didn't need anything else.
I don't care about balancing my bank account with it, paying bills with it or seeing where my money is going.

Well with MS this service is thru a third-party and this contract is only good for 1 year!

The investments side is really the only difference between the Deluxe of the Premium and that service is handled by a third-party!?!

MS is really getting lazy.

I've talked with Intuit about Quicken Premium and they have ensured me that "this" service does not have a time bomb attached to it.

So bye-bye MS and hello Quicken.

P.S. I will be selling my version of MS Money Premium 2007 here on Amazon if anyone wants it.