Customer Reviews

Microsoft Money Small Business 2005 [Old Version]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

One of my trusted resources, PC Magazine gave this new version of Microsoft Money 5-stars. And given that some of the new features sounded good, I bought the upgrade. After using it for several months, I've got mixed results.

(Side note: I have not had any problems with slowness or crashing whatsoever. I'm on Windows XP Pro, SP-2. Other things are annoying, but no crashes.)

1. Upgrading from 2003 Deluxe & Business went perfectly. Not trusting it, I backed up my old data on disc, ready to roll-back to 2003 if I had to. But everything transferred flawlessly.

2. The interface is much more intuitive. My categories had become pretty jumbled up from my bookkeeper's inconsistencies, and I went in to clean it up. That was SO MUCH easier than with the earlier versions. I was able get that done in record time because the category moving/renaming process is vastly improved.

3. They FINALLY added mileage tracking.

4. The Reports page is much, much easier to use. They've got more common-sense terms like "monthly income/expense report," instead of just proper accounting terms. Also, I was able to customize the reports much easier to include different data. Now I love analyzing my profit & loss statements for the business. Also, I'm able to analyze my personal income more effectively by sorting out household vs. personal expenses.

5. They added a discount option on the product/services invoice. Long overdue.

6. The Invoice Designer has a problem that won't let you add a custom invoice until you change a file setting. If you have Microsoft Money Small Business 2005, do NOT waste your time creating a custom invoice until you apply the following workaround that I found on another site:

"You might need to enable the view of Hidden Files and Folders to do the search.
-Close Money.
-Do a search on your machine for *.ntd
-By default, the files will be located "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Money\14.0\Invoice"
-Right mouse click on the file and choose properties.
-Uncheck the box "Read Only"
-Click on Apply and Ok.
-Repeat this step for any *.ntd file that is located in the Money\14.0\Invoice directory.
-Open the Invoice designer and create your invoice template.
-Save the template then open Money.
-Your template should now appear."

7. Another thing I don't like about the invoice system is that there are no options to show that the invoice has been paid. So when I want to send a receipt by email, I have to manually delete the word "invoice" and "payment due," to turn into a receipt. If you have to send many receipts for small purchases, this is a big time waster.

8. I know you're supposed to be able to manage business & personal money all in one user file with this program, but that is unwise for tax reasons. I created totally separate files for Business Money and Personal Money. There should be a tutorial somewhere about that, but there isn't. Again, the help information is not really geared towards small business owners. If you use the program out of the box, and create just one user file, you will be commingling your funds. It's not enough to simply categorize some expenses personal and some business. They need to be completely separated.

9. One thing I love about using the software is how I can download my online bank & credit card statements right into the program. It is fast and relatively easy to do. After importing the data, all you have to do is confirm the payee names & categories. It's a lot faster than entering in all the data manually, and leaves less margin for data entry mistakes.

10. I also like the free year of PayCycle payroll service that is bundled with the program. (Savings is $10/month.) As a new employer, I found it VERY easy to use, mostly because of PayCycle's step-by-step tutorials that tell you exactly how to integrate the payroll information with Money. When I got confused about how to make my first tax payment, PayCycle's friendly support team answered my call on the first ring and walked me through the process. They exceeded my expectations considerably.

Honestly, the only reason I'm using this program is because I tried QuickBooks a few years ago and hated it. Even though that's the only program most bookkeepers use, as a do-it-myself business owner, I just couldn't figure it out. The company that makes QuickBooks (Intuit Software) has a horrible reputation for customer service, and having tried them a few years ago, I just couldn't bear to do business with them again.

Conversely, one of the problems with using Money is that none of the bookkeepers know how to use the program. I interviewed at least ten of them, and they only learned QuickBooks in bookkeeping school. So if you decide to use Money, you're on your own as far as setting up and using the program. There has been a learning curve for me with the software, but now I have a weekly routine for my bookkeeping.
Tip: Making my own step-by-step instruction notes has helped tremendously.

Bottom line:
* If you're already using an earlier version of Money:
I like the upgrade and think it's definitely worth getting.
* If you've never used accounting software before, but understand bookkeeping: you might like Money for a do-it-yourself system.
* If you've never used accounting software before, and need a bookkeeper:
* you might as well by QuickBooks because that's what your bookkeeper knows.

I am a MS Money fan so was quick to get the 05 version. Well I am uninstalling and rolling back to last years version!

First there is a new Internet Services Policy you must agree to. It starts out with "Microsoft® Money 2005 includes up to two (2) years of Internet-based Services. You will be able to use the Internet-based Services in Microsoft Money 2005 for a period of two (2) years from installation of the product or until September 1, 2007, whichever is earlier."
**** In two years you can not perform online banking!!!

Second the little Money Express program that reminds you of upcoming bills is gone.

I have 3 words for this program - Do Not Upgrade!
Stay With Your Current Version

There is a learning curve with every program.... I have been a user of Quicken Premiere Home & Business since it was first released, and loyally upgraded every year. In 2003, I gave Money Small Business a shot, and after 12 attempts or so to figure out how to email an invoice.... along with a slew of other issues, primarily plastering my system with ad links, I gave up, and actually shredded the CD out of spite (not knowing I could have gotten my money back).

Well, things have changed in 2 years.... a lot. Despite the rumors of difficult Outlook Integration, there was an "import outlook contacts" link under payees. It took all of about 30 seconds. My first attempts involved WAB (windows address book), an alternative method for those without outlook, but outlook express and Vcards... that worked fine, but I was starting to visualize having to export Vcards for everyone in my Outlook folder. I was soooooo glad to have the outlook import feature. One caveat - It imports outlook contacts, and all subfolders - so you get mom, girlfriend, the stranger you met at a tradeshow and wonder who the hell he was.... everyone. Not a huge problem, you can then delete them from Money, but it's a time consuming thing... be good if MS would let you select contact folders (i.e., business, vendors) individually).

The other unfounded rumor was about passwords, and mandatory .Net accounts. Not so. I am operating almost everything without .net, and without a password, even, although I'll change that eventually, just wanted to see things.

Setup wuz done in 3 minutes flat, and once installed it began an auto-update after installation. This is slightly different than Home & Business 2004, which had a configurable update manager. I could not find one in Money Small Business. I guess it's an always on feature, auto-update or something... maybe it's buried, I haven't hit every link in the program yet.

One thing I noticed is a lot of tie ins to MS, and MSN, and MS Products, Outlook, Excel Export, report exports, etc... I view it as a plus, but your opinions of MS may get different mileage.

Regarding the email invoice feature, it's still limited to text only, or text attachment to email. It's ok, but not super professional looking. Since I have full version of Acrobat, I just printed out my first invoice to Acrobat Writer, saved it to a client folder, and emailed it manually. I'm guessing it would work with any "print to acrobat" program as well... and it looks SHARP.

During install, it asks you from a drop down list what kind of small business you have (i.e., artist, professional services, writer, slacker (just kidding) etc.), and configures some settings (product/service category presets) on that entry. All billing categories are easier to update than in Home & Businss 2004, although H&B 2005 is rumored to have similar ease of category updating.

Another neat feature is the "draw" function... for those who have a small business, but only one bank account, or those (like me) who pilfer their business account for weekend fun. It tags such withdrawals for reports later, and is a great assistance for keeping business and personal expenses separate.

The final, and what I think is the best feature (besides that it actually works, and is intuitive 2x as much as H&B) is a neat little configuration control called "Turn off sponsor ads and promotions".

Overall, I am a convert. The learning curve with Small Business 2005 has been very kind to me. The rumor that MS is going to have a small biz accounting package out soon similar to Quickbooks swayed me a bit in my decision (i.e., should my sole proprietorship grow), plus H&B, despite it being a top-notch program (not dissing it's overall capabilities)... is feeling "aged"...

I purchased MSM 2005 about 6 months ago. The program has crashed on me numerous times, corrupting my master file. It has taken hours to reconstruct the data, and to get my back-up data back into the software. Downloading information from my bank and investment companies is hit and miss. Some days it works, others it doesn't.

Reports are much harder to customize than previously, and even the disk back-up is "broken" IMHO. (Rather than just re-using floppies as in past versions, now you must delete the old copy of the backup file first).

This is without doubt the worst software purchase I've made in years.

I read the other reviews that were posted and I didn't believe them. I have always loved Microsoft products for their ease of use and simplicity. However, it is as if Microsoft Money was not design by Microsoft. The software is quite difficult to use and their is also no interoperability. I currently have Microsoft Outlook 2003, and one would assume that the address book in Microsoft Money would be interoperable with Outlook. However, there is not such link. You are forced to use Microsoft Money's sub-standard address book. Even though Money does allow the user to import the address book from Outlook, there should be an option that allows me to change my default address to Outlook. The installation of the software also looked nothing like Microsoft Office's setup and again it looked sub-standard.

If you are looking for a solution to track financial information, I would highly recommend using Microsoft Excel instead - it's cheaper and much more flexible.

I upgraded from Money 2003. I can't confirm the previous postings. Money 2005 has a very nice fresh look and is running smoothly, layout is much more organized now; my 2003 files were converted perfect

Personally, I believe that who ever takes time to post his/her opinion in order to alert others deserves one big thanks from this community. So, thanks to people above:

My Microsoft Money was bundled with my PC but I only needed fast and simple money tracking. Learning to use Microsoft Money was one big waist of my time. I was considering upgrade and naturally, first thing to do was to read reviews.

Search for Money 2005 opened My Money 2005 download page, software created by totally different company. Unlike Microsoft Money, this software was actually easy and full version was only 9.95. If you want to check this out, go to ZPSSoft.com and look for My Money 2005.You may not going to be able to run your corporation or small country with it, but it will do for all your money.

I usually don't have software problems I can't get around or fix. I am sort of a techy, but far from a programmer.

Money 2005 small business - crashes all the time. I initially couldn't even run it after it updated my 2004 data, but got around that.

Calling the support in India was a complete joke because they thought I needed a key like they have in Windows, this one does not come with that kind of key!!

Account payables - what account payables, still looking to find this function! Account receivables is there and works, but no account payables - just a vendor list seperate billing which does not link up or show up in the list of bills from that vendor.

I am done wasting my time - time to send it back!!!!!!!!!!!!

My computer had a hard crash while MS Money was open (the crash may not have been MS Money's fault). Upon rebooting, I was unable to open the MS Money data file. Additionally, ALL of the MS Money backup files were corrupt. I had to rebuild everything from scratch. What good is the software if it can't recover from a crash?

Also, I was able to import my old quicken files into MS Money, but found that MS Money will not allow you to change the original amount of an existing loan after the loan had been set up. I would have thought that you could change values like that.

Hi,

I just started a small website design business, and I was evaluating simple accounting products to keep track of my business.

I really like the interface for Microsoft Money...it is much more intuative and laid out better than Quicken Home and Business 2005....but man, what nerve Microsoft has to require you to have one of those stupid Microsoft Passport accounts....and then to make you always be "online" to create new accounts!

GEEZ...in my opinion, they went too far!

I guess I'm a sticken with a Quicken!


:)