Customer Reviews

Quicken 2010 For Dummies

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased both "Quicken 2010 The Official Guide" by Maria Langer and "Quicken 2010 for Dummies" by Stephen Nelson. I expected 2010 for Dummies to expand on the information that was in The Official Guide and perhaps even provide some practical applications. What I got was a very disorganized "Dummies" book with virtually no valuable information. It appears the author knows only the very basics of Quicken 2010 and therefore can't answer much more than basic questions. Save your money and look to the Quicken 2010 The Official Guide as your choice. Considering I wasn't a fan of "The Offical Guide" in the past years, this statement holds value. With the newly written version of The Official Guide that actually provides some practical hints and tips, you'll be glad you only need one book on your computer shelf. "Quicken 2010 for Dummies" is not worth your time or money.

I upgraded from MSFT Money. The "translation" involved 19 pages of errors. I am ready to pull my hair out. This book does not even mention moving from Money to Quicken! The "Quicken 2010, The Official Guide," does talk a bit about the translation. Bottomline: Quicken does not handle CASH in an investment account, which is where I got messed up. I finally UNINSTALLED Quicken and revived my old Money to finish off the year. Neither book could "fix" any of the mess which came through the change. I might try to start from scratch for year 2011 using Quicken. There is NO EASY way to move from Money to Quicken unless all you have is a checking account...in which case you don't need Quicken anyway...all you need is paper, pen, and a calculator.

If Quicken 2010 is one's first use of Quicken software, the Quicken 2010 for Dummies book will fill the bill (no pun intended).

As a long-time user of Quicken software, 2010 for Dummies didn't tell me anything I didn't already know -- other than to introduce a new feature, "tags," which I probably won't utilize anyway.

The only reason I purchased this book was because Quicken's tech support in India wasn't able to help me with the Quicken Home Inventory feature which was available on all of my previous versions. I literally spent over an hour speaking with the rep and his supervisor, who assured me I had the QHI on 2010, but couldn't tell me why I couldn't restore my backups onto the new software. So I bought the book thinking the answer could be found there. Turns out Quicken dropped this feature on its 2010 version. Had I known this I wouldn't have bothered with getting QX10 or the book. Maybe Quicken should send copies of this Dummies book to its tech support people overseas.

But again, for first-time users of Quicken 2010, this book will do a good job of introducing one to the software in simple, easy-to-understand language -- which is, of course, the purpose of all "Dummies" books.

Ubnless you really have never seen financial software in your life, don't buy this book. Much verbiage, few facts, all very basic. Horrible index -- but then again, there is nothing "hard" or useful in this book to look in the index for. If you have a "tough" Quicken question, don't look for the answer here. It really IS for "dummies." I am actually going to try to take mine back.

I had been a many-year user of Money and picked up Quicken 2011 when Microsoft stopped supporting their software. I had hoped that this book would be a good starting point for me to understand the differences between the two. What I gleaned from the author was that the things I used to track in Money - payroll deductions, credit card debits/credits, 401K balances by individual mutual fund - aren't really necessary and could be inferred as a waste of time. He argued that for tax-related items, one has to use the statement provided by the company in question at tax time, not the entries you made in your personal accounting package, so why bother? Just enter the net amount of your paycheck into the register. Likewise for credit cards - why bother tracking the individual purchases when you get a monthly statement from the credit card company? Just make a payment and have it hit 'credit card expense'! The book offered very little help with how to set-up and balance a 401K which was one of my hot buttons. And to top it off, the last chapter is about how to save for retirement - it has nothing at all to do with Quicken! The only thing I got from reading the book was that I had set up my accounts correctly - a confirmation that I had done something right. I'll continue to look for a book that might address my needs - this one was not it.

I am not a computer savy person but after reading this material it was easy. I never had Quicken program before. I always used a ledger book. No More.
I am enjoying using this. First, it was a bit complicated when my daughter tried to explain it to me. She gave me too much info at one time.
I got the book and I am very happy with it.

I bought this book specifically because it had a section on Rental Property Manager. However, this portion of the book is fairly useless and does not explain how to use this feature in any depth. The section on RPM is only a few pages long and the author excuses his lack of pertinent instruction by saying that if he talks to much about the RPM features we'll think they're complicated to learn and use. I wish he'd just gone ahead and said he doesn't know instead of wasting my time and money on a book which explains very little about the RPM.

This book was just what I needed to learn the Quicken program. It provides short cuts and helpful hints that move the learning process along.

Also, the price was right!

So far I have found Quicken X for Dummies very helpful. The Quicken X software is another story. Until this software is resolved I will be unable to fully make use of Quicken X for Dummies.

I finally actually started using quickbooks 2010. I have bought earlier versions but just never took the time to learn it and use it. So this year I got started. This book is well written and easy to reference. So far I have not failed to find anything I needed to look up in this book.