Customer Reviews

Quicken Premier Home & Business 2006 [Old Version]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

My previous financial software upgrades were from Quicken 99 to Quicken 2002 and then to Quicken 2004 Premier Home & Business only a few years ago. However this Quicken Premier H&B version 2006 upgrade was the easiest I have done so far. After putting the CD in the drive and clicking "install" it found the older 2004 version on my Windows XP system it told me that it needed to remove the older version. I said "yes" and it automatically removed the old and installed the new without any problems and then proceeded at my request to back up and convert my older data files. If you are familiar with Quicken Premier H&B 2004 or 2005 then you will be familiar with this Quicken 2006 interface because it looks and feels mostly the same. However at the same time everything in this newest version also seems much more refined since they seem to have fixed many little annoyances and yet added some clever features that make the experience of using the it even more easy to use. As your read about these differences on the Quicken web site or on the retail box I can tell you that you may not fully appreciate these improvements until you begin using the new version "hands on". Even the online automatic download and account update features seems to run smoother and faster. Intuit has listened to many customer requests by adding things such as being able to attach a document image to your registry entries, the ability to expand to full screen mode by pressing F11 on the keyboard, the inclusion of more choices for your advanced reports, and the ability to export report data to a "PDF" or "Microsoft Excel" file format.

For users of Quicken before version 2004 you will want to back up all your previous version's data files onto a removable media or disk and make sure you have the original installation disks from your previous version since you will want to make sure that you like the newer 2004 through 2006 interface. Users of versions 2004 or earlier who rely on the QIF file format for your financial institution downloads should realize that QIF data files are no longer fully supported in this version (or in version 2005) as working data files. This is an extremely important point to make so I will repeat once again that you absolutely need to make sure that you completely back up those data files on a removable CD, zip, floppies, etc. so that you could go back to your older Quicken if you really needed to later on. On a positive note Quicken version 2006 does however allow you to import and export your data as QIF data files but you will have to convert and keep those files in the newer "QDF" format before you can use them in this new version 2006. For Quicken users who do not rely on the older QIF files you will appreciate the reliability and simplification of the newest Quicken file formats. Whether you use "Web Connect" or the more automated "Direct Connect" methods the newer file download format seems more secure, more automated, and more trouble free. Many download bugs that were prevalent in previous versions seem to have been fixed. I did have to do some manual editing for a few minor accounts where the online downloading feature had stopped working in version 2004 but after some simple online settings changes those same accounts were now suddenly working perfectly in version 2006.

PROS: Easy installation and upgrade, works reliably, very easy to use, mostly bug free, the financial data downloading works very well, full of many useful new and improved features including a method of registry image file attachment and an improved importing and exporting of data for advanced reports.

CONS: It does not fully support the older QIF data file format. Users of versions before 2004 will need to acclimate to the newer look and feel of the program. Some users from previous years have reported data corruption or errors after updating to the newer versions of Quicken 2004 & 2005 which means that fully backing up your existing data files on a removable media before the installation of Quicken 2006 is mandatory.

CONCLUSION: I enthusiastically recommend and give the highest possible five star rating to the latest Quicken Premier Home & Business ver. 2006 Edition since it is the easiest, most reliable, and overall best version of Quicken I have ever used!

I bought this software to be able to download my financial information like checking, visa, etc. Then I found out that my financial instutions are not subscribers to quicken, but do allow downloading in the qif,ofx, and cma formats... You would think that with ofx being there I would be able to import this into the quicken software but I was not able to... quicken only allows its version of ofx to import into checking, savings, visa, etc. and as far as qif files it says that it can be imported, but here again not into checking, savings, visa, etc...
I think that buyer are better off buying something else...

According to support at Intuit, Quicken 2006 is NOT compatible with a system running Windows XP SP2. This is a standard configuration for most systems running XP and was released prior to Quicken 2006. From a security perspective, this is now considered a baseline by most users.

Prior to purchase, you may want to read the posts in the Quicken Forums. You can access them at:
www.quickenforums.com

I did not attempt to install the program. Quicken recommends uninstalling SP2 and then re-installing, and I believe they have some other fixes. While these might work, this type of workaround was not acceptable to me given the broad support and relative stability of XP SP2. I sent it back for a refund.

Proceed at your own risk.

Intuit's decision to switch file formats, stop supporting the popular old format, and charge banks to present users with the new format reeks of greed and a complete disregard for customer satisfaction.

The need to enter transactions by hand renders the program unusable. The skimpy in-program support and non-intuitive interface make the program unpleasant as well.

There is a critical bug in quicken 2006 that renders an otherwise good program virtually unusable. This is compounded by the poor support that quicken provides for suckers, er, I mean customers.

Users foolish enough to follow on screen prompts and register their software will find that this program component will corrupt their program files so that the program will no longer start. This error is 100% reproduceable. Here's where the fun begins...

I personally searched quicken's on-line help and found no reference to this bug. However, that's not because quicken isn't aware of it; see below.

I then exchanged five different emails with quicken support. I would note that since quicken support is in India, there's probably no one there named Allison. Ah, the lies we weave when we seek to deceive, but I digress....It was clear that no one was reading my emails. I stated clearly that I had a download version of the program, and received more than one reply that began with "insert the CD into the drive...".

I finally gave up on email and called quicken phone support. The rep I spoke with was quite familiar with my problem (see above) and was able to provide me with an undocumented cheat code to disable the broken program component. At this point the program seems to work, but given it's track record my hopes are not high.

I recently purchased this program and Intuit has disabled so many features. I can no longer use quicken with half of my banks. Apparently there is some type of extortion attempt by quicken to get all our banks to pay them ridiculous fees. In the mean time, all my banks still use the .qif format, which is disabled in this version of the program. Despite that fact, quicken makes users use the ofx format...which none of my banks support.

Really, Intuit should be totally ashamed of themselves. I am so dissaointed with them as a company!

with the lack of .QIF support, this version of Quicken is a shell of the prior versions. Not all banks will pay the big bucks for Quicken's new format charges. Buy an older version instead of this.

I have been using MS Money Deluxe since 1999 and Taxcut tax software so I've been upgrading my Money software each year. Money has some problems so this year I decided to change to Quicken small business. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Quicken has changed it's bank download format and is charging banks thousands of dollars to use the new format. My credit union said they will not use Quicken's new format. They do have the QIF format available. In Quicken's advertising, if you look carefully enough, you will discover that you cannot use the QIF download format for checking and savings accounts. What I find strange is that I used Peachtree in the small company I used to work for, I took a Quickbooks class at my local Tech school, and this problem of Intuit changing their standards never came up. I also found the look and feel of the Quicken pages confusing and different from Quickbooks and MS Money. My recommendation would be that IF your bank will offer the new Quicken format that you will be satisfied with the changes. Personally I am dissapointed, and had looked forward to changing to the Quicken, Intuit software.

I have been using Q for close to 20 years. Once you have that much data in it, it's hard (or at least scary) to switch to a new program. Everytime I send Q upgrade money I keep hoping they will fix the bugs. The worst ones being data corruption. Q stores all your data in a database. Unfortunately there db design is also about 20 years old and gets corrupted. When it gets corrupted it's bad, you can loose data, funny things will happen (transactions lost, bad totals, duplicate entries). It happens to me about every 4-6 months. Being aware of this I backup Q every couple of days.

Tech support very bad. Intuit uses it as a revenue stream. You get free online and email. But the answer usually is "this is to complicated for email please call 1-800-India"; Have your credit card ready $25/each.

I don't like the MS Money interface; I hate Quicken but I am still using it.

Dropping the QIF files (Quicken's own proprietary format) is BIG deal that serves only to rip off loyal users. My bank of more than 26 years provides both QIF and OFX formats, but QIF is free and OFX requires a monthly subscription fee that would pay the cost of Microsoft Money, which still downloads QIF files for free. You do the arithmetic. Add to that, the many institutions that don't provide data in OFX format, but do provide QIF files. Any "technical proficiency" is undone by the unavailability of data, or the unnecessary charges for providing one's own financial data for a fee. Here we are, helping financial institutions reduce their costs by going online and they gouge us further -- like adding fees for using ATM's, or adding fees for using your "debit" card instead of "credit" card to spend your own money. There is no economic justification nor rational reason for doing that, save plain old greed.

Fight back. Get Microsoft Money, which still downloads both formats. Let Intuit get the message of consumer dissatisfaction. Ironic that Microsoft has figured this one out.