Quicken 2008: The Missing Manual

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Quicken is one of the many convenient ways to keep track of personal finances, but many people are unaware of Quicken's power and end up using only the basic features. And sometimes Quicken seems to raise more questions than it answers: Return of capital from stock? "Net worth"? What are they and why do you need to know about them? Luckily, Quicken 2008: The Missing Manual picks up where Quicken's help resources leave off.

You'll find step-by-step instructions for using Quicken on your Windows PC, including useful features such as budgeting, recording investment transactions, and archiving Quicken data files. You also learn why and when to use specific features, and which ones would be most useful in a given situation. Quicken 2008: The Missing Manual helps you:

• Set up Quicken to take care of your specific needs
• Follow your money from the moment you earn it
• Make deposits, pay for expenses, track the things you own and how much you owe
• Take care of financial tasks online, and quickly reconcile your accounts
• Create and use budgets and track your investments
• Generate reports to prepare your tax returns and evaluate your financial fitness

And a lot more. This book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. If you're a first-time Quicken user, special boxes with the title "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. For advanced users, there are similar boxes called "Power Users' Clinic" that offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced Quicken fan.

For a topic as important as your personal finances, why trust anything else?

About the Author

Bonnie Biafore has always been a zealous planner, whether setting up software demos, cooking gourmet meals, or scheduling a vacation to test the waters of spontaneity. Ironically, fate, not planning, turned this obsession into a career as a project manager. When she isn't managing projects for clients, Bonnie writes about project management, small business accounting, personal finance, investing, and technology. She's also branching out into other "dry" topics with articles for the Wine Enthusiast. As an engineer, she's fascinated by how things work and how to make things work better. She has a knack for mincing dry subjects like accounting and project management into easy to understand morsels and then spices them to perfection with her warped sense of humor. Bonnie is the award-wining author of more than a dozen books including Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual, QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual, Project 2007: The Missing Manual, the Better Investing Stock Selection Handbook (which won an APEX Award of Distinction), Online Investing Hacks, and On Time! On Track! On Target!. She also writes regularly about financial topics for Better Investing bankrate.com and interest.com. When unshackled from her computer, she hikes in the mountains, cycles, rehabilitates horses, cooks gourmet food, and, most importantly, tries saying no to additional work assignments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; 2nd edition (November 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596515154
• ISBN-13: 978-0596515157
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #160,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #9 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Business > Online Banking & Finance
  #58 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Personal Finance

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Missing Manuals Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It should be illegal to sell Quicken 2008 without this book..., January 19, 2008

By	Whoo? (whoo-ville) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are looking at this book, you, too, can probably relate to my frustration trying to figure out Quicken 2008 with NO INSTRUCTIONS. I did several internet searches and was beyond frustrated at the little issues I kept running into. I was ready to throw it all out the window and then I did a search on Amazon. That's how I came across this book. After reading the other reviews, I decided to pay the extra money for overnight shipping - not reflective of my need, just my frustration level.

I read the first 150 pages within hours of getting it. The book is straightforward, simple and answers all those quirks you run into trying to get this program to do what the box says it should do. You can look up virtually every scenario and follow step-by-step instructions. After reading the first few chapters, I could easily figure out what I needed to do for my particular setup. Now, I have a fully functional Quicken 2008 setup. It is extremely helpful.

I honestly don't understand why Quicken doesn't do more to give instruction on their software. As you can appreciate, it can be extremely frustrating. However, this book is the answer. If Quicken can do it, it shows you how. If it can't, it at least tells you that upfront so you don't spend the better part of an evening trying to figure it out.

For the level of frustration it reduced within hours of receipt, this book is one of my best Amazon purchases. I am so glad I found it. Kudos to the other reviewers for doing such a good job explaining how great this book is.

As a final note, I was so frustrated with Quicken, I was tempted to buy several books just to figure out why some things weren't working right. Don't do it. This book will cover it. It is over 300 pages, well indexed, with great step-by-step instructions. It literally should be the instruction manual which should, but doesn't, come with the product.

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent way to learn Quicken, December 30, 2007

By	O. Gilley "Golf Prof" (Ruston, LA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

All the books in this series are great and this one is no exception. It does an excellent job of helping you to learn how to use Quicken effectively. It is well organized and the tips and hints are lifesavers. I have been using Quicken for years, but the lack of documentation with the program kept me from using many of Quicken's features. This book unlocked much of potential of Quicken for me.

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a fantastic book, December 23, 2007

By	Adrien Miller (Willmar, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Quicken 2008 The Missing Manual" is an interesting, to the point, well organized and an informative book. I feel it is the only book you need to learn, understand, and use Quicken. I got "The Missing Manual a month after I received "The Official Guide" so I did read it (at least I did not waste my money)and I felt it was a frustrating read so "The Missing Manual" was a breath of fresh air. It gave me a much clearer insight into what I wanted to accomplish with Quicken and has taken much of the frustration of trying to improve areas that I thought should be more usable.