Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken: Visual QuickProject Guide (Paperback)

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Product Description

It used to be that to begin working with Quicken, you had to hand-enter all sorts of information--a process so laborious that many people eschewed personal finance software altogether. Not so today: With Quicken 2004's Express Account Setup, all you have to do is select your bank (from a list of more than 2,000), supply your account IDs and PINs, and the software does the rest! All you really need, then, to start wrangling your finances immediately is this pint-sized project-based guide to the software! Rather than cover every last Quicken feature and option, veteran author Tom Negrino selects the quickest, easiest route to accomplishing a given objective-from setting up accounts and entering transactions to writing and printing checks, scheduling automatic bill payment, and securing loans-and presents it through full-page-width screen shots and simple step-by-step instructions. Throughout, you'll learn by doing as you complete the book's projects. By the end of the day, you will have mastered not just Quicken but your finances as well!

About the Author

Tom Negrino is a Macintosh expert, author, and contributing editor to Macworld magazine. He is also a much-sought-after speaker at industry trade shows and conferences. He has written books on JavaScript, Keynote, Quicken, and Macromedia Contribute.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321293657
• ISBN-13: 978-0321293657
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,076,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bakari Chavanu's MyMac.com Review, January 21, 2006

By	Tim E Robertson "Publisher MyMac.com" (Battle Creek, Mi United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

When I purchased my Mac mini several months ago, I was surprised to see a copy of Intuit's Quicken 2005 personal finance software fully installed. I had been shopping around for such a program, but didn't want shell a lot of money for one. So I decided that even it didn't have all the features I wanted or needed, I'd make it work because I didn't have to spend extra money for it.

Opening and starting program wasn't that difficult and I could have accessed online guides and help, but I don't like reading manuals online, and most them of I find tedious to read anyway. No doubt I could have learned how to use Quicken without a manual, but I like to learn as much as I can about program so that I can get the most out of it.

So I turned to Tom Negrino's Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken, an affordably priced book that would get me up and running with Quicken in no time. Like other Visual QuickProject guides, Negrino's book is well laid out with large, color coded chapter headings and concise instructions.

There's no need to read this book from cover to cover. Its design and structure are for accessing what you need to know as you work through the program. The book is written for both Mac and Window's users, the latter getting a little more instruction--perhaps because those users need it.

Beyond setting up my accounts, what I found most useful are instructions on many time saving features of the program like setting scheduled transactions and downloads, setting up categories for income and spending, and creating reports for tax purposes. Wish I could say I used the section on setting up investment portfolios, but unfortunately it's not a book on how make that kind of money-only how to record what you make, which in my case is nothing. At least for now anyhow.

Negrino, who has written other QuickProject guides, including Quicken 2003 for Mac, also provides instruction for using Quicken's main features: check writing, balancing transactions, managing credit cards and mortgage payments, paying bills online, and making split transactions. Handy colorful screenshots of the software are used throughout the book. And his "extra bits" sections provide useful tidbits of personal finance advice for and beyond the program.

If you've never used an accounting program and you're wanting to get more efficient with your personal or small business financing, this QuickProject book will be useful. I have to admit, though, I haven't referenced the book beyond the first few times I used to learn the program. Thus the book lives up to its subtitle--a visual guide that will save you the time and headache of learning a particular program.


MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5