Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

~ (Author), Biafore Bonnie (Author)
Key Phrases: account bar, one step update, opening balance, Cash Flow, Category List, Net Worth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like most people who buy Quicken, you're probably looking for help: with credit card receipts, checking account statements, and retirement plans. You want Quicken to provide an overview of your financial health, while sparing you the time and tedium of balancing your checkbook and tracking every investment by hand. Quicken 2009 can do all that and more, and Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual will show you how.

Tips from Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual

1. Tracking Overdraft Protection and Home Equity Loans If you have overdraft protection for your checking account or you want to track a home equity line of credit (HELOC), Quicken's credit card account type fits the bill. Both of these financial features act like credit card accounts, with credit limits, minimum payments, and interest charged on credit balances. When you set up a credit card account for overdraft protection or a HELOC, fill in the Opening Balance field with zero and the Credit Limit field with the maximum amount of credit you receive from your bank. Then, when you withdraw money, record that transaction in your Quicken credit card account register. (The withdrawal increases the balance you owe.) When you make a deposit, record it as a payment in the credit card register.

Recording the interest you pay on your HELOC is similar to recording interest payments on a credit card. The only difference is that you use a tax-deductible category for interest, like Mortgage Interest Exp:Bank.

2. Moving an Investment Account to a New Brokerage If you decide to move one of your investment accounts to a different brokerage, updating your account in Quicken is easy compared to the real-world process. If you're moving an entire account to a new financial institution, all you have to do in Quicken is change the name and account number of the investment account. The securities stay in the same Quicken account and your transaction history and performance is untouched.

If you set up the original account for online access, the process is slightly different. You first have to accept any downloaded transactions and then deactivate the online services. Then you can edit the account's details to change the name and account number. To set up the Quicken account to work with the new financial institution's online services, simply activate those services using the new institution and account number.

3. Turning Checks into Transfers Sometimes, checks you write act like transfers in Quicken. For example, consider the check you write to pay your credit card bill. In the real world, the credit card company cashes your check and credits your account with the payment. In Quicken, the check transfers money out of your checking account and reduces the balance on your credit card account. (The same goes for a check you deposit into your money market account: it transfers money from your Quicken checking account to your Quicken money market account.) Instead of recording two separate transactions (one in your checking account and one in your credit card or money market account), you can save time by simply recording the check and then converting it into a transfer. Transforming a check into a transfer is easy: When you record the check in Quicken, in the Category field, simply choose the appropriate account--like your credit card or money market account--instead of a category like Groceries or Gas. Easy, huh?

Product Description

Quicken is a convenient way to keep track of personal finances, but many people are unaware of Quicken's power and end up using only the basic features. Sometimes Quicken raises 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 2009: 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. This book 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, and 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. Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual accommodates readers at every technical level, whether you're a first-time or advanced Quicken user. For a topic as important as your personal finances, why trust anything else?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 575 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; illustrated edition edition (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596522487
• ISBN-13: 978-0596522483
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,747 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #2 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Business > Online Banking & Finance
  #5 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Personal Finance
  #10 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Business > Accounting

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Purchase For Quicken 2009 Users!!!, October 29, 2008

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

'Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual' is a must buy for all Quicken 2009 users that want to get the most out of their financial software. With over 550 pages of material (up 30% from the previous version of this book), this is the EASIEST way to not only start doing the basics with Quicken, but EVERYTHING Quicken has to offer!!!

My only complaint is the lack of color in this book, there really is no reason for not having color in all of these books nowadays.

Here's a McKinnon Overview for the readers:

01. Set Up
02. Starting Off
03. Setting Up Accounts
04. Tracking Transactions
05. Banking Transactions
06. Online Banking
07. Transaction Goodies
08. Reconciliation
09. Property & Debt
10. Taxes & Insurance
11. Spending And Saving
12. Investments
13. Quicken Tools
14. Reports And Graphs
15. Backing Up Data
16. Customizing Quicken
17. Exporting & Importing

I've reviewed a dozen+ 'Missing Manual' books and I feel they are some of the best computer books EVER written. Exceptionally designed, laid out, written, they really should have been in the boxes of all the software they were written for. My reviews were all so glowing I finally started to just say BUY THE BOOK and I am not changing my stance here at all. If you use Quicken 2009 or want to become an uber-user, BUY THIS BOOK TO-DAY!!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good basic instruction, February 10, 2009

By	parker6126 - See all my reviews

First, some background on why I purchased this book. I am new to using personal financial management software (Excel has always sufficed in the past) and, after a great deal of poking around on the web, I chose Quicken primarily due to the fact that MS Money no longer supports sub-categories for expenses. I downloaded the trial version of Quicken Deluxe and just started playing around.

After a couple of hours of trial and error, I had all of my accounts linked to One Step Update and all of my transactions had been downloaded and categorized. At this point, I was really smitten with Quicken. I decided to take the plunge and purchase it and went out looking for a good reference book on how to use all of Quicken's features. After even more poking around on the web and reading dozens of reviews here on Amazon, it seemed like The Missing Manual was the best reference guide.

Unfortunately, I have been less than impressed with this book. I have found that it has taken me longer to read the book than it did to figure the same things by just playing with the program. And there is an almost total lack of advice on troubleshooting. When the same One Step Update I was so smitten with one weekend starting failing the next weekend, the book was completely mute on where to even begin to try and fix it. Ironically, the marketing for this book claims that it exists because Intuit (the makers of Quicken) doesn't have great support, yet I found the solution to my One Step Update issues through Quicken support (though it still took me a while) and the book didn't help at all!!

In the end, I gave this three stars because I think it is a good basic introduction to how to use Quicken Deluxe. But that is all it is. I do not see this as a resource I will continue to go back to now that I have learned the basics and I am already in the market for a more advanced book on common errors and troublshooting.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good book, January 12, 2009

By	C. Brandon (Englewood, FL US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book to determine whether I should upgrade to Quicken 2009 or wait another year. Although the book is very helpful, it also helped me see that the 2009 "upgrades" weren't worth the price of the software. My two main problems are that images are not always backed and the associated files can easily become "detached" from the backup files. Also, I have had some problems with file corruption.

Still, the book is very useful, especially since Intuit will never tell you the limitations and shortcomings of their products.