Quicken Starter Edition Reviewer's Comments
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New and improved for 2008—Quicken Starter Edition by Intuit Inc. is a great, no-frills personal finance package and receives the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award.” If it has to do with money, people and how they interact, this software has it covered and makes it effortless. Quicken Starter Edition can organize and help you track all your spending and bills.
Quicken Starter Edition also offers added services, like Quicken Online Backup, which can automatically backup your Quicken data files to their secure servers, and Quicken Bill Pay makes paying your bills a snap. A few of these services offered include free credit report and score, easy integration into TurboTax, and using Quicken Loans to find the right home loan/refinance package.
The only real downside to Quicken Starter Edition is that it doesn't handle personal investing, and you can't import data to Starter Edition from previous versions of Quicken. You need to upgrade to Quicken Deluxe to access investing features, and if you found Quicken Deluxe to be more than you need, you won't be able to downgrade and keep all your data.
Quicken Starter Edition Screenshots. Click to Enlarge
Ease of Use/Install:
Quicken Starter Edition was easy to install, and easy to use. It's not packed with a bunch of clutter, so finding what you need and figuring out how to use features is a snap.
Banking/Bills:
This program has a superb online banking section that allows you to do all of your banking and manage multiple accounts. With Starter Edition, you’ll have instant access to over 4,000 banks, credit cards and other accounts. Another convenient addition is the ability to connect to and manage Paypal accounts, and a calendar view to help you better budget and pay bills on time.
Through Quicken Starter Edition you can nearly do all your banking without taking another step into your local branch—transfer money, reconcile accounts, pay bills, budget expenses and write checks.
Reporting:
Quicken Starter Edition can produce a variety of cash flow reports, tax reports and net worth reports, so you will know exactly where your money is and where it’s going. These reports are priceless when planning your finances.
Furthermore, improvements in Starter Edition allow you to electronically archive important documents for easy access and eliminate folders and file cabinets.
Financial Calculators:
Quicken Starter Edition automatically connects to the Quicken Loans website, to take advantage of its Mortgage, Refinance, and Home Equity calculators. This is a great way to figure out how much you could save with a refinance, or how much you'll pay for your new mortgage.
Tax Options:
The tax features available in Quicken Deluxe are top–notch. Because Intuit Inc. also produces TurboTax, the two programs work together. Quicken will import all of your financial information directly into TurboTax.
Other helpful tax elements include the ability to categorize expenses as tax deductible, and Quicken was great at providing advice for each deduction, automatically. This is a great feature for people who itemize their tax return, so you don't have to spend hours or even days finding all your deductible expenses at tax time.
Support / Documentation:
As usual, support and documentation is where Quicken really shines. Whether you use Quicken's application help, online help, tutorials, community forums, or email support, most of your questions are covered. If you need to call Quicken support, however, the cost is $24.95 per call.
Archiving/Security:
Quicken provides all the options necessary to backup, archive, and secure your data. Quicken also offers an online backup service for an annual fee, where you can store your files securely on their servers in case of catastrophe.
Personal Investing:
Quicken Starter Edition doesn't have any personal investing features. You need to upgrade to Quicken Deluxe to access their comprehensive investing functionality.
Summary:
Quicken Starter Edition 2008 is a powerful solution to personal finance. The bottom line—Quicken Starter Edition is a great personal finance package if you're looking for the basics. If you need to track investments, you can upgrade to Quicken Deluxe, or use our Silver or Bronze award winners, Microsoft Money Essentials or Moneydance 2007.
©2008 TopTenREVIEWS, Inc.
