Quicken 2018 available

Basic question: I have been using Quicken since DOS days. I only use it as a backup check register both for my personal hard copy, and mostly to provide end-of-year to my accountant for basic P/L statement and check register. If I never upgrade from 2016 (my current version) again, will I always be able to do these simple tasks without Quicken HQ disrupting that process?
Much thanks, Rich
 
I think you will have to manually enter all the transactions.

They won't let you manually import CSV or QFX/OFX files without you setting up automatic downloads.

And automatic downloads are supported for only a couple of years for each version before they make you buy.

Quicken has become rent-seekers.
 
pb4uski said:
... I have no problem with buying new software for improved functionality like the Quicken of old (say 20 years ago where each new year seemed to have some interesting new features).... but over the last decade the improvements have been nothing to write home about.
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The whole point of these subscription models is that the vendors are admitting that they can no longer provide upgrades that are attractive enough that people will pay for them. Hence, they need to create the revenue stream that they cannot earn though merit by going the subscription route.

An inevitable side effect of this is that they are no longer under very much pressure to invest in upgrades as they no longer get paid for doing them. IOW, it will be very attractive to them to simply milk the product without investing in it.

This strategy works best for software that dominates its segment, like Adobe's and, now, Quicken. Where there are competing products, like in PDF writers, it is not so easy for a vendor to succeed in forcing subscriptions because users will simply jump to a competitor.

There is reason for optimism, though. With Adobe the forced subscription model and consequent angry customers have encouraged a number of vendors to introduce LightRoom workalike software that is looking quite good. I expect that the same thing will happen in Quicken's segment as the market is clearly there and anxious to pay for a good Quicken workalike.

Incidentally, get ready to pay up for your Windows subscription too. Microsoft has been emphasizing "Windows is a service." for a couple of years. Windows subscriptions are the inevitable outcome.
 
I truly do not understand all the noise and pissing and moaning about Quicken. If you don't want to pay for it, just don't use it. Write your own! Problem solved.
 
OldShooter said:
Incidentally, get ready to pay up for your Windows subscription too. Microsoft has been emphasizing "Windows is a service." for a couple of years. Windows subscriptions are the inevitable outcome.
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The main reason I think this is happening is because Moore's Law is slowing down. Because of that, hardware advances are slowing from their breakneck pace, and software doesn't have to constantly play catchup to new hardware. So 10 year old systems now can still run competently (unlike the 1980s or 1990s), and keep running old software versions. The old pricing model was predicated on people having to buy upgrades every three years or so. When Moore's Law was in full effect, that model worked. (That said, Quicken was intentionally breaking online functionality after three years before it was fashionable.)

But now that it has slowed considerably, the model is starting to fail because most people (who won't pay the "bleeding edge" tax) will use the same hardware and software for 7-10 years (or more -- heck, I'm using an old system right now, a 12-year-old Power Mac G5 quad running OS 10.5.8). When that happens, software makers are seeing people use the same purchased version for 7-10 years or more since they don't need to pay for upgrades.

The big problem with migrating away stuff like Quicken and some other software (including some of the Adobe stuff) is years of data stored in proprietary formats. But the change in the pricing model is VERY much tied to the fact that hardware advances aren't obsoleting old systems as fast as they used to. I have a Toshiba laptop from 2005 that still runs Windows 10 somewhat competently for light duty use. And I think MS "giving away" Windows 10 is indeed a sign that a subscription model may be on the way eventually. I'd pay the tax on my gaming rig, but all my older Windows machines will run Ubuntu after that happens.
 
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Been getting pestered every day with discount offers for this.

Yesterday was "Last Day!" For their offer.

Today it's "Offer Extended!"

The dumb thing is that I registered when I had the 2017 version but then I demanded and eventually got a refund when it became clear I couldn't even import QFX or even OFX files that I would download manually from my banks.

I wasn't going to get on their upgrade treadmill to keep being able to import my financial data into this software.
 
I have to say that even though I'm a long-time Quicken user (20+ years), I'm getting close to the end of the line with them. I'm going to give the subscription a chance, but their regular pricing is above my pain threshold.

As a public service - the best sale price I've seen for Deluxe so far is $45 on Amazon for a one-time sale.

I'm bought the day before the sale, but was able to get Amazon give me a one-time price match (they no longer have a general price match policy, but since I'm a loyal Prime customer, they gave me what I wanted).

If you're not already aware of it there's a site that shows you price history for Amazon called "camelcamelcamel" - here's the history for Quicken Deluxe 2018 - 27-month: https://camelcamelcamel.com/Quicken...g-Exclusive/product/B075NCB8ZM?context=search
 
Also a longtime Quicken user. I spent countless hours trying to manually enter borked downloaded transactions, repair placeholder entries and battle their online "help". While I miss a little of the functionality (especially lifetime net worth), I moved to Personal Capital. Does almost everything I need without any of the headaches.
 
Just an FYI.

If you do not have solid internet access, as in an RV park with lame internet, you could get locked out of Quicken. Especially if you reboot your PC.

in regards to your concern, you are going to need always an internet connection in order to connect with your credentials in Quicken, internet is a must when using the software.
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Please share your experience so far with Quicken 2018.

My 2015's online functionality expires in a couple of months and I need to upgrade.

Thanks in advance.
 
walkinwood said:
... My 2015's online functionality expires in a couple of months and I need to upgrade. ...
Click to expand...
2018 is not your only alternative.

I had 2015 and put in a lot of hours trying to get my files imported into Moneydance and parallel-running Quicken and Moneydance for a couple of months. Long story short, the import was a 10-20 hour effort and the result of the running test was I decided that MoneyDance was not ready for prime time.

So I bought a copy of the last non-subscription Quicken (2017) on eBay for $44. This will carry me for another couple of years at which time, hopefully, MoneyDance will have significantly improved or another good competitor will have emergetd.
 
I like Quicken way back when it was just pretty much a checkbook balancing program with budgeting.


This subscription/membership thing (the trend today) I think of as bullyware :mad:.
 
Back when I used Quicken (and MS Money before that), I used to curse its flaws more than praise its features. But I stuck with it for a long time. However, I would try another package from time to time. Like most, I found that the export/import process from/to Quicken and others was haphazard at best, and left huge messes to clean up manually.

Finally, I bit the bullet and simply exported everything out of Quicken into spreadsheets. Then I started fresh with a new package (Moneydance in my case). There was some grunt work in the beginning to get a little history input for the various accounts. Took a day or two as I recall.

Then I went ahead just with Moneydance. Whenever I needed to know something from the past (bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, whatever), I had it in a spreadsheet and it was simple to do a "Find" for it. As the years went by, my need for that got less and less.

So I would recommend to those considering switching from Quicken to something else to forget about the trials and tribulations of export/import and just make a clean break. It worked for me, and that was over six years ago.
 
Here's my input from another thread.

Spent a week looking at Quicken alternatives as the 30 Apr changeover date approaches. Looked at:

Moneydance
Banktivity
Moneyspire
SEE Finance
iCompta
Quicken

After all was said and done, SEE Finance was the best at importing my QIF from QM2007 and downloading my transactions from USAA and Vanguard. My Ally savings account does not support Direct Connect, so those monthly transactions will have to be manually entered. Not a problem since I only have one withdrawal/month and an interest entry to enter.

The reports in SEE Finance take a bit to get used to, but once I spent some to understand how they operated it was pretty easy to get Income/Expenses reports for every year going back to 2006. Also was easy to set up and monitor a budget. Finally, I emailed for support and got answers back in 15 minutes and the next morning (this was from a Sunday email).

At $29.99, SEE Finance is tough to beat and is a great replacement for your Quicken habit. Although SEE Finance 2 was just released this past Dec, it has been around since 2009 with the release of Version 0.9. Version 1.0 was released in 2015. There is a 30-day free trial.

https://scimonocesoftware.com/seefinance/


Having said all that, last night I bit the bullet and purchased Q2018 Deluxe mainly because it came with 20GB of free Dropbox storage which increased my basic dropbox storage to 22GB :). Also, Q2018 deluxe was 40% off on Amazon at $53.99 for 27 months. As far as I can tell, the only difference between Deluxe and Premier is a Zillow tie-in to update the value of home properties.

QM2018 is vastly improved from QM2015 and the upgrade actually went flawlessly. That said, I still believe SEE Finance is the top choice for a Quicken alternative and I will continue to run them side-by-side until my 30-day trial runs out.
 
How is it vastly improved from QM 2015?

Did they add the features that Windows versions have, like QLP?
 
Improvements that I noticed include:

1) The calendar has daily cumulative investment results in addition to transactions. Really cool feature.

2) Investment data now includes IRR for YTD, 1, 3, 5 years much like Windows version. Windows still offers more investment data, but the mac version is getting closer.

3) The loan accounts now have the same "What If Tool" that the windows has.


Note that the mac version is still missing the planning features that windows has with the exception of budgets, which are actually as good or better presented on the mac version.

Overall, they are getter much closer to being the same application and in fact when you purchase you can put it on both computers. I have both of them running side-by-side on PC and Mac computers. Installation was very easy on both with no problems or issues.

Just a heads up if you decide to purchase Quicken...make sure you are signed in to your Quicken ID account before you put your activation key in on the website. Apparently, not doing this has lead to the activation not being tied to your account assuming you already have one.
 
Thanks NanoSour. I'm hoping more members who are actually using Q2018 speak up. I'm leaning that way.

Oldshooter - Thank you. I am considering 2017 too, but the cost difference isn't much. And if 2018 is stable, I think I'll go that route.
 
I snagged 2018 premier version for $59.99. Look around for deals.
 
TDirgins said:
Also a longtime Quicken user. I spent countless hours trying to manually enter borked downloaded transactions, repair placeholder entries and battle their online "help". While I miss a little of the functionality (especially lifetime net worth), I moved to Personal Capital. Does almost everything I need without any of the headaches.
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Me 2! Yesterday, I took my first step in transitioning out of Quicken (or at least the online functionality.) I deactivated all of my FIDO accounts from the Quicken download. Since most of my retirement/long-term monies are at FIDO, I am planning to use their retirement planner as the basis for keeping up with my allocations.

Now for the household day to day checking, I am considering manually entering my transactions once a week without using the download functionality. A little extra time, but since we do not have many transactions, it will allow me to double check that all expenses are legit.

Bye Quicken (user since 1992)
 
walkinwood said:
Thanks all.

After reading reviews (of people who actually bought and used the product) online, I went ahead and bought a 27 month subscription on amazon for $54.

If you're buying it, be sure to read this review which details how to install the software correctly.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-...ef=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B078VTMT6R
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I agree with you. For $30/yr I'm ok with giving Quicken my money. I waste more money in a year on various things that I don't get as much use from. [emoji3]
 
OK posters, I decided to try MINT. Within 15 minutes all set up; 2 hours to add detail on tx and uniquely characterize expenses for me. MUCH BETTER INTERFACE WITH BANKS, INVESTMENTS, ETC. than Quicken! 95% happy with two challenges.

1. Budget: Can you set up budget on annual basis (not just for each month). And how do you do that in Mar when expenses are recorded starting in January?

2. How can you trick MINT into showing you your bank balance at a future date? I want to put in big tax bills coming up, so I know how I may need to finance that with LOC (that is where I put my excess cash), or another draw from investments.

I have tried every way (and trick) I can think of to no avail so far. Hope this is clear; thanks for the help.
 
OHjosh said:
OK posters, I decided to try MINT. Within 15 minutes all set up; 2 hours to add detail on tx and uniquely characterize expenses for me. MUCH BETTER INTERFACE WITH BANKS, INVESTMENTS, ETC. than Quicken! 95% happy with two challenges.

1. Budget: Can you set up budget on annual basis (not just for each month). And how do you do that in Mar when expenses are recorded starting in January?

2. How can you trick MINT into showing you your bank balance at a future date? I want to put in big tax bills coming up, so I know how I may need to finance that with LOC (that is where I put my excess cash), or another draw from investments.

I have tried every way (and trick) I can think of to no avail so far. Hope this is clear; thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Mint user since 2011 and I do think it's an excellent tool to keep track of your accounts on a daily basis if you should so chose. Very convenient and only takes a moment to see if something is amiss.

To answer your specific questions:

1. The budget only runs on a monthly basis. You can look at several months at a time from the Budgets tab, but you can't set up an annual budget. In fact, any change you make to the budget, i.e. adding a category or changing an amount on a category, will take effect from that date forward. It can not be retroactive to past months.

2. Sorry, no way to trick the balance information in Mint. What ever your bank/FI says is what you will see. You can input "pending" bills, but they won't show in the balance until your bank reports them.
 
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