Intuit Plans to Sell Quicken to Focus on Tax, Small Business

[wanaberetiree]

Intuit Plans to Sell Quicken to Focus on Tax, Small Business - Bloomberg Business

Time to go? What are the options?

 

[cathy63]

Time to go?

No, it's way too early to tell if this is a good or bad thing for Quicken's future.

 

[wanaberetiree]

No, it's way too early to tell if this is a good or bad thing for Quicken's future.

unlikely a good thing

what was the last recent example when it actually was good?

 

[Dreaming of Freedom]

Yikes, what else is out there that does almost everything Quicken does? I just bought Quicken for the first time a year ago, and have spent so much time learning how to use it. I can't imagine having to start all over.

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[googily]

There are so many UI things in Quicken that have long needed fixing, I wouldn't mind a company buying it and giving it a 21st-century overhaul, but I imagine some good things would get broken in the process. (I've been using Quicken since 1992 - would hate to lose that archive!)

 

[rbmrtn]

It could be a good thing. Someone else may do a better job than intuit does, wouldn't take much. I was a long time MS money user, only went with quicken when Money shutdown ( the sunset edition is still available ). It might finally motivate me to move the data to linux, just been to lazy to do it. quicken was the only thing I use on windows.

Here's a list of alternatives, I think moneydance has been discussed in this forum before.

Intuit Quicken Alternatives and Similar Software - AlternativeTo.net

 

[easysurfer]

It could be a good thing. Someone else may do a better job than intuit does, wouldn't take much. I was a long time MS money user, only went with quicken when Money shutdown ( the sunset edition is still available ). It might finally motivate me to move the data to linux, just been to lazy to do it. quicken was the only thing I use on windows.

Here's a list of alternatives, I think moneydance has been discussed in this forum before.

Intuit Quicken Alternatives and Similar Software - AlternativeTo.net

I've left Quicken a long time ago. But the familiarity of my budget program (not listed on the Alternatives site) is one of the windows programs that keeps me sticking to that OS despite the future don't expect any privacy policy of Windows 10.

 

[Senator]

Being the #1 personal finance/accounting software, I doubt that much will change with a new company.

The new company might un-intentionally screw it up, but I am 100% confident that it will be around for years to come. If IBM buys it, look out. It will be very versatile, but you will need a PhD to install and use it.

No matter what, the version you currently have will work, as is, for a long time too.

Of course, if Microsoft or another leading competitor buys it, all bets are off.

 

[Cobra9777]

Wow, that's very interesting news. I hope this means good things for Quicken in the future.

I used Quicken for over 10 years, but dropped it several years ago when they started forcing paid upgrades by disabling online links to financial institutions. But I had also grown weary of the large number of bugs and general lack of development and innovation. I wouldn't mind paying for an actual upgrade. But it became clear that it was really just an ongoing license fee for the same buggy software. And I thought the price was too high, especially given the large number of more innovative free alternatives.

At first I used mint.com, which is essentially just an online version of Quicken, but geared toward people starting out and trying to get a handle on debt, spending, budgets, etc. I soon discovered that Personal Capital is much better suited for my needs. I also experimented with Fidelity's Full View, and still update it occasionally since it interfaces with other Fidelity tools I use, like GPS and RIP. But for ongoing tracking/analysis of expenses, account balances, and portfolio stats, I only use Personal Capital now.

 

[tulak]

No matter what, the version you currently have will work, as is, for a long time too.

Except after three years you'll lose online functionality. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Someone else mentioned Moneydance. Once you learn its quirks, it works well. I've been using it for over two years now and have been happy. And their support is excellent. I've reported a couple of bugs and they have all been fixed.

 

[Ready]

Intuit has neglected Quicken for years...especially the Macintosh version. I don't think it could get much worse, but the new company may finally make the investment to modernize the software to current technology standards. It would be a nice thing to see if it happened.

 

[audreyh1]

Well, I guess they have to find a buyer first.

I've been able to limp along with my Quicken 2007 for Mac, with the occasional bug fix from Quicken. But now I think the days are numbered.......

I really don't know what I'll be able to replace it with.

 

[braumeister]

Someone else mentioned Moneydance. Once you learn its quirks, it works well. I've been using it for over two years now and have been happy. And their support is excellent. I've reported a couple of bugs and they have all been fixed.

I have nearly four years with Moneydance now, and it does everything I need for banking, investments, budgeting and reporting.

A couple of small things are a bit quirky to figure out, but the support is good and you can usually find the answer to any question within a few minutes.

 

[gauss]

Still running Quicken 98 here....

I don't think the sale will effect me.

-gauss

 

[ejman]

Still running Quicken 98 here....

I don't think the sale will effect me.

-gauss

I finally upgraded a couple of years ago from Quicken 2002 to 2010 because I could not get 2002 to print using windows 7. I recently started playing with linux and found out that Quicken 2010 works fine @ Linux Mint (using the Wine emulator) so I think I'm set regardless of what the good folks at Intuit or successors do...

I started using Quicken in 1992 so I have a huge database that I'd like to keep. I've tried other personal finance software but I guess I'm just to used to the Quicken way of doing (and sometimes not doing) things.

 

[pb4uski]

I'm quite happy with Quicken. I have my entire balance sheet on it and auto update it as needed, and at the end of each quarter. I use the projected balances feature for cash flow, especially since I retired. I use the investment performance reports to look at portfolio returns. I used to use the budgeting tool but find I use that less now since our living expenses are pretty stable at this point.

 

[Htown Harry]

The Intuit 4Q 2015 investor fact sheet with revenue by division is linked here:
Intuit Inc. - Home

Their small business and tax divisions with Quickbooks and TurboTax bring in 90% of their $4.4B annual revenue. The "consumer ecosystem" division with Mint and Quicken bring in $133M a year, or about 3%.

Quicken is a minor product for Intuit.

 

[ejman]

The Intuit 4Q 2015 investor fact sheet with revenue by division is linked here:
Intuit Inc. - Home

Their small business and tax divisions with Quickbooks and TurboTax bring in 90% of their $4.4B annual revenue. The "consumer ecosystem" division with Mint and Quicken bring in $133M a year, or about 3%.

Quicken is a minor product for Intuit.

Interesting information. I understand that Quicken is by far the biggest player in the personal finance software genre. Those numbers you quoted make this whole genre seem inconsequential. No wonder Microsoft got out of the business and Quicken/Mint has no serious competition.

 

[audreyh1]

As long as Quicken Quotes and transaction downloads keep working, I'll be OK. But when they stop, I'm hosed.

 

[ejman]

As long as Quicken Quotes and transaction downloads keep working, I'll be OK. But when they stop, I'm hosed.

I've been doing both manually for years. As long as the number of securities/accounts is reasonable it's really not that big a hassle. I have a few mutual funds, it takes maybe 5 minutes to update quotes/transaction information. I enter my CC/bank transactions manually on a weekly basis - takes maybe 15 minutes (I'm after all retired it's not like I'm rushed for time or anything).

It's actually a routine I quite enjoy and I like verifying my manual entry system with the statements I get from the various institutions. When I had Quicken 2002 I used the automatic update system. When that access expired three years latter per Quicken's revenue generating scam I decided to get off that scalator and I found I really didn't miss it.

Of course, an active trader with multiple securities/ accounts and lots of activity - different story.

 

[Htown Harry]

No wonder Microsoft got out of the business and Quicken/Mint has no serious competition.

I can't agree with the "no competition" part, ejman.

Quicken's market has been "disrupted" in the past few years by a bunch of competitors in the roboadvisor marketplace. See Wealthfront, Betterment, Learnvest, and a bunch of trader-specific tools that have been introduced. Many require no license fees or upgrade expenses.

Cobra9777's experience probably sums up why Intuit sees selling Quicken as the best use of capital.

I used Quicken for over 10 years, but dropped it several years ago...

At first I used mint.com, which is essentially just an online version of Quicken, but geared toward people starting out and trying to get a handle on debt, spending, budgets, etc. I soon discovered that Personal Capital is much better suited for my needs.

 

[ejman]

I can't agree with the "no competition" part, ejman.

Quicken's market has been "disrupted" in the past few years by a bunch of competitors in the roboadvisor marketplace. See Wealthfront, Betterment, Learnvest, and a bunch of trader-specific tools that have been introduced. Many require no license fees or upgrade expenses.

Cobra9777's experience probably sums up why Intuit sees selling Quicken as the best use of capital.

Can I manually enter my information into Personal Capital (or the other ones you mentioned) or does it require to enter my account information with passwords and such? if it requires password info that's a non starter for me.

Basically, I don't trust ANY website that requires such comprehensive info. For all I know that could be a front for who knows what and easily broken into by who knows who to have the passwords for my financial life. Much too paranoid for that...

 

[Htown Harry]

So far as i know, any software - whether cloud-based or loaded on your machine - requires stored passwords to look up or download transactions and actual share balances.

I'm a half-and-half guy.

I use the MS Money sunset edition for tracking my investments, which requires that I manually enter all transactions and price changes. It takes a little time each week / month, but it has some of the same benefits as balancing a checkbook.

I have linked my checking account and credit cards to Personal Capital because I like the way it tracks spending.

Neither solution is best-in-class, but it works for me.

Edit to add: I had given some thought to Quicken in the past, but was discouraged by reading all the moaning and groaning here on E-R.org.

 

[Texas Proud]

So far as i know, any software - whether cloud-based or loaded on your machine - requires stored passwords to look up or download transactions and actual share balances.

I'm a half-and-half guy.

I use the MS Money sunset edition for tracking my investments, which requires that I manually enter all transactions and price changes. It takes a little time each week / month, but it has some of the same benefits as balancing a checkbook.

I have linked my checking account and credit cards to Personal Capital because I like the way it tracks spending.

Neither solution is best-in-class, but it works for me.

Edit to add: I had given some thought to Quicken in the past, but was discouraged by reading all the moaning and groaning here on E-R.org.

It was many many moons ago, has to be more than 15 years, but Quicken did require you to keep your password in their program (not sure if you could or not, but probably could).... IIRC, and I could be way off on this, I would open quicken and then do something to download transactions and have to put in my account info and password every time....

Now, I quickly stopped doing it for checking as it was pretty bad in putting them where I wanted... I could quickly enter all transactions in a few minutes...


Also, they would download prices without having to log into an account


Right now I just have Vanguard keep track of my investments... I update non-Vanguard investments maybe once a quarter if there is no ticker associated with the investment.... not as good for determining returns etc. like you might want, but they are getting better...

Budget and checking are done on a workbook... working on the past two months right now...

 

[truenorth418]

I used Quicken for many years as I made the journey to financial independence. However it was very buggy and the need to pay more money every couple of years to import transactions was a real drag. It was the only reason I kept windows running, which meant more money and complexity. Worse, I kept my own separate spreadsheets to track my portfolio and budgeting the way I wanted to anyway.

Ultimately I "cut the cord" and dropped Quicken. Glad I did. Now I keep a master portfolio tracking spreadsheet on Google drive that updates automatically whenever I log in and is accessible from anywhere. I track my spending vs budget monthly merely by downloading my transactions right into a custom spreadsheet from my bank and brokers.

It took a few hours to set this up but it's a lot better and cheaper than Quicken was.


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