Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrwic!encad!enprt!hburford
From: hburford@enprt.Wichita.NCR.COM (Harry Burford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Quicken?  Anybody?x
Message-ID: <431@enprt.Wichita.NCR.COM>
Date: 4 Jan 89 13:48:15 GMT
References: <8090008@hpsemc.HP.COM>
Reply-To: hburford@enprt.UUCP (Harry Burford)
Organization: NCR Corporation, Wichita, Kansas
Lines: 50

In article <8090008@hpsemc.HP.COM> gph@hpsemc.HP.COM (Paul Houtz) writes:
|>
|>    I just found out about a program called Quicken(R), that is produced by
|>a company called Intuit, 540 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA.
|>
|>    Has anyone out there seen this product, bought it, used it?   Anyone
|>ever seen a review of it.
**** some deleted *****
|>    It is only $49.95.   If I don't hear anything in a couple of days,
|>    (it is now 1/2/89), I will send for a sample copy and try it myself, and
|>    post the results to the net.   
|>Paul Houtz
|>HP Technology Access Center

I have a copy and it is GREAT!   You don't have to know anything about 
accounting to use it.    The display is much like the paper file that 
one would normally keep in a checkbook so you should already know how 
to use it.  As you enter checks, or I guess I should say transactions, 
you put a category designation in the memo line.   You can even 
make sub categories.    Some of mine go like:   @Utilities @Gas     or
@Utilities @Electric.     You can create categories on the fly and then
generate reports where everything is sorted on your choice of fields.
The book is pretty good and is divided into sections where one is devoted
to someone using the program in a home application and the other in a 
business app.      I hadn't ballenced my checkbook for about a year 
taking the bank statement as being correct.    I started with the 
current month and worked backward a month at a time reconcyling each
month and in just a couple of evenings, I had a couple of years computerized.
I've created other accounts too such as VISA, ect.    A friend of mine
even used his Quicken to make a CASH account and he uses it to tell him
how much money he has in is pocket.   Handy to tell you what categories
you spend your pocket change on.

Problems:   Accounts can not be interlinked.   If you make a house payment
say out of one account one month and then out of another the next month,
your reports will only show the individual account transactions and not
your house payment activity.   Inconvenient at end of year when you are 
interested in your payments and not account activity.    You can buy an
extra cost program that outputs your checkbook information to a spreadsheet.

The $49 price in your message is the list price I think.  I'm sure you could
get it for less if you shop around.
hb


-- 
Harry Burford - NCR E & M Wichita, Printer Engineering
PHONE:   316-636-8016                 Amateur Call:  KA0TTY
FAX:     316-636-8889
C-Serve: 76367,151                    Harry.Burford@Wichita.NCR.COM