Quicken 2008 Review

Looking for Quicken 2009? You will find the Quicken 2009 Review here.

Key new features in Quicken 2008 make it easier to see more of your workspace and reports at once, move around in Quicken easier, and provide new ways of defining and viewing your financial data.

Easier Navigation in Quicken 2008

New tabs at the top of Quicken 2008 provide easy access to any activity center from any area you are working in. For example, you can be working with the checkbook register, then with a click on the Property and Debt tab to check your loans balances. The intuitive tabbed navigation makes using Quicken 2008 easier than ever.

To ease navigation further, the Quicken Home page and the activity centers keep related financial information summarized in one place.

• The Cash Flow center gives you snapshots of cash, checking, savings and credit card accounts plus alerts for upcoming bills and deposits.

• The Financial Overview shows income tax planning, net worth and savings plan data.

• The Quicken Home page shows your personal projected cash flow and summarizes your personal finance data in easy-to-understand visual reports.

• The Investing and the Property and Debt centers hold information about your investment accounts, home, cars and other property and loans you have open.

Quicken Billminder Gadget

The Quicken Billminder gadget, available for computers running Windows Vista operating system, keeps you informed of a number of personal finance events on your desktop without opening Quicken. Set up the Billminder Gadget to automatically show scheduled bills, deposits and online payments that are coming due, financial alerts, upcoming checks to print, investment reminders and calendar notes.

The Quicken Billminder Gadget updates and stays open in a small window on your desktop when Quicken is closed, and it refreshes hourly unless you click the refresh button to get immediate updates.

More Workspace in Quicken 2008

The Quicken account bar, available in all Quicken 2008 versions except Quicken Starter Edition, lists all your financial accounts on the left side of Quicken. The account bar shows net worth and account balances for account organized by cash flow accounts, investment accounts and property and debt. You can customize the Quicken account bar by adding or removing accounts and collapsing or opening accounts list under each account type.

Now with Quicken 2008, you can collapse the account bar entirely to open up space for working in Quicken and for viewing reports and data.

Tag Transactions in Quicken

Quicken 2008 transaction tags provide a way to differentiate between similar transactions that fall into the same category. Transfers between accounts can be tagged as well, which is especially helpful because transfers cannot be categorized. Say you use one expense category called Hobbies used for recording hobby-related transactions, and you have a variety of past times. Categorize the transactions using Hobby and tag them for needlepoint, wind surfing and wine making (didn't I say a variety of hobbies were involved?).

My Savings Plan

My Savings Plan adds a new dimension to budgeting in Quicken 2008. My Savings Plan works like envelope budgeting in that it rolls unspent, budgeted funds over into the next month and accumulates these dollars month after month. If you overspend, My Savings Plan lets you know by how much so you can spend less the following month to compensate for the deficit in your budget. My Saving Plan in Quicken 2008 works especially well for managing budgeted monthly expenses that vary by month, like utilities.

Track PayPal Accounts with Quicken

Quicken 2008 can use Express Online Setup to establish your Paypal account in Quicken, then automatically update it One Step Updates. Unfortunately, this feature is not quite "ready for prime time" because the transaction downloads set PayPal accounts to limited status, requiring a PayPal password reset after answering a few security questions. Quicken developers are working on this problem, and for now you can use a cash account to record PayPal transactions. When Quicken 2008 and PayPal synchronize without a hitch, this review will be updated and you will see an announcement in the About Financial Software newsletter and blog.

529 Educational Accounts

Quicken 2008 now tracks 529 accounts for education savings. If the brokerage that holds your 529 plan supports Quicken Express Online Setup, you can use it to download the initial account information for your 529 plan, but you must mark the account as being tax-deferred in Quicken. 529 plans can also be added manually to Quicken just as an investment account would be added.

Read on for more Quicken 2008 details...