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Microsoft Money Plus Review
Should You Buy Microsoft Money Plus?

About.com Rating 3

By Shelley Elmblad, About.com

Microsoft Money Plus Premium Personal Finance Software

Microsoft Money Plus Premium

Courtesy of Microsoft
Microsoft Money added "Plus" to what would have been Microsoft Money 2008, then did not release a new Microsoft Money in 2009 after years of annual upgrades.

Among the latest features in Microsoft Money Plus is enhanced background banking which makes using a Live ID. Passport has been discontinued.

Microsoft Money Standard and Essentials

Microsoft phased out Money Standard in 2007 and Microsoft Money Essentials, now the most basic Microsoft Money version, does not import Microsoft Money data. This leaves Microsoft Money Standard users with the alternative of upgrading to Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe, or entering transactions manually and losing some of the Internet-driven features in Money Standard.

Microsoft Money Plus Insights

Microsoft Money Plus Cash Flow Insight shows deposits, payments and account balances.
Microsoft Money Plus Spending Insight
Courtesy of Microsoft
Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe, Premium and Home and Business include the new Insights feature. Insights are visual financial reports pulled from Microsoft Money and presented in the Windows task bar. The benefit of Microsoft Money Plus Insights is that you need not open Microsoft Money Plus to be alerted to when you are close to budgeted spending limits, when bills are coming due or to get a quick look at account balances.

Microsoft Money Plus includes Cash Flow Insights, Spending Insights and Bills Insights.

Image Linking in Microsoft Money Plus

Another new feature in Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe, Premium and Home and Business is the ability to link image files and other file types to transactions. This is useful for documenting expenses entered into an account register with a scanned or copied and saved image. For example, if you pick up the tab for a business lunch, you can scan the receipt, save the digital image and link to that image file from the transaction in Microsoft Money Plus. Many files types can be linked to Microsoft Money Plus transactions because Money does not actually execute the linked file (it opens with its associated software application).

Microsoft Money Plus Investing Tools

Microsoft Money Plus includes the MSN Money Markets Dashboard.
MSN Money Markets Dashboard
Image © Shelley Elmblad
Microsoft Money Plus Premium and Home & Business includes some new investment tools:

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