The Best Feature in Quicken 2009
Quicken 2009 has many features, but the best feature is not directly related to managing money. The best feature in Quicken 2009 is the help and guidance system, which provides a number of ways to get help for learning to use Quicken 2009 within the software. There are Quicken 2009 help features which will be appreciated by both new and experienced Quicken users.Quicken 2009 Bugs
Unfortunately, Quicken 2009 released with series of bugs, many of which have been repaired in two patches (Release 2 and 3) that were made available last fall. It is very unlikely that any software is truly bug-free, but I do expect more quality control and in-depth beta testing from Intuit software. I think all Quicken users feel the same way, given the higher price of Quicken over Microsoft Money Plus and other personal finance software.The most recent posts to a bug list in the Quicken Community indicates that Quicken 2009 is working well for the most part. I did not experience all the bugs that were reported on the list (which started before the two patches were released), but I still can't get Quicken 2009 to download PayPal transactions, although this feature-that-never-quite-worked was introduced in Quicken 2008. After the Release 2 patch, my downloaded but unaccepted transactions would disappear until I restarted Quicken 2009, something I experienced in an earlier Quicken version. Release 3 seems to have fixed that problem.
I also have a problem with future projected balances in the Quicken Financial Calendar. Some readers report having the same problem, and there are posts about the issue in the Quicken.com Community. I like to use the financial calendar to see what bills are coming up, but I do not rely on the projected balances after spending hours trying to troubleshoot the problem with no result.
Bottom Line on Quicken 2009
If you use Quicken 2008 and are struggling with it a bit, the embedded help features in Quicken 2009 make it worth the upgrade. However, if you are getting along well with Quicken 2008, I see no benefit in upgrading to Quicken 2009.My opinion of Quicken 2009 is that it is very useful personal finance software, and it still has the best interface that I know of in desktop financial software. Navigating Quicken and learning to use it just keeps getting easier, a definite plus.
I am turned off by the marketing initiatives in Quicken 2009. The additional small ads on some pages, the Services tab and Quicken Picks is not what I use my personal finance software for. Some folks resent paying for financial software and having to tolerate ads as they would in free financial software.
I would like to see Quicken get a more thorough testing before the next version releases. There is no point to annual upgrades if old bugs still haven't been worked out. After all the yearly upgrades, there are no more personal finance tools to stuff into Quicken, so Intuit should focus on getting rid of existing software glitches and turning out personal finance software that works every time.
I would like to give Quicken 2009 higher rating for easier set up and navigation, and for the help and learning options that are easy to find and to use. But, I can't ignore the quality issues experienced by myself and others, so I have to give Quicken 2009 an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
