Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

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Drew31
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Drew31 »

bertilak wrote:OK, here's a review of the Premier edition ...

Quicken can display Morningstar's portfolio X-ray. In addition it shows how that X-ray compares with a similarly-styled benchmark. Here is what it says about a 100% Vanguard's Total Stock Market (VTSAX) portfolio:
Image
They sure have picked a weird benchmark! Seems there is no way a cap-weighted total stock market fund could be over exposed to anything! The recommendations seem to be aiming at less diversification and less market coverage. Oddly, they characterize wider coverage and more diversity as undesirable "exposure."

You can also compare it to the S&P 500:
Image
What's interesting about this is how close TSM and S&P500 are. Of course S&P500 makes up about 80% of TSM on a cap-weighted basis so you'd expect them to be similar. I think that makes the S&P500 more of a "similar investment style" to VTSAX than whatever they picked. Not sure if "they" are Vanguard or Morningstar.
Thanks for sharing. Can you pick and choose which accounts to include as your portfolio? Been debating whether the Morningstar feature would make it worthwhile to finally upgrade to the premiere version. From this, it doesn't seem all that valuable. Appears it would've just as easy to still go to morningstars website.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

Drew31 wrote:Thanks for sharing. Can you pick and choose which accounts to include as your portfolio? Been debating whether the Morningstar feature would make it worthwhile to finally upgrade to the premiere version. From this, it doesn't seem all that valuable. Appears it would've just as easy to still go to morningstars website.
Yes, you can choose which accounts are X-rayed :happy and even which investments within the chosen account(s) are considered.

You can't get the info directly from Morningstar unless you have a Premier account, which costs $$. Some brokerages have arranged access for you. I always assumed those arrangements gave you direct access to Morningstar's premier tools but perhaps they do it more like Quicken and integrate (parts of) it into their system.

P.S. It does take some messing around to understand how the Morningstar stuff is mixed in with the Quicken stuff. For example I at first thought the X-ray was totally broken when I saw that their benchmark for TSM only contained three of the eleven sectors they define. I still think that is dumb, but now see that it "works" in that it is not giving bogus numbers. There is also some trickiness with needing to "Refresh X-ray" from the X-ray page. This is NOT the same as simply updating prices as is done with a one-step update. When you use X-ray for the first time things truly are a mess if you don't first "Refresh X-ray." This is an area they can improve upon. I still have a few things that look broken but I am not yet sure if it's just a matter of me not fully understanding it.
Last edited by bertilak on Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Drew31
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Drew31 »

bertilak wrote:
Drew31 wrote:Thanks for sharing. Can you pick and choose which accounts to include as your portfolio? Been debating whether the Morningstar feature would make it worthwhile to finally upgrade to the premiere version. From this, it doesn't seem all that valuable. Appears it would've just as easy to still go to morningstars website.
Yes, you can choose which accounts are X-rayed :happy and even which investments within the chosen account(s) are considered.

You can't get the info directly from Morningstar unless you have a Premier account, which costs $$. Some brokerages have arranged access for you. I always assumed those arrangements gave you direct access to Morningstar's premier tools but perhaps they do it more like Quicken and integrate (parts of) it into their system.
Well that's a plus. I was referring to Morningstar's Instant X-Ray feature where you can type in holdings to see a breakdown. You can't save any of it which would make Quicken's feature nice. I've always been curious what extra features the Premiere version provides that Deluxe does not. I'm hesitant to upgrade because (I believe) you can't downgrade your data file to a lower level product, so once I go Premiere I can't go back.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by jasonp99 »

astrohip wrote:
testing321 wrote:I'm still using version 1998. Wondering if I'll every be able to upgrade, or need to?
My sister uses Q-98. She doesn't do any auto-updating, and basically uses it for checking accounts. It works just fine for that.

If you track investments, or need cc data downloaded, then you will want to stay current. Otherwise, the basic functionality has been there for decades.
I'm still on the 2002 version on my Mac, works great! To import stock quotes I have a Perl script that pings Yahoo and dumps the quotes into a QIF file that I can then import. I'm still able to import QIF/QFX files from my credit card accounts to track expenses, and from Wells Fargo for my investment accounts. Can't auto-download directly from Quicken, that never worked for me.

But Apple removed Rosetta in Lion (10.7) so I'm stuck with Snow Leopard for now (Quicken 2002 requires Rosetta). I did get Intuit to send me the 2007 version of Quicken (last "full" featured version available for the Mac) which does work with Lion so I just have to set aside some time to make the switch (wasn't really compelled to upgrade from Snow Leopard though until Yosemite appeared).
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Youngblood »

I've been using Quicken Premier 2015 for about a month now. I upgraded from Q13. I ordered the CD from Amazon at the aforementioned $69 price.

Installation went without a hitch in less than thirty minutes.

What I love most about the upgrade is the increased speed of account updates (much faster than Q13).

I do wish Intuit would add a couple of more vibrant color schemes. I am so tired of the same muted tan, blue and purple. Anyone else?

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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by amarone »

astrohip wrote: I have always used it on two PCs--one at home, one at my weekend home. I use Google Drive to keep a single synced file.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by astrohip »

amarone wrote:
astrohip wrote: I have always used it on two PCs--one at home, one at my weekend home. I use Google Drive to keep a single synced file.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
I don't try to sync them manually, I actually keep the data on GD.

Google Drive creates a folder on your PC. In my case, it's C:\Users\Astrohip\Google Drive. Anything in that folder is synced to the cloud, then any OTHER computers that use the same Google Drive account will have their folders sync'ed next time they are turned on.

So I have Quicken use the file that's in that folder. When I close Quicken, it syncs to the cloud. Next time I open it at home #2, THAT google drive folder is already sync'ed.

Did that help? If not, I'm happy to detail further.

Good luck!
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by singlephoton »

amarone wrote:
astrohip wrote: I have always used it on two PCs--one at home, one at my weekend home. I use Google Drive to keep a single synced file.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
Make sure to wait for the files to sync before opening Quicken.

I use dropbox to hold a common quicken file among multiple computers. I takes 1-2 minutes for the common cloud file to sync up with the local versions, depending on speed of your internet connection.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by astrohip »

singlephoton wrote:Make sure to wait for the files to sync before opening Quicken.

I use dropbox to hold a common quicken file among multiple computers. I takes 1-2 minutes for the common cloud file to sync up with the local versions, depending on speed of your internet connection.
Excellent point. One location for me is Comcast blazing fast, updates in seconds. The other is HughesNet satellite, updates. take. for. ever. to... Uggh.

And the size of my Q file doesn't help, it's currently 102MB. :shock:
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by amarone »

singlephoton wrote:
amarone wrote:
astrohip wrote: I have always used it on two PCs--one at home, one at my weekend home. I use Google Drive to keep a single synced file.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
Make sure to wait for the files to sync before opening Quicken.
I did not specifically check, but my computer had been on for several hours over two or three days. I think the issue is that it did not attempt to sync. I do not know why this is - the option to start Google Drive on computer startup is selected.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by singlephoton »

amarone wrote:
singlephoton wrote:
amarone wrote:
astrohip wrote: I have always used it on two PCs--one at home, one at my weekend home. I use Google Drive to keep a single synced file.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
Make sure to wait for the files to sync before opening Quicken.
I did not specifically check, but my computer had been on for several hours over two or three days. I think the issue is that it did not attempt to sync. I do not know why this is - the option to start Google Drive on computer startup is selected.
maybe try dropbox. not sure how google drive does it, but dropbox has a little icon you can check for the status of the sync and when it is completed.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

amarone wrote:Sorry to hijack this thread, but do you have any advice on making this setup work? I have just tried it for exactly the same reason as you - two homes. All seemed well at my main home but when I loaded up Quicken at my second home it had not synced with the file in Google Drive and ended up copying its old version of the file to GD, so I had to enter about two weeks of transactions again.
I had problems running Quicken (and Quickbooks) on several cloud drives. Nothing worked. I think it all had to do with files being in use and syncing taking a very long time.

I have since noticed that in Windows 8.1 (and perhaps other earlier versions) the executable file for a program (.exe file) has in its properties dialog the option of setting "Enable this program to work with OneDrive files." I have not tried that but perhaps it will help. OneDrive is Microsoft's version of a cloud drive so maybe it will help other cloud drives as well.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by abuss368 »

Was the Mutual Fund Conversion updated and corrected for the Investor to Admiral shares conversions?
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Leeraar »

I am a little bemused. With all the online (free) tools available, why would one want to purchase something like Quicken? Or, for that matter, TurboTax?

Intuit lost me as a loyal customer more than a decade ago, with their copy protection fiasco. I bought the TurboTax software in January, and installed it. My hard disk then crashed, and I replaced it. Intuit refused to give me a new software key when I needed to do my taxes in March. They wanted the original installation date which, of course, I could not retrieve from the dead drive.

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by astrohip »

Leeraar wrote:I am a little bemused. With all the online (free) tools available, why would one want to purchase something like Quicken?
Seriously? You had a bad experience, and I totally get not wanting to do business with them. But that doesn't mean the several million of us that use Quicken aren't going to keep using it.

Ok, why Quicken, and not some online tool?

1) Show me an online tool that comes remotely close to doing what Quicken does? There isn't one.

2) With Quicken, my data is on MY computer, and my computer only. With an online tool, your data is, well... online. Not a place I want to keep my financial data.

3) I don't trust most online companies to be around forever. With the exception of Google and a few others, none who offer Quicken-like programs, online companies come & go. OTOH, I have Quicken data going back 25+ years, with probably thousands of man-hours put into creating it. Risk losing it? No way.

I can find a copy of Quicken for less than $50, every three years. So for $17/year, I have total control over my financial data.

How about you?

BTW, please share with us what online tool YOU use to store your financial data.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by IPer »

astrohip wrote:
Leeraar wrote:I am a little bemused. With all the online (free) tools available, why would one want to purchase something like Quicken?
Seriously? You had a bad experience, and I totally get not wanting to do business with them. But that doesn't mean the several million of us that use Quicken aren't going to keep using it.

Ok, why Quicken, and not some online tool?

1) Show me an online tool that comes remotely close to doing what Quicken does? There isn't one.

2) With Quicken, my data is on MY computer, and my computer only. With an online tool, your data is, well... online. Not a place I want to keep my financial data.

3) I don't trust most online companies to be around forever. With the exception of Google and a few others, none who offer Quicken-like programs, online companies come & go. OTOH, I have Quicken data going back 25+ years, with probably thousands of man-hours put into creating it. Risk losing it? No way.

I can find a copy of Quicken for less than $50, every three years. So for $17/year, I have total control over my financial data.

How about you?

BTW, please share with us what online tool YOU use to store your financial data.
I'm using Quick 2015 for Windows. I got the upgrade from 2014 to 2015 FREE because I blasted Intuit for it not being much of an upgrade (and since then I have
found a very irritating omission which won't apply to most users so not worth mentioning) and they told me to ask for a refund, which I promptly received within a week (you can see my chat session in this thread)!

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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Leeraar »

astrohip wrote:BTW, please share with us what online tool YOU use to store your financial data.
I used to use Yodlee to aggregate my financial data, but now all the accounts are at Vanguard. There are about 11 accounts (me, wife, kids ; IRAs, 529s, taxable) that I can see in a single consolidated view. (I started out with Managing Your Money may years ago, then went to Quicken and then to Microsoft Money.)

We use one credit card for which I check the online statement once a month. If I cared (I don't), the purchases are sorted into budget categories.

We have one checking account through which almost every bill (utilities, newspaper, credit card) is on auto-pay, and income is on automatic deposit. I look at the online statement occasionally. We hardly use cash, and write maybe one check a month.

There are plenty of online tools at Vanguard, Morningstar. When I use them, I do not save data there. I honestly don't see any reason to have a tool like Quicken.

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

abuss368 wrote:Was the Mutual Fund Conversion updated and corrected for the Investor to Admiral shares conversions?
Just ran it yesterday on a kid's account. Worked fine.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

Leeraar wrote:I honestly don't see any reason to have a tool like Quicken.
If everyone's financial life were as simple as how you describe yours to be, you'd probably be right. If. Not.

Sometimes one size does not fit all.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

Leeraar wrote:There are plenty of online tools at Vanguard, Morningstar. When I use them, I do not save data there. I honestly don't see any reason to have a tool like Quicken.
  • Nearly all my income and expenses are entered into my register automatically and managed from the same place. Expenses are paid automatically. I don't need to run from one web page to another to make or schedule payments. I write maybe 4 or 5 checks a year.
  • Automatic register entry is done 35 days in advance so I can see if my checking account will approach zero any time soon. This is a biggie to me; It is how I manage my cash flow. I'd be flying blind without it. With this I really don't need a budget.
  • Automatic register entry of loan payments even keeps track of principle (by reducing the outstanding loan balance), interest and payments to the escrow account.
  • All actual activity is downloaded for easy, accurate and automated reconciliation. I have 16 accounts at 7 institutions. Gathering all those individual statements and entering the data by hand would be a pain. With quicken it is done on a daily basis, without my help.
  • Occasionally I need to make reports on my net worth, income, and expenses for things like mortgage refinancing, tax-deductible expenses, and even my occasional high-level planning. Quicken does this whether payments came from my checking account, a credit card or an escrow account.
I am aware of no other tool which does all that.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Leeraar »

Everything is set up for automatic debit either to the credit card or checking account. I don't "schedule" anything online.

It was a lot of work to simplify it, but worth it. Also, some costs (capital gains) when moving taxable accounts to Vanguard. It also helps that we do not have a mortgage and do not itemize deductions.

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

Leeraar wrote:Everything is set up for automatic debit either to the credit card or checking account. I don't "schedule" anything online.
Yes, I have several like that. The advantage to me of using Quicken is that I can see those payments before they are actually made, thus allowing me to monitor my future cash flow.
It was a lot of work to simplify it, but worth it. Also, some costs (capital gains) when moving taxable accounts to Vanguard. It also helps that we do not have a mortgage and do not itemize deductions.
There is a lot of work getting Quicken set up as well, but it too was worth it. Also it is not as if it all needs to be set up at once. I, and I assume you too, built up our systems incrementally and continue to keep things up to date, for example adding a car loan. I do itemize so it helps me to print out taxable expense reports at tax time.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Leeraar »

One other thing you can do is time your transactions. So, my automatic transfer from Vanguard comes in a few days before the credit card is automatically paid. You can change the credit card date by calling the company.

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by astrohip »

Leeraar wrote:There are plenty of online tools at Vanguard, Morningstar. When I use them, I do not save data there. I honestly don't see any reason to have a tool like Quicken.
And that's great that it works for you. Everyone is different, and not everyone needs a Quicken. My sister uses Q-98, and just uses it for a checkbook. All her investments are tracked thru paper statements, with no reconciliation (that would drive me nuts). I use Quicken to monitor checking accounts, multiple CDs & MMFs, seven active credit cards, and six investment accounts, three each at Schwab & Vanguard. I also track some property & asset accounts. And by using a different "file", I also track a small family investment & real estate business, comprised of five different companies. While an accountant prepares all returns, Quicken keeps all the data that he needs to create those returns. Income, expenses, etc.

We all have different needs, and I respect the effort you have put into simplifying your financial infrastructure. There are certainly advantages to keeping it simple. :beer
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Leeraar »

I respect the effort you have put into simplifying your financial infrastructure
Thank you. A couple of other things:

I closed my Money Market accounts. They were serving no purpose.

When I moved all my investments to Vanguard, that effectively reset the taxable investments, and I was able to shred more than a decade's worth of paper records.

Ten years ago I brought a strategy, "Information Lifecyle Management" from work to my home. I went through the filing cabinets, and made a list of every type of document and assigned retention periods. We had years and years of phone bills, garbage bills, ... Hundreds of pounds of paper went to the shredder, and I stopped keeping routine bills after they were paid.

It may sound like I am an organized person, but in fact I am not. The simplification was a strategy to cope with my disorganized self.

Happy Thanksgiving!

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by astrohip »

Leeraar wrote:Thank you. A couple of other things:<snip>
Happy Thanksgiving!

L.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Bagsomoney »

Those of you have updated... I've been using Quicken since at least 1990. As a loooong time PC and Quicken user, I'm used to my keyboard shortcuts. Q2014 broke the Cut/Copy/Paste keyboard mappings to Windows standard Ctrl X/C/V. I've tried resetting that choice in Preferences too many times to count and it's just plain broken. Did they fix it in Q2015???

Thanks in advance.

Bob B.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by LadyGeek »

I fired up my Quicken 2013 Deluxe today and decided to follow the "upgrade now" nag screen. The 50% off deal is now in effect until Dec 31, 2014. Since my better half just upgraded to 2015, I followed suit. My cost was $37.49 + PA tax, much cheaper than Amazon.

Since I'm a prior TurboTax customer, Intuit was more than happy to use my existing Intuit ID for Quicken. There were no problems with the download or install. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that Intuit didn't sneak in any Windows start-up processes.

I wasn't happy to be forced to do an online registration (personal info), but Intuit has this anyway. The long-standing trick of simultaneously pressing Ctrl + Alt + (click on Tools --> One Step Update...) still results in a "You will no longer be prompted for registration" dialog box - (works for one time only). With online registration, this is probably a moot point.

I disabled Mobile & Alerts, along with the free credit score display in the account bar (right-click in the account bar, uncheck the box). My passwords remain in my local password vault.

I have a high-res monitor and like the smaller text. There are a few minor changes to the User Interface. Overall it seems a bit better than Quicken 2013.

The transaction downloads seem to be running a bit faster, but not by much.

Bagsomoney - The Windows Ctrl-X / C / V shortcuts are working for me.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Grasshopper »

I will wait for Q2013 to sunset in 2016, maybe in might get improved. :greedy Quicken user since 1995.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by topper1296 »

I just "upgraded" to Quicken 2015 due to I had Quicken 2012 and they make you upgrade every 3 years to be able to download transactions. I've been using Quicken for over 10 years and I never had a complaint about the 3 year upgrade cycle until now. Quicken 2015 is awful. I have to close out the program most of the time by going to the Windows task manager to end task. Never had an issue closing out/exiting the previous versions of Quicken.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Toons »

abuss368 wrote:Was the Mutual Fund Conversion updated and corrected for the Investor to Admiral shares conversions?
Yes it works. :happy
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Toons »

Drew31 wrote:Either of you previously use 2014? I'm curious how the speed of '15 is compared to '14? I'm hoping its a little faster and doesn't hang as much when switching accounts and windows
2015 is noticeably faster regarding the issues you mentioned and synchronization with the cloud is faster :happy
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Toons »

Leeraar wrote:I am a little bemused. With all the online (free) tools available, why would one want to purchase something like Quicken? Or, for that matter, TurboTax?

Intuit lost me as a loyal customer more than a decade ago, with their copy protection fiasco. I bought the TurboTax software in January, and installed it. My hard disk then crashed, and I replaced it. Intuit refused to give me a new software key when I needed to do my taxes in March. They wanted the original installation date which, of course, I could not retrieve from the dead drive.

L.
25 years of investment transactions(buys,reinvestment's,,etc are entered into my Quicken file.
If nothing else the capital gains estimator is worth the price of quicken when I am forecasting for any stock/bond asset sales. :happy
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by DaleMaley »

I bit the bullet and upgraded to 2015 Deluxe. I got it for $37 from 50% off deal that shows up when I started Quicken 2012.

Everything seems ok with 2015 Deluxe. I had to screw around and get the register font size and color set close to what I am used to. At least it is pretty easy to change these.........one previous version I got gave you either no way, or an extremely difficult way to do.

I am spoiled by the auto updates I do every night, which updates my net worth. One time I tried resisting the upgrade, and using yahoo finance to manually update quicken, but that was a pain in the you know what.

I am not a heavy feature user, so I don't know whether the exotic features work ok or not. I am still a dumb phone user, so I also don't know how it works on a smart phone.

I did the get your credit score thing, and was pleased to get my credit store.

I guess $37 over 3 years is not a very big price to pay to support the software........and at least this time the upgrade was fairly painless.......compared to past upgrades. I have been a Quicken user since the Windows 3.1 days.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by LadyGeek »

Has anyone tried a Year-End copy? I keep getting a "Quicken cannot use a blank password" after the process completes, even if I try it using a clean new account file.

Release R 4 (24.1.4.19) just pushed out this morning, but that's not on the list of things fixed.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Jon777 »

If you upgrade to Quicken Premiere 2015, expect to sink some significant time into fixing problems. Quicken Premiere 2012 was working fine; and I decided to upgrade to 2015 to take advantage of some improved capabilities, figuring Quicken 2012 would become obsolete in the spring of 2015.

Even Release R3 (24.1.3.3) has significant bugs. I have had problems with accounts from at least four different financial institutions.

In the most major bug, I set up my Everbank accounts for automated transaction download (previously only one of them was on the manual web-connect download). The system renamed one of my Everbank accounts and deleted another. Unfortunately I found out about the deletion after making a bunch of manual entries to update another account. Make sure you backup your file before changing your online downloads!

A second pattern is that Quicken's online download will miss transactions for no reason. There is a workaround for this--you can reset the "starting date" for the account if this persists; however if you don't notice this problem in time you may have to manually track down and update the transactions. Also having to hunt down and execute a workaround is a unacceptable. This has happened involving both a brokerage account and a bank with savings and checking accounts.

With yet a fourth institution, it stopped downloading my credit card transactions and instead had an error message. Trying to "reset" the online setup using Quicken's instructions provided by the error handling popups caused Quicken to freeze until I killed it with task manager. I tried the "reset" multiple times; each time Quicken froze and had to be killed. Finally, I was able to restore the automated download by deactivating and reactivating the online download for the account. This will cause both already cleared and reconciled as well as new positions to be downloaded; get ready for more manual cleanup work.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by pilotbum »

Has anyone tried a Year-End copy? I keep getting a "Quicken cannot use a blank password" after the process completes, even if I try it using a clean new account file.

Release R 4 (24.1.4.19) just pushed out this morning, but that's not on the list of things fixed.
I have had this same problem with the Validate and Super Validate. It seems to be an issue with all file operations.

For those who are on Q2013 who are holding out until next year, I would if I were you. I wish I'd done that. The most notable feature difference is the Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray. It's nice but not worth the rest of the heartaches in my opinion. It also gets your Experian Credit score. Whoopee. I have good credit and I monitor this, I don't need it, personally. Maybe others get more use out of it.

I've been a Quicken user since 1992 and consider myself a power user. There aren't many functions I don't or haven't used. Like many new versions there are very few changes that can justify the upgrade. It seems like every year Quicken is release before it's ready and those poor users who are eager to upgrade are stuck being the beta testers and the Application is literally built on revisions. As I recall 2010 had to the tune of 20 revisions between it's release date and the end of the year (2009). 2015 isn't as bad but not without its demons.

One feature DOWNGRADE was the attachments. Albeit not much of a feature that actually affects finance management I have found it useful for storing and filing all my financial documents. They have made this far less usable as it has removed the labels of document type (statement, other, confirmation, invoice, receipt, warranty...) and if you attach pdf's an image or thumbnail of the document is no longer viewable so you must open each one (assuming you have multiple attachments) to find what you are looking for.

The mobile feature also leaves a lot to be desired. What I desire is that it actually works. It does not. I upgraded hoping this has been addressed and it has not. It appears as though this app is a modified version of the mint.com app. First a little history: because I've been using Quicken for so long I utilize a lot of split transactions, itemized paychecks and transfers. Furthermore, when I pay a credit card bill it is recorded in quicken as a transfer from my checking to the credit card account. These are the areas where the mobile companion app seems to have troubles ultimately resulting in data corruption. The mobile app at first in 2013 did not support splits or transfers, then it did. The 2014/15 app does not (another clue this is where the problem lies). If you want to use split transactions or transfers you must enter a transaction but then later edit it on the desktop version. What's the point? And in the end it does cause data problems. Shortly after my upgrade and synchronizing with the cloud I noticed I had a data issue and could not find it. Accounts were not adding up correctly--something was missing or added that I could not find. I used a backup to recover the data and disabled the sync with the cloud, reconstructed the last couple days and have not had a problem since.

End of the story is don't upgrade as long as you're within the 3 years where you don't have to.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ Thanks for the info, that's good to know. I'm stuck upgrading because my husband upgraded his copy. He was using an older version and succumbed to the "Upgrade now" nag screen. :annoyed I need to keep in sync with him, as I "help" him figure out how to track investments.

For example, he was putting in fund price changes as purchases. :oops: Don't ask, I try. I try again. **sigh**

Jon777 and pilotbum - Welcome!
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

LadyGeek wrote:For example, he was putting in fund price changes as purchases. :oops: Don't ask, I try. I try again. **sigh**
Ain't love grand?

My wife, whose skills and insight make her a highly compensated employee (ie, the following is not because she is dumb), doesn't go near Quicken and I have to force her to listen to an annual "state of our finances" talk. I am actively simplifying our finances in the expectation that she will outlive me, and that her finances must be Quicken-free.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by gd »

Just upgraded to 2015 Premier from 2004 Deluxe, out of vague concern my data would not be transferable some day, it wouldn't run on some future version of Windows, and mostly because they dropped the price to $50. Some mildly interesting reporting enhancements, portfolio x-ray is no big deal (particularly if you have off-market assets), entering paycheck info is even more clumsy and confusing than before if you don't do exactly what it wants, was extremely uncomfortable with its unavoidable demand to know my address and desire to put me and my data on the cloud, and most of all, the fonts and color choices are poor considering they've been doing this for 20 years. I'm expecting it'll give me better CG reports than Deluxe did, and if so probably worth $50 after 11 years. Can't imagine why anyone would buy a new version every year. I understand other people want the download that's disabled after 3 years, but other than that? Nope.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by Don46 »

Drew31 wrote: I mean we all have a choice as to how we manage our finances and if we're that upset with what Intuit is offering wouldnt it just be easier to choose a different product? ... Some here are content with Mint, but for those of us that want more detail I just don't believe there is another product out there that can do what Quicken does.
I've had my frustrations with Quicken, but I, too, continue to upgrade and am now on Q14, to which I upgraded from Q11. I believe I will just stay with Q Premier 14 for a while, since I do not see any strong reason to go with Q 15 and there appear to be a lot of bugs still.
I, too, am a Mint.com customer, and I love having all that data on my iPhone or desktop. I know the figures on the accounts are accurate, whereas with Quicken it seems I always have some mess in my data, a placeholder here, a missing statement there. I don't take the time to correct until the end of the year, and then it is often a quick and dirty fix involving what I label "balance adjustment" to cover the errors of the past.

I would point out that Mint.com is an Intuit product. Why can't Intuit merge the reliability of Mint with the detail and reporting power of Quicken? :annoyed
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by pilotbum »

Don46 wrote:
Drew31 wrote: I mean we all have a choice as to how we manage our finances and if we're that upset with what Intuit is offering wouldnt it just be easier to choose a different product? ... Some here are content with Mint, but for those of us that want more detail I just don't believe there is another product out there that can do what Quicken does.
I've had my frustrations with Quicken, but I, too, continue to upgrade and am now on Q14, to which I upgraded from Q11. I believe I will just stay with Q Premier 14 for a while, since I do not see any strong reason to go with Q 15 and there appear to be a lot of bugs still.
I, too, am a Mint.com customer, and I love having all that data on my iPhone or desktop. I know the figures on the accounts are accurate, whereas with Quicken it seems I always have some mess in my data, a placeholder here, a missing statement there. I don't take the time to correct until the end of the year, and then it is often a quick and dirty fix involving what I label "balance adjustment" to cover the errors of the past.

I would point out that Mint.com is an Intuit product. Why can't Intuit merge the reliability of Mint with the detail and reporting power of Quicken? :annoyed
If they could ever make mint as powerful as quicken I'd be happy to use it but every time I try it out I am disappointed in it's complete lack of function that I've grown accustomed to over the years. There's not much in quicken I don't use.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by gd »

Don46 wrote: I would point out that Mint.com is an Intuit product. Why can't Intuit merge the reliability of Mint with the detail and reporting power of Quicken? :annoyed
As I understand it Mint is a product Intuit bought whole, their ownership is irrelevant. Big messy complicated things have more opportunities for problems, even more so when the core of it might be 25 years old. This is particularly true of products that are constantly marketed and worked for upgrade revenue, like Microsoft Word or Quicken. You can have reliable or you can have powerful, you can have yield or you can have safety, you can have position or you can have momentum. Hope your wish is not granted, or you'll just end up with two Quickens.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

gd wrote:
Don46 wrote: I would point out that Mint.com is an Intuit product. Why can't Intuit merge the reliability of Mint with the detail and reporting power of Quicken? :annoyed
As I understand it Mint is a product Intuit bought whole, their ownership is irrelevant. Big messy complicated things have more opportunities for problems, even more so when the core of it might be 25 years old. This is particularly true of products that are constantly marketed and worked for upgrade revenue, like Microsoft Word or Quicken. You can have reliable or you can have powerful, you can have yield or you can have safety, you can have position or you can have momentum. Hope your wish is not granted, or you'll just end up with two Quickens.
Or worse yet, two Mints!
May neither drought nor rain nor blizzard disturb the joy juice in your gizzard. -- Squire Omar Barker (aka S.O.B.), the Cowboy Poet
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by nedsaid »

pop77 wrote:Did anyone upgrade to Quicken 2015 Premier for Windows yet? Love to hear reviews/feedback if anyone did.
I still have Quicken 2014 and am quite satisfied with it. Yes, I have read the many horror stories people have had. What I do is wait before upgrading and give the company the opportunity to work out the bugs. I do this with all my software purchases. Heck, I waited until March of 2014 to upgrade my PC from Windows XP to Windows 7. I had a few little issues when I upgraded but it was all easier than I expected. My point is, let someone else beta test software. If the reviews keep coming in bad, just wait for the next version. Things normally get fixed.

I have used Quicken for years. I normally go three years between upgrades and get my money's worth. I see no reason to upgrade every year.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by qusertexas »

OAG wrote:Been using 15 version since Sunday. Works fine and see very little changes. To date no problems and speed is just fine. One thing with this version (that was not mandatory with other versions) is that you MUST have or create a Quicken/Intuit ACCOUNT. This appears to be necessary on Intuits part to prevent putting the program on two or more machines. This account/password thing can cause a problem - be sure you have checked what (if any) Account ID/Password you have in your current Quicken DATA file. If you do not know this information the installation of the 15 version will be a problem as the program WILL NOT start until you input the correct ID/Password. The work-around is to remove the 15 version reinstall the previous information and get the information from a previous version DATA file (you must have a backup as the 15 install modifies the DATA file for 15 and the DATA can no longer be read with a previous version of Quicken).
OAG - Where in the data file would I find my Quicken account in Quicken 2013. I don't recall ever setting one up. Thanks
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by gd »

qusertexas wrote: One thing with this version (that was not mandatory with other versions) is that you MUST have or create a Quicken/Intuit ACCOUNT. This appears to be necessary on Intuits part to prevent putting the program on two or more machines.
"Necessary" is perhaps not the perfect word here... EULA says 3 computers in household. If it restricts to one account/database, I didn't find that, but good luck. It is not clear what active restrictions they use; I'd be interested if anyone knows. It does *require* you to receive electronic communications from Intuit, and allows them to examine your data. You have, by the way, bought a license, not a piece of software you now own.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by rustymutt »

Yes I did upgrade from 2012 version, and had no issues. Works as it did. I turned off all the new mobile features they put into it, as I didn't need that.
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by bertilak »

rustymutt wrote:Yes I did upgrade from 2012 version, and had no issues. Works as it did. I turned off all the new mobile features they put into it, as I didn't need that.
Yeah, I backed out all the mobile features. I can't see what they actually do for me. Why would I want to check or update my finances when I am out and about? It's the kind of thing you do when you can sit down at your desk and do things carefully with all hardcopy, or even online, data available in case it is needed? Also that syncing operation was an annoyance. Just one more thing to wait for and to hope doesn't go wrong (can't connect to server type of stuff).

Anyone who is happy with the limited functionality of the mobile aspects of Quicken doesn't really need Quicken.

Of course in some ways I am a Luddite. The first time I heard of an electric toothbrush I thought it was a joke (like Tom Swift and His Electric Grandmother) but now I own an electric toothbrush that cost me over $100. Perhaps someday I will "get" mobile finances, but I never used to cart around all my financial data, nor even my checkbook, so why start now?
May neither drought nor rain nor blizzard disturb the joy juice in your gizzard. -- Squire Omar Barker (aka S.O.B.), the Cowboy Poet
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Re: Quicken 2015 for Windows - Any reviews?

Post by rustymutt »

Yeah, I backed out all the mobile features. I can't see what they actually do for me. Why would I want to check or update my finances when I am out and about? It's the kind of thing you do when you can sit down at your desk and do things carefully with all hardcopy, or even online, data available in case it is needed? Also that syncing operation was an annoyance. Just one more thing to wait for and to hope doesn't go wrong (can't connect to server type of stuff).

Anyone who is happy with the limited functionality of the mobile aspects of Quicken doesn't really need Quicken.

Of course in some ways I am a Luddite. The first time I heard of an electric toothbrush I thought it was a joke (like Tom Swift and His Electric Grandmother) but now I own an electric toothbrush that cost me over $100. Perhaps someday I will "get" mobile finances, but I never used to cart around all my financial data, nor even my checkbook, so why start now?[/quote]

Yeah I thought the same thing. I also don't like the ideal of Intuit knowing my finances, and who's getting what when. It's none of their business. I set it up for quotes only, no share info, or balances on my investments. They all want more info on us than is safe in my opinion.
Even educators need education. And some can be hard headed to the point of needing time out.
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