First Impressions--Quicken 2003

from Dana Baggett:

My copy of Quicken 2003 for Mac OS X CD arrived yesterday by first class mail from Intuit in San Diego, CA. I ordered it directly from Intuit with a $10. instant rebate off the list price of $59.95. But, shipping and sales tax brought the final tab up to $56.60. (The best deal I have seen so far is from the amazon.com Sunday newspaper flyer offering Quicken 2003 at $59.95 with a $20. upgrade mail-in rebate. That price point qualifies for free shipping, too. If there is a catch, it is that the pre-order is available 8/25 and the rebate offer expires 8/26/02. Go figure. No mention of the rebate on the amazon.com web site when I last looked.)

This venerable Mac application has been completely rewritten for Mac OS X (Quicken 2003 also installs on Mac OS 9.2.2 and later) and it looks it. It has an entirely new, Aqua appearance. I am not a power user but I do use Quicken to manage my check book and download my credit card transactions. I allocate the expenses to the appropriate income tax categories when applicable. I record my meager stock portfolio transactions with acquisitions, sales and splits noted, again for ultimate tax reporting. In handling the latter alone, it has been a life-saver. If you ever tried to figure out with pencil and paper, which stock shares were sold, what their acquisition price was, with a split thrown in for good measure, all so you could pay a capital gains tax if you owed one, you will gladly pay the price for this application. At least that's why I first bought it. (And your tax advisor may say it is a tax deductable purchase.)

There have been steady improvements in the functionality of Quicken over the years. Intuit offered a patch for Quicken 2002 so it could be used with Mac OS X but it looked like the Classic application it really was. Quicken 2003 for Mac OS X looks and feels like a robust Mac OX X application. It is attractive and offers new features; for example, it integrates all my various financial matters in a single panel called Quicken Insights. As someone who never really wanted to be an accountant and is prone to errors in handling numbers, I think Quicken 2003 will be fun to use. And that says a lot for me.