Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with quicken

How to account for stock merger in MS Money?

Sweetie Darling — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:04:55 -0800

Looking for a Microsoft Money/ Quicken expert - or any smart accounting/finance person, really - to help me figure out how to document the recent Pfizer-Wyeth merger in MS Money. Pfizer merged with (acquired) Wyeth on Oct. 15. Eligible shareholders received $33 cash and .985 shares of Pfizer for every share of Wyeth we held, plus a cash payout for any fractional shares.

In MS Money, do I

- Sell Wyeth and Buy Pfizer? If so, at what prices - the closing prices on 10/15 ($17.66 PFI, $50.39 WYE)?

or, do I

- Remove Shares of Wyeth and Add Shares of Pfizer? If so, how do I account for the $33/share of cash?

Also, how do I document the fractional share payout?

I found these FAQs on the Pfizer webpage http://media.pfizer.com/files/investors/shareholder/Pfizer_Wyeth_FAQ.pdf and this question-and-answer on a different forum http://www.rockryno.com/quicken/How-do-I-handle-the-recent-merger-of-Pfizer-and-Wyeth-19406-.htm, but I'm still not sure I understand the mechanics of recording this in Money.

Thanks in advance for your help. This is making my head hurt.

How can I use a spreadsheet to track my accounts?

reenum — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:16:25 -0800

I want to start using a spreadsheet to track and reconcile my various accounts. How do I start? I've been using MS Money for years. Due to switching to the Mac, MS Money being discontinued, and generally hating the fact that my financial data is trapped in a proprietary program, I feel like I should use a spreadsheet to track my finances.

I have a savings account, two checking accounts, two credit card accounts, and a Roth IRA.

There are a couple of things I'm curious about: How does one reconcile accounts in a spreadsheet and are there any templates that have that checkbook entry system that MS Money has?

I've looked at some of the older posts on this topic and none seemed to answer my questions satisfactorily.

Links to templates, blog posts, howtos, general anecdotes, and anything else relating to this question are requested and appreciated. Thanks!

Experience with Quicken Loans for re-fi or mortgage?

tristeza — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:16:16 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with Quicken Loans for mortgage or re-fi; specifically, with the supposed "go with us and never pay closing costs again to re-fi or get another mortgage" policy? I'm trying to get a good deal on a re-fi (easier said than done), and am looking into Quicken Loans. They have offered me a good deal, but the broker is so aggressive that I'm considering telling him to fuck off even with his good deal.

However, he fast-talked me something about if I get a Quicken loan, I never have to pay closing costs again if I use them for another re-fi or new mortgage.

Does anyone have any experience with this policy, is it some bait-and-switch or what? (Please also feel free to share horror stories about them, I'm really leaning towards walking away but the deal is really good from what I can tell.)

Goodbye Quicken!

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:20:58 -0800

Recently converted from Quicken to Mint.com and am finding it a bit disorienting... 1. How do I keep track of checks before they clear?

2. What do I do with my monthly statements now?

I've always used Quicken like an electronic checkbook register: enter my withdrawals and deposits as I made them and reconciled with my statement at the end of the month. Obviously, this is much more labor-intensive than it should be in the internet age and that's why I'm switching. That and the fact that Quicken on the Mac is *awful.* I think I just need to get used to account balances being a couple days behind what I've actually spent, and make sure I leave a comfortable financial cushion, but I am wondering how others have made this transition.

Intuit Forced Upgrades

portabella — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:18:13 -0800

I use Quicken, Quickbooks, and Bank of America. Right now they are working like a champ, but Bank of America has announced that they're pulling support for 2006 versions of both Quicken and Quickbooks. Normally this would be OK; I'm thrifty, but not so much so that I'd complain about $150 every three years. The problem is that all the versions to upgrade to have lots of problems; what to do? Although all these products have problems, I'd prefer not to switch any of them (especially Bank of America, since there's an ATM right down the street from my house).

Ideally, there would be a way to continue using my current versions and keep downloading financial statements anyway.

Upgrading to the 2007 versions is least objectionable, but also least helpful, since I'll be looking at the same problem in 12 months.

Help me find the right online personal accounting software

tippiedog — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:49:57 -0800

Which online personal financial software/web site offers 'old school' checkbook ledger-type functionality? I'm old enough that I grew up in the age where you entered your transactions in your checkbook ledger as you made them and then reconciled your ledger to your bank statement. I've used Quicken for a decade to do basically the same thing in a software version.

Plus, I'm a control freak and want to know exactly how much money I have actually spent--not just what my current balance is.

Now, I'd like to move from Quicken to an online application and would like to continue to manage my bank accounts 'old school.'

I've tried mint.com and Quicken online, but they both only really support account management without (or with minimal) manual entry.

I would still like the app to get my bank account feed, but I'd like it to work like old-style reconciling: match my entries up with the bank's cleared transactions.

iPhone support would be a big plus.

Open-Source money management software?

®@ — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:39:07 -0800

Anyone have a good open-source alternative to Quicken? So my parents use Quicken and love it, but I'm cheap (and a bit strapped for cash). Does anyone have open-source money management software they can recommend?

Specifically, I'm looking for something like Mint or Quicken Online (pulling data from my bank account and credit card and making it into a pie graph), but software-based, because no matter what it says in Mint's TOS I think submitting all my bank passwords to a website is ludicrous. That being said, I realize that doing the same thing for software is potentially just as risky, which why I'm hoping for something open source.

What I DON'T want is something that requires me submit daily data; I punched receipts into Expensr for a year and it was just too much darn work.

I understand such a thing may not exist, so I'll accept "just cough up for Quicken" if you actually use Quicken and think it's awesome.

Does QuickBooks for Mac suck less than Quicken?

HotToddy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:53:42 -0800

Does QuickBooks for Mac suck less than Quicken? I am using Quicken 2007 for Mac and [insert violent rant against sucky SUCKY PIECE OF CRAP software that causes me HOURS of wasted time doing the very thing I HATE to do most in the world]. I do not need the fancy features of QuickBooks and I hate to switch over because I have a system that works when it works which lately is not very often in Quicken, but if you say QuickBooks for Mac sucks less, I will buy it.

I am aware of this previous question on personal finance software for Macs but at this point my question is not "What is good personal finance software for Macs?" but "Will QuickBooks make my life less miserable than Quicken does?"

Thank you.

Help me understand US Treasury securities.

Flunkie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:18:56 -0800

Help me understand US Treasury securities. I've invested in the stock market for quite some time. I've recently decided that I want to also invest some money in less risky securities, such as those offered by the US Treasury. I've been investigating, but there are still questions that I haven't found answers for.

Question 1. Is the only real difference between "treasury bills", "treasury notes", and "treasury bonds" the length of time until they mature? I understand that their price and interest rates will differ as well, but that obviously depends on the maturity length. So I guess I mean something along these lines: If the Treasury started offering "30 year treasury notes", under exactly the same rules as their current treasury notes except that they have a 30 year maturity, should an intelligent market value them exactly the same as it would "30 year treasury bonds" offered at exactly the same time?

Question 2. Let's say I use TreasuryDirect.gov (which seems like a good idea). How is periodic interest paid out? I don't mean "when" or "how often"; rather, I mean for example "Does it automatically get plopped back into the bank account that I linked to my TreasuryDirect account?"

Question 3. I use Quicken. Investigation reveals a profound lack of information on how to deal with this stuff in Quicken, but seems to indicate that it can't automatically track your US Treasury securities' values like it can your stocks' values. But this is almost unbelievable. So, my question is: Seriously? Quicken can't deal with United States Treasury securities, except manually? And if the answer is "Yes, seriously", then a followup: How do you personally deal with this?

Question 4. I gather that these things are only sold on very specific days. Do I have to log on to Treasury Direct that day, between some hour and some other, and tell it "Hey, I want some of that"? Or can I just tell it in advance that I want to buy such-and-such an amount of security such-and-such, at the noncompetitive price, whenever it becomes available? If the latter, how far in advance can I do so?

Any other hints that you think might be helpful would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Personal Finance Software for Mac Question: Deluxe 2008 Edition

harkin banks — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:13:51 -0800

Mac switcher / Intuit hater question: Is there a good alternative to Quicken for the Mac? My wife just got me a new MacBook as a pre-Valentine's day present (yes, she's awesome.) There are obvious equivalents for all of the applications I have on my old desktop (running XP), except one: Quicken.

I know there's a Mac version of Quicken, but from what I hear it lacks a lot of the functionality of the Windows version. I also know that I could run the Windows version via Parallels, but that doesn't appeal to me for two reasons: a) the only reason for me to install Parallels/XP would be for Quicken, which makes the whole thing rather expensive, and b) over the last few years I've come to hate Intuit with the proverbial heat of a thousand suns just as much for their product-sunsetting, privacy-invading ways as for their insecure software. (Bastards.) So Quicken in either form is right out.

Our requirements are fairly typical, I think. Our financial life is not crazily complex, but we've got investments and a mortgage so I think we need something more than an spreadsheet or an "envelope-based" program (like Budget). Some budgeting and forecasting capability would be nice. Being able to download transactions from online banking is a necessity. Whatever I choose, I don't want to be locked into a proprietary format, so the ability to use or export to a common format is vital. (Ability to import our previous history from Quicken is NOT important. I haven't been keeping up recently, so our Quicken file is pretty out of date at the moment -- I would be OK with starting over in a new program.) So, what personal finance software for the Mac should we look at?

There's this thread asking the same question, but it's almost three years old, and the situation has probably changed. Mentioned in that thread are Liquid Ledger, iBank, and Moneydance. I also know about GnuCash. Any opinions about these four programs? Are there other alternatives I should look into?

Quick, en-lighten me!

ChrisR — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:26:55 -0800

How do I set up Quicken without ending up with a negative balance at the end when I import historical account information? I've got Quicken 2007 for Mac, and I'm trying to import all of my old account information (from TD Canada Trust, if that makes a difference). This would seem to be straightforward, except that the end result of these imports is that I have a negative balance; it starts all of the imports from a $0 balance, despite the fact that my balance at the start of the import was much higher than that. Moreover, I can NOT change what Quicken sees as the starting balance on the accounts. This has been the blocker for me when I've tried to track my finances this way before, but I don't want to give up this easily again. So, can someone walk me through the right way to start using accounting software like this with historical information, in a way that does not result in my going mad?

Newbie warning: Much of the terminology in dealing with accounts ("reconcile"?) is unfamiliar to me. I may require some hand-holding.

Thanks in advance!

How do I open my .tax files?

hector horace — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:09:52 -0800

Help me open my .tax files. I filed electronically (PC runing XP), the past few years and need to take a look at one of the returns. I unfortunately can't figure out how to open the .tax file. I think I may need quicken. Any suggestions on how to open it without using Quicken or how to get a Quicken demo for free? Thanks!

Oh God. Kill me now. (Quicken 98 Y2K clusterfuck)

sweet mister — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:21:36 -0800

[BoringAsFuckFilter] How to retrospectively correct a Y2K problem in a Quicken 98 file? Staggeringly dull details follow. My father-in-law has been using Quicken 98 / Windows 98 to track his (considerable) finances for the last 10 years. He ignored all suggestions to upgrade saying 'it works fine as it is'. Don't ask. Just don't ask.

We finally (it took a fucking DECADE) persuaded him to switch to a Mac. However, when I tried to import his accounts from Quicken 98 into Mac Quicken 2007 as a .QIF file, I discovered to my amazement that Quicken 98 was NOT Y2K savvy.

As a result, every transaction after Jan 1 2000 is recorded as 1900 onwards.

Eg a transaction in 2002 is recorded as 1902. Because Quicken 98 just displays that as MM/DD/02 he never realised there was a problem, and his capital gains returns worked out fine as far as I can tell.

Mac Quicken spots that there is an error, but dates the transactions as the date of import.

What I need to do is take his Quicken 98 data, select every transaction from Jan 1 2000 to the present day, and change the date from 19xx to 20xx.

Is there actually a way to do this?

If not, how do you retrospectively correct this problem?

[possible solution that has occurred to me -- somehow export the data as CSV and do a regex search/replace, then reimport. But how?]

Is it okay to quit keeping track of my finances?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 May 2007 05:48:02 -0800

Should I bother keeping track of my money? I've been using Quicken for years. I'm sick of it. I'm keeping track of more than 15 accounts (retirement accounts for me and my spouse, our kids' college funds, checking, savings, investments, etc.). We have a mortgage, and a large amount of money in investments. Over half of the accounts cannot be downloaded, and have to be entered by hand.

I'm several months behind, and don't have the time to catch up. Even if I were magically caught up, I wouldn't have the time to stay caught up. My spouse is an excellent person, but would be no help in this matter. I'm not having fun.

I'd like to just forget about Quicken, toss the statements in a shoe box when they come in the mail, and not bother with all this any more. Will I regret this? Any advice?

It's not me the ID thieves are killing. It's poor Mr. Quicken down the street.

rileyray3000 — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:58:12 -0800

Lots of closed accounts. A few ID thefts. And hell on the checkbook balancing. Here's the magic question: how will it affect my Quicken? I've been a victim of ID theft a few times. Largely on the part of my bank, who seems to keep handing out my info to random homeless people when it's drunk. I find out when I get a notice and a new card in the mail that says "sorry" and "cut up your card and open a new account.'

It's amazing how many times I'll come back for hot bank cashier girls.

But here's where it gets tricky. I've just started using quicken. I needed to get the info from several closed accounts. It was tough but I did it. Now I've got several dead accounts in my list and it seems to take forever to get online info from them.

How does one clear the money corpses but still hold onto their reciepts?

Also, whomever answers this the best should expect several quicken followup questions in the future, as I'm just learning how to move past the 100 reciepts in an envelope field of my life.

Quicken chanages my payees, why God why?

largecorp — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:08:15 -0800

Quicken 2006 for Mac: when I download transactions, all checks (not other transactions) show up always paid to the same person--the wrong person, and the same (wrong) category. I can manually change the wrong info, but then it reverts when I "accept." I can again manually change it in the main register where it will stick. Any advice? I know this is probably better asked on a tech support site, but the Quicken boards seem to be filled mostly with lost customers like me complaining and not getting help. Thanks for any advice!

Quicken

Beaufort — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 12:12:44 -0800

My stepfather passed away suddenly on Friday. He didn't leave the passoword to Quicken 2006 Deluxe for my mom. I have looked every where to see if he wrote it down, but no luck in finding it so far. Any way to figure out his password? My mom is pretty sure she knows all of his accounts and at what banks, but I wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything.

How to use Quicken if you're an unmarried couple

mollymolo — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 20:07:50 -0800

Quicken: If you're unmarried but living together, how should you answer the "are you married question" when setting up Quicken? My fiance and I are setting up Quicken on my computer. We'd like to use it with both of our various accounts (right now everything's separate, though soon, I'll be added onto his checking account/joint). The wedding isn't until 2007 (and hence not in this tax year).

When you go to set up Quicken, it asks if you're married or not. If you answer yes, it lets you enter in information for your spouse. If you answer no, it only seems to be able to accept the one person.

Should we just go ahead and answer yes? Or is this going to cause undo confusion when it comes to (turbo)tax time?

Is Quickbooks over my head?

suchatreat — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:20:19 -0800

Quickbooks: How different is it from Quicken, and how difficult to learn? I interviewed for a job yesterday that requires Quickbook knowledge. I don't have any, though I do have extensive Quicken experience, as well as other financial experience (light receivables/payables, budgeting, reporting).

The guy liked me and he liked my other experience enough to call me back for a second interview wherein I will be asked more detailed questions, many of them in regard to Quickbooks.

So long question longer, will I be in over my head with Quickbooks if they do hire me? I usually pick things up pretty quickly; self taught (mostly) on other programs such as Excel, Word, Access, Symposium, JD Edwards. I'm not afraid of computers, which probably helps.

Be honest!

What is the best version of Quicken for windows?

joeblough — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 18:42:30 -0800

What is the best version of Quicken for Windows? Is there a consensus on what version of Quicken for Windows was the best?

Currently I am using Quicken 2000 under the Classic environment on OSX, but if I switch to an intel-based Mac, Classic doesn't work anymore. I figure that I might as well run Windows under Parallels to get some Quicken action on a future intel Mac.

Google reveals that 2005/2006 are pretty much Teh Suck. Actually, I'm interested in a version that's old enough that it doesn't 'phone home' all the time. This is mainly why I'm interested in a Windows version as the OSX compatible Quickens for Mac, being newer, are probably profligate mothership-contacters. Also it would seem that the Mac versions are generally behind the Windows versions in terms of features.

I don't really care about automatically pulling credit card/bank account statements from within Quicken; I'm okay with downloading all the files from the various websites. I don't want to put my passwords in Quicken!

[Note to languagehat: I have properly capitalized this post. :)]

Convert Quicken 2001 Data To QuickBooks Pro 2006 (And I'll Give You A Kitten!)

SlyBevel — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:10:59 -0800

How do I port data from a Quicken 2001 database to Quickbooks Pro 2006? I have a client who's been running her husband's small business for years now on Quicken 2001. The backup function is a touch buggy and doesn't play nicely with their office server.

She'd like a new solution that will give her a prettier UI, more features, and is currently supported. I support other clients with QB Pro 2006, and I use it myself (well, my wife does), so naturally, that's what I'm recommending.

I'm not interested in other accounting package alternatives. Thank you, but no thank you. All of the accountants I've spoken to in this region have told me that they prefer that their clients use QB Pro.

I'm not an Excel mage, so doing a manual convert through Excel is a second-class option. I'd strongly prefer some utility that just gets the process done, even if I (and by I, I mean my client) have to pay for it.

I have Googled, and I got limited results. I didn't find any exact matches in the software versions I'm dealing with, and where I did find answers, they involved being an Excel mage (see above).

Help us, Mefi Community. You're our only hope!

Quicken and Bank of America

curiousleo — Fri, 26 May 2006 11:24:06 -0800

Quicken and Bank of America Business users? This may be too specific... but here goes.

I have Quicken Home and Business Premiere 2006 and Bank of America business checking/saving/credit card account.

It is hard enough to manually download transactions for each accounts... but.. it is also confusing.

For some reason say my business credit card account 0001 is connected to Corporation account 0002.

It seems that this is standard practice for bank of america's business customers.

All my credit card 0001 payments seems to go to Corporation account 0002 and in turn it transfers the payment to credit card account 0001.

When I download both account's activities to quicken...
they are not connected like the BofA web site...

Corp 0002 account transactions only show payments...

Card 0001 account transactions only the spendings.

How should I set this up in Quicken.. so I get correct calculations and reports...???

Getting data from my bank account into Quickbooks?

subpixel — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:50:11 -0800

OwnershipSocietyFilter: Is this $50 trinket really the only way to get data from my bank account (Quicken Interchange Format) into Quickbooks? Intuit would like me to make a not-free call to ask the same question...

Easy Money Management

jare2003 — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 09:23:28 -0800

I'm a college student, and I was looking for a (cheap) money management software package to manage my loans, credit card, and income from work. Does anyone know of a cheap one that works well? I was looking at Quicken, but that's 80 bucks and seems like overkill.

Can Quicken or MS Money work over a home network?

bondcliff — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 06:22:50 -0800

Can Quicken or MS Money work over a home network? I have many PCs in my house and it would be nice to be able to enter a transaction from anywhere. More inside. Intuit Doesn't support the use of their product over a network and Microsoft, as usual, is no help. I'd like to be able to put my data file on a shared folder (ideally on a Samba share on a Linux server I'm putting up) and access it from anywhere in the home. I wouldn't need to have the same file open on two PCs at the same time.

I suppose I could just put the data file on a network drive and see what happens but given the nature of the data I really don't want to play with something so critical.

Has anyone done this? Does it work? Any tricks to it? Does Quicken store everything in the data file, including on-line banking info, etc? Would this cause a problem for automatic program updates on the different PCs?

I'm open to alternative products as long as they support on-line banking and my non-power-user wife would be willing to switch. Gnu-Cash is not a viable alternative.