Price:
Quicken 2003 Premier can be purchased on the web for $59 plus shipping . 

"The Premier edition gives users tools to push management of personal finances to a higher level. This release has significantly improved over the previous version."

System Requirements:
Pentium 133 (Pentium II 300 recommended), WIN 95/98/2000/Me/XP, 32 MB RAM (64 MB RAM recommended). Hard Disk Space: 67 MB, plus 45 MB for Internet Explorer if IE 5.5 or higher is not already installed (IE 5.5 included on Quicken CD-ROM) . Super VGA (800x600) with 256 colors (1024x768 with 16-bit color recommended) CD-ROM Drive: 2X speed (4X speed or faster recommended) Internet Connection: 14.4 Kbps modem (56 Kbps or higher recommended) Sound card and speakers recommended. Any printer. 

Intuit, Inc., 6220 Greenwich Dr. San Diego, CA 92122   www.intuit.com 

Support:
Free at www.quicken.com  Pay phone support

Quicken 2003 Premier

By Karen Warren

Quicken 2003 assists people in the management of their personal finances.  It includes tools for managing bank accounts, credit cards property, loans, investments and taxes. I have used Quicken for many years. I depend on it to keep me up to date on many financial matters. 

A number of refinements in this release of Quicken have made a good product better. Quicken can help control expenses by showing  you where money is going and the trends of various types of spending. By categorizing and tracking income from different sources, it directs the user to the best uses of time and capital. Quicken makes it easy to gather information such as banking transactions and stock quotes over the internet. Where the user must still enter numbers by hand, Quicken provides an organized format and minimizes the typing effort. The user can also export data from Quicken to other computer programs, such as tax programs.  

The automatic installation routine for Quicken 2003 Premier worked smoothly on my computer, which has an AMD 333 megahertz processor and runs Windows 98 as its operating system. It recognized my old Quicken 2000 Deluxe and automatically backed up my existing data. Note: I had backed up my data before I started the install, and so should every user. The backup is particularly important in this case because Quicken 2003 uses a new data format. It took a minute or so to convert my several years of data. At the end, the install routine invites the user to browse the introductory tutorials. These are divided into tutorial videos for first time users and for experienced Quicken users. I recommend watching the videos. They are brief, to the point, and they acquaint you with the layout of the screens and the main features of the program. I also recommend regular browsing of the Quicken Help files to learn about financial management as well as about the program itself.  

Usability is the watchword for the evolution of widely used computer programs. The screens in Quicken 2003 Premier are another step away from the look of accountants' ledger sheets and towards symbols and organization that guide the user's attention and action. Importantly, common input screens, like those for banking transactions, have the same familiar look as earlier versions.  

Accounts are the basic building blocks of information in Quicken. Quicken 2003 organizes accounts into major groups called Cash Flow, Investing, and Property & Debt. The first group contains checking and credit card accounts and will have the greatest number of transactions. The Investing group includes  stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The last group handles big dollar items like houses and mortgages, and will likely have infrequent data entries. To add an account simply click Accounts (on the tool bar); Add Account, select a type of account, and fill in the blanks in the dialog box that appears.  One checking account is a good start for a beginner. Setting up on-line services was just a matter of keying in the information identifying me provided by my bank  When I tried to set a credit card account for a store credit card, Quicken 2003 seemed  to insist that I choose from its list of banks which supply on line data. The store I was trying to set up an account for was not in the list. Finally, I just typed in the name and was able to proceed.  However, this card does not have the ability  to download information.  

It is worth the time to set up and use personal checking account information. Quicken 2003 has made this particularly easy. If you download bank credit card or other payment information, Quicken 2003 automatically can categorize common payments into thousands of common types. The special reports available-- such as printing a list of all your donations to the boy scouts -- can make tax preparations easier.  Additionally, other reports let you see how much you spent in any given area such as dining out. Finally, Quicken will automatically reconcile my bank accounts, noting checks which have not cleared, etc.  

Quicken 2003 comes with a collection of standard screens for input, reports, and instructions. Almost everything can be customized or expanded. This makes Quicken 2003 an incredible tool for managing one's finances. It is worth spending time to see what is available and making things look the way you want.  Generally, I would right click on screens and parts of screens. mostly, this caused menus to pop up with options for changing things. I also tried a few double clicks which provided similar choices. Everyone has different needs and expectations. I found that taking time to make Quicken meet my needs made using the program even easier than using the defaults.  

A particularly useful feature of Quicken 2003 is "Alert Messages" on the "Home Page" These little pop up screens alert the user to opportunities based on the calendar, the types of accounts that have been set up, and the current values in the accounts. For example, in December there are reminders to complete year end charitable donations, and that mileage to and from charitable events is also tax deductible. When account information from a financial institution becomes available for downloading, an alert appears. The same is true for anticipated transactions, such as a regular income or expense payment, and for conditions such as a checking account nearing its minimum balance. A "Set Up Alerts" button leads to a menu for customizing the display.  

Quicken 2003 continues to enhance the drill down feature. This refers to starting from a summary amount or graph and quickly getting supporting details. Suppose I want to run a summary report of my expenses and then want to see more detail for the Entertainment category. In Quicken 2003 Premier, all I had to do was click on Reports on the tool bar, select "How am I spending my money?" and  "Spending", set the beginning and ending dates in the boxes at the bottom of the screen, and click on "Show Report."  Total amounts for all your expense categories appear (both the standard Quicken categories and any you have added). Double click on the amount for Entertainment, and a list of the individual Entertainment expenses appears, with dates and descriptions. A double click on an individual expense will bring up the full entry as originally entered, say in a checking or credit card account. Drill Down also applies to graphs, such as the pie chart for expenses that appears on the default "First Page." Double clicking will show a larger and more detailed pie chart. Doubling clicking a segment of the new chart will show detailed transactions.  

There are two important uses for Drill Down: first, getting to the root causes of spending and income; and second, enhancing and correcting the underlying data itself.  In the first instance, we see what we need to change in our own living, working, and investing. Here is an illustration of the second use for enhancing and correcting, I noticed in an expense report that I had amounts in both "Dining" and "Dining Out."  Drilling down showed that I had randomly assigned meals away from home into one category or the other. To make one category, I used the "Find & Replace" feature to change "Dining" to "Dining Out" and then ran a list of all the places my family had eaten this year where we had paid by check or credit card.  

For all its sophistication, Quicken 2003 Premier takes a measured approach to detail. As much as possible Quicken takes care of detail automatically, though downloads and guessing entries from the first few keystrokes. Theoretically, precise reports on spending would require tracking cash expenditures by category, as well as purchases by check or credit card. It is possible to set up a "Cash" account, but Quicken 2003 Premier advises rounding entries to whole dollar amounts, to save time and still achieve the overall objective of good personal management.  

Backups are especially important in Quicken. Once you do something in Quicken it is done and cannot be undone. The only way to go back is to use a backup. Quicken makes backups easy. It would be an improvement if Quicken also made going back easy by adding an undo feature.  

All versions of Quicken 2003 provide for management of personal finances, tracking tools for stocks and other investments, and guidance for tax and retirement planning. Premier adds investing alerts and analyses for buy and sell decisions, capital gains, and specific income tax schedules. The Premier edition gives users tools to push management of personal finances to a higher level. This release has significantly improved over the previous version.