Quicken? What is it good for?
I live in South Australia.
I see Quicken advertised in catalogues, and sometimes I see it in shops. The advertising seems mainly to be based on encouraging people to use it to manage their income tax and GST reporting. I am sure people do buy it, but I have never heard of anyone I know actually using it.
However, when I am reading this forum (and others) it seems that Quicken is commonly used in the US by ordinary people (not for business use). The most common use cited seems to be 'balancing your check [cheque] book' -- whatever that means.
Is this what people use if for? What other uses does it have?
Where I am, hardly anyone uses cheques (except businesses for ease of accounting). Most purchases are made by credit card. Regular statements from the bank, or receipts from ATMs give you all you need to know about your accounts. If that is not enough, all banks let you view your account balances online.
I am really curious to know what Quicken is good for? Is it a cultural thing or am I missing out on something useful?
cheers
I see Quicken advertised in catalogues, and sometimes I see it in shops. The advertising seems mainly to be based on encouraging people to use it to manage their income tax and GST reporting. I am sure people do buy it, but I have never heard of anyone I know actually using it.
However, when I am reading this forum (and others) it seems that Quicken is commonly used in the US by ordinary people (not for business use). The most common use cited seems to be 'balancing your check [cheque] book' -- whatever that means.
Is this what people use if for? What other uses does it have?
Where I am, hardly anyone uses cheques (except businesses for ease of accounting). Most purchases are made by credit card. Regular statements from the bank, or receipts from ATMs give you all you need to know about your accounts. If that is not enough, all banks let you view your account balances online.
I am really curious to know what Quicken is good for? Is it a cultural thing or am I missing out on something useful?
cheers
Comments
http://www.quicken.com/notemplates/demo/qsw/
I can see why people would use it for investments, bills, and other larger transactions, mixed with small ones all in one place.If I had to make payments on a home or car or something, plus pay a ton of bills, I'm sure I'd find it more useful.
I use it to keep track of bank accounts.
I also used to use it to keep track of credit card accounts ... which Quicken will automatically download the data from banks)
I also use it to track investments ... It automatically updates prices of Stocks and Mutual funds and will automatically download transaction information from many brokerage houses.
All-in-all ... it makes it quite easy to see where $$ is going and growing.
In addition, you can see when you paid your last subscription, how much you paid the plumber last year etc.
All in all a great value.
I doubt that I will start using Quicken anytime soon, but at least I can put it on my list of new years resolutions for next year ... the ones I might get around to in 2006 or 2007 or sometime not too long after that.
thanks