Quicken? What is it good for?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
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

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    dogcowdogcow Posts: 713member
    I don't use it, but this may answer your question:



    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.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Budgeting. With categories, you can see how much you spend on this or that. It's useful but not essential. I also use it to track investments. And it can also track credit card usage and add that into your budgeting, etc. I like it ok. (When it works.)
  • Reply 3 of 7
    I use Quicken...



    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.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    sammicksammick Posts: 416member
    One of the best uses is at tax time when you can over the year flag all the tax related items, catagorize them and then organize and print them.

    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.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    It's also a good idea to independently track your money in case the bank makes a mistake. I don't do it, but I hear it's a good idea.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    adamradamr Posts: 72member
    Thanks, especially BRussell for the best answer.

    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
  • Reply 7 of 7
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    Wow, I didn't know about the part about tracking stocks and investments! That's a good enough reason for me to actually check out the copy that's been sitting on my HD doing nothing.
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