Microsoft to Give Quicken a Run for Its Money Program

Quicken, the personal financial management program from Intuit, has been one of the most popular consumer software products for years. It enables people to keep track of their personal finances, pay bills and create financial reports, and millions now swear they could never manage without it.

The new version of Quicken, due out this week, is even richer in features and easier to use. But Quicken will finally face some stiff competition in the form of the new version of Microsoft Money. Microsoft has been trying to develop a competitive personal finance offering for years--it actually gave up and agreed to acquire Intuit last year, but the deal was derailed by federal antitrust authorities--and it has finally succeeded.

The new Money ($34.95) works only with Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system. There are Quicken 7.0 versions for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh, and it costs $39.95 ($10 less if you’re upgrading) for the basic version and $59.95 ($20 less for the upgrade) for the deluxe CD-ROM version. (Full disclosure: I wrote the “Little Quicken Book,” a guide to an earlier version of the program.)

Quicken underwent a major upgrade last year, and this year’s version contains relatively minor enhancements. Money, for its part, has undergone a significant upgrade. Both are easy to configure, both support online banking, bill paying and credit card tracking, and both do a pretty good job at budgeting and creating reports.

Microsoft, playing catch-up, has made it very easy for Quicken users to switch to version 5 of Money. You just open your Quicken data file and Money converts it flawlessly. Money also is easy to use. Microsoft focused on common tasks such as paying bills, making deposits and checking to see what you’ve paid. Like Quicken, it now has a pop-up calendar and calculator to schedule a transaction and perform basic arithmetic.

Intuit has improved Quicken’s user interface a bit. You can now sort the check register by date, order entered, amount or check number. For some reason, you can’t sort alphabetically, but you can easily display or print a report by selecting a payee or category from the register. You can now write slightly longer memos for each transaction, though Money provides a lot more room for memos.

The biggest change to Quicken is its debt-reduction feature. It analyzes all of your credit card and other liability accounts as well as your savings and bank accounts to determine the best place for your money. If you, like too many people, are carrying an 18% credit card debt but have money invested in a 4% savings account, Quicken will advise you to pay off your high-interest debts. This seems obvious, but there’s nothing like a graphical representation of how you’re wasting money.

Both programs have built-in links to the Internet and can automatically download securities quotes via the Internet. It’s fast, it’s useful and it’s free. Quicken comes with Netscape Navigator; you can view the links to all kinds of financial Web sites within Quicken, and when you click on a site it takes you there. Microsoft Money has an icon that launches its Internet Explorer and takes you to MoneyZone (https://www.microsoft.com/MoneyZone/), Microsoft’s personal finance area.

Integrating Internet links into these programs is certainly appropriate, though only marginally useful since you can reach those same Web sites directly from your browser. The ability to update your portfolio over the Net, however, is very useful.

Both companies make a lot of noise about their home banking features. Microsoft and Intuit each promote their different electronic banking schemes, but for now, you can do electronic bill paying through any bank or get full online banking from a small but growing list of banks, including Citibank, Home Savings of America, Wells Fargo and Union Bank. Both plan to allow you to download statements from Fidelity and other brokerage firms by early next year.

Both programs also allow you to transfer funds between accounts at participating banks, but Money has one major advantage over Quicken: Depending on your bank, Money lets you schedule a transfer any time in the future. Quicken requires that the transfer be made the next business day. With this feature you could systematically move funds from savings to checking on a just-in-time basis, allowing you to earn more interest and have cash on hand when needed. For some people, this could translate into hundreds of dollars of additional interest per year.

Most users will do well with either program. They’re both easy to use and both cover all the bases. I still prefer Quicken Deluxe, however, because it’s a bit richer in features and has an excellent audio and video help system.

Lawrence J. Magid can be reached via e-mail at magid@latimes.com. His World Wide Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com