Checks And Balances Worried about your bottom line? Take a look at these money management programs.

Financial well-being is important not only to your business butto your personal life as well. Keeping track of what's going onin your personal accounts will give you more security when makingdaily decisions--whether you're buying a new suit, planning fora vacation or saving for your child's education. Staying on topof what goes in and out of your checking account, what'scharged to your credit cards, and what's funneled into savingsor investments is what personal financial management software isall about.

The most popular personal money management program isIntuit's Quicken. This program has been around for more than 14years and has served as the benchmark for other financialmanagement programs. Microsoft's Money has long beentrying to catch up with Quicken in terms of market share andfeatures. These two programs are the only real players ina market that has become reliant on strong relationships withfinancial institutions, such as banks and credit card companies, tosatisfy users' demand for high-level online banking, investmenttracking and trading, and credit card information.

This software category has changed tremendously over the lastdecade--evolving from a basic checkbook register to a tool thatallows you to do everything from planning your taxes and monitoringyour investments to tracking a loan and keeping a householdinventory. Both products reviewed here are in their latestincarnations and are state-of-the-art. Unlike Microsoft Money 98Financial Suite, which can only run on a Windows 95 system, QuickenDeluxe 98 is also offered in a Windows 3.1 version.

Checking It Out

The checkbook register is the core of these programs. From here,you can enter payments and deposits while tracking which categoriesand subsets the transactions belong to. For example, anexpense can be listed as "Healthcare:Dental" or "Business Supplies: Computers."Deposits are set up in a similar way, making it easy to trackwhere your money is coming from and going to. This data feedsinto the extensive charting and reporting features for visualizingand reviewing your income and expenses. Predetermined charts andgraphs make it easy to track income vs. expenses, monthly cash flowand budget. If you're diligent in giving transactions theappropriate category descriptions, it'll pay off big at taxtime--Quicken 98 can interface with all the popular tax softwareand can directly import the data into the correct fields of yourtax schedules and returns if you spend the entire year doing yourbooks appropriately.

An obvious subset of the checkbook register is the registers ofall your other accounts (i.e., savings, credit cards, investmentaccounts, etc.). The beauty of keeping tabs on your finances viacomputer is that the scheduled transactions that occur every month,such as automatic withdrawals and direct payments, will all beentered without your having to think about it. (This can sometimesbe a disadvantage if you tend to forget the withdrawal is going tooccur and then come up shortchanged. For this reason, theseprograms alert you to upcoming scheduled transactions.)

Further automating the management of your finances is onlinebanking. Both programs let you interface electronically with majorbanks to view your account statements.

But these programs are far more than glorified checkbookregisters; they are tools to help you get in charge of your money.Let's take a closer look at each program to see which one bestsuits your needs.

Money Talk

Because I'm a die-hard Quicken user, I thought itappropriate to first embark on the competition's features inorder to fairly compare the two. Installing Microsoft Money waspainless--there were no glitches, and I was up and running withinminutes. Microsoft guides you through the process of finding anyfiles you want to convert to this program (including Quicken filesand old Money files). The conversion process took about 10 minutes,and all my account information appeared clean and clear as day. Mycheckbook register included all the categories and memos as postedin my Quicken account.

The Money 98 interface is very different from the Quickeninterface I'm used to. Instead of relying on graphical icons,Money 98 uses a more text-based navigational system that relies onpull-down menus. I found it less intuitive than Quicken's.

Still, Money 98 cannot be considered difficult to use. On thecontrary, I was easily able to find my way around all my accounts.One feature I especially liked was the Bill Calendar for trackingbills and deposits. Here, a calendar shows you when your bills aredue, and a graph gives you a balance forecast. While handy, thisfunction is only beneficial if you're up-to-date on all yourtransactions.

To make this product more compelling than its competitor,Microsoft has provided many additional features. First there'sGoal Planner for financial planning. Money includes 21 customizablewizards for working on short-term and lifetime plans. Thenthere's Microsoft Investor, which links into the MicrosoftInvestor Web site for tracking portfolios and researchinginvestment opportunities. Subscribers to this service have theability to search through 8,000 stocks and mutual funds todetermine whether an investment meets certain criteria. Nextthere's Money Insider for articles and information fromreliable financial experts.

Money 98 encourages users to get on the Internet. It includes aneasy sign-up for the Microsoft Network, and the opening pagedirects users to links on the Web.

Although the Money 98 Financial Suite is geared towardinvestors, those more interested in basic financial management canget the stripped down version of Money 98 for $29.95.

Something worth noting: Money 98 works with a slightly largernumber of banks than Quicken. You may want to compare the lists offinancial institutions before making a decision on which one topurchase.

Quicken Easy

With Quicken Deluxe 98, Intuit is also looking at capturing theserious investor. But for those less interested in investing,there's Quicken Basic 98 ($39.95). Another version of thisproduct may also appeal to you--Quicken Home and Business 98($89.95). This product helps small-business owners manage personaland business finances with a single program. You can do invoicing,track reimbursable expenses and more without having to learn acumbersome accounting program.

A major difference between Money and Quicken is Quicken'semphasis on household issues, such as recording a home inventory,tracking home and auto loans, and even looking up insurance quoteson the Web. There's also online investment tracking andtrading, and plenty of links to market information. Quicken Deluxeeven includes an area for keeping important financial records, sofamily members can easily access all the information they need incase of an emergency.

At the core of this product, however, are your accounts. AndQuicken does a great job of giving users all the tools they need toeffectively and easily manage their money. The graphical interfaceis easy to navigate, and improved functions make banking nearlyenjoyable.

As with Money 98, Quicken auto-fills memorized transactions soyou're not forced to retype data that already resides in yourcomputer. Then there are the new alerts for upcoming bills or otherevents, such as important tax dates or times when your accountbalance is getting low.

Bottom Line

Both programs have a lot to offer. There's no doubt thateither would be an effective tool for getting your personalfinances in order.

Microsoft Money 98 will likely appeal to those with a strongerneed to work with their investments. Quicken 98 is just as capableon that level, while also adding lots of householdfunctionality.

Small-business owners who want to start using a program forbusiness may want to consider using Quicken (or its more robustsibling, QuickBooks). This way, there's no learning curve whenconverting to a computer-based bookkeeping model.

Report Card

Quicken Deluxe '98 (Excellent)
Intuit Corp.
(800) 446-8848
http://www.intuit.com
List Price: $59.95
Pluses: Easy-to-use graphical interface, key home financialmanagement functions
Minuses: None of note

Money 98 Financial Suite (Good/Excellent)
MicrosoftCorp.
(800) 426-9400
http://www.microsoft.com
List Price: $54.95
Pluses: More financial institutions for onlinebanking.
Minuses: Interface not as intuitive.

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Cassandra Cavanah is a contributing editor of PortableComputing Direct Shopper magazine and has reported on thecomputer industry for nine years.