However, we learned that our bank was performing "scheduled maintenance" at that time, and the process worked fine the next day. At first, we thought this would force us to turn to Microsoft Money to categorize our daily spending habits. Unfortunately, when we installed Quicken 2007 from just past midnight on another computer and with different accounts, it was unable to connect to the national bank that we use for our staple checking account.
When we upgraded to 2007 from Quicken 2006, our historical account details appeared seamlessly, and Quicken prompted us to update by retrieving the latest data online. Quicken's PIN vault locks away your various passwords for connected banking and other financial accounts so that they're inaccessible outside the program. Quicken 2007 lets you import data from about 4,300 large and small financial institutions-more than a tenfold increase from Quicken 2006-including banks, creditors, brokerages, and 401(k) providers. Setup can be a snap if you've already registered for online accounts with your financial institutions just share those logins and passwords with Quicken. Intuit designed Quicken 2007 for faster setup out of the box and to let you synchronize multiple financial accounts with one click. We found it motivating (or perhaps depressing) to see a running tally of our credit card debt spelled out in glaring red each day. From the calendar, just click a bill to view details or to pay it. Links along the bottom detail bills and deposits, spending pie and bar charts, and a revamped calendar. Quicken 2007's left-hand navigation bar offers links to Business Information, Cash Flow, an Investing Center, and Property and Debt data, as well as a snapshot of your net worth. We like the bold display of our expenses, income, and money leftover. Quicken Premier 2007's new design is a big departure from earlier versions, although you can customize the home page to more closely resemble the old-school style. You can click those boxes to pop up a mini window of recent income and expense details.
The Money In, Out, and What's Left boxes feature prominently. We like the new, tabbed layout, which helps organize information without causing clutter you can customize the page to display the elements you use most. Unlike the subtle changes to Microsoft Money 2007, Quicken 2007's makeover is obvious once you open the program.
Installation of Quicken Premier 2007 took about five minutes in our tests on a Windows XP machine.
Mac users can pick the $59.99 edition (equivalent to Deluxe for PCs) for OS 10.3.9 and up. You can also check out $29.99 Quicken Basic, but it lacks the electronic check storage, 401(k) and IRA tracking, as well as the assistance with tax deductions that the Deluxe version provides for $10 more. An edition that's one step above it is the $89.99 Quicken Home & Business 2007, which tracks Schedule C expenses, offers custom invoicing, and handles accounts payable and receivables (but turn to QuickBooks to manage the ins and outs of a small business with multiple employees). We reviewed Quicken Premier 2007, which costs $69.99 and includes investment monitoring tools. On the other hand, Microsoft Money 2007 works for Windows XP only. Quicken 2007 works with PCs running Windows 2000 and newer editions (with 128 MB of RAM recommended).