[Hidden-tech] Quicken hand-holder?

[Jan Werner]

I find this thread on Quicken rather interesting because the central 
idea behind Quicken was that it should be easy enough for anyone to use 
without any training (which is why the company was named "Intuit").

Unfortunately, in the last decade, Intuit has tried to make Quicken look 
more like Microsoft Money (which had gotten more favorable reviews in 
some of the PC press) and has succeeded only in making the interface 
more opaque, while adding minimal functionality to the program.

As someone who has used Quicken for nearly 20 years to handle my 
personal and business finances, I believe the most common problem people 
have with Quicken is not that they don't know how to use the program 
features, it is that they don't understand how to use the program 
itself, which is a matter of accounting, not technical savvy.

As I wrote earlier to the original poster, if you have an accountant, 
the first thing you should do is sit down with him/her and find out 
exactly how your income and expenses are categorized for tax purposes, 
then organize all entries in Quicken according to those categories.

The trick to using Quicken (or MS Money, or any other such software) is 
to enter ALL the information you will need at the time you make the 
transaction.  Downloading records from your bank really isn't as useful 
as it seems, because it encourages skipping the really important thing, 
which is to assign categories and enter descriptive memos for each and 
every transaction. If you are religious about entering that information, 
Quicken can help you. If not, you might as well stick to paper records 
in a shoe box.

The reason Quicken is much better than "real" accounting software for 
individuals (and not suitable for larger businesses) is that it does not 
impose any controls on modifying entries, which means that if you decide 
later on that an expense classified as persona actually qualifies as a 
tax deduction, or vice versa, you can reassign it or split it between 
categories at any time.

Also, if you are self-employed, you need to use the "Home & Business" 
edition of Quicken, because that is the only version that allows you to 
keep track properly of client billing and accounts receivable.

I don't know if Bill Polk is interested, but he would seem to be the 
ideal person to give a talk on how to use Quicken effectively, since he 
advises small businesses and entrepreneurs on how to organize their 
finances and is also knowledgeable about the software. Perhaps he might 
be persuaded to give a presentation on the topic for BEN 
(http://berkshireentrepreneursnetwork.org/ - that's Bill in the green 
shirt in the photo - you can look him up in the BEN  online directory).

Jan Werner
__________

> 
> *From:* hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net 
> [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] *On Behalf Of 
> *William Sweet
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:39 PM
> *To:* hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> *Subject:* [Hidden-tech] Quicken hand-holder?
> 
>  
> 
> Hope this isn't too off-topic, but it's germaine to my home business.
> 
> I got hit hard on taxes this year, and I'm convinced that I'm not 
> getting enough out of my Quicken software to prepare me for tax season. 
> I don't have the time to wade through a technical manual: are there 
> people I can hire to either walk me through a better set-up of my data, 
> or put me at a better starting point?
> 
> I've been using the software for years, but I know I'm not getting all I 
> could out of it, and I just don't have the head for accounting.
> 
> Bill
> -- 
> William Sweet
> Writer/Editor
> Media Consulting
> Public Relations
> 
> Northampton, MA 01060
> 
> email: williamsweet1 at gmail.com <mailto:williamsweet1 at gmail.com>
> 
> 
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