Microsoft Money 2004 Review Credit Where Credit Is Due Wayne Kawamoto
This review first appeared on our sister site Small Business Computing.
Bookkeeping is a necessary evil that ultimately rewards followers with information to manage a business, view bottom lines, and make savvy decisions. The latest edition of Microsoft Money is a powerful, useful way for home users and small businesses to manage their finances and fulfill their tax and regulatory obligations, though this year's additions are mostly thin icing on a tall, multi-level cake. Still, the program maintains prior versions' strengths while adding tweaks to appeal to power users.
Frankly, Microsoft's personal-finance package's evolution, like that of archrival Quicken, is past its peak. Once again, the annual upgrade finds Microsoft touting major enhancements that are actually minor ones -- and once again, most of the goodies are missing from the $20-after-rebate Standard and $40-after-rebate Deluxe editions, leaving us to focus on the $60-after-rebate Money 2004 Premium and $70-after-rebate Money 2004 Small Business boxes.
Exploiting its online prowess, Microsoft has shored up the latter two packages with free services that include two years of online bill paying via MSN, tax filing through H&R Block, a single credit report and a year of credit monitoring through Experian, and consultation with an American Express financial planner. All are worthy services.
A free subscription to GainsKeeper is a strong addition that evaluates and provides guidance on how capital-gains transactions can affect taxes; it also adjusts investors' positions, including such events as stock splits and mergers, and can generate a Schedule D form.
What's Going On
The program's main home page now serves up-to-date financial news from such sources as Briefing.com, CNBC, MSNBC, Forbes, and Reuters. A stronger alert system notifies you via e-mail of spending or investing targets, analyst upgrades and downgrades, and hot news. You can create alerts and view all notifications in a single location.
New this year is a Credit Center that provides credit- and debt-related tools and advice, including a personalized overview of your credit standing and percentile ranking of risk levels. A Cost of Purchase Calculator helps determine the cost of credit-card purchases or loans; while you could estimate this data using features in past versions of the program, the dedicated calculator makes better sense of the subject.
Similarly, a new Mini Debt Reduction Planner helps manage and eliminate high-interest debt by offering a specific area with related links for creating and comparing different payment scenarios.
While I didn't notice any problems in last year's version, Microsoft says Money 2004 offers improved reconciliation that does a better job of matching bank transactions with registry entries. The program's first-rate interface has been polished with a drop-down menu that makes it easier to find a particular financial activity, and Money can now back up data to CD.
Business as Usual
The Small Business version comes with features for managing and tracking inventory; sending customer invoices via e-mail; monitoring cash flow; managing payroll; alerting you of important tax deadlines; and tracking tax-related expenses and automatically linking them to a Schedule C report.
Powerful payroll features perform calculations, remind you of tax deadlines, print paychecks, and fill out tax forms. The big plus here is the addition of a year's free online payroll service via PayCycle.
With some work, Money 2004 Small Business can adequately manage and update inventory as you make purchases and sales; handle shipping terms; and create estimates and convert them into invoices. The program also does a decent job of handling accounts receivable.
Generally, Money Small Business acts as a bridge to wean entrepreneurs away from personal finance management toward business bookkeeping, though as before, it's only strong enough to support the smallest service and low-volume retail businesses. Eventually, a growing concern will require the stronger accounting and inventory features found in full-fledged programs such as those from Intuit, Peachtree, or MYOB.
Test Drive
I encountered no problems installing Money 2004, as the outstanding setup routine -- already a strength in past versions -- asked me pertinent questions regarding finances and priorities to automatically configure the program. As with last year's version, I found a competent set of tools for managing and balancing checkbooks; creating and tracking budgets; creating financial plans and monitoring progress towards goals; and managing investments.
Money's greatest strength, which in the past has separated it from Quicken (whose 2004 version we haven't yet evaluated), is the availability of strong planning tools to project and plan finances. Microsoft's program does an excellent job of making difficult financial topics approachable by asking key questions, then letting you experiment with different scenarios.
The Web-site-style interface does an exceptionally intuitive job of organizing features and tools into logical categories and topics, as well as tapping a large number of banks and financial institutions to update stock quotes and account data and review and change your investment portfolio.
Microsoft Money 2004 is an impressive program, but owners of the past couple of versions will find little to justify an upgrade.
