How to Make The Most of Quicken

Quicken is a personal finance software produced by a company called Intuit which also creates the well known tax and business software packages Turbo Tax and Quickbooks. In so far as expertise and experience goes, Intuit software products such as Quicken are among the most well known within the U.S. market and also among the most user friendly and functional.

Quicken assists in important aspects of home financial planning such as budgeting, check book balancing, investment tracking, expense calculating, calculating etc. The software is an all in one software meaning it combines several financial planning goals and functions into one software package. Depending on which version of Quicken one has, i.e. basic, deluxe or premier, the total amount of features and available software functions varies.

What Quicken can do for you

Quicken can take personal financial information and reconfigure it into a highly organized format that may be useful for several financial goals. If one has the right goals in mind when using quicken, one can benefit from the software's design. What's more, the software can also train one to be better aware and prepared for the following financial tasks.

• Tax preparation: Quicken can transfer data to tax software via through export
• Loan applications: Loan application record keeping and presentation layouts
• Check book balancing and reconciliation: Keep up with payments using digital checkbook
• Bill tracking and paying: Useful bill paying reminders
• Payments and expenditures history and profile: Useful record keeping functions
• Charting an graphing: Assists planning, managing and presenting finances professionally
• Budgeting and financial planning: Helps with overall money management

Advantages of Using Quicken:

If one chooses quicken as the primary tool to keep track of, record and organize one's finances then it can be useful tool for staying on top of bills, balances, liquidity etc. The tools within quicken allow it to export information to Turbo Tax, an individual tax preparation software in addition to being able to print out account histories, portfolio allocations and bill paying features.

Keeping all the above benefits in mind, Quicken may require one to adjust one's financial planning style and technique to meld with software. Essentially, this software will manage financial data if it is entered in thoroughly and efficiently over time. In other words, Quicken's software features such as the checkbook and bill reminders are a digital substitute for paper versions of the same thing. To focus one's financial planning and organization, Quicken may come in handy.

Using the right computer and system requirements

Having the right computer is somewhat cursory but still relevant to making the most from Quicken's software i.e. if it doesn't load or run well, then it won't be optimal. Quicken is available for both PC's and Mac's and has been a major personal finance software in terms of editions, volumes sold, and marketing for a number of years. The software is user friendly in the sense it has a relatively easy to use guided installation process, clearly marked and functional software feature tabs.

The system requirements for Quicken aren't too stringent and can be viewed on the quicken website before purchase. A few of the basic requirements are a Windows 2000 operating system or later, and a Pentium II PC with 300 megahertz of processing speed and a 4 times speed CD-Rom drive.

Benefiting from Quicken's add on features

Quicken is also interactive via the internet meaning it can transfer data, backup data online, and pay bills. This can save valuable computer memory and consolidate banking and finance tasks into and through one software and online software platform. The cost of Quicken software ranges from around $30.00-$90.00 depending on the version and package and can either be downloaded or purchased through brick and mortar companies as a CD software. This cost may be worth it if one feels financial organization provided by the Quicken software can pay back in terms of savings from improved budgeting, tax preparation, and expense accounting.

To summarize, Quicken is an interactive personal financial management software that is produced by an experienced and knowledgeable company in terms of producing financial related software. The software is functional, relatively user friendly and useful but may not be necessary for everyone's financial management needs.

Quicken is a good software if one doesn't know where to start organizing personal finances as it is logically organized and can really help one manage finances, become familiar with online and software based management tools and learn more about the processes involved in organizing finances effectively.

Originally posted 01/07/2008: http://www.helium.com/items/779596-how-to-make-the-most-of-quicken