I agree with a lot of the reviews that say there is not a lot new if you are already using 2011 and maybe even 2010 but I highly recommend upgrading from anything older than that. I've used Quicken since it came out in the late 1980s. I've tried other products along the way and always come back to Quicken. I don't know what I'd do without my quicken.
When you first get started with the program, to take full advantage of it, it takes some setting up. How detailed you want to keep track of your expenses and bills is really up to you. For example. I have every transaction from every credit card and I've attached the receipts to each transaction. If I pay a bill with several areas of charges, like DWP, I actually separate my charges for water, power, sewer etc, all attached to the single credit card transaction. I can go back over years and tell you exactly how much I paid my kids doctors and for what. I also attach key codes for software I purchase so I always have them and manuals for my appliances. I even download copies of all my insurance policies and attach them to the payments so I can always go back and review my coverage; the pink slip to my car attached to the payment, contracts for work I have done.
I can also keep track of all my bills, when the closing dates are on my accounts and the due dates on all my bills. I don't need to get a bill in the mail to know when it should have arrived and when it's due. I can set links to the web sites of all the accounts I setup so that I can go to each web site and see just want the charges are and download them into the account. One of the best things is, I can back up all this information onto one flash drive and have everything I might need in an emergency.
I agree with a lot of the reviews that say there is not a lot new if you are already using 2011 and maybe even 2010 but I highly recommend upgrading from anything older than that. I've used Quicken since it came out in the late 1980s. I've tried other products along the way and always come back to Quicken. I don't know what I'd do without my quicken. When you first get started with the program, to take full advantage of it, it takes some setting up. How detailed you want to keep track of your expenses and bills is really up to you. For example. I have every transaction from every credit card and I've attached the receipts to each transaction. If I pay a bill with several areas of charges, like DWP, I actually separate my charges for water, power, sewer etc, all attached to the single credit card transaction. I can go back over years and tell you exactly how much I paid my kids doctors and for what. I also attach key codes for software I purchase so I always have them and manuals for my appliances. I even download copies of all my insurance policies and attach them to the payments so I can always go back and review my coverage; the pink slip to my car attached to the payment, contracts for work I have done. I can also keep track of all my bills, when the closing dates are on my accounts and the due dates on all my bills. I don't need to get a bill in the mail to know when it should have arrived and when it's due. I can set links to the web sites of all the accounts I setup so that I can go to each web site and see just want the charges are and download them into the account. One of the best things is, I can back up all this information onto one flash drive and have everything I might need in an emergency.