Dueling Fools
June 16, 1999

The War of 99:
Money v. Quicken

Intuit's Quicken 99 Bull Argument
by David Wolpe ([email protected])

Quicken. It's what you don't know that counts.

What do I mean by that? I mean that when you open up a program and don't know how to do something -- whether it's "how to begin" or something way more complex -- that's when the program has to shine. That's what Quicken 99 does.

The challenge for personal finance software is to enable you to track and understand your money. You, the user, want it to be extremely powerful -- integrating a multitude of features -- and simple. It must also be flexible, allowing for all sorts of customizations of features according to the customer's needs. And it must be instantly updateable, both from the user ("I spent another $4.37 on sour cream") and from external data (interest rates, stock prices, foreign currency rates, etc). Short of creating the box into which you yell, "Hey thingie! Do my money!" (which is, after all, what we habitually yell at our accountants), the folks at Quicken are rapidly evolving the ultimate personal finance software.

Certainly, Bill, I could go on about the endless features of Quicken. But I won't. I won't go on about how easy it is to create new accounts, to categorize transactions, and create reports or graphs; I won't go on about what-if scenarios (can I send my child to college?); QuickEntry, a simplified interface that lets you input transactions and get outta there; WebEntry, which lets you do the same thing from wherever you are, via the Web (and then download later onto your desktop); portfolio view, and multiple bank- and broker-info access from the Web with one click; easy estimates of capital gains before you sell; cost basis selections for stock or (horrors!) mutual fund transactions; budgeting; seamless integration with TurboTax, etc. I won't go on about any of these features.

Instead, I'm going to talk about What You Don't Know. And that leads us directly to the interface: that special, oft-confusing place between you and the computer in which you try to figure out what the heck you're supposed to do. Let's look at that interface, and take but one example.

Quicken 99 has as its core a "home page." Oh! Good idea. Familiar interface. Go forward. Go back. Got it. Your home page -- which exists on your computer and which is the first thing you see every time you open up the program -- is your command center, from which you can access your various accounts (credit card, checking, brokerage, cash, etc.), registers, online banking.

Now let's say, just for argument's sake, that I travel to Ireland, and that I stop by the side of the road at a trailer park and buy an antique bedpan from a red-faced gypsy lady named Minerva. Naturally, as soon as I bring it home, I want to enter it into Quicken.

I enter "payee" as "Gypsy lady in Caravan." Oh -- did I mention the legendary QuickFill feature? After I've done this once, all I have to do is type G, and then Y, and Quicken fills in the rest for me. If you're like me (and who isn't?) then every typing stroke saved is one less alphabet tree cut down in cyberspace. (If, of course, you're typing some other word that happens to begin with "gy" then that word may come up first. But the only one I can think of is "gypped," which is what you'd type if you were using Microsoft Money. So never mind.)

Now what? Well, I paid five Irish Punt. How do I handle that? I go to help and type in "foreign currency." Yep, there it is. With a few simple steps it walks me through what to do so that my five Irish Punt are automatically entered as $6.65. Done.

In the course of doing this, I've moved my mouse over one of the tabs along the bottom of the screen: Banking, planning, investing, home & car, and taxes. There's a fabulous sound that the mouse makes as it glides happenstance across one of those tabs. It's the supersmooth sound of a blind snapping open to reveal a cyber-window. Presto! A menu appears showing me choices from the spectrum of banking. In other words, by some random movement you've made (a monkey sitting at a keyboard may eventually tap out the works of Shakespeare, remember?), you've come across a treasure trove of information. You've also just cottoned to the fact that, if it works for the banking tab, it will work for the others.

It's a program that reveals itself to you, like some magical future-telling fairy, or like whatsisname from The Phantom Menace.

I roll up to "schedule a future payment" on that menu and a financial calendar opens up. There, under today's date, I see my bedpan purchase. The same is true of all payees. This means that I can see exactly what I paid to whom, and when -- on a calendar. What's more, on the right is a list of all payees. I can simply drag and drop one of them onto a date to schedule a future payment.

Oh -- and did I mention the Quicken credit card? I can automatically download all credit card transactions, which will be automatically categorized, come tax time. Or online banking? So that I can pay all bills online and have the payments automatically appear in Quicken on my desktop?

I didn't even get to the Codie awards and the victories in head-to-head competition.

It's fourth and long, Bill. Time to Punt?

Next: The Money Rebuttal