Microsoft Money Deluxe 2005 [Old Version]

Manufacturer:	Microsoft
Release date:	13 September, 2004

Microsoft Money Deluxe 2005 [Old Version]

Average rating: Stars

Terrible!

Unlike many other reviewers, I bought this product in April, after Microsoft had plenty of time to fix the bugs -- which means they're not bothering to fix them at all -- and I have spent three months using it, not just a couple of days. Also, I have a PhD in Mgmt Science and Information Systems and was a long-time Quicken user, so I'm not exactly stupid, I don't think, when it comes to personal finance software. Here are just a few of the problems I'm seeing:

Default settings, almost without exception, are the worst possible settings.

Advanced budget reports don't work at all. Actual amounts for transfers out appear as positive, but budgeted amounts appear as negative numbers, so the difference is huge precisely when you're saving a lot of money. In some other cases, the budgeted amount in a report has no relationship to what was entered, and there's no visible way to correct it.

Cash flow charts assume all monthly budgeted amounts are subtracted on the first of the month. That makes projected balances very pessimistic - nearly useless.

After downloading transactions online, the program does a lousy job of matching payee names with previous transactions. It's bad enough to make ANY reliance on automated balancing impossible.

If you have a 2002 or earlier copy of Quicken, you may as well keep using it, even though online banking no longer works.

How could there be NO software company out there who wants to take this business away from Intuit and Microsoft, who apparently don't even WANT it?

Microsoft Money Deluxe 2005 [Old Version] - Microsoft

waste of money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with almost every negative review on this board. In comparison with 2004 edition, this one is just plain HORRIBLE. It looks prettier (kind of), but that's as far as it goes. I've been using MS Money since 2000, and I've enjoyed every upgrade; they've all been quite satisfactory save this monstrous creation. I haven't just used Money only, I've tried out Quicken 3 times, once back 4 years ago, another a year ago, and a week ago. It's too inflexible & the graphs stink.

Every time I do an internet update, it duplicates every account with some generic name (I track 3 checkings, 4 savings, 2 credit cards, 1 cash on hand, & 2 loans). I am NOT going to rename all the accounts again & redo every transaction with all the splits.

As far as MS Money 2005 goes:
I tried to do an update with CapitalOne, and it failed time after time. It also took flipping forever to do any of the updates! I wish I could have let the default setting NOT update news articles. I'm here to balance my checkbook, track settings, & budget, forecast, I don't care about news. I would love to elaborate further, but the arteries in my forhead would explode from my frustration.

Because I couldn't even get the program to KIND OF work, I wish I could give it ZERO stars. I refuse to spend countless hours (more) to try to get this piece of crud working; pen & paper IS BETTER than this program. Back to 2004 I go (until they release a HUGE compilative fix for all this poo).

Microsoft - Microsoft Money Deluxe 2005 [Old Version]

Works fine for me, better then quicken

I read some of the reviews, and almost didn't by the 2005 but was looking for 2004. Bought 2005 (out of 2004) followed directions and it works like a chirm.