Quicken 2007 Premier

Manufacturer: Intuit Inc. Part number: 298332

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CNET Editor rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 80 reviews

Aug 2006

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Bottom Line:: Intuit Quicken 2007 Premier offers a thorough overhaul of its interface, as well as useful new features and conveniences that other financial software products can't match.

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CNET editors' review

Quicken 2007 Premier

price range: $52.37 - $70.00

Intuit Quicken 2007 Premier offers a thorough overhaul of its interface, as well as useful new features and conveniences that other financial software products can't match.

The good: Quicken 2007 Premier has the ability to connect to more than 4,300 financial institutions; a simplified interface; one-step account updates; a calendar that spells out your daily financial status; pop-up insights of transaction details; an affordable online backup; storage for images of receipts and invoices; scanner support; local encryptionof your data; Windows and Mac versions; and free, online-help chat.

The bad: Despite support for thousands of banks and creditors, Quicken 2007 couldn't import data from a particular checking account from a national bank. Also, its phone support is pricey.

The bottom line: Intuit Quicken 2007 Premier offers a thorough overhaul of its interface, as well as useful new features and conveniences that other financial software products can't match.

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Intuit has given Quicken 2007 a fresh face that makes it easier to see where your money's going without having to click around the program. This money management tool eliminates the busy register from its prior home page and now opens to a screen with three big boxes displaying money: In, Out, and What's Left. Rather than focusing on Quicken's budgeting features, which require time to set up, Intuit intends for version 2007 to lets you view a running balance of your finances at all times. In addition, a beefed up calendar and online backup provide added convenience and security.

Quicken 2007 works with PCs running Windows 2000 and newer editions (with 128 MB of RAM recommended). On the other hand, Microsoft Money 2007 works for Windows XP only. We reviewed Quicken Premier 2007, which costs $69.99 and includes investment monitoring tools. An edition that's one step above it is the $89.99 Quicken Home & Business 2007, which tracks Schedule C expenses, offers custom invoicing, and handles accounts payable and receivables (but turn to QuickBooks to manage the ins and outs of a small business with multiple employees). You can also check out $29.99 Quicken Basic, but it lacks the electronic check storage, 401(k) and IRA tracking, as well as the assistance with tax deductions that the Deluxe version provides for $10 more. Mac users can pick the $59.99 edition (equivalent to Deluxe for PCs) for OS 10.3.9 and up.

Installation of Quicken Premier 2007 took about five minutes in our tests on a Windows XP machine. Unlike the subtle changes to Microsoft Money 2007, Quicken 2007's makeover is obvious once you open the program. We like the new, tabbed layout, which helps organize information without causing clutter; you can customize the page to display the elements you use most. The Money In, Out, and What's Left boxes feature prominently. You can click those boxes to pop up a mini window of recent income and expense details.

Quicken Premier 2007's new design is a big departure from earlier versions, although you can customize the home page to more closely resemble the old-school style. We like the bold display of our expenses, income, and money leftover.

Quicken 2007's left-hand navigation bar offers links to Business Information, Cash Flow, an Investing Center, and Property and Debt data, as well as a snapshot of your net worth. Links along the bottom detail bills and deposits, spending pie and bar charts, and a revamped calendar. From the calendar, just click a bill to view details or to pay it. We found it motivating (or perhaps depressing) to see a running tally of our credit card debt spelled out in glaring red each day.

Intuit designed Quicken 2007 for faster setup out of the box and to let you synchronize multiple financial accounts with one click. Setup can be a snap if you've already registered for online accounts with your financial institutions; just share those logins and passwords with Quicken. Quicken 2007 lets you import data from about 4,300 large and small financial institutions--more than a tenfold increase from Quicken 2006--including banks, creditors, brokerages, and 401(k) providers. Quicken's PIN vault locks away your various passwords for connected banking and other financial accounts so that they're inaccessible outside the program.

When we upgraded to 2007 from Quicken 2006, our historical account details appeared seamlessly, and Quicken prompted us to update by retrieving the latest data online. Unfortunately, when we installed Quicken 2007 from just past midnight on another computer and with different accounts, it was unable to connect to the national bank that we use for our staple checking account. At first, we thought this would force us to turn to Microsoft Money to categorize our daily spending habits. However, we learned that our bank was performing "scheduled maintenance" at that time, and the process worked fine the next day. And as with any software that retrieves information from third-party sources online, Quicken's details are only as up to date as the data from your financial institutions, which can lag by several days depending on how your bank works. Therefore, bills that we had already paid appeared in red as overdue. Luckily, Quicken allows you to manually list your planned expenses and then check them off later when they clear digitally.

Since this review first posted, many users of Quicken 2007 have complained that it crashes frequently. Working with a Quicken file containing 15 years of data, our PC locked up when we tried accessing online investment information. Intuit acknowledged that users with automatically scheduled transactions were experiencing similar problems, and it released patches in October to remedy this. If you're using Quicken while connected to the Internet, an update message should appear to notify you of such patches. If you lack an Internet connection, you can receive replacement CDs in the mail by contacting the company's technical support.

We're pleased that Intuit now gives you the option to pay $10 per year for 100MB worth of online backup--an affordable must that can safeguard your data in case of a catastrophe. If you choose that option, Quicken reminds you to back up online every third time you use the software. Microsoft Money, by contrast, asks to back up your accounts each time you use the program, and it demands that you use a Microsoft ID to do so. At least Quicken 2007 gives you the option to install the app locally and not connect online.

The new calendar within Quicken 2007 provides daily reminders of what you need to pay and for which funds you might pat yourself on the back for managing well.

Within an account register, you can click on a link to bring up a tiny window of details about recent transactions from that vendor without having to leave the page. We like that with Quicken 2007, when you import expenses that bear cryptic coding instead of a vendor's name, you can rename that business, select a category, and tell Quicken to save and apply that change from that point on to matching expenses. A blue star next to a vendor name indicates that Quicken links to the Zipingo business review service; you can click and contribute your own rating. And as with earlier versions of Quicken, you can pick from among dozens of charts and reports to create a custom picture of your expenses and income and more. As in the past, you can also use Quicken to pay bills online without jumping to multiple bank and vendor Web sites.

Intuit has built a "virtual filing cabinet" within Quicken 2007 to reduce your use of paper filing. You can attach PDFs, JPGs, and other file types to Quicken to keep images of receipts, invoices, and expenses within the application. You can copy and paste images of checks from your bank's Web site or elsewhere directly into Quicken 2007, which now supports scanning. Those files live within an encrypted folder that remains inaccessible outside of Quicken.

Within your account register, Quicken 2007 lets you pop up a mini window that displays the latest transactions for a particular vendor. Here, we were surprised to see how much money we were spending on car sharing.

Quicken Premier 2007's financial planning tools can help you juggle investments and attempt to rein in debts by imagining scenarios, complete with bar graphs, that predict future cash flow and net worth--helpful when we mulled adjusting a bimonthly 401(k) contribution. Other "what if" goals include buying a house or splurging on another major expense, as well as affording college or retirement. But as with other financial software, Quicken lacks help for managing student loans--a major deterrent for young users.

Still, a potential benefit to using Quicken to manage your money is that it integrates with TurboTax--handy when you file with the IRS--and other niche Intuit products, such as its $49.99 Home Inventory Manager, the $69.99 Medical Expense Manager (helpful in our preliminary tests), and $99.99 Rental Property Manager. To balance your digital checkbook on the go, the $39.95 Pocket Quicken syncs your financial snapshot on a Pocket PC or Palm OS handheld.

Tech support for Quicken 2007 is thorough but costly. As always, the searchable online knowledgebase and FAQs are in-depth, animated tutorials alert you to key features, and you can connect with other passionate users for help. Toll-free phone assistance is live weekdays from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, and is free for discussing registration, upgrading, Bill Pay, and defects. It's too bad that most other questions, including online banking errors and data corruption, run a pricey $24.95 per incident. Luckily, though, online chat assistance is available 24/7 except between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 PT.

We find Quicken Premier 2007 to be a terrific value. The simplified, yet customizable interface and new features make this program worth the upgrade for long-time users.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 80 reviews

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 80

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4 stars

Something for anyone new to Quicken. Not much for Quicken vets.

by peters4 on August 22, 2006

Pros: It's prettier than its predecessor.

Cons: This is primarily a cosmetic upgrade with few, if any, substantive new features.

Summary: With the release of its '07 version, Quicken seems to have fallen back to just going through the motions, knowing that it's expected to produce an annual product upgrade ...

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Summary: With the release of its '07 version, Quicken seems to have fallen back to just going through the motions, knowing that it's expected to produce an annual product upgrade but not really spending a lot of time & effort doing it. As a result, Quicken 2007, while giving users new to Quicken a good, stable way to manage their personal finances, gives its existing users nothing more than some cosmetic changes. The home screen's new , there are new financial institutions whose data can be downloaded into Quicken, attaching documents to register transactions has been improved and the program loads a bit faster. Otherwise, there's not much and certainly not enough to warrent paying $70 - $90 to upgrade an existing Quicken 2006 or 2005 installation.

Intuit doesn't often publish "dot releases." If it did, Quicken 2007 would be more accurately named Quicken 2006.5.

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44 out of 45 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 stars

Early release was too buggy for me to use

by geodosch on August 28, 2006

Pros: Enhanced online banking capability

Cons: Document imaging was not working, & their tech support was no help

Summary: Quicken 2006 (previous version) included the ability to attach scanned and downloaded images to transactions-- something that I have made extensive use of, to cut way back on the mountains ...

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Summary: Quicken 2006 (previous version) included the ability to attach scanned and downloaded images to transactions-- something that I have made extensive use of, to cut way back on the mountains of papers I used to file. The 2007 version promised major enhancements to this capability, which is why I purchased the new version as soon as it was released.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that once I installed 2007, I could no longer access existing attachments, nor could I create new ones. If I tried to use a .mdi file (Microsoft's imaging format) I got an error that the file could not be accessed. When I tried using .pdf files, it was even worse; as soon as I would try to open the .pdf file, Quicken would quit, without so much as an error message.

After spending a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot this myself, I reported it to Quicken's tech support, and dutifully followed their instructions: delete and reinstall all pdf drivers, reinstall Quicken, start with an empty Quicken datafile. None of this solved the problem (it didn't help that some of their responses where in such fractured English as to render them nearly incomprehensible.) Finally I reinstalled the 2006 version, and all my attached documents were once again working. Because I use Quicken on an almost daily basis, I had to make the decision to revert to the earlier version rather quickly, since any work I did in the 2007 version was not backwards-compatible with my 2006 files. Whatever prevented the imaging from working in 2007, it certainly wasn't a problem with the 2006 version.

With the little bit of time that I did run 2007, I was glad to see that they had made some major improvements with Online Banking. For instance, with my E*Trade bank accounts I had to manually import the data into 2006-- it was easy to do, but still not automatic (E*Trade Brokerage has long been supported for auto-updates.)

There was also an overhaul to the look and feel of the screens. Unfortunately, Quicken doesn't give you the option of keeping the old skins, which I would have preferred.

I don't know if I'll give 2007 another shot in a few months, when they have hopefully worked-out the bugs with the imaging, or just wait until 2008 and see what's new there. Though, as a very long-time Quicken user (going back to DOS versions) I have lost a bit of faith in Intuit with this last go-around.

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18 out of 18 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 stars

Not There Yet

by Rigmeister on August 5, 2006

Pros: Getting There

Cons: Still Needs Work

Summary: Over 4000 financial institutions and still not any that I use. There are about 5 choices for Wells Fargo and yet I can't access my Mortgage with Wells Fargo ...

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Summary: Over 4000 financial institutions and still not any that I use. There are about 5 choices for Wells Fargo and yet I can't access my Mortgage with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. I also bank with a credit union that isn't among the 4K institutions. The interface is sloppy and the opening window doesn't fit on my 19" monitor. I guess they've built this one for the new 20+ inch flat panel widescreens.

Anyone who pays any attention to their finances doesn't need to see an IN - OUT = WHAT'S LEFT to know what's going on with their finances. The Budget section is another crutch that's been around since at least the 2004 version. An old quote comes to mind when I think "Budget". A Budget is a plan for going broke methodically.

There's a new "Rate" button that they stuck into the Checking Register that links to their new Zipingo website that is a rip-off of angieslist.com

I'll consider my $40 upgrade payment for the new Quicken 2007 Deluxe as a contribution to the development of Quicken 2008 or 2009 and hope they get that one right. Until then I'll stick with Quicken Deluxe 2004.

If you're running an earlier version of Quicken save you money and give them another year or so to get this product up to snuff or at least buy yourself a new widescreen monitor.

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18 out of 24 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

Intuit is going downhill

by metastable69 on January 14, 2007

Pros: They can still turnaround

Cons: Tech support is useless

Summary: When buying a product, you have to look at more than the basic functionality. You also have to look at support.

To be frank, the customer service (or lack thereof)

...

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Summary: When buying a product, you have to look at more than the basic functionality. You also have to look at support.

To be frank, the customer service (or lack thereof) has completely turned me away from buying any of Intuits products. If they want to survive as a company, they have to lose the Indian tech support.

Tech support grammar is horrendous to the point where the average person couldn't understand what they are trying to say. They are also complete idiots--unable to answer a simple question about importing data from Money to the newest Quicken. 15 minutes with tech support, and they couldn't tell me if they could even import data from Money.

In this page (http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/premier-portfolio-management.jhtml#Q8), the link in the FAQ says that Money data can be converted to 2007 format using a data converter. If you follow the link to (https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2659), there is a prominant note that says "The converter will not convert data to Quicken 2007."

They may be saving a $1 by off-shoring tech support, but they are losing MUCH more than that in lost sales revenue.

Intuit was a really good company at one time. Too bad they sold themselves short with inferior support. Hopefully they'll pull their collective heads out of their arses and build themselves back up as a reputable company.

Until then, I am stuck using Microsoft Money.

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12 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 stars

Intuit is "ethically challenged" - Don't buy

by InformedConsumer on February 5, 2007

Pros: It is a good program...however

Cons: Forced upgrades via "Sunset Policy" are unbelievable

Summary: Intuit has a "sunset policy" in the license agreement (which is not uncommon in the software industry) of only providing support for 3 years. I understand the sunset concept, the ...

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Summary: Intuit has a "sunset policy" in the license agreement (which is not uncommon in the software industry) of only providing support for 3 years. I understand the sunset concept, the manufacturer can't be expected to support a product forever, however that is not what Intuits policy is limited to...
What you need to realize is that after 3 years, they DISABLE key functionality of the software, forcing you to upgrade to the next version.
I was SATISFIED with Quicken 2004. However, I had to upgrade because Intuit disabled the key functionality of being able to download transactions from my bank!!
Instead of forcing me to upgrade with a "timebomb policy" how about creating a product that I want to upgrade to?
Imagine if Honda came to your house and disabled your car after 3 years?
Look for other software solutions! Don't become an Intuit crack addict.

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11 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 stars

Don't bother, not worth your time or effort

by DNaples on January 14, 2007

Pros: Looks good

Cons: Doesn't work as expected, and persistent "upsell" for Q services is annoying at best

Summary: If I would have read all of these reviews first, I would have AVOIDED this program.
I used Q from before they killed support for the older versions, so I
...

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Summary: If I would have read all of these reviews first, I would have AVOIDED this program.
I used Q from before they killed support for the older versions, so I was optimistic. Now I am only persistently disappointed and frustrated.
Upon startup, I am repeatedly asked to "setup," even though I can see my data from the last session. Setup persistently sends me to "register" online with Q.com, even though I already did. NOW, it will no longer d/l from my bank, and I'm left with only manual input...
Gee whiz ~ I might as well use a plain ol' spreadsheet for all the "new & improved" functionality I've got...

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7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!! I am going to return my 2007

by Dion7691 on December 20, 2006

Pros: 2005 Premier version uses less memory and runs faster

Cons: Transfering 2005 Premier files is a nightmare

Summary: If you are thinking of upgrading your older version of Premier, please don't. I am very sorry I did. I have lost my Premier 2005 files in the restoration ...

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Summary: If you are thinking of upgrading your older version of Premier, please don't. I am very sorry I did. I have lost my Premier 2005 files in the restoration process and I have been on the phone with tech support now for 6 hours and they have not been able to resolve my file transfer problem. The 2007 program will slow your computer down dramatically!! If you buy this product you will have to switch back to your older version of Premier. Stay away from 2007 Premier. Quickbooks did a very lousy job with this update. Too much memory and speed loss is convincing me to go back to the older version. What were they thinking?

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7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 stars

Not if you're switching from MS Money

by force23 on August 29, 2006

Pros: Starts quick, nice interface

Cons: converting data from MS Money is a nightmare

Summary: I bought this dog when I decided I would transition from MS Money to Quicken. I used Quicken in the past and liked it, so I thought I'd try ...

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Summary: I bought this dog when I decided I would transition from MS Money to Quicken. I used Quicken in the past and liked it, so I thought I'd try it again. I tried in vain for three nights straight and two calls to Quicken Tech support to resolve the problem, but no such luck. You have to complete a very complicated, lengthy process to try and covert the data, but it doesn't work. Switching from Quicken to MS Money is a snap however. It directly imports into the program without a fuss, but since Quicken doesn't have a built in converter you have to run a converter (seperate download) and hope it works. It didn't. I might give Quicken a try when they are more user friendly, but for now I'll stick with MS Money.

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8 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 stars

don't buy this until they fix the bugs

by daffydog on August 30, 2006

Pros: Quicken is a decent program

Cons: Quicken releases new versions before bugs are fixed

Summary: I've had many versions of Quicken over the years. Each time I upgrade prematurely (which means within the first few months of release of the new version) I've ...

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Summary: I've had many versions of Quicken over the years. Each time I upgrade prematurely (which means within the first few months of release of the new version) I've regretted it. Most recently, my version 2006 stopped recognizing my CD writing drive, for no apparent reason. Uninstalling and reinstalling Quicken 20066 failed to fix the problem. I figured that it would be just as easy to download version 2007. Big mistake. Within four minutes of having Quicken installed, I discovered a ridiculous bug that should have been obvious to the programmers at any time well before release: Quicken assigns a file name to the backup file that is absurdly long, longer than the 26 characters allowed by the Windows CD writing software on which the backup to CD depends. This file name is not alterable by the user. So the whole reason why I upgraded to Quicken 2007 was for naught. I'm now backing up to a USB flash drive, which is probably just as well, but give me a break. If I can find this bug within four minutes of using the program, why can't they?

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7 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 stars

discontinues after 3 years!

by dan77062 on February 3, 2007

Pros: none at all

Cons: buggy, automatically obsoletes

Summary: I have used Quicken for over 15 years. Imagine my surprise to get an email from them saying that my Quicken 2004 Premier software will no long download data online ...

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Summary: I have used Quicken for over 15 years. Imagine my surprise to get an email from them saying that my Quicken 2004 Premier software will no long download data online after April 30, 2007.

It is now company "policy" to disable their software's functionality after 3 years! It's a stickup-- upgrade or die!

I am switching to GnuCash-- open source, free, works great.

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6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Intuit Inc.
Part number: 298332

General
Subcategory Home / life - personal finance / tax preparation
Language(s) English
License pricing Standard
Localization English
Software
License Type Complete package
License Qty 1 user
License Pricing Standard
Platform Windows
Distribution Media CD-ROM
Package Type Retail

System Requirements
OS Required Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000
Min Processor Type 200 MHz
Peripheral / Interface Devices 2x CD-ROM, SVGA monitor, Internet connection 28.8 Kbps, Printer
System Requirements Details Pentium - RAM 64 MB - HD 100 MB

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Quicken 2007 Premier

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