Money Managing Software: how useful/safe is it?

Ignoramus

Whilst trying to get to grip with my family's general finances, I've come across a whole lot of money management software (quicken, msmoney, gnucash etc).

I've never used anything like that before but was wondering whether it could be helpful for various members of my family who are worse than useless with their money.

Basically I'm looking for opinions on how useful, easy to use and safe these software are.

I was wondering how safe it is to enter too much detail into a single program (account names, numbers, sort codes etc). If I was a virus, it would be the first place I'd look to steal data.

I notice that some of these programs are able to connect to online banks and download your statements and even pay bills! Is this possible in the UK too, or only in the US? To be honest I'd be terrified to enter my username and password into a piece of software, but maybe I'm just being paranoid.

In general what do people here use this software for? Is it just a filing system to keep track of all your accounts in one place, or can it do fancy stuff like work out your tax bill if you're self employed?

I've started looking into Gnucash (because it's free and I'm a tight-wad) but I'd be really grateful for any feedback on any of the software on all OSs.

Cheers!

chris_m

I use Quicken 98 (patched with a free Y2K update they sent me) for recording all my income and spend across multiple bank accounts and credit cards, supplemented by MS Excel for long-term forecasting. Any spend is logged on Quicken with its details, and on Excel as just the value unless it's a planned direct debit. Excel is just monthly figures (or formulae summing the various figures, eg =25.73+11.21+35), so the Quicken calendar view is invaluable to me for showing the projected state of my bank accounts day on day, since I shift most of my salary out of my current account into (slightly) better interest-paying accounts then drip-feed it back as needed to meet direct debit and other bill dates. The only thing I don't record is cash purchases - I record the actual cash withdrawals then it's "off the radar" on my systems.

Because items in Quicken have to be entered individually (or as recurring payments) I use Excel for all my "what if?" scenarios where I want to see the long-term effect if I, say, decide to juggle money around more or want to make a big purchase. It's dead easy to replicate a worksheet and "play" with it, with no risk of lousing up the real one. My Excel forecast goes out around 40 years as it's my principal planning tool for working out when I will/should/might be able to kiss goodbye to work ;-)

I don't have any experience of linking Quicken to online banking, don't know if it's actually possible, and wouldn't do it anyway. Not idea either about things like tax bills, I'm PAYE so never need to worry about that. Likewise investments - Quicken can be used to track those too, but I just use Excel.

I fully accept that some may consider my method a tad "anal" and it may well be, but I built it up over several years and it suits me.
I can't say that it will suit everyone but one thing I learnt very quickly and would apply to any method - you have to be disciplined about it. Either record everything or don't bother. It can be a real nightmare tracking down why the bank statements don't match your records if you are lax about recording everything.
It may well seem a real chore at first (it did for me) but it eventually becomes almost second nature and I wouldn't be without it now. Since I started doing it I have never gone overdrawn or anythig like that because I can easily check exactly what money I should have where and when, and long experience tells me that if that's what the computer says I have, that is indeed what I have.

HTH
Chris

Wyndham

I use Money Manager, but I don't think you can buy it anymore. You need to be disciplined and record everything, but I find it really useful in terms of keeping track of things. In particular, you can put 'future' things in there, so if you know a bill is going to come out on the 15th, you can put that in early and it won't catch you by surprise and send you overdrawn.

I don't put account numbers in there. I have names for all the accounts (so xxxx current account, yyyy savings account etc.) I also don't ever connect to the bank on line as part of what I'm doing as I think that my overwrite my records (?) and I want to be sure that I agree with the bank so I can query any discrepencies.

Personally wouldn't be without it - but it takes time and discipline as chris_m says (I'm also a bit anal about it all!)

Lemon_Tree

I use quicken in exactly the same mannor as ChrisM above. I also use excel for long term forecasting.
Before quicken i used excel for everything but i do like the fact that quicken will let you categorise spends, plus i used it for years at various workplaces to run their cash flows from.
I never connect to the banks via it or let it print cheques etc.
I'm not sure that it's available anymore to buy.

Cash-Strapped.T32

I suggest to keep it simple to start with - Anything too complex will soon be dropped if the person involved isn't very interested, so the simpler the better.

Just about every Pc has excel, so that's a good place to start.
Even something very basic like this..;

Month: December

---

Opening Bal: £0
Wages: £700

---

[Mandatory Spends]
Rent: £200
Bills: £100

---

[Weekly Spends]
Food Wk1: £50
Petrol Wk1: £40
Food Wk2: £50
Petrol Wk2: £40
Food Wk3: £50
Petrol Wk3: £40
Food Wk4: £50
Petrol Wk4: £40

---

[Discretional Spends]
Crimbo Present for dog: £10

---

Closing Bal: £110

---

..Was very helpful to me to get back into the black after years of paying no attention really to these things.

This block can then have an autosum running down the amounts column to show your predicted balance after each item is taken into account, and the whole block can be copy/pasted 12 times to give a year, or however long you want to look at.
(each month's opening bal takes it's value from last month's closing bal, etc..

This approach doesn't go into much of the detail of the other (very capable) programs mentioned above, but I find I get on better with Excel, precisely because it's so common so doing a bit of work or updating doesn't feel like I'm going to do a job, I update it whenever I'm on a computer at home or work.



As it happens, on another tab of the same spreadsheet I keep a rough diary which is like the grid-shaped calendars you see in PIM apps with things like S/Order dates & work holidays blocked-in, the way you would if you used Outlook or one of those PIM programs.

I mention this because it's another example of using Excel, precisely because it's so common.

I tried such software in the past, or various accounting apps & it's useful for about a month, until you need to reformat your Pc, or re-flash your phone or whatever.
But as soon as that initial link is broken - You lose the disk, no longer have the link where you downloaded it - you end up with a load of files you no longer use, & a bit stuck because that program you used so often is gone.
To avoid that, I try to use Excel as much as possible, because hell, everyone has excel, & even most phones run it out of the box these days.

Not to denigrate the professional accounting apps the other posters mentioned, but this formed such a large part of my choice I felt it the right place to mention.
Best of luck mate whatever you do.

pmduk

I use MS Money and have also used the free MoneyManagerEx in the past. I have never tried to connect to the internet with them, mainly for security concerns. MS Money allows you to password protect the data. I find them an essential part of controlling my budget and would hate to have to return to Excel for this, but that's just my opinion.

jimjames

I also use MS Money, my version is long out of date - Money 2000 - but it does pretty much all I need. The main area lacking is relating to investment management where it falls down on reporting but for basic balancing accounts and monitoring spending it is excellent.

You do need to be disciplined but if you are then the information you can get is great.

chris_m

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

I suggest to keep it simple to start with - Anything too complex will soon be dropped if the person involved isn't very interested, so the simpler the better.

Top tip. Whatever one chooses to use, always bear in mind that it should be a tool to help with money management - the means to an end, NOT the end to a means.

meditatinghamster

My wife uses MS Money. I really can't get the hang of it and would always prefer a spreadsheet. However, she has made a big effot to master it and always knows where we stand with the money. I'd love to see the bank try to overcharge us for as little as 2p and it not get discovered lol. :-) Well worth it if you can put the effort in.

Can't believe MS have abandoned MS Money. You would have thought in a recession there would be a massive market for it?!?!?!

You can do some pretty cool calculations in excel (or the free open office equivalent).

Loughton_Monkey

I would be completely lost without Quicken (2004 'Final' Version). [MS Money is very similar, and would have been just as good, but I happened to get used to Quicken - upon which MS Money was based].

Possibly even more 'anal' than ChrisM, I have all my accounts in detail going back to 1st January 1972. [My TV rental was £2.45 a month then]. I guess it was about 1997 that I started using Quicken and then put all my 'ledger' transactions on back to 1972.

I don't think the 'online banking' linkages work these days, but I never used them even when they did. I lived in USA 1983/84, and Far East 2000/2006, and so handling foreign currencies was a complete no-brainer. [If you do happen to want 'automated' online banking, then my Norton Utilities can manage your sign-ons, but I do not trust them to software. But it's useful for signing on to 'non financial' sites.]

If I didn't have Quicken, I would have to do something similar on a spreadsheet, but it would be nowhere near as good. Updating with Standing Orders/DD's and any regular payment is fully automated. I just have to put in interest, fund growths, cash spending, etc. which is brainlessly simple and quick. I reconcile most accounts monthly. I can tell in advance whether my main current account is likely to sail close to the wind and so I never go overdrawn, nor do I keep wasteful amounts in a non-interest current account.

The reports and budget control are, to me, the real value. I set up an annual budget, by detailed income and expense categories. It is this aspect where I spend most of the time. Having all this historic information gives you powerful information with which to 'fix' your spending budget for the year. In all the years I have used it, I have never been over budget on spending. This is because I refuse ever to change the annual total. To me that would be 'sacrilege'.

This forces me - monthly, or even more regularly - to monitor my actual spending against budget. If I am 'in the red' on one heading, option 1 is to move money from one heading to another for the current month. If I can't do that then stage 2 is move it from one month to another. As I go through the year, I put surplus into 'contingency', and so if absolutely necessary, I will involve stage 3 which is to move money out of 'contingency'. I have never had to change the annual total because with this strategy, I would have 'seen it coming' much earlier in the year - time enough to ramp down my spending.

Like others, I also use spreadsheets for more strategic things - like I did for retirement planning. I owe a lot of this to Quicken, for it was Quicken that provided easily the data to feed my future projections. Once happy with those, they became my detailed retirement financial plans, which in turn went back into Quicken, where I control it all rigourously.

The thing it doesn't do, sadly, is tell me which funds to invest in, or whether Nationwide has got a new regular saver - or whatever. But again, it helps me to ascertain whether my pension and investment income are on track. Just as for spending, though, my 'budget' is well thought out, conservative, and I put any surplus into 'contingency'.

I thoroughly recommend any serious money-conscious person to use this type of package. I would not be without it.

chris_m

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Possibly even more 'anal' than ChrisM, I have all my accounts in detail going back to 1st January 1972.

Only 1972, can't it handle values in LSD then?