I’ve been using Microsoft Money for a while now. Previously I’d been using Quicken, but since it was discontinued, I decided to change. All the upgrades between versions I’d done had made the data a bit ‘odd’, so Money would complain. Also, my categories for transactions were all over the place. So I decided at the beginning of 2008 I would start afresh, and start with new data.
Somewhere along the line I decided to start using the statement download features my banks offer me. WHY wasn’t I using them earlier? I was always worried I’d end up with duplicates, and other data oddities. I was also concerned I’d spend so much time fixing the data to fit what I had it would take just as much time as it would to type it in anyway, which is why I was doing so.
Well I was wrong. Very wrong. It works perfectly. I download a statement, I check the data is correct, and if there’s a duplicate, it tells me. It’s all very simple stuff. I can now pull down my data in a matter of minutes.
It’s a shame there’s not a more direct route, so from within Money I can’t just click a button and have it sync. I have a feeling some of the US banks offer that, but none of the UK banks seem to, which is a shame. Then again, I don’t think people in the UK care as much about putting their statements onto computer as people in the US do. I don’t know many people who do bother doing it anyway.
I just like to know where I’m wasting all my money, and I can do that easily in Money.