Quicken Premier 2010
- Quicken Premier 2010 has all of the features of Quicken Deluxe, plus investment management tools to help track your portfolio performance and help maximize your investments
- Organizes your personal finances and makes portfolio management easier by bringing your accounts together in one place
- Helps you choose the right investments to reach your goals; identifies ways to minimize taxes on your investments
- Shows where you’re spending and helps you see where to save
- Helps you stay on top of bills and avoid late fees with alerts on upcoming payments
Quicken Premier Personal Finance Software helps you easily budget and organize your finances, maximize investments and grow your net worth.Quicken Premier 2010 has all of the features of Quicken Deluxe–plus investment management tools to help track your portfolio performance and help maximize your investments. Provides comprehensive investing and planning tools. Click to enlarge. Helps you make better buy/sell decisions. Click to enlarge.
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(out of 141 reviews)
List Price: $ 89.95
Price: $ 64.95
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Review by M. Wilson for Quicken Premier 2010
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I picked up QP2010 locally this afternoon. (I’ve been running QP2009 for the past year.) There doesn’t appear to be a lot of “new” features so much as GUI changes. BTW, after installing and before converting the data set, Q checks for and downloads updates. In the “About Quicken” window, QP2010 reports it’s running R2. I always upgrade early if not on day one, and this is the first time I’ve started with a release other than R1.
One really nice interface change is that it’s now possible to use the “classic” interface, and you’re able to turn off both the account bar and the new “action bar.” As always, we can turn off the tool bar if we wish. The “action bar” is rather like MS’s “ribbon” interface but not as elaborate or as space consuming. This feature allows users to regain some vertical space.
Instead of having the usual several-file data set, all Quicken data is now packaged in the *.QDF file. Prior to upgrading from QP2009, I copied my (multi-year) 20MB file set, bringing it down to 16MB in size. After upgrading to 2010, my data file was 19.9MB. Automatic backups are no longer numbered FILENAME1 through FILENAME5 (or whatever max number you choose). They’re named in the format:
FILENAME-ddMMMyyyy-hh-mm-ss.QDF-backup
Also, manual backups are saved in the format:
FILENAME-ddMMMyyyy.QDF-backup
(As is the case with Quicken 2009, you can turn off Quicken’s appending the date to the filename — manual backups only.)
Additional backups during the same day get a -1, -2, -3, etc. appended to the end of the date. For example:
MYFILE-11OCT2009-1.QDF-backup
The bug where “update balance” defaults to a seemingly arbitrary date (in my case the date of my last balance update) rather than today’s date, has not been fixed.
I haven’t tested for other bugs, as this one is the most annoying for me. Further, as I’ve been able to duplicate it on two different operating systems on four different machines (and others have reported the same phenomenon), it seems Intuit could fix this!
Intuit also failed to listen to those of us asking for the return of 2007′s (IIRC?) detailed category editor where we could actually see transactions linked to a given category.
That was a really useful feature. Now Quicken (as of Q2008 IIRC) simply reports that “if” the subcategory is in use when you delete it, its contents will be merged with the category. When I attempted to delete a category, Q warned that all subcategories would be deleted too. I don’t understand why Intuit removed this very useful feature, as it was already programmed and worked very well. Now we have to run category reports before doing any major revisions to categories & subcategories. 
I admit I don’t do such reorganizing very often, but it’s nice to have it when I need it!
I began using Quicken 3.0 for DOS when it first came out and have upgraded every year. The last few years I’ve paid full price and purchased Intuit’s download. This year Intuit seems to have dropped the ball and is still selling Q2009 on its web site (as of this writing). Amazon started shipping Quicken 2010 today (at a nice discount), but no download is available yet.
Even though there are no earthshaking improvements, the improvements to the GUI are very nice. There are a few new “summary” pages which help with watching where money goes, etc. Overall, IMNSHO, Intuit has made good use of screen real estate without wasting too much space or crowding screen elements. A lot of options are customizable, so Intuit did listen to us on that count.
(I run my machines at 1280×1024 and 1280×800.)
Another change is that by default, cents are not shown in the Account Bar. You have to right-click and select the option to “show cents in amounts” if you want to see this detail.
This is the first year there is no MS Money. I’m sure writing the Money-to-Quicken converter was a major undertaking — especially if it works well! The GUI improvements are very nice, and I do like QP2010. Still, I’m especially glad I paid nowhere near full price for it. Intuit says the Money-to-Quicken data converter will be available for Q2009 later in October.
During my cursory review this afternoon, I didn’t find any weirdnesses, and the program runs well.
Overall, I’d say Q2010 has a streamlined user interface that will appeal to new users. Intuit listened and added customization options where seasoned users can turn off many new interface changes. Also for new users migrating from MS Money, there’s a Money-Quicken data converter. As I haven’t used the converter, I don’t know how well it works. But it looks like Intuit has made a good, mature product easier for new users, and especially for Money users who want to switch to Quicken.
Review by Joyce for Quicken Premier 2010
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I am a former MS Money user and was looking forward to effortlessly importing my data files into Quicken 2010 as promised by Intuit. The reality so far is a nightmare. Before I continue I consider myself very knowledgeable in dealing with Computer and software issues. I purchased and attempted to install Quicken Premier 2010 on October 10, 2009. The software loaded without problems. When you first open the program you are given 3 options on how to proceed. I chose the option that says I want to import my data from MS Money. As soon as I selected this and clicked on the get started button, the program crashed. I closed and reopened the program, only to get to a new screen that does not show the previous choices. After various attempts to get back to the original screen failed, I opened a chat session with customer support. After a 30 minute wait, I was connected and an agent helped with an alternate method to import the Money data. The import was successful and I thought I was good to go. I closed the program. The next day I attempted to reopen the program and the system once again crashed. Numerous attempts to reopen also failed. I removed and reloaded software with the same problem. I then downloaded and used an Intuit cleaner program to remove all traces of Quicken. I also deleted some files and folders detailed on the Quicken website. After this, I was again able to install and open the program, however when I selected the option to import Money data it once again crashed. I have since been unable to reopen the program. Not wishing to remove and reinstall again, I went to the support page of Quicken to contact customer service by phone. I felt pretty good when it promised “I would be contacted within 60 minutes. Guaranteed.” Now I am unaware of what the guarantee means because I have been waiting for over 9 hours without a call back. I cannot recommend this product. If I do not receive a response by tomorrow, I plan to box it up and ship it back to Intuit for a refund. I will continue to use MS Money and update my portfolio and bank accounts manually. This product, and customer service does not live up to what they claim. Unless a fix is forthcoming, I say, save your money.
Update 11/3/2009: I am revisiting my original post because of the following:
1. Customer support has been great (although it took a lot of effort on my and others part)
2. I have imported 2 mny data files now with no problem. Part of the original problem I feel was because I did not install it as the Administrator. VERY IMPORTANT.
3. After using the program for several weeks, I am getting more used to it. Just a learning curve as it is very different from Money.
So, I would say at this point, make the purchase
Review by A. Weedman for Quicken Premier 2010
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I’ve been using MS Money since ~1998. My most recent version was 2007 and since its end of life is 2010 I figured that I would get a head start with the new Quicken version.
The good:
- The conversion of data from MS Money was surprisingly fast and easy. All of my accounts were there.
- Online access is available for more of my accounts than what I had in MS Money.
- The information is all there that you need. It works.
- I always had an issue with MS Money where when I was doing an online update it would recreate accounts a second time. I would merge the accounts manually and then most often it would happen again on the next update. The only way to fix it was to completely delete the account and start over which always irritated me because you would lose data in the process. I’m listing this under good because I’m assuming that I won’t have this issue with Quicken.
- My 12MB file in MS Money went down to 9MB in Quicken.
The bad:
- Man the Quicken interface is a mess. If you’re used to the clean and simple MS Money screens it’s going to take you a little time to adjust.
- You need to set up all of your online access to accounts again.
- There are other account settings here and there that need to be updated. Usually they are in hard to find spots.
- Reconciled transactions in MS Money for some reason don’t always show up as reconciled in Quicken. No big deal – you can do a select all and reconcile them all at one time in an account.
- Some categories were missing for transaction transferred from MS Money.
Review by Kylie Hrncir for Quicken Premier 2010
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I wanted to fall in love with Quicken, I really did. Not because I felt particularly strong about this software, but because I spent 13 years using MS money and had over 16,000 transactions in my 38mb file. I had an attachment to MS Money and was more than a bit irked when we found out that MS was pulling the plug because it was not profitable.
So I went into Quicken with an open mind. I chose the premium version because I had some (not a lot) of mutual funds, money markets and 401k equivalents. I never got a warm fuzzy feeling for the website descriptions that Quicken Deluxe would translate them over, so I went with the higher version and paid the extra money. I still am not sure if that was necessary or I needlessly upgraded.
My experience in converting my MS money file was mostly pleasant. The program installed easy enough and the conversion of the money file actually went quite smooth (had read horror stories). But that’s where the ease ended. I should also note that I had hundreds of “Scheduled Transaction Not Imported” and “Item Imported But Wrong Currency” error messages. Well over 400 of these total.
My next feeling was that of abandonment. I felt like I was dropped off in a strange city and had to find my own way on the bus. All the tools were there – but there were no easy videos or how to sheets for those of us converting from MS Money. No step-by-step guide to tell me what to do. Most of the functions that I needed right away were there, but there’s a whole different feel to Quicken that I’m not digging. I don’t think it’s very intuitive, but that might just be the new interface.
The 2 biggest things that sucked my ever-loving time when i upgraded were deleting all of the proposed new bills and fixing the transactions marked “Cleared” but not reconciled from MS Money.
The bill problem was terribly annoying. Quicken was picking out payments from 2002 that I had paid once, marked them as reoccurring and said I was 7 years late paying it. There was no way to delete a batch of bills, so I had to click on each bill, then delete, and then confirm the deletion. That sounds fine until you have to go through about 188 of them. That was frustrating and I inadvertently deleted a few of the 12 bills that actually carried over correctly from MS Money. Time consuming – but minor.
The cleared/reconciled transaction problem was a little more painful. I had read that partially cleared statements would pose a problem, but I didn’t realize that meant anything in a cleared status. For several accounts I had to delete all the transactions from the last statement and start over. I’m sure there was an easier way, but I didn’t see it. This took hours for several accounts and a lot of referencing to my MS money file. This should have been easier, but if I would have known to mark all transactions as unreconciled, that would have been more helpful.
Most of my accounts, after adjusting for those cleared transactions, came across more or less intact. There was a lot of double checking, and I’m still not totally convinced that everything carried over (I can’t find any transactions before 2002, but that could be attributable to closed accounts) but for now it seems to work. I did have a problem with my checking balance reflecting a balance of negative $303,800,325. I adjusted, updated, and it always displayed a negative $303,800,325 balance. Eventually I got the right balance by shutting down and restarting Quicken.
Other notes about dealing with Quicken 2010 Premier vs. Money Plus:
-The program felt sluggish the first day. The second day it was better, so maybe it was compiling or something.
-Something got messed up when transferring my foreign currency accounts. They don’t show as transfers anymore between one account and the next. Just two separate transactions. I don’t know how that’s going to affect my reports.
-I can’t find very many reports. I have to play around with this.
-I don’t like the currency conversion part at all – MS Money was far smoother with a drop down list. Now in Quicken – it gives me a calculator when I switch currencies.
-It took me far too long to figure out how to turn on the cents on the accounts menu.
-No frequent flier miles option with Quicken. I didn’t realize how much I would miss that feature.
-I’m pretty sure it resurrected every Payee I’ve ever used. Not necessarily a bad thing – but that might be time consuming later.
-Registry layout takes a lot of getting used to – and the new layout for categories is awkward. I’m used to typing in the subcategory and having what I’m looking for pop up. Quicken’s categories are more time consuming.
-My 401k and its cash account come up separately on the accounts list, while in Money they came up together. So now I’m going to have to stay on top of this more – or delete entirely and start over.
-There’s a little flag next to one of my accounts telling me that I have a bill due – I can’t seem to make that go away.
And the differences go on…
All and all – I would never have switched voluntarily. This is clearly a functional piece of software, but I’ve come to expect more from my personal finance software – especially at $80 a copy. Money spoiled me for the little details, the interfaces and even the easy-to-reach videos.
The only other thing that I really don’t understand is that using Quicken Online gave me access to credit card companies that are not available to be updated from Quicken Premiere. Why can I get my Capital One and Charles Schwab balances and transactions from the online part and not through the desktop software? That should have been fixable.
After 13 years of using the same software I’m just not sure I’m willing to invest the time in keeping this program as up-to-date as I did with MS Money. I suppose this will work until I find a better solution, but all and all I think my hopes were too high. The program is fully functional, it’s just not the same. So at the end of day 2 – I have to give it an “ok” rating.
Review by CS for Quicken Premier 2010
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To begin with …
I’m neither a Quicken-hater nor a raving fan. I use it because it helps me manage my financial life, and I haven’t found anything better … yet. It mostly works.
This is a review based on first impressions after a recent upgrade; I will update if I have further information to share.
Review begins here …
As the world knows, Quicken hasn’t really improved much over the last 5 years or so — they just go through with UI changes and minor tweaks. And the changes usually fall equally between “annoying, why did they change that?” and “ok, maybe that’s a slight improvement”.
I just upgraded from Q2007, and only because of the “current + 2 previous” support policy. (No, I don’t have a big problem with this policy.)
The upgrade was painless, and the file conversions worked without problems. (I use two separate files for different purposes.)
I find the UI changes mostly unimportant … and I’m talking about 3 years worth of changes, folks! I haven’t found any significant functional improvements either. They haven’t even bothered improving the login process for financial institutions (like my bank) which are using what I’ll call multi-step login (user id, password, and personal question selected from a list).
One annoying change is the “Community” logo on the top right — yeah, I really wanted that one, it’ll improve my life dramatically. This could easily have been an icon on the toolbar, so that those who want it keep it, those who don’t can remove it.
Ok, so far it’s all break-even, assuming that you accept the idea of buying the software more like a subscription than a one-time purchase. The big negative so far is that the app is much slower now: apparently there’s a lot more on-the-fly calculation going on now when you switch screens or change data.
Recommendation: If you use Quicken, and want to continue doing so, don’t be afraid of this upgrade. Don’t rush to it, either.