I openly admit it; I’m organizationally deficient. I have paperwork strewn all over and around my desk, not to mention what in my briefcase and file folder. It’s no wonder that bills always tend to re-surface two or three days before they’re due. Keeping an account book is only useful if it doesn’t get lost in the paperwork pile.

I figured that my computer is a pretty hard thing to lost track of, so I decided to transfer all of my banking and credit information to my computer. I have to admit that there’s not that much choice when it comes to selecting personal finance software. It’s pretty much Quicken or Money. I chose Money because it would work with my iPaq PocketPC right out of the box (more on this later). Macintosh users don’t have much choice; it’s Quicken or nothing.

There is currently a mail-in rebate applicable to Money 2002. It’s worth 10$US, or 15$CDN, depending on which side of the border you’re on. Don’t hold your breath though. I sent in the coupon almost 3 months ago, and I’m still waiting. So much for the 6-8 weeks claimed.

The first thing I noticed after installing Money 2002 is how easy it is to get up and running with it. It literally talks you through setting up your accounts and balances, and it will set up your recurring bills and deposits. This is great for computer novices, but experienced users will most likely not be thrilled by this hand-holding. It’s also possible to import data from previous versions of Money and also from Quicken. I have not tried either, but I can assume that upgrading from a previous version should be quick and painless.

One installed and started, you are greeted to a web browser style interface, with buttons on top and an information pane to the left. From here you have access to your account listings to enter and verify transactions, a budget planner that not only comes with an assortment of useful categories built-in, but it also lets you add your own. There’s also a debt reduction planner that will calculate the most appropriate payment schedule to get out of debt according to the maximum monthly payment you can make. That pretty much summarizes the essential functions of the Standard versions though. There is very little tax and investment planning functionality; no net worth or home inventory tool, and little in terms of investment portfolio tools. The Deluxe version has all of these.

But what is truly impressive is how well all of the functions interact together. The software always seems to be a step ahead of you. Take for example, the debt reduction planner: once you enter them amount you are willing to put towards paying down your debt per month, it will compute how much you should pay each creditor, based on outstanding balance and interest rate. Once this is done, those amounts will be automatically entered in your bills list instead of the minimum amounts that you would have entered in the set-up phase. Your budget will also be modified in consequence.

Also, when you enter a transaction in an account, it appears to associate many major retailers with a budget category. If I enter a 30$ purchase at Shell, it automatically categorizes it as “Automotive:Fuel”. 5$ at McDonalds automatically goes in as “Food:Eating out”. These automatic categorizations can obviously be changed, but I found it neat to see that it knew where to put them in advance. Also, if you enter an expense or a deposit in a category that hasn’t been defined in your budget, it will recommend you add it in.

One of the most useful features for me however is its co-operation with Pocket Money for PocketPC. I usually always have my iPaq along with me, and I can use Pocket Money to enter transactions on the spot and be certain I never forget anything. I can also check my account balance at any time. Once I get back home, I just need to synchronize my iPaq with my PC and all the entries appear in Money 2002. Very nice. By the way, for those of you that also have a PocketPC, Microsoft has an update that allows Money 2002 to work with Pocket Money. It won’t work without it. Thins might be a moot point with PocketPC 2002 handhelds, which have a new version of Pocket Money.

There are however a few irritants with money 2002 that I can just pass over. For some reason, it often reminds me to pay my overdue bills when I start up the program, even though the bill in question has been paid by automatic withdrawal. As soon as I bring up the bills page, the automatic withdrawal automatically enters itself (as it should), and the reminder goes away. It’s not a big issue, but it’s annoying that it often makes you think you have a late bill when it’s not the case.

Also, Microsoft seems to be quite adamant in connecting everybody and everything to the global .NET scheme. Personally, I do not want any of my critical information tied to some online service. It’s just a matter of clicking the “Work Offline” button when you start the software, but it’s annoying to have to do it every time.


In summary, here are the good and bad points of Money 2002:

THE REALLY GOOD:

-Very easy setup. It actually talks you through every step of the process. It doesn’t get any more foolproof than that.

-All components of the program interact with each other very well. It almost seems to be one step ahead of you and usually knows what you want to do next.

-Works flawlessly with Pocket Money for Microsoft PocketPC handhelds. Just don’t forget to install the patch for it to work with Money 2002.


THE GOOD:

-Low price. Microsoft and low price, how often do you see that combination!


THE NOT-SO-GOOD:

-Limited functions in the Standard version. If you need to use the net worth tracker, the home inventory function or in-depth portfolio planning tools, considering spending a few extra dollars on the Deluxe version.

-The mail-in rebate that’s not arriving…

-The .NET integration that ultimately ends up tying your critical data to some web service. It can be easily bypassed, but I would rather it have been left out


THE VERY BAD:

-Nothing to report here.


Recommended: Yes