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Microsoft Money 2006 For Dummies Review by Holly Croydon
Great for getting started, but missing what I was really looking for
I bought Microsoft Money 2007 Premium a few weeks ago. The interface was intuitive enough that I was able to get it set up and running without much trouble. I was also able to set up online functions with my various bank and investment accounts, including some institutions that are capable of automated updates, and some that require a manual download. Everything worked pretty slick, and transactions were rolling in nicely.
With all the data streaming in, I worked hard trying to figure out Money's balancing process, what it really means and how to assure everything balanced out and returned accurate figures for net worth, spending by category, investment values, etc. I got stuck with certain types of transfers from one account to another that were throwing off my reporting and decided I needed a book to help me learn the finer points.
I found that there is no book for 2007. I read that the changes from 2006 were minimal, so I ordered "Microsoft Money 2006 For Dummies" by Peter Weverka.
I found the book easy to read, topics easy to find, and I was able to get some answers on some basic questions, such as accurately splitting transactions across categories. I also liked the tips on how to more easily do the things I had already figured out, such as Find and Replace to edit transactions en masse. There are helpful warnings for potential pitfalls, which I don't think I'd have figured out on my own (at least not without pain).
My impression (totally subjective, of course) is that the author enjoys working with finances (and is really good at it), and recommends that we all take time to be careful and smart with our money. His book's advice, I thought, leaned toward manually handling accounts and taking a lot of time reconciling and balancing accounts.
I wish I were so inclined, but I really purchased Money for just about the opposite purpose! I'm more into letting the whiz-bang software do the work for me, in as automated a way as possible. I want to download the data from the bank, not enter it manually and then reconcile. After reading the book, I still do not know how to cope with the complicated volumes of data downloaded from my broker accounts: buys and sells, shifting of money from one fund to another, etc. There are only 24 pages out of 328 (one section) that are devoted to online banking. I was hungry for more.
I'm glad I have the book, and plan to give it another read through to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'll also keep looking for a book with more advanced information about the online features of Money.