Additional Functionality

[SteveC]

I saw someone mention that there has been little added to Money or Quicken
in past few years. Nor did he think users were calling for extras. I think
there is much in what he said; however, there are some changes that could be
added.

For one thing, a lot of people keep there personal inventories in Money.
What there is in Money is fine but it could be expanded. I never knew why
add-ons are not possible. Why could Inventory allow add-ons to keep up with
collections such as books, CDs, DVDs, etc. I know many people keep these
databases and with an add-on, they could be separate yet update their value
in Money's inventory module for networth reports.

Several years ago when Money added the screen for automobiles, I thought it
would be neat if Money helped you keep up with car expenses as well as gas
mileage and maintenance schedules. I didn't see why this couldn't be
included in the module. Since most of us download or record our gas
purchases in Money, I didn't see why we couldn't add the mileage and number
of gallons purchased at the same time.

I realize that these are hardly requisites but I don't see why they couldn't
be features or add-ons that could be made available for those who like them
and not used by those who don't. What I like to see is functionality shared
so that one sees the big picture but it doesn't slow down the program or
make the file ridiculously large, which is why I suggest them as add-ons.

 

[Mastever]

I agree with SteveC. Here's my list of useful "extras"

1. It still doesn’t handle closed accounts well. I had unvested employee
stock options back in 2000. Even though the account is closed, those options
still show up in all kinds of reports as an asset or investment.
2. The portfolio analysis in the product is weak. Why can’t I get a simple
report that says what my total return is for a given period of time compared
to the S&P or another index? The ability to look back at my own investing
behavior to learn from it is not possible via Money. I have to reload the
data into Excel to get anything done.
3. There are advertising links on every single page Money brings up. It’s
like being in a movie theatre that runs commercials before the trailers. I
hate it.
4. Have you tried posting an asset sale in Money? I have, twice in the
last year. It is a real time consuming pain. There should be a script for
typical transactions like buying or selling a car or house, but there are
not, so you have to input a bunch of small transactions to capture things
like broker fees paid and taxes paid. Most of these are done in the asset
account as a “reduction in value.†There is no way to sell an asset which
should be some combination of transfer, expense, and income.
5. There should be an option to "smooth" the net wealth over time graphs.
Let's say you sell a house, but the transactions post a day apart, your net
wealth shoots up or down hundreds of thousands of dollars for that day. That
makes all the Net Worth graphs look odd, because the graphs capture the
extremes, rather than smoothing out differences in clearing dates