Entered CNET Catalog: 08/18/2004
SKU: S66-00008
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Manufacturer description
Microsoft Money 2005 provides a quick and easy way to start organizing and managing your personal finances. Personal finances made easy.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/17/2004
A simpler interface also graces Microsoft Money 2005. Taking the less-is-more approach, Money's new Essential view provides a clean alternative to Money 2004's busy, information-laden screens. Take the account register, for instance. The Essential view shows the basics--data, number, payee, and amount--and provides a big-picture overview of your spending habits. It has a neat, easy-to-read layout, unlike the optional Advanced view, which presents more information (including check numbers and transaction flags) and is therefore harder to read.
The new Essential register in Money 2005 displays a cleaner, less cluttered view of your spending habits.
Money 2005's makeover continues throughout the program. The Essential Reports home page, for example, lists the eight most-popular reports (based on Microsoft's research), including Spending By Category, Spending By Payee, and so on. This simpler UI sure beats Money 2004's Reports page, which was overloaded with charts and options. If you want to drill deeper into the program, additional charts and graphs are available via the Advanced view.
Overall, Money has made great strides in the interface department and is quite comparable to Quicken. However, we still favor the latter for its simpler online banking setup and spending categorization tools. Like Quicken 2005, Microsoft Money 2005 focuses more on improving its existing features rather than adding new ones. For example, its improved Bill Pay feature is easier to set up and takes a more gradual approach to paying bills; when a bill is downloaded into Money, you input its payment date, and the app will automatically deduct the amount from a specified account. Microsoft offers the MSN Bill Pay service free for the first three months. Afterward, you must purchase a plan to use the service; Standard costs $2.95 per month for five bills, and Premium costs $5.95 per month for 15 bills. Also, check with your bank because there might be additional hidden fees. By comparison, Quicken offers an online bill-pay feature that is free for the first month, then $9.95 per month for 20 transactions ($2.50 per additional set of 5 transactions).
If you dig deeper into the program's functionalities, you'll find that Money 2005 is smarter and more flexible than its predecessor. When downloading account information, Money 2005 recognizes purchases from national vendors, such as restaurant chains, and automatically places them in specific spending categories. You can also create problem-spending categories--perhaps you dine out too often--and set a dollar limit for each.
Chart your progress: keep an eye on your spending habits with Money's Reports page.
Even with these enhancements, Quicken 2005 still keeps a slight edge in ease of use. For instance, while both Quicken and Money offer a debt-reduction planner, Quicken's guide does a better job of explaining each step in the process (for example, why you should pay off the most expensive loan first). Money offers this advice too, but it's scattered throughout the program. The program also faltered when trying to convert Quicken data in our tests. We imported Quicken 2004 files, and Money said the data was contained in several files, which wasn't the case, so it ultimately could not convert any of the information. Although Microsoft has an online knowledge base on Quicken import problems, we weren't able to find a solution for our issue.
Money 2005's major improvements span the entire product line, and the apps are typically about $10 less than Quicken's counterparts. The $19.95 (after $10 rebate) Standard version provides basic budgeting and bill-pay tools, while the $39.95 (after $20 rebate) Deluxe edition adds features for managing credit and taxes and offers a free credit report and a year of credit monitoring from Experian. The $49.95 (after $30 rebate) Premium package adds tools for managing capital gains and filing taxes online. And the $59.95 (after $30 rebate) Small Business copy delivers inventory, payroll, and business cash-flow tools. Microsoft Money 2005 users receive an outstanding array of support options, including three years of free phone (via a toll number) and e-mail support. Support hours are Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday, 6 a.m., to 3 p.m., PT. Microsoft promises a 24-hour turnaround time for e-mail queries. By comparison, Quicken 2005 users must pay for phone support (although some installation and bug-related questions will be answered for free), and e-mail help isn't an option. Both Money and Quicken users can chat online with a tech-support representative.
Microsoft's tech-support site is packed with how-tos and troubleshooting advice for Money users.
A series of instructional videos within Money 2005 and on its corresponding Web site cover the basics--product features, account setup, online bill pay, and so on--and provide a glossy (if superficial) overview for beginners. Experienced users, however, will want to bypass the videos and access Microsoft's tech-support site, which provides comprehensive how-to articles and step-by-step instructions.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
User Rating: 
2/10
Automated downloads - the Achilles heel of this program
Pros: Efficient looking slick interface
Cons: Everything else
Review:
This program looks very slick and efficient when you first get started. Once you hook it up to all your bank accounts for automated downloads, that's when the party starts. As has also been reported, the automated downloads are repetitive. You see the program updating your new data and think "Wow, I don't have to do anything, just sit here and watch everything add up." Then when its time to look over your account just to make sure everything is OK, you start seeing double entries, ghost entries and other bizarre unintended entries on your account. It was so frustrating that after about a month, I gave up and went back to an old version of Quicken (Quicken 2002). Thankfully I didn't pay for this program as it came with a new computer that I got. If you are used to Quicken or another money management program, I suggest you stick with that until Microsoft fixes the bugs with this program.
User Rating: 
3/10
Step back from Money 2004!
Pros: Compared to 2004 - none
Cons: Uses Internet - ads appear all the time
Review:
While not offering extra functionality over the 2004 version, Money 2005 relies on the Internet much more. This is cool in and by itself, except for the ads that appear all the time.
It really does nothing well. I tried the Investment section only. Some of the original functionality of Money 2004 appears to be missing. It does not seem to be able to display the total value of your investments in a graph form!
It really does nothing well. I tried the Investment section only. Some of the original functionality of Money 2004 appears to be missing. It does not seem to be able to display the total value of your investments in a graph form!
User Rating: 2/10
Fundamentally flawed
Pros: none that I can think of
Cons: autodownload errors
Review:
I've had numerous problems with MSMoney2005 automatically downloading banking info and getting debits and credits mixed up. The time wasted tracking down and correcting these errors has turned this into the greatest "black hole" for my time.
User Rating: 3/10
Flaws suck all usefullness out of this product - Don't buy it!
Pros: Really great ideas..... Cash flow analysis, budgets, automatic updates to bank and 401K
Cons: The "Bills", "Banking" and "Loans" portions of the program do not mesh correctly. Ads built in. Puts you Bank info on the Microsoft Servers. Full of Bugs. Dumb Customer Support.
Review:
This program looked really cool when I got it. It has a lot of neat tools and automatic features that I thought would be great.Unfortunately, it is rendered completely useless by some unresolved bugs.
1st Problem: Banking and Bills Sections Don't Mesh Well
The "Banking" section and the "Bills" section do not mesh appropriately. It is continually creating duplicates transactions for each bill, because it downloads the real transaction from your bank, but also creates a psuedo-transaction in your Microsoft Money register as well. The result is that the Microsoft Money balance NEVER matches your account balance. I called the customer support line and they were unable to resolve this problem.
2nd Problem: Ghost "Account Adjustments"!
Microsoft Money uses "Adjustments" to balance an account with the info it downloaded from the bank when it cannot reconcile the differences. However, it also creates adjustments which cannot be seen and cannot be deleted, and that do nothing but "Unbalance" your Microsoft Money register so that it doesn't match your account balance. The inability for the user to clearly identify, manage and delete all of the adjustments affecting an account is a severe oversite. Microsoft seems to have placed their trust in the computers ability to be right in all cases -HA!
3rd Problem: 401K Tracking
So you want Microsoft Money to track your 401K, so you can see that money grow? So did I, So did I. While it does update with Fidelity Investments, it does a horrible job of showing worth of the investment. It doesn't show the actual investment you've made, or it's current worth.
4th problem: Budget
The budget feature is very cool. You add in what you think is reasonable for each category of spending and then it tracks what you spend in each category. Unfortunately it will only plot 3 categories on bar graphs, so you must look at the numbers. Not a huge deal, but why wouldn't they just let you look at all you budget categories at once in graph form.
5th Problem: Security
I'm sure MSNmoney has invested millions of dollars in security. But I'm uncomfortable having 100% of my financial information (account numbers, passwords, etc) on some server somewhere - ready for a hacker to steal my life savings. And thats what Microsoft money does unless you go in and change the settings. It does this so you can bank anywhere by connecting to MSN Money, but I'd rather not have all my info out there ready to steal.
6th Problem: Advertisements
This program is really designed to sell ad space, not to help you out. It features built in ads that update from the internet - selling everything from loans to auto insurance. NOTE TO MICROSOFT - IF I PAY FOR SOFTWARE - IT SHOULDN'T HAVE ADS IN IT!!
All in all this program is full of great ideas - just seems like Microsoft completely failed in double checking their software, and removing all the bugs. I'm off to the store to get Quicken and see how that works.
1st Problem: Banking and Bills Sections Don't Mesh Well
The "Banking" section and the "Bills" section do not mesh appropriately. It is continually creating duplicates transactions for each bill, because it downloads the real transaction from your bank, but also creates a psuedo-transaction in your Microsoft Money register as well. The result is that the Microsoft Money balance NEVER matches your account balance. I called the customer support line and they were unable to resolve this problem.
2nd Problem: Ghost "Account Adjustments"!
Microsoft Money uses "Adjustments" to balance an account with the info it downloaded from the bank when it cannot reconcile the differences. However, it also creates adjustments which cannot be seen and cannot be deleted, and that do nothing but "Unbalance" your Microsoft Money register so that it doesn't match your account balance. The inability for the user to clearly identify, manage and delete all of the adjustments affecting an account is a severe oversite. Microsoft seems to have placed their trust in the computers ability to be right in all cases -HA!
3rd Problem: 401K Tracking
So you want Microsoft Money to track your 401K, so you can see that money grow? So did I, So did I. While it does update with Fidelity Investments, it does a horrible job of showing worth of the investment. It doesn't show the actual investment you've made, or it's current worth.
4th problem: Budget
The budget feature is very cool. You add in what you think is reasonable for each category of spending and then it tracks what you spend in each category. Unfortunately it will only plot 3 categories on bar graphs, so you must look at the numbers. Not a huge deal, but why wouldn't they just let you look at all you budget categories at once in graph form.
5th Problem: Security
I'm sure MSNmoney has invested millions of dollars in security. But I'm uncomfortable having 100% of my financial information (account numbers, passwords, etc) on some server somewhere - ready for a hacker to steal my life savings. And thats what Microsoft money does unless you go in and change the settings. It does this so you can bank anywhere by connecting to MSN Money, but I'd rather not have all my info out there ready to steal.
6th Problem: Advertisements
This program is really designed to sell ad space, not to help you out. It features built in ads that update from the internet - selling everything from loans to auto insurance. NOTE TO MICROSOFT - IF I PAY FOR SOFTWARE - IT SHOULDN'T HAVE ADS IN IT!!
All in all this program is full of great ideas - just seems like Microsoft completely failed in double checking their software, and removing all the bugs. I'm off to the store to get Quicken and see how that works.
User Rating: 2/10
Does Nothing Well
Pros: can balance your checkbook
Cons: Everything is difficult.
Review:
I am a somewhat advanced user and would like a robust personal finance software tool. MM is terrible. For investments, they don't even have a classification for International Stocks. Budgets became confusing and useless in MM 2005. MM 2005 is filled with bugs around downloading from accounts and still not fixed in April 2005. Call any of your banks/brokrage technical support departments and ask if they've had troubles. MM expense categorization is terrible. budgtet vs. actual reports are useless. Try doing a remortgage in this product! joke.
MM is a tool to help drive their MSN business. It's not a Personal Finance Manager.
MM is a tool to help drive their MSN business. It's not a Personal Finance Manager.
User Rating: 
1/10
Can't import comma separated or tab delimited files.
Pros: Only took 48 minutes on hold to get that answer.
Cons: Took a couple of hours mucking about the documentation.
Review:
Can't speak for any part since I wasn't able to import data from my bank, which only exports comma separated or tab delimited file formats.
User Rating: 3/10
Errors and Bugs Retirement Planner after a month of use
Pros: Not sure yet ?
Cons: Retirement planner keeps crashing the system
Review:
Used it for years. Terrible problems now. The Retirement Planner crashes the system with my file AND THEIR OWN SAMPLE FILE ! Support is bad, I've worked with them for a week now and no fix. Not a happy camper
