Entered CNET Catalog: 07/21/2006
SKU: CNETMSMONEY2007PREMIUM
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Manufacturer description
Microsoft Money 2007 Premium helps you plan and achieve long-term financial goals, and optimize investments, all in one place. With it, you can plan for your retirement and other long- term goals, like buying a house, and maximize your investment strategy.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/24/2006
We tested the $79.99 Money 2007 Premium ($30 less with a mail-in rebate), which includes extras such as a free year of credit monitoring and online backup, as well as H&R Block's DeductionsPro. You can also check out the new, basic Money Essentials for $19.95; the $49.99 Deluxe version, which lacks Premium's extras but includes the latest budgeting tools; or the $89.99 Money Home & Business, which adds invoicing, payroll options through PayCycle, and Schedule C tracking.
Thankfully, Money's system requirements haven't changed drastically: you'll need Windows XP SP2 or later. Installation took us less than 10 minutes in our tests. We were careful to uncheck any boxes that might place us on unwanted advertising mailing lists; take care to do the same when you register this product.
If you're upgrading from a previous version, Money 2007 will display your saved transaction history from 2006 or earlier. To set up for the first time, Money makes it a snap to add accounts, especially if they're already accessible online. Signing in to Money while you're connected to the Internet will update the latest information from your connected bank, credit card, and other financial accounts. Money provides links to a variety of financial accounts and displays them within its easy-on-the-eyes, blue and white interface.
However, we're not crazy about needing a Windows Live (formerly Passport) ID to use Microsoft Money 2007 to connect to our financial accounts online, although data transmissions are encrypted, of course. It is convenient, but you'll need to entrust your financial information to Microsoft's servers. If you're using that same ID to log in to Windows Live's many services, such as Windows Live Mail (the update to Hotmail) and even Windows Live Local's maps, then you should zealously guard that password or otherwise risk losing control of your financial secrets. Unfortunately, we were unable to sign in when we first mistyped our Windows Live ID. Money told us to "go online" but didn't say where. We would have appreciated a link to the online sign-in page for Money.
We like Money 2007's well-laid-out and customizable interface, which by default displays a list of accounts and a spending pie chart on the Home page. Intuitive shortcuts include the ability to double-click a pie slice to bring up a register of expenses for editing. The browser-like layout includes back and forward navigation arrows and various straightforward drop-down menus. You can quickly access specific resources for banking, scheduling bills, creating reports, investing, planning, and taxes.
Money 2007 is so similar to the 2006 edition that we had to dig before finding new features. That's good if you already like the interface, but Quicken 2007's radical new home page layout simplifies the view of your financial status. The biggest touted change to Money is its Savings & Spending Budget (not available in Essentials), which helps you figure out how much money you can spend or put aside each month. Its wizard walks you through adjusting spending in various categories, such as Automobile and Dining Out. Version 2007 also adds a spending tracker for budget groups, improved bill paying, and a balance adjustment tool.
Money has improved its tool to help you estimate tax deductions, but you'll have to consider separate Intuit TurboTax, but we find that Intuit Quicken 2007 offers more seamless integration with its maker's various financial applications. Unfortunately for young users, neither Money nor Quicken offer explicit help for managing student loans.
You can also use Money to track expenses with visual spending "thermometers," as well as pay bills, plan for retirement, plot to overcome debt, and access MSN Money News. Money 2007's various Web-linked resources for news and tax tips can be helpful, but you can find most of that information free online anyway, and we wish they didn't include graphical ads.
Microsoft offers help for Money 2007 in the form of well-done videos and an excellent, built-in searchable user guide and FAQs. You can also consult the online knowledge base and user discussion groups or subscribe to an RSS feed for support updates. E-mail chat is free from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. PT on weekdays and 6 a.m. to 3 p.m on weekends. Toll-free telephone assistance is also free during those hours.
If you're already a fan of Microsoft Money and the 2006 edition serves you well, you can probably meet your money-management needs without upgrading to Money 2007. However, you may have to upgrade if you own an older version of Money and need to connect with banks online, because Microsoft cuts off that access after two years. For new users to financial software, however, we prefer the extra features and the dead-simple home page offered by Quicken 2007.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
User Rating: 
1/10
Upgrading is a nightmare
Pros: Once installed it works
Cons: I have been working with support for over a week by email. Support sucks. I reply and a day later they will send me another email. DO NOT BUY this product if you want good tech support.
User Rating: 1/10
Hands Down the Worst Version Yet (from a Vet)
Pros: absolutly nothing
Cons: what isn't a con with this version?
User Rating: 
3/10
I tried and I am done with it already
Pros: some great features if they actually worked
Cons: everything
I was able to find ways to work around it but it took me almost a week to get the ledgers, payables, expenses, income, bill-pay features set and some of the account automated all for me to log on this morning and see that the software had downloaded my bank information (since auto downloads was set meaning that even when the software is not running you can download and upload information to your bank and auto import) and completely skewed everything to the point I would have to restart from scratch to fix it. When I initially established everything I used electronic downloads and spent numerous hours assigning to the correct categories just for it all to be messed up and could not find the basis of the error.
Everything from categories, to billpays, etc everything was skewed. Time to put money to rest and consider me a new Quicken User.
User Rating: 1/10
Beware MS software
Pros: Can't think of any
Cons: Internet connect to your bank works for limited time
User Rating: 
4/10
Its amazing how little progress has been made in 5 years
Pros: Better eye candy
Cons: Still can't deal with basic financial concepts like IRA distributions
As usual, upgrading screwed up some of my online account access, and had to deal with merging duplicate accounts, finding old transaction data, all sorts of things that seem to be evidence of pretty poor software design.
The only reason to upgrade is Microsoft's insistence on shutting off online service after a period of years - I'd much rather pay a yearly fee for online services and
User Rating: 
7/10
Microsoft Money 2007: Performance Reports Flawed
Pros: Good user interface
Cons: Slow, reports flawed, no historical exchange rates maintained
#1. 1-Year Total Return Flaw
Whatever 1-year returns of a particular stock we wish to calculate, Money always uses the start date a day earlier than it should be.
This is best illustrated by assuming we want to calculate the 1-Year Total Return for the year to Dec 31, 2006. Strictly speaking, this period should run from Jan 1, 2006 to Dec 31, 2006. However, since the opening price for Jan 1, 2006 is the closing price for Dec 31, 2005, the correct dates to use are Dec 31, 2005 to Dec 31, 2006. However, for unknown reasons, Money uses the price at Dec 30, 2005 (rather than Dec 31, 2005) for its start date
One may think that a day?s difference will not much affect the performance metric, but consider this:
A not unusual practice is for prices to be updated at the end of every quarter i.e. as at Mar 31, Jun 30, Sep 30 and Dec 31 in line with the popular gauging of investment performance on a quarterly basis. In the above example, since Money cannot find the price as at Dec 30, 2005, it uses the latest price available i.e. the one at Sep 30, 2005. Thus for the year to Dec 31, 2006, under the above circumstances, Money calculates the performance from Sep 30, 2005 to Dec 31, 2006, a period of 15 months instead of one year.
At best, Money is a day out in computing 1-year total returns. At worst, where prices are updated quarterly (or even half-yearly), the 1-Year Total Return performance metric is completely misleading. Although not tested, this flaw may also extend to the 3-Year Total Return metric. The Year to Date Total Return and All Dates Total Return do not seem to be so affected.
#2. Foreign Stocks and Performance Report Flaw
(This flaw is also present in Quicken 2007)
Performance Reports generated by Money involving foreign stocks are defective because they do not take into account the changes in exchange rates between the beginning and the end of the period in question.
The performance report computes the percentage rate of return on the investment. The method of computation is: ?current market value plus income, minus beginning market value, divided by beginning market value?.
To access performance of local stocks, the ?beginning market value? is: [beginning quantity x beginning price]. Note that historical stock prices have to be maintained at the beginning date in order for beginning value to be calculated and this Money does.
Where foreign stocks are concerned, beginning value should be: [opening quantity x opening price x opening exchange rate]. Note therefore that not only have historical prices to be maintained, historical exchanges rates have to be kept too. Money does not keep historical exchange rates data; only one rate is kept; the ?current? rate. Money uses this one rate to calculate stock values at the start as well as the end dates to which of course is plain wrong. Value at the start must be computed based on the opening exchange rate and that at the end at the closing rate the same way as opening and closing prices are used.
To illustrate (pardon the lack of formatting; the data is in five columns):
Computation Method: Actual Actual MS Money MS Money
Year Start/End: Year Start: Year End: Year Start: Year End:
Date: 1-Jan-06 31-Dec-06 1-Jan-06 31-Dec-06
Quantity: 100 100 100 100
Price in foreign currency: 8 10 8 10
Exchange rate (Note 1): 2.00 1.50 1.50 1.50
Value in USD: 1,600 1,500 1,200 1,500
Gain/(Loss) in USD: n/a (100) n/a 300
Percentage Annual Return: n/a (6.25%) n/a 25.00%
Note 1: We assume here that the correct opening rate is 2.00 USD to one unit of foreign currency and the closing rate is 1.50. However, Money uses the same closing rate as the opening rate.
Money reports that you?ve made a healthy return of 25% when in fact you?ve suffered a 6.25% loss.
The ridiculous situation of having lost money (1,600 at start versus 1,500 at end) and yet having Money report a positive return has come about because although the share price has increased somewhat (8 at start versus 10 at end) which is recognized by Money, the exchange rate has fallen, value wise, by even more (2.00 at start versus 1.50 at end) which is not recognized by Money.
Where foreign stocks are involved, the performance report generated by Money is fundamentally flawed and is hazardous for anyone to rely on it. It is incumbent on Microsoft to fix the problem lest users, relying on the report, suffer ? and continue to suffer - grievous losses without realizing it as the above example shows.
After all the problem is not so difficult to fix; if historical price data can be maintained, it is equally simple for historical exchange rate data to be maintained as well.
#3. Money Unable to Calculate Annual Percentage Rate (Sometimes)
The subtotal for stocks investment type does not show a figure for annual percentage rate (shows ?N/A? instead) if there are individual stocks that are held for more than about 12 years. The individual stock itself however shows the correct APR.
For example, if a stock bought on Sep 9, 1994 is included in the portfolio, the APR for stocks sub-total shows ?N/A?. Change the date to Sep 9, 2004 and the APR figure appears.
Strangely enough, if you re-create the investment under ?Other? investment type, the problem disappears!
Comments to wongp@pc.jaring.my
Apr 21, 2007.
User Rating: 3/10
Not for retirees
Pros: It's fine until you retire.
Cons: 401k/IRA disbursements cannot be catgorized as taxable income
User Rating: 1/10
What about the UK?
Pros: There are None
Cons: Not available in the UK
This is truly poor service. I have used Money for 10 years, and have frequently upgraded due to the quality of the product i.e. it's a great program and I upgrade to get the latest tweaks.
Why no update for the UK?
I am guessing that we are probably the 2nd biggest market after the US for this type of software - so why ignore us?
Poor. Very very poor.
User Rating: 
9/10
Easy to understand and use
Pros: Easy to set up catagories
Cons: It took about 45 minutes to shift thru microsofts upgrades to find service pak 2 and get it downloaded and let the computer do its thing
User Rating: 7/10
A decent start for a money management package
Pros: Easy to use and highly efficient
Cons: Still more focus on pushing online services rather then money management
I would love a way to track cash category expenditures. I can track when I took a cash withdrawl from an account but then as far as MS money is concerned, its done. I wish it had a way to track a cash expenses at least by category, it would make budgeting or review at the end of the year easier. Cash always seems like a black hole for account category, especially in the reports.
Also I have always had a 401K provider that does not support downloads. However, how hard could it be for money to simply track allocations. It deducts the contribution from a paycheck and can transfer it into an account. How difficult can it be to added the capability to just build an allocation model. Every 401K plan I have had allows a percentage added to each investment. One the money has been transfered in money in a 401K account, why can't I add a allocation model and money automatically divies up the contribution. If I want to even think about tracking the investments, I have to manually type each purchase in. I usually end up never using it and the data is always out of date.
Other then those minor pet peeves, I have been a satisfied MS Money user for years. I switched from Quicken when it seemed that I spent more time telling the software not to load my data to some distant webserver and just download updates to my accounts.
User Rating: 1/10
Worse than imaginable
Pros: Didn't explode my computer
Cons: Did everything but.
Everything you want to do will take far more effort than you need or want it to. Setting up a new category in your Budgets takes about six screens!
The updates, MSN Money Servers badgering, the "helpful" guidance that serves only to confuse and complicate, the difficulty of customisation - do they think we've got a lifetime to waste on this stuff?
I've uninstalled and gone back to 2004, and when I look for an updated program I'll try Quicken or something else next time.
User Rating: 1/10
Indicatively Microsoft
Pros: None that I can think of
Cons: ID needed, awkward to use
User Rating: 
2/10
Great leap backwards
Pros: works sometimes
Cons: poor interface, capricious behavior
In the 2007 version, I find nothing especially useful to have been added. There are some gimmicks aimed at budgeting I guess, but I wonder if these amount to anything. No improvement to the mediocre handling of investments has been made it seems. (I still cannot see what amount or percentage I have made or lost on a particular investment but only the accumulated gain or loss over the whole history of my trading it, which is essentially useless in making a decision.)
The interface has been completely destroyed. If someone working for me came back with this collection of changes, I think I would let him go on the spot. The interface has been shuffled around for no apparent reason. Things that I got used to finding in a particular spot in the 2004 version have been dropped or moved, becoming more obscured or lost altogether. For example, the selections to download account information have been moved, the reasonable menu "accounts" seemed to have been changed to a misleading "banking" in one spot, the title header of an account is now static and useless rather than actually showing the name of the account, there seems to be no way to get to a screen that lets one see the results of a download after the download, a download now takes a few more mouse clicks than it once did, etc.
I can't imagine what anyone had in mind when "updating" this program. What a mess.
It still works more or less. If I could pay microsoft a few bucks just to be able to continue to use the 2004 version I would do so without the slightest hesitation (they disabled that to force people into buying this thing it seems).
About the only thing I can say for this version is that it has encouraged me to take an accounting course in hopes of finding gnucash more tolerable. I get even more annoyed and contemptuous of microsoft every time I use this thing, but the alternatives I have found are limited.
User Rating: 
8/10
Beats Quicken (Former 7 year Quicken User
Pros: I can get an accurate cash flow forecast. That was not possible in Quicken and still is not possible in Quicken 2007
Cons: Needs the ability to plan out budgets at lease five years in the future.
With Money I was able to get an accurate picture from the start. For comparison Quicken forecast my cash balance in one year to be - $50,000. Money's forecast for the same period with the same information $175,000. Quicken missed by almost a quarter of a million dollars!!! Stay away from it!!
User Rating: 1/10
Product "MAY" work, but support? It's a joke
Pros: It was pretty ?
Cons: Lack of customer service period
If you do choose this product, at least now you have a heads up as to one users experience. Thank You!
User Rating: 8/10
Works as advertised
Pros: Updated financial services
Cons: None that stand out
Granted, there is not a lot of difference between 2006 and 2007, but I got it mainly to renew the financial services. At $39 (after rebate) it was a deal.
User Rating: 1/10
Not available in the UK
Pros: I have no idea
Cons: Not available in the UK
I'm am one pissed user.
I would move to the superior (so I'm told) Quicken, but ditto the availability.
I think I may emigrate to the US......
User Rating: 1/10
Worst Money Ever
Pros: Debt Planner and cash flow forecast are still the best
Cons: Crashes often...least stable...strike that. It's just unstable. No significant improvements from previous releases.
User Rating: 9/10
CNET Reviewer Incorrect about Money Servers
Pros: Easy to use, integrated BillPay
Cons: Sync use inconsistent
Regardless, a service like CNET should spend a little more time with a product prior to creating a headline which incorrectly explains the product.
User Rating: 3/10
less stable than Money 2006 - crashes
Pros: does what it needs to do
Cons: frequent crashes
User Rating: 8/10
No need to upgrade from 2006
Pros: Better than Quicken, very customizable
Cons: New Savings and Spending Budget can be confusing
Still better than Quicken and more customizable.
