个人财务软件的选择

How to choose and use personal-finance software. By: Mann, Richard O., Compute!, 0194357X, Apr93, Vol. 15, Issue 4Database:MAS Ultra - School EditionHTML Full TextHOW TO CHOOSE AND USEPERSONAL-FINANCE SOFTWAREContents1. Basic Checkbook Functions2. Bank Reconciliation3. Check Writing4. Electronic Bill-Paying5. Reporting and Budgeting6. Tax Summaries7. Advanced Functions8. Quicken 6.0 and Quicken for Windows 2.09. Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money 9.010. MoneyCounts 7.0 Personal Edition11. Microsoft Money 2.0ListenPauseStopSelect:American AccentSettingsDownload mp3?CloseSection:COMPUTE'S GETTING STARTED WITH PERSONAL MONEY MANAGEMENTWhen it comes to dollars and cents, some of us are fairlytalented operators. However, many more of us findourselves at sea when it comes to things financial. Our skillsand understanding vary from thewhat-do-you-mean-I'm-overdrawn-I-still-have-checks crowdto the Wall-Street-Journal-reading, CD-rate-watching gang.You might be surprised to find all kinds of professionals andbusiness people in the checkbook-as-a-mystic-experiencegroup.Wherever you fall on the scale, your PC can be a financiallifesaver. Today's personal-finance software practically runs itself. If you can fill out a check and a deposit slip properly,you can use these programs. In fact, with your basic skillsand the computer's advanced skills, you can accomplishfinancial miracles.What can personal-finance programs do for you? Theirfeature lists get longer each year and include someimpressive-sounding functions. Basic features offered by allthe programs include checkbook functions, writing checks,budgeting, bank reconciliation, tax informationsummarization, and electronic bill paying. The moreambitious programs add investment management, payablesand receivables tracking, and dozens of other snazzyfunctions. One program even offers its own Visa card withelectronic statements.In a nutshell, they can free You from worry about yourfinancial situation-at least the worries that come from notknowing where you stand. They can convert confusion tocontrol, mystery to management, 'and aimless wandering tounerring progress. You invest time and the softwareprovides financial expertise. Even those with no math ormoney skills can find substantial help here.Basic Checkbook FunctionsBegin by automating the checkbook itself. As you writechecks and make deposits, you record them in your checkregister. Every few days, enter the checks and deposits intothe computer's check register. The program draws a virtualcheck on the screen-fill it out just like writing a check. Or youcan use the check register screen, which looks just like yourpaper check register. Either way, the computer handles allthe arithmetic with its usual flawless accuracy.If you take a few minutes every few days, you'll always beaccurately up-to-date. Then, when the bank statementcomes, you'll be ready for a new and marvelous experience.Bank ReconciliationOnce a month, you get a bark statement. Your job is toreconcile it with your checkbook to ensure that what you'verecorded in your checkbook matches what the bankprocessed. This is how you find errors in your checkbook and the less frequent but very real bank errors. Most bankstatements have a printed form on the back that attempts towalk you through the reconciliation process. It's not fun, andit's not easy.If, however, you've been entering your checkbook in thecomputer, the process is simplicity itself. It takes about tenminutes and involves merely following the on-, screeninstructions. You'll love it; I promise.Check WritingNext comes writing your checks on the computer. Enter theinformation on the screen for a batch of checks, then sendthem to the printer. Of course, you'll need to buy pre-printedchecks, which are more expensive than hand-written checks.If your bill-paying sessions involve a dozen or more checksat a sitting, the time and effort saved can justify the extracost.Electronic Bill-PayingIf you have a modem, you can pay bills through anelectronic service. Authorize the payments on yourcomputer, then send the information via the modem. Thebill-paying service electronically transfers funds from youraccount to the payee's account (if the payee is set up forsuch payments) or prints and mails a paper check to thepayee.This service isn't free. The leading service, CheckFree,charges $9.95 per month for the first 20 payments and$3.50 for each additional block of ten payments. Manypeople love it, however, for its paperless, effortless ease.Reporting and BudgetingAs you enter each transaction, you assign it to a category oraccount. (Income categories could include salary, whileexpense categories could include groceries, rent, utilities,and entertainment.) With this information in the computer,you can run reports at any time showing totals by month oryear in each category. These reports can provide aninformal budget review as you see the totals for entertainment or Christmas gifts, for example, you maystrike your forehead and say, "We've got to cut back!"Formal budgeting is also easy. Decide what your monthlyincome and expenses will be (or should be) and enter it bycategory into the computer at the beginning of the year.Every report from then on can show actual results comparedto budget, revealing how well you're doing at living withinyour plan. Many who would like to keep a budget haven'tbecause the record keeping is so painful. With the computer,it's a snap.Tax SummariesIf you design your categories properly, at the end of the yearmost of the information needed for your tax return will be atyour fingertips. Run your income and expense report andpick out the deductible totals. (Some programs offer a reportlisting only tax return items.)Many of these programs also perform tax estimates duringthe year. If you tell the program which categories aredeductible, the program can perform a rough estimate ofyour eventual liability.Advanced FunctionsMany of these programs meet the needs of casual investors;one (Managing Your Money) is suitable for professionalhome investors. Some let you record unpaid bills outsideyour checkbook, then write checks to pay them later. Somewill track sums owed to you. They all have some degree ofexport to spreadsheet programs, where you can massageyour data to your heart's content. If you have a specific needbeyond the normal, check out several programs; chancesare that one of them has the feature you need.Each of the programs we'll examine has its own personality,its own targeted users, and its own abilities.Quicken 6.0 and Quicken for Windows 2.0Quicken (Intuit, 155 Linfield Drive, P.O. Box 3014, MenloPark, California 94026; 800-624-8742; $69.95 for eitherDOS or Windows version) is the perennial best-selling personal-finance program--in fact, it's usually the top-sellingof all programs for home use. There's good reason for thissuccess. From the beginning, Intuit's single-minded missionhas been simplicity and ease of use, resulting in a productlegendary for its friendliness.Over the years, it has been a challenge to continue to addadvanced features to Quicken without compromising itsessential simplicity. You get to the advanced featuresthrough inconspicuous menu choices; users interested onlyin the basic features may never see the advanced items.Thus, the basic functions remain extremely easy to learnand use, but the more exotic features can be hard to findand less than easy to use.Quicken shines in the details of daily use. For example, theplus and minus keys change dates one day at a time. The Mkey moves you to the first day of the month. (M is the firstletter in the word month. Y does similar things for the year.)Throughout the program, if there's a way to make entryeasier or faster, Quicken provides it. The competition tries tomatch this philosophy; even though each program hasvaluable unique features, none can match Quicken's overallfeeling of speed and ease.The DOS and Windows versions of Quicken have almostidentical feature sets, although the details of using eachinterface differs. The new Windows version 2.0 displays theQuicken magic in abundance. Innovative touches includegrayed-out labels in blank check register fields. Quickenuses the Windows interface in the most innovative yetcomfortably natural way I've seen.The newest feature in Quicken is IntelliCharge: Quicken'sown Visa card. With the IntelliCharge card, you get yourmonthly credit card statements either on disk ($4.50 permonth) or by modem ($3.00 per month). Quicken reads in allyour credit card transactions without any data entry on yourpart.Another outstanding feature is QuickZoom. Click on anyreport total or graph item, and Quicken shows you a list ofthe underlying transactions. Click on a transaction to go to its check register entry. It's unbeatable for digging into thedetails supporting your reports.Quicken offers an adequate investment tracking system, anawkward way to track payables and receivables, anexcellent automatic tutorial and practice data set, and acanned set of categories for both home and business use.The DOS version of Quicken is outstanding; the Windowsversion is even better.Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money 9.0Managing Your Money (MECA Software, 55 Walls DriveFairfield, Connecticut 06430; 800-288-6322; $79.95) is themost complete product in the field. lt provides tools for theserious investor, including general advice on when to buyand sell, as well as optional real-time stock quotes andonline stock market trading . In its effort to cover every nookand cranny of your financial situation, it gives advice on yourinsurance coverage, estimates your life expectancy, andhelps you plan your retirement savings program.MYM is a showcase for the Andrew Tobias personality.Tobias, the author of best-selling personal-finance books,writes with a common-sense, down-to-earth style full ofhumor. MYM is comfortable, chatty, and friendly.Version 9.0 updates the interface to a standardtop-menu-bar mouse interface that is decidedly easier towork with than the quirky function-key-based system of theearlier versions.The basic tools for writing checks and recording depositsare top-notch. MYM includes a way to record bills in a list ofpayables. Until you mark them for payment and generatethe checks, the expenses associated with these bills do notshow in your reports. (With Quicken and MoneyCounts,such future payments appear in your check register withoutcheck numbers, muddying the picture of your status.)There's a similar accounts receivable function, which can beused to print invoices and track monies owed to you.While it's not quite as easy to use as Quicken, the manyadditional features and full-line investment features make MYM better for investors.With its new pricing (reduced from$220 to $80) and new interface, MYM is now in a betterposition to compete head-to-head with Quicken for userswho aren't sophisticated investors.MoneyCounts 7.0 Personal EditionMoneyCounts (Parsons Technology, One Parsons Drive,P.O. Box 1 00, Hiawatha, Iowa 52233; 800 2236925; $49)has long been the low-cost best buy in the field. The new 7.0version represents a major shift in philosophy and interfacefor the product.In version 7.0, MoneyCounts adopts a mouse-basedinterface similar to its competition. You now enter checks ina screen that looks like a paper check and have a checkregister that mimics its paper counterpart. An importantaddition is the standard chart of accounts (list of categories);older versions required you to build your category list fromscratch.The new version removes certain features that Parsons hasmoved to a forthcoming Business Edition. One such item isthe ability to list future bills in a payables list, a standardfeature of previous versions that set MoneyCounts apartfrom the competition.Despite the changes, you can still tell that MoneyCountswas written by an accountant; the accounting jargon and theessential double-entry nature of the accounting system arenot as well disguised here as they are in Quicken.MoneyCounts feels like home to anyone with a bookkeepingbackground, but is still appropriate for those withoutaccounting training.The program's selection of 25 reports as well as pie chartsand other graphs is unusually rich, but its investmenttracking tools are only adequate.I've been a happy MoneyCounts user for several years, butthe new version confuses me. It's no longer fast and efficient(data converted from the old version now takes over 4 timesas much disk space) and several important features havebeen dropped. Now it feels like a weak imitation of Quicken. Nevertheless, it's still a solid program at an excellent price-ifyou haven't been spoiled by its earlier versions.Microsoft Money 2.0Although new to the field, Microsoft Money (Microsoft, OneMicrosoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052; 800426-9400; $79.95) is a pleasant, easy-to-use Windowsapplication. Getting into the program is easy; a coach givesonscreen instructions on setting things up and enteringtransactions. The coach's comments appear at the bottomof the screen until you feel confident enough to turn themoff.The basic checkbook functions are a snap to learn and use,but the program begins to show its weaknesses when youmove to advanced features. it doesn't track investmentsexcept as individual asset accounts and won't help muchwith financial planning.The program links to BillPay USA, the Prodigy network'selectronic bill paying function, but doesn't supportCheckFree.Money isn't trying to be all things to all users. lt does anexcellent job of providing basic checkbook managementservices and is a good choice for a beginner who wants onlybasic functions in the Windows environment.PHOTO: Computer screen with Microsoft Money operatingPHOTO: Computer screen with MECA Software's ManagingYour Money~~~~~~~~By Richard O. Mann如何选择和使用个人理财软件作者：曼，理查德澳如何选择和使用个人财务软件内容1 ，基本的支票簿功能2 ，银行对帐3，检查写作4，电子账单支付5，报告和预算6，税务摘要7 。