Introduction 1
About This Book 1
How to Use This Book 1
What You Can Safely Ignore 2
What You Should Not Ignore (Unless You're a Masochist) 2
Three Foolish Assumptions 3
The Flavors of Quicken 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Zen, Quicken, and the Big Picture 3
Part II: The Absolute Basics 4
Part III: Home Finances 4
Part IV: Serious Business 4
Part V: The Part of Tens 4
Part VI: Appendixes 5
Conventions Used in This Book 5
Special Icons 5
Where to Next? 6
Part I: Zen, Quicken, and the Big Picture 7
Chapter 1: Setting Up Shop 9
Installing and Starting Quicken 10
Finishing Setup If You've Used Quicken Before 11
Finishing Setup If You Haven't Used Quicken Before 12
Running the Quicken New User Setup 14
Steve's Overview 19
Starting Quicken for the second time 19
Using Quicken document windows 19
Navigating with financial activity centers' QuickTabs 20
Solving Tricky Setup Problems 20
Did somebody say Macintosh? 20
The mysterious case of the missing Quicken data files 21
Migrating from Microsoft Money 22
Chapter 2: Introduction to the Big Picture 23
Boiling Quicken Down to Its Essence 23
Tracking tax deductions 24
Monitoring spending 24
Printing checks 25
Tracking bank accounts, credit cards, and other stuff 26
Planning your personal finances 26
Banking online 26
Setting Up Additional Accounts 27
Setting up another banking account 27
Hey, Quicken, I want to use that account! 31
Whipping Your Category Lists into Shape 31
Subcategories yikes, what are they? 34
Category groups double yikes! 35
Four tips on categorization 36
Ch-ch-changing a category list 36
Do You Need a Little Class? 41
Chapter 3: Maximum Fun, Maximum Profits 43
Should You Even Bother with a Budget? 43
Serious Advice about Your Secret Plan 43
Your personal Secret Plan 44
Two things that really goof up Secret Plans 44
Setting Up a Secret Plan 47
Introducing the Budget window 47
Entering budgeted amounts 50
Reviewing the options 51
Reviewing your budget 52
What to do after you enter your budget 53
Part II: The Absolute Basics 55
Chapter 4: Checkbook on a Computer 57
Getting Started 57
Finding Your Checkbook 58
Recording Checks 60
Entering a check into the register 60
Changing a check you've entered 62
Packing more checks into the register 63
Working with a kooky (and clever) little thing named QuickFill 64
Recording Deposits 65
Entering a deposit into the register 66
Changing a deposit you've already entered 68
Recording Account Transfers 68
Entering an account transfer 68
Working with the other half of the transfer 70
Changing a transfer you've already entered 71
Splitting Transactions 71
Steps for splitting a check 72
Editing and deleting split categories 75
Steps for splitting deposits and transfers 75
Deleting and Voiding Transactions 76
The Big Register Phenomenon 77
Moving through a big register 77
Finding that darn transaction 77
Pop-Up Calendars and Calculators 81
Attaching Flags, Notes, and Images 83
Chapter 5: Printing 101 85
Printing Checks 85
What if you make a mistake entering a check? 88
Printing a check you've entered 89
What if you discover a mistake after you print the check? 92
A few words about check printing 93
Printing a Check Register 93
Chapter 6: Online and In Charge 97
What Are Online Account Access and Online Bill Payment? 97
Wise Whys and Wherefores 98
Banking with Online Account Access and Online Bill Payment 98
Finding an online bank - online 100
Paying bills 101
Transferring money between accounts 102
Updating your Quicken accounts 103
Chapter 7: Reports, Charts, and Other Cool Tools 105
Creating and Printing Reports 105
Printing the facts, and nothing but the facts 105
Reviewing standard reports 110
Finding the report you want 114
Going to the printing dog-and-pony show 114
Editing and rearranging reports 117
Charts Only Look Tricky 120
QuickReports: Last but Not Least 121
Chapter 8: A Matter of Balance 123
Selecting the Account You Want to Balance 124
Balancing a Bank Account 125
Telling Quicken, "Hey, man, I want to balance this account" 125
Giving Quicken the bank's information 125
Explaining the difference between your records and the bank's records 127
Ten Things You Should Do If Your Account Doesn't Balance 131
Make sure that you're working with the right account 131
Look for transactions that the bank has recorded but you haven't 131
Look for reversed transactions 132
Look for a transaction that's equal to half the difference 132
Look for a transaction that's equal to the difference 132
Check for transposed numbers 132
Have someone else look over your work 133
Look out for multiple errors 133
Try again next month (and maybe the month after that) 133
Get in your car, drive to the bank, and beg for help 134
Chapter 9: Housekeeping for Quicken 135
Backing Up Is Hard to Do 135
Backing up the quick-and-dirty way 135
Deciding when to back up 137
Losing your Quicken data after you've backed up 138
Losing your Quicken data when you haven't backed up 140
Working with Files, Files, and More Files 141
Setting up a new file 141
Flip-flopping between files 143
When files get too big for their own good 144
Using and Abusing Passwords 148
Setting up a file password 148
Changing a file password 150
Chapter 10: Compound Interest Magic and Other Mysteries 151
Noodling Around with Your Investments 152
Using the Investment Savings Calculator 152
Trying to become a millionaire 153
The Often Unbearable Burden of Debt 155
Using the Loan Calculator to figure payments 155
Calculating loan balances 157
The Refinance Calculator 158
The Retirement Calculator 159
The dilemma in a nutshell 159
Retirement planning calculations 160
If you're now bummed out about retirement 163
Retirement roulette 163
Cost of College 164
The College Calculator 164
If you're now bummed out about college costs 165
Planning for Taxes 166
The Other Planning Tools 169
Part III: Home Finances 171
Chapter 11: Credit Cards, Petty Cash, and PayPal 173
Tracking a Credit Card 173
How to Set Up a Credit Card Account 174
Adding a credit card account 174
Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it 178
How to Enter Credit Card Transactions 178
Touring the credit card register 179
Recording a credit card charge 179
Changing charges you've already entered 181
Paying credit card bills 181
Reconciling That Crazy Account 182
What the nasty credit card company says 183
Ouch! Did I really spend that much? 185
If you record a transaction wrong, do this 186
Oh, that explains the difference 186
If you're ready to finish 187
If you want to postpone the inevitable 187
Paying the bill as part of the reconciliation 188
The Online Banking Hoopla 189
Should you even bother? 189
How to use Online Account Access with your credit card 189
Petty Cash and Mad Money 190
Adding a cash account 190
Tracking cash inflows and outflows 191
Recording checks you cash instead of deposit 192
Updating cash balances 193
PayPal Can Be Quicken's Friend 193
Chapter 12: Other People's Money 195
Should You Bother to Track Your Debts? 195
How Do You Get Started? 196
Setting up a liability account for an amortized loan 196
Fixing loan stuff 202
Delivering a Pound of Flesh (Also Known as Making a Payment) 206
Recording the payment 206
Handling mortgage escrow accounts 207
Your Principal-Interest BreakdownWon't Be Right 210
So you can't change the world 210
Think this adjustment business is kooky? 211
Automatic Payments 212
Scheduling a payment 212
Working with scheduled transactions 214
Checking out the Calendar 216
Chapter 13: Mutual Funds 217
Deciding to Use Investment Features 217
Are your investments tax-deferred? 218
Are you a mutual fund fanatic? 218
Some investors don't need Quicken 218
Many investors do need Quicken 219
Tracking a Mutual Fund 221
Setting up a mutual fund investment account 221
Recording your initial investment 224
Buying investments 228
Recording your profits 231
Selling investments 232
Correcting a mistake 234
Working with slightly tricky mutual fund transactions 236
Reconciling an account 238
Trying reports 238
Using menu commands and other stuff 238
Updating Securities Prices 239
Chapter 14: Stocks and Bonds 241
Setting Up a Brokerage Account 241
Recording your initial share balances 244
Working with brokerage accounts 245
Setting up security lists 245
Working with cash 247
Recording other not-so-tricky transactions 253
More Quick Stuff about Brokerage Accounts 255
Monitoring and updating securities' values 255
Researching investments 255
Adjusting errors 256
A few words on the investment account window 257
Online Investing with Quicken 259
Part IV: Serious Business 261
Chapter 15: Payroll 263
Getting Ready for Payroll 264
Getting Quicken ready 264
Getting the taxes stuff right 270
Paying someone for a job well done 271
Working with other taxes and deductions 274
Recording a payroll check 275
Depositing Taxes 278
Filing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns 280
Computing Annual Returns and Wage Statements 282
Doing the State Payroll Taxes Thing 283
Chapter 16: Profits, Losses, Receivables, and Payables 285
Tracking Profits and Losses 286
Tracking Customer Receivables 286
Tracking Customer Invoices and Payments 288
Recording customer invoices 288
Recording customer payments 290
Tracking Your Receivables 291
Discovering a dirty little secret about A/R reporting in Quicken 291
Producing an accurate balance sheet 292
Getting a list of what customers owe you 293
Preparing to Track Vendor Payables 295
Describing your vendor payables 295
Tracking vendor payables 296
Explaining how Quicken handles payables 297
Part V: The Part of Tens 299
Chapter 17 : (Slightly More Than) Ten Questions I'm Frequently Asked about Quicken 301
What Are Quicken's Best Features? 302
Does Quicken Work for a Corporation? 302
What Happens to Stockholders' Equity in Quicken? 303
Does Quicken Work for a Partnership? 303
Can I Use Quicken for More Than One Business? 304
What Kinds of Businesses Shouldn't Use Quicken? 305
Can I Use Quicken for Real Estate Investing? 306
Can I Use Quicken Retroactively? 307
Can I Do Payroll with Quicken? 308
Can I Prepare Invoices? 308
Can I Import Data from an Old Accounting System? 308
What Do You Think about Quicken? 309
Chapter 18: (Almost) Ten Tips on How Not to Become a Millionaire 311
Ignore the Fact That You Can Build Wealth by Investing in
Ownership Investments and Earning Average Returns 313
Ignore the Fact That You Can Get Much, and Maybe Most, of the Money from Tax Savings and Employer Matching 314
Don't Tap Your Computer's Power to Develop Wealth-Building Insights 316
Give Up Because It's Too Late to Start Anyway 317
Get Entangled in at Least One "Get-Rich-Quick" Scheme 318
Fake It with False Affluence 319
Give In to the First Big Temptation of Wealth Building 319
Give In to the Second Big Temptation of Wealth Building 320
Chapter 19: (Almost) Ten Troubleshooting Tips 321
Tactics #1 and #2: Use Quicken's Help File and This Book 321
Tactic #3: Visit Quicken's Product Support Web Site 322
Tactics #4 and #5: Check Microsoft's or the Hardware Vendor's Product Support Web Site 322
Tactic #6: Contact Intuit Directly 323
Tactic #7: Try a Quicken Newsgroup 323
Tactic #8: Install and Use Antivirus Software 324
Tactic #9: When All Else Fails 324
Part VI: Appendixes 325
Appendix A: Quick-and-Dirty Windows 327
What Is Windows? 327
Starting Windows 328
Starting Programs 329
Choosing Commands from Menus 330
Choosing commands with the furry little rodent 331
Choosing commands by using the Alt+key combinations 331
Using shortcut-key combinations 332
Disabled commands 333
Working with Dialog Boxes 333
Text boxes 333
Check boxes 335
Tabs 336
Option buttons 336
Command buttons 336
List boxes 337
Stopping Quicken for Windows 338
A Yelp for Help 338
The Quicken Help command 339
The Current Window command 341
The Add Business Tools command 341
The Unlock Again command 342
The Product And Customer Support command 342
The Submit Feedback On Quicken command 342
The What's New In Quicken command 342
The Learn About Next Steps After Set Up and the Learn About Downloading Transactions commands 343
The User Manuals command 343
The Ask A Quicken User command 343
The About Quicken command 343
The Privacy Statement command 343
Quitting Windows 344
Appendix B: Glossary of Business, Financial, and Computer Terms 345
Index 353
