Customer Reviews
NT is not supported! 
2002-12-21
From the product description on the website it mentions that Money 2003 runs on NT. It does not! And is not mentioned as a supported system on the Money 2003 box either.
I am a user of Money 2001 and believe that once I am able to upgrade my laptop to a compatible OS, I will be equally satisfied with Money 2003.
Don't buy this for the business features 
2002-12-11
I have used MS money for several years, and found it to be an acceptable product. This year I upgrade to the business edition to help manage my small business. Unfortunately the program features provided for business are not complete enough to be useful. The limitations of the invoices are a good example. There is no way to record a discount given to a particular customer. Also, there is no way to record the credit card fee subtracted from each transaction. Finally the invoice is so rigid there is no way to annotate particular items with explanatory notes.
Also, several of my financial institutions are set up to interwork with Quicken, but do not interwork with Money.
Congratulations, you've found the biggest waste of money! 
2002-10-28
If I ever had a recommendation not to buy a product this is it. The questions you may have of course will be passed and passed around Microsoft support until you have absolutely no answer. I am taking this disaster off my computer and burning it. Do yourself a favor, go buy a ledger and pencil before you waste your time on this software.
Good reports are the real power... 
2002-10-02
This program steps back and kicks Quicken ...! I've used both MS money 2003 and Quicken Pro. Money wins hands down.
The user interface is complex. It took a little time of trial and error to get my accounts right. I decided, shortly after setting everything up once, to start over from scratch because through use, I realized new features and power that I needed a correct setup to take advantage of. There are ways to correct a flawed setup, but I did not learn them till after. The interface is slightly complex because this program is built to run reports. Good reports are the real power behind stored information. Anybody can just store a bunch of data, but the intelligence comes from seeing what is stored, and that is done through reports and charts and flows and other displays.
Money allows you to forecast cash flow, plan for experimental financial events, chart retirement and child education. There are so many invaluable reporting tools that it makes the program seem difficult to use correctly without instruction. Fortunately there are audible instructions the first time you use a new feature, and online help. But really, I can't get over the charts and reports that are available. And then beyond reports there is phenomenal scenario capabilities that help you look into the future.
If your financial institution supports it, you can auto-synchronize your online bank account with Money. It's the next step to exporting and importing your bank data. It really simplifies balancing your check register.
There is an Invoice designer included in this Business version that is supposed to be improved from the last release. I looked at it, but was not impressed. I tried to customize my invoices to suite the specific format that I use which involves the way I list professional services rendered on my invoices, but the designer was too rigid to allow me to adjust text fields. I was expecting the ability to customize the fields' properties and such, but was left disappointed. I would say the Invoice designer only good for changing the way an Invoice looks. As far I could tell, the Invoice Designer is limited to allow changes to the color, size and position of fields and text, unfortunately. I hope that more flexibility is something they plan on adding in future versions.
Over-all there are far too many good things to say about this program. It does have limitations, but the features and abilities far exceed the others on the market.
Microsoft Money is both hugely useful, and a huge pain... 
2002-09-10
I've been using Money for over six years (Deluxe & Business for four), and am probably what you would call a "power user", so I'm not sure how applicable my experience is to the casual user. If you're interested in keeping track of *everything* with Money, like me, then you'll probably find it a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it does a good job as a computerized account register & invoice tracker, and automatic statement downloads (from institutions that support it) can save a lot of time. But the more data you keep track of, the slower it gets. My PCs have gotten faster at about the rate of Moore's Law over the past five years, and Money has actually gotten slower to use -- that says something.
Most frustrating, the budgeting functionality has gone from useful to useless, IMHO. It was better four years ago than it is now. It's next to impossible to generate a useful report on how you're doing so far this month or year unless you like doing lots of math in your head.
I'm the odd position of disliking MS-Money for lots of reasons, while finding it indispensible for managing my money. You might say it ..., but it's better than the alternative.
Excelente 2005-04-20
He venido usando el programa desde 1997 en su versión en español, lamento que Microsoft no haya realizado nuevas versiones en dicho idioma. Esta versión es increible ya que brinda todas la herramientas para el control de gastos, presupuesto y todo tipo de acciones para un mejor control del dinero familiar y de un pequeño negocio como el mio.
MUCH Better Than Quicken 2003-03-17
Let me first say that I have been a diehard Quicken user for the better part of 9 years, and I am not a particular fan of Microsoft. But I have to give credit where credit is due. I decided to try Microsoft Money because Quicken's interface has recently become so cluttered with advertisements and nonsense that it has become almost impossible to navigate. In addition, my experience with Quicken Deluxe 2003 has been so incredibly bad (support, bugs, crashes, etc.) that I had to try some alternative.
At first I was going to buy Microsoft Money Deluxe 2003. But, for just a little extra, I decided to try the Deluxe & Business version instead. I have a small internet side business and I thought this would be a perfect fit.
First, let me address the home portion of the program:
This is an incredible step-up from the equivalent version of Quicken. The interface is simple, the program is not "buggy", and the online help is more than comprehensive enough to get you through even the toughest of problems. Because I was already using the 2003 version of Quicken, I was not able to automatically transfer my Quicken file, so I cannot comment on how that particular feature works. But I can certainly tell you that setting up all of my accounts from scratch (and I have quite a few) was more than simple. All of the online banking features worked flawlessly, and I was up and running in about 3 hours - start to finish. And with much less frustration than with Quicken.
As for the business portion of the program:
This area is, admittedly, not very advanced. It is good for very small side businesses (such as mine), but for anything more comprehensive, you may want to look elsewhere. I think the problem with marketing these two features together is that a lot of people may be expecting too much out of the business portion of the program, so they tend to write-off the whole thing. This program is intended only for the very smalest home business owner. If you are looking for anything more comprehensive than that, my advice would be to invest in the standard or deluxe versions of Micrsoft Money for your personal finances, and look elsewhere for a more comprehensive accounting program for your business finances. But if you decide to go the frugal route, expect to get what you pay for.
In conclusion, Microsoft Money is, in my estimation, 10x easier to use than Quicken and is laid out in a much nicer fashion. In addition, there are no bugs that I could find, whereas Quicken was giving me constant problems (browser conflicts, lock-ups, etc.) Take it from a long time Quicken user - It's not too late to switch. Go buy Microsoft Money today.
save your money, buy a different program 2003-02-24
Frustrating program, frustrating help system. Most features do not work. Worthless for business.
Money 2003 Deluxe& Business weak for business 2003-02-11
I purchased Money 2003 Deluxe & Business to include my wife's self-employed service business. The regular 'home' part of the program is fairly good and has lots of feature. The business part lacks quite a bit in several areas. The invoice designer wouldn't save a modified version on my Win 98 machine but works on Win Me on my notebook. Modification are rather limited. Certain fields have to stay in a certain frames within the Invoice. Worse, payment of invoices doesn't allow to enter a check number. When a payment is received and put into an account it becomes divorced from the invoice. The invoice shows having been paid but it is no longer associated with the actual payment entry. Makes it very hard to look and and figure out when problems arise. Also the business reports are almost un customizable except in a few minor things. Very frustrating. Accounts can't be designated as business accounts, distinguished from home accounts. Also 'project' information can not be put on invoices. Fields (such as customer name) are limited in size. Some Businesses have more than 20 or so characters in their name!
Anyway, it looks like we will be buying the Quicken equivalent. From the 'tour' of the Quicken site at least we can enter a check number against an invoice!
Quicken vs. Money: and the winner is... 2003-01-26
Well, I don't either program wins on all counts. I tried both and experienced frustrations with each. In the end, I stuck with Quicken only because Money couldn't import my Quicken data as promised.
Both just seem too hard to learn. I am a computer wiz and found them both hard to use -- I can't imagine others trying to get the hang of it. They really need to stop adding features and focus on the usability of the programs. But overall, I would have to say Money did have a cleaner interface that was easier to master.
However, both really fail at invoicing. They both claim you can create custom invoices, but the customization is extremely limited and messes things up so much that you eventually just end up using the defaults.
So why did I stick with Quicken? Well, Money guarantees that it can import your information from Quicken, but it failed to import my data. Microsoft technical support tried a few simple solutions, but then told me "tough luck." I wan't about to reenter a years worth of info, so I retreated back to Quicken since Money wasn't that much better to make it worth my while.
