Quicken 2001 Basic

If you're looking to pay your bills, balance your checkbook, bank online, and track your investments, 2001 Basic should give you all that you need. For people who want a bit more punch in their personal finance package, you may want to check out Quicken 2001 Deluxe, which delves deeper into investments, 401(k) plans, and capital-gains taxes. However, Quicken 2001 Basic is a solid and dependable product, perfect for the first-time user or for someone who is concerned with personal-household financial management.

One of the best new features to the 2001 line of Quicken products is the anytime, anywhere access afforded by online banking at Quicken.com. You can now download your data from the Web (provided you have Internet access) and access your account balances, transfer funds, and pay bills. The application provides a long list of affiliated banks from which to choose your institution and even gave us the customer service number for our bank.

At the end of the day, Quicken 2001 Basic is a painless way to simplify your personal finances and to organize your household expenses. --Gisele Toueg

Amazon.com Product Description
Balancing your checkbook is just the beginning when you use Quicken 2001 Basic. View all your account balances at a glance. Write checks, print checks, or even send payments online. Schedule payments and receive reminders for when they're due. Bank online conveniently, downloading your data from the Web. Access your account balances, transfer funds, and pay bills. Quicken works with over 1,200 banks, credit card, and brokerage companies.

See where it all goes with reports and graphs--get quick and easy answers to questions about your spending, budget, net worth, and more, and then create a budget you can realistically follow. Track your investments and then compare them, downloading prices on stocks and mutual funds right from the Web.

Note: Online features require Internet access and are subject to change. Additional fees may apply for online banking and bill payment. Services vary among financial institutions and are subject to their terms and conditions.

As a person who only has a couple of bank accounts and no securities, Quicken Basic is the perfect tool. It's a great way to balance your checkbook and avoid common errors in simple math. The graphs are a neat feature and I find it helpful to be able to categorize and chart my expenses.

I really like the on-line display that you can set up. Quicken has a feature will it will let you upload the balances of your accounts to their web page for easy viewing anywhere you have net access.

The one problem I have with Q01 is that the on-line banking (at least with the credit card I had) was not automatic. You have to go to the cc's web site and download the Quicken format file in from the web site into your quicken folder.

Overall, if anyone is looking for a new money management program, I would highly recommend the Quicken series. Unless you have a 401(k) or a lot of stocks and bonds, the Basic program is more than you will ever need. With respect to upgrading, I did not see a huge differnce from Q98 to Q01, outside of the new web-like format. The register and reconciliation was virtually the same. So, unless you need to get Y2K compliant, I'd just keep the old version of Quicken.


Good Software but beware if you use Pocket Quicken   November 5, 2000
Denny Cash Maciel (Santa Ana, CA)
28 out of 29 found this review helpful

I was upgrading from and older version of Quicken and I found this to have more ways to view your finances. I just use this for my basic accounts and it is very good in keeping me organized. I don't think that they have made any upgrades that I think are useful for the average person.

I gave this software three stars because of the problem with synchronizing my pocket quicken. If do some research on landware.com you will see that the 2001 version uses a different method to read new transactions. It tries to match the transaction to an old one. If you don't recognize that it doesn't say "new" then the transaction will not be entered. You have to be very carefull when you accept data to your home computer.

Overall it is good software but I would rather use the older software for the pocket quicken.


Quicken Basic is very basic   November 21, 2000
37 out of 43 found this review helpful

The Basic version of Quicken 2001 appears to be a tickler only. This version was purchased for the simple task of printing checks (due to my poor handwriting), but there is insufficient flexibility in formatting the print to (1)change the memo, and (2)align the fields on my checks. I am sure that with Quicken check forms it would do better, but that should have been mentioned in the specifications. The Help instructions seem to be written for a different version of Quicken, as they mention course and fine print-field adjustments that were not available on the Basic version of 2001. E-mail help, which is now fairly standard at other software publishers, is not (yet) available.


Intuit does not stand behind its product anymore   January 26, 2001
Mike Jones (Canada)
39 out of 40 found this review helpful

Having been a Quicken user for many years I upgraded to Quicken 2001 for the internet downloading features. Be very careful if you do this! Although the regular banking seems OK, the investment price history updating puts in the WRONG NUMBERS. Mine even added security prices for the year 2003! All the software support options are charged for at ~$10/query.

Intuit has hit on a good way of making money: write a sloppy product, don't test it and charge your customers for finding the problems. Oh, and make yourselves very difficult to contact.

Check out the forums on the Quicken web site to get a flavour for what to expect if you are seriously considering a purchase.