Quicken Starter is the perfect place to begin if you are searching for user-friendly software to manage your finances that is also available at a cost that is kind to your wallet. Although it lacks the investment monitoring and management features of its more costly Premier sibling, it is nevertheless an excellent base offering at a more reasonable price.
Quicken Starter is among the greatest personal finance software you can get if you are searching for aid with financial management that is also kind to your wallet. The Quicken brand has been helping individuals get a better handle on their finances for over 30 years. Quicken Starter is a scaled-down version of the Premier plan. It provides all of the same fundamental tracking, budgeting, and organizing functions as Premier, but it does not include the investment and tax planning tools that are available for an additional fee.
Getting Started
You can sync directly to your financial institutions with the Starter option, just as with the Premier program. This will enable you to input transactions and balances as you go along. Even though this ought to ensure that nothing is overlooked, you can manually add transactions if you want them or don’t want to utilize the sync option.
The package does not enable you to link together automatically with any investment providers with whom you may have money. Still, you can connect with financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, and credit card issuers. You are, however, free to interact with any and all banks, credit unions, and card issuers you see fit. You may keep track of your investment transactions and balances, in addition to your other money, by opening an account that might represent your investments, provided you are prepared to spend the time to input the information yourself. To get around this, you may, for example, open a separate account for your investments.
Creating A Budget
When creating a budget, the Quicken Starter program makes the process quick. You can select which categories will be included in the budget and which areas will be hidden; after that, you just set the spending limit for each category. If you have spent exactly or less than the authorized amount, the category will show up as green in the system, indicating that you have not exceeded the limit. The line will become red if you go over your budget. You also have the option to set up email or text message notifications that will notify you when you are getting close to or have exceeded a certain budget restriction. In addition, you can now see all of your reminders under a single dashboard for your bills, and any invoices you pay online will also show up on the calendar widget.
Reports
This program for financial planning has excellent reporting capabilities, providing reports not only for the most important financial data but also for some other information that might be useful to the user. You can generate reports that reveal your income compared to your costs; your spending is broken down by category and budget. You can also send reports immediately to your mailbox and export your data directly to Excel so that it may be further analyzed if you so choose. Both of these features are available to you.
Accessibility and Price
Although the functionality is somewhat limited, all Quicken packages may now be found on the internet rather than only on the desktop where the program is installed. This is in contrast to the situation in the past. Using the web-based platform, you can keep track of your balances, budgets, accounts, and transactions and analyze the patterns of your spending.
If you are prepared to download the software specific to your phone, you may also manage your account using your mobile device. You may also utilize this section to enter transactions, examine your budget and balances, and use extra capabilities, such as the capability to capture receipts and keep them for your records.
The Quicken Starter package is currently the most cost-effective alternative, with an annual price of $35.99. The Deluxe plan, which includes the ability to monitor loans, savings, and retirement accounts, may be had for $51.99 annually if you believe you might want a bit more capability. Currently, the Premier plan costs $77.99 and adds features like investing performance metrics and market comparisons. You may switch to the Premier plan if you benefit from its additional features.
Is It Recommended That You Go With Quicken Starter?
You can connect your bank, savings, and credit card accounts with Quicken Starter, so the program will automatically move your balances and transactions into the system. Quicken Starter also contains several useful tools for budgeting and reporting. It’s easy to put up a budget, and there are reminders and notifications to help you stick to the limits you set for yourself. Quicken Starter is less expensive than Quicken Premier since it lacks several of the more complex capabilities offered by the latter, most notably those relating to investments and taxes. Consequently, Quicken Starter provides outstanding value for the money because it is less expensive.
Pros of Quicken
- Powerful software for creating budgets
- Keeping track of bills, setting reminders, and paying bills Always be aware of what must be done and when
- Keeping track of one’s net worth automatically will get balance information from a broad range of accounts and show it in a single location for your convenience
- Full reporting capabilities. Quicken offers many reports that may be modified to your specifications
- Capacity for both short-term and long-term planning and forecasting. You can observe how the outcomes of various decisions will pan out in the long term
Cons of Quicken
- A lot of what Quicken provides can be accomplished using free tools, but not all of it in one location, therefore it comes at a somewhat hefty price
- It can be overpowering at times. Because it offers many functions and customization possibilities, Quicken has a steep learning curve
- Not as user-friendly as competing products
Where Can I Find Quicken?
Quicken is accounting software that is designed for use on a personal computer. At its most fundamental level, it is a budgeting tool; nevertheless, its functionality extends beyond that. You will create a budget, which will include several categories, limitations, and savings objectives, among other things. After that, you will monitor your income and spending compared to this budget by tagging and classifying your transactions.
When you connect your bank accounts to the program, the software will automatically pull in your transactions, making it extremely simple to monitor your income and expenditures. It will also keep a record of your payments and, depending on the package you choose, may even provide you the ability to pay those bills directly from inside Quicken.
In addition to that, it enables users to monitor their investments, as well as their income and expenditures, which is useful for managing a small company or rental property. The ability of Quickbooks to generate reports is where the software excels. You may generate reports on almost anything you could be interested in seeing.
How Much Does Quicken Cost?
Quicken offers several different plans, each with a unique set of features. They are as follows:
- Simplifi is available for $3.99 a month.
- Quicken Starter is available for a monthly fee of $3.49.
- Quicken Deluxe – $3.99 per month
- Quicken Home and Business is available for a monthly fee of $8.99.
- Quicken Home and Business is available for a monthly fee of $8.99. Quicken Premier – $5.99 per month
Each package includes assistance through phone and chat and the ability to utilize the service on a desktop computer or a mobile device. Simplify or Quicken Starter will work for you if you want fundamental features, such as making a budget and monitoring your spending. However, if you pay for Quicken Deluxe each year, you can get it for the same price as Simplifi, but it has a much wider range of capabilities.
Premier, Home, and Business are the tiers at which the feature quality improves significantly. Premier is the ideal option for those who wish to keep track of their assets in addition to using the Home and Company add-on capabilities, which will assist you in filing your taxes if you own a business or rental property. You may be interested in Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.
Is It Risk-Free to Use Quicken?
Yes, it is very safe to use Quicken. Because it employs banking-grade security, it is as secure as the other online banking transactions you currently carry out. Quicken offers a safe encryption technique that protects the privacy of your personal information as well as the confidentiality of your financial data. At the same time, it is being sent over the internet. In addition, it employs several firewalls and checks to guarantee the safety of your data. To give extra protection to your data files in Quicken, you also have the option to password-protect them.
At the same time, it is essential to keep in mind that no internet system is devoid of danger. You must be constantly aware of who has access to your account and take precautions to protect yourself against fraudulent activity. Always remember to keep your login information private, choose a password that is difficult to guess and change it often, and check in on your account regularly to see what it’s been up to. You may contribute to the safety and security of your Quicken account by following these steps, which will allow you to do so.
Your Quicken Dashboard
You may receive a rapid overview of the most relevant information to you right from the dashboard that Quicken provides you with. You may choose to display various “cards” on the Dashboard, and each can be adjusted in various ways to ensure that you only view the most relevant information.
You may, for instance, choose the option to see your expenditures compared to your income. Or how much money you’ve spent at various stores or shops. You could also add a card to monitor the success of your best investments or keep a running total of your wealth through time.
Using Quicken to Keep Tabs on Your Earnings and Spending
Quicken’s primary function is keeping tabs on your income and expenditures. You can make a budget and organize your spending with whatever level of Quicken that you use. If your bank accounts are linked to the Quicken software, then all of your transactions will be imported into the program without any more action required. After that, you may classify and arrange these transactions according to your budget, which will allow you to constantly be aware of where you are in each category.
You can make your categories with Quicken, tag transactions so that you can view all types of transactions easily even though they are stored in different categories, split transactions so that they are stored in multiple categories, and add notes to transactions.
How Might Quicken Assist You in Making Plans For The Future?
The extensive budgeting capabilities of Quicken guarantee that you are utilizing your money in a way that helps you achieve your monetary objectives. You can monitor your progress in relation to the targets you have established for your spending and your savings. Within Quicken, you also have the ability to make projections and engage in long-term planning.
All versions of Quicken save for the free version will track your home’s value as well as your net worth, loan balances(Read more about similar products: Regions Personal Loan), and investment account balances, such as those in 529 plans, 401(k)s, and IRAs. Home and Business will also get your home’s worth directly from Zillow.
