The title hopefully says it: If I am looking to get started with Quicken, I would assume there is some pre-use set up - e.g., "decide what your main objectives for planning and budgeting are; if you said X, then you should structure your use of Quicken THIS way; if you said Y, then you should set it up THAT way. Can anyone point me to a place which lays out that type of thinking? Or can you educate me why that thinking is wrong-headed for this app?
Also - we are finding that Quicken support is limited - classic app story of trying to get us off the phone-based support and onto email, but long email delays. I have to assume there are message boards or other non-proprietary resources that are more accessible - any you’d recommend?
I do not think there are too many customization options with Quicken. You set up your accounts from the predefined types (e.g., bank account, credit card, etc.) and enter your transactions. You may want to review their pre-defined income and expense categories (e.g., food, rent, etc.) and create your own and/or add subcategories. I recommend using the defaults for about a month, then going back and reviewing your entries to see if you want more detail. Do not wait too long though, or you will have a large number of transactions to re-classify.
Also, I would manually enter your transactions for a month or so before setting up any online downloading / updating. Having a little familiarity with the program will make it far easier to track down any download problems.
If you are diligent about keeping it updated, it can be a very handy program. Good luck!
I’ve been using Quicken for a few years, and I would basically agree with Iridescent Orb. Set-up options (such as they are) depend on the version of the software you buy (check the comparison). Other than that, whether or not it’s useful for you depends on how much you want to use its features. I find it’s very good for tracking expenditures once you set up the categories you’d like to track, but of course that means your entries in the register must be categorized correctly. Some of that happens automatically, but much of it is customizable anyway. You’ll probably spend a little bit of time setting it up, but once that’s done, it’s easy to maintain.
Depending on how your bank operates, you can also use Quicken to pay bills right from the program (many banks have fees for that service, though). But even if you don’t do that, downloading transactions from your bank and balancing your checking account is very easy. Once you’ve downloaded, Quicken will present you with a list of transactions - it will attempt to match anything you may have already entered manually, and will give you the opportunity to accept their match, match another transaction manually, or enter the item as a new transaction. It will then reconcile your Quicken register vs. your online balance.
As for support, I find much of it is intuitive (heh), but the in-program help screens are also useful. I’ve never felt the need to contact them or search out forums.
Oh, and if your interest is mainly in seeing your financial situation big-picture without the bells and whistles of online bill-pay and such, you might want to try Mint.com first - it’s free and web-based (and also owned by Intuit).