Quicken Premier Home - Business 2006 Description:

Quicken Premier Home & Business 2006 review:
5 stars (This Quicken 2006 is the best version I have ever used !!!) - My previous financial software upgrades were from Quicken 99 to Quicken 2002 and then to Quicken 2007 Premier Home & Business only a few years ago. However this Quicken Premier H&B version 2006 upgrade was the easiest I have done so far. After putting the CD in the drive and clicking "install" it found the older 2007 version on my Windows XP system it told me that it needed to remove the older version. I said "yes" and it automatically removed the old and installed the new without any problems and then proceeded at my request to back up and convert my older data files. If you are familiar with Quicken Premier H&B 2007 or 2007 then you will be familiar with this Quicken 2006 interface because it looks and feels mostly the same. However at the same time everything in this newest version also seems much more refined since they seem to have fixed many little annoyances and yet added some clever features that make the experience of using the it even more easy to use. As your read about these differences on the Quicken web site or on the retail box I can tell you that you may not fully appreciate these improvements until you begin using the new version "hands on". Even the online automatic download and account update features seems to run smoother and faster. Intuit has listened to many customer requests by adding things such as being able to attach a document image to your registry entries, the ability to expand to full screen mode by pressing F11 on the keyboard, the inclusion of more choices for your advanced reports, and the ability to export report data to a "PDF" or "Microsoft Excel" file format.



For users of Quicken before version 2007 you will want to back up all your previous version's data files onto a removable media or disk and make sure you have the original installation disks from your previous version since you will want to make sure that you like the newer 2007 through 2006 interface. Users of versions 2007 or earlier who rely on the QIF file format for your financial institution downloads should realize that QIF data files are no longer fully supported in this version (or in version 2007) as working data files. This is an extremely important point to make so I will repeat once again that you absolutely need to make sure that you completely back up those data files on a removable CD, zip, floppies, etc. so that you could go back to your older Quicken if you really needed to later on. On a positive note Quicken version 2006 does however allow you to import and export your data as QIF data files but you will have to convert and keep those files in the newer "QDF" format before you can use them in this new version 2006. For Quicken users who do not rely on the older QIF files you will appreciate the reliability and simplification of the newest Quicken file formats. Whether you use "Web Connect" or the more automated "Direct Connect" methods the newer file download format seems more secure, more automated, and more trouble free. Many download bugs that were prevalent in previous versions seem to have been fixed. I did have to do some manual editing for a few minor accounts where the online downloading feature had stopped working in version 2007 but after some simple online settings changes those same accounts were now suddenly working perfectly in version 2006.



PROS: Easy installation and upgrade, works reliably, very easy to use, mostly bug free, the financial data downloading works very well, full of many useful new and improved features including a method of registry image file attachment and an improved importing and exporting of data for advanced reports.



CONS: It does not fully support the older QIF data file format. Users of versions before 2007 will need to acclimate to the newer look and feel of the program. Some users from previous years have reported data corruption or errors after updating to the newer versions of Quicken 2007 & 2007 which means that fully backing up your existing data files on a removable media before the installation of Quicken 2006 is mandatory.



CONCLUSION: I enthusiastically recommend and give the highest possible five star rating to the latest Quicken Premier Home & Business ver. 2006 Edition since it is the easiest, most reliable, and overall best version of Quicken I have ever used!