I purchased MS Money 2001 when I finally realized that no one was going to buy one for me (hinting at Christmas time did not help). I had used Money in maybe three versions prior to this one on an old 286 machine. I lost my MS Money when my machine died, and I have just never recovered the program.
MS Money 2001 really confused me when at first I loaded it. While installing, I felt the introduction was more like a business presentation that a regular install. In fact, I shut down the sound since it was distracting to me while I was waiting for this software to install.
Money 2001 has many more features that my previous version, and the options confused me. All I wanted was a new checkbook program to help me located errors when I reconcile to the bank.
I could do my banking and brokerage interests from Money 2001. And I searched and searched until 10 minutes later, I found the checkbook in an obscure place. This version had way too much information for me.
After I recovered from my input overload, I decided to look around a bit (but not too far because I was afraid I’d never find my checkbook program again!).
An interesting feature is the setup for all accounts. I could keep track of both checking accounts, savings account, credit cards, and other accounts.
This program reminded me when certain bills were due. If any bills were set up on a monthly schedule, Money would let me know around the time they are due.
Through Money, I can download bank statements, communicate with, receive bills, pay bills through your bank, keep track of investments, and be in contact with MoneyCentral for more information on banking and investing.
Money can also help me plan a budget to get me out of debt. Money graphically shows me charts and reporting about my finances that I never noticed before.
I can even estimate my taxes through MS Money’s Tax Estimator. This is a feature I never thought I would have in a checkbook program.
The package is stuffed with advertisements that do not interest me. The ’’manual’’ is the size of a CD and not very informative. However, there is a really good Help system built into MS Money 2001.
The checkbook program is very simple to use and although it looks like all the other previous version warmed over, it lost a basic feature of remembering the check number after a deposit is made.
Although this was packaged as the Standard Edition, I felt that this was much more than a Standard Edition. It was geared more for an investor rather than someone that needs a basic checkbook program (like me!). One can probably run a business on the higher level edition.
~~Thanks for reading~~