Quicken

The best feature I like is the way you can split items on a receipt into their own categories. For example, I go to Walgreens and buy cosmetics, copy paper, thank you notes, and business head shot photo prints. I enter Walgreens for the Payee, then I assign / split where the expenses will go in my categories. Cosmetic - Personal Care, Copy Paper, thank you notes - Business: Office Supplies, Photo prints - Business: Photography. I make my tax reporting a breeze for my Schedule C line items. I also love generating reports on income and expenses. Great for planning or estimating funds for seasonal work loads.

It actually has more features than I want to use. For example - the investment section, I tried to use it - but to enter buy - sell information and dividends and details was way too time consuming for me. I just as soon get my reports from my brokerage firm.

Quicken is a versatile personal finance application that covers something as simple as checking and savings account record keeping to more complex accounts such as credit card, investment and mortgage accounts. It can generate reports and graphs to provide a complete picture of one's personal finances.

To the best of my knowledge Quicken is only available on a subscription basis. In the past one could purchase upgrades as they were released or wait a year to purchase when more features were available.

My favorite feature is the ability to connect and download transactions from banks, brokerages, and credit cards. These updates make it so easy to keep up with my personal finances.

The program is so robust that it can be a little complicated sometimes. But the truth is, that is a strength that is worth the time to learn to use.