Alternatives to Quicken (must run in Windows 2000)

[Howard Kaikow]

What are the alternatives to Intuit's Quicken Premier 2007?
I was thinking about getting the critter until I saw the comments at Amazon.com.
Must run in Windows 2000, so MSFT Money is not an alternative.

Primary concern is investment transactions.

[bigaldoc]

I recommend: Personal Stock Monitor: Award-winning Investment Tracking Software

[Howard Kaikow]

Does look like a good product, but has a lot more than I need.

I'll try to download the trial in April 2007.

One problem tho, Fidelity Investments no longer doeswdownloads in other than CSV format, unless you are allowing Quicken or MSFT Money to do the downloading.

OK, just checked the User Guide, CSV files can be imported.

[Howard Kaikow]

Just looked thru the User Guide.

I just want the record keeping, not the other stuff.

[Howard Kaikow]

Fund Manager also looks interesting.

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/

[Howard Kaikow]

Well, my instinct was kerect.

I finally finished entering the transactions for all of my sister's
accounts and my account.

The Investment option is not ready for prime time:

1. Entering stuff in the register is buggy.
2. Some other errors may be the result of issues with Fidelity's server, but
still not nice when transactions are skipped or coded wrong.
3. Summary pages are not accurate due to rounding.
4. Tried doing an Investment Performance report:

a. The incorrect total market value was used, i.e., $3030.65 less than the
market value on the Summary tab.
Why would not the value on the Summary tab be used. makes no sense?

b. I did not find a way to get annualized returns for each security in the
account.
5. did not see a way to compare average cost and actual ccost, might be
there, but the Help is inadequate.

So, after I do taxes, I'll take a look at Fund Manager, Stock Monitor, etc.

[Howard Kaikow]

In my quest to postpone doing taxes, I more carefully investigated the info on the three products (Personal Stock Monitor, Portfolio Manager, and Fund Manager) at their web sites. For dealing with just mutual funds (it may also handle ETFs), based on reading the info, Fund Manager is the clear winner.

Heck, there's even "documentation"!!
Most of my questions were answered merely by looking at the info at the web site and the screen shots provided.

Of course, I do not intend to download the trial until after I do taxes. but my flesh is weak, who knows what I might do in an impulsive moment.

[Howard Kaikow]

Hmm, can I really be satisfied with software tat makes me happy!? I need something to complain about!

Well, I can always pick on the poorly organized forum at http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/w.../wwwboard.html!

[AlanMiller]

You could take a look at Money related freeware.
I'm sure you'll find plenty to complain about there. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

Alan

[Howard Kaikow]

Thanx.

To clarify, I'm looking for software that is strong in the investment area.

[Howard Kaikow]

Recently, I did a heck of a lot of trading in my sister's taxable account,
so I thought that it might advantageous to get software that would determine
whether it would be better to use actual cost or average cost to compute
capital gains.

I've been disappointed that most, if not all, of the programs suffer from
the deficiencies described below. I'd be reluctant to trust their
calculations.

Are there portfolio management programs that do not suffer from the problems
described below? The comments are about FundManger, similar comments apply
to other programs.
-------------
1. The total portfolio value is off by $.06 (too high). This is due to the
incorrect rounding of the market value for each security. Market values are
not to be rounded, they are always TRUNCATED to 2 digits to the right of the
decimal mark. You can see this at the Fidelity web site.

Such incorrect rounding accounts for $.05 of the error, the additional error
of $.01 results from the adding of the security values.

2. When a transaction is entered, IF both the number and shares and the
value are given, the price is irrelevant only of interest as an historical
item. It is incorrect to compute the price if the user manually enters the
price, or the price is downloaded from wherever.

For example, on 16 Sept 2005, the NAV of FSPTX used for a purchase was
$61.54. The amount purchased was $.97 resulting in the purchase of .016
shares. Fund Manager displays the price as $60.63. Manually correcting the
price does not stick.

[Howard Kaikow]

I do not believe that there is an industry standard for rounding dollars.

As recently as 24 Nov 2006, I did a transaction at Janus. Amount was ROUNDED UP, where Fido would have TRUNCATED.

Ditto for trades at AIM in 2005.

[JohnBF]

Howard, I recently became aware of BasisPro via a TurboTax e-newsletter. I have no knowledge of or experience with it, you might want to throw it, or related GainsKeeper, on the wall to see if it sticks or slides off.

[HansV]

The "al dente" software test? <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[edsmalley]

More like the Odd Couple, when Oscar flings a plate of Linguine and sauce made by Felix against the wall and says 'Now it's garbage'. <img src=/S/hiding.gif border=0 alt=hiding width=70 height=24>