We all know how important it is to track our finances, but the truth is, managing your money can feel like a full-time job. Luckily, there are excellent personal finance software tools like Quicken which make the job much easier, saving us time and money!
Quicken is especially useful for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. The platform lets you manage business finances and personal finances separately so you always know where you stand.
Check out this sample dashboard which highlights the power of Quicken, including savings goals, profit calculations, and net worth tracking.
Combine this with Quicken’s archive of documentation and tutorials which help you use the platform, and you can see why this software is such a popular choice.
However, Quicken is not without some drawbacks. Before making the choice to use Quicken, it’s important to understand what the platform offers, and what it doesn’t.
Read on in this Quicken review to find out key information about Quicken, including pricing, answers to commonly asked questions, and who we think the platform is good for. Let’s start with a general overview of Quicken features.
Overview
Quicken is built to make you better at the finance game, with the goal of saving more and making more.
For your personal finances, you can create a budget, manage your spending, and save for retirement. For your business finances, you can analyze profit & loss accounts, simplify tax prep, and create custom invoices.
Let’s take a look at some of the features that make Quicken a powerful option…
Automatic Expense Categorization
Ever want to know how much you’re actually spending on food each month? What about gym memberships or fitness products? Finally, what is your home really costing you, aside from just your mortgage payment?
Without Quicken, you might be stuck doing these calculations manually. This can involve hours of work, summing figures account by account.
Luckily, Quicken saves us a bunch of time by automatically categorizing our expenses. It does this by analyzing expenses from any financial accounts we link (including bank accounts and credit cards) and assigning them to the category it detects.
Pro Tip:
Quicken offers top-notch finance tools for individuals and small business owners, such as business tax tools and rental property income reports. Right now, you can get started with Quicken for 40% off!
Budget Tracking
Once you know your spending, you can put that knowledge into action with Quicken’s budgeting tools.
If you’ve ever manually made a budget, you know that it can be tedious. Going account by account to find your expenses is a slow process, and it’s always possible to miss a surprise bill.
Quicken solves this problem by automatically proposing a custom budget based on your recurring expenses. You can then tailor this budget to fit your needs.
Once your budget is created, you can track it on-the-go with Quicken’s mobile app, making sure you’re always informed about your financial picture!
Retirement Planning
Do you have several retirement accounts scattered across different institutions? Over the years, it’s easy to end up with a 401(k), an IRA, and an individual account, all held with different companies.
Managing retirement accounts this way can make it hard to get an accurate understanding of your current status. That’s why Quicken lets you connect these different accounts to one, simple dashboard.
While this doesn’t move the underlying accounts to the same place, it lets you track your total portfolio, including current holdings and change in value over time.
Best of all, Quicken can use this information to help you make the best planning decisions.
You can create future models based on the projected contributions you expect to make, and analyze your current allocation versus a target allocation.
While understanding how best to use Quicken’s retirement tools will require some background in investments, it is far cheaper to use the platform than consulting a financial planner.
Property Management
One thing Quicken offers that few other similar tools do is a property management dashboard.
Managing rental properties is one of the most common side hustles there is, so this feature can be really valuable for part-time landlords!
The dashboard lets you track nearly every aspect of a property, including property value, rents received, lease terms, and more. Your tenants will appreciate Quicken too, since it makes rental payments easier with reminder emails and custom receipts.
Like other aspects of Quicken, tax planning is integrated into the dashboard, making tax time an easier hurdle to clear.
Pro Tip:
Quicken offers top-notch finance tools for individuals and small business owners, such as business tax tools and rental property income reports. Right now, you can get started with Quicken for 40% off!
FAQ
Now that we have an understanding of the key features Quicken offers, let’s turn to some of the most frequently asked questions about the platform.
When evaluating any finance tool, it’s important to do your research. Here are some quick answers to common questions to help you make a decision.
Is Quicken Legit?
Yes, Quicken is legit. It is one of the most popular personal finance tools ever, with more than 20 million customers over 4 decades. At this point, Quicken is basically a household name, and it consistently ranks highly in personal finance software comparisons!
Is Quicken Secure?
Trusting a finance tool can involve risk, but Quicken appears very secure.
In addition to its popularity, which means many other people trust the service, Quicken advertises its 256-bit encryption security and ad-free business model. This means Quicken does not sell your personal data.
Is Quicken Better than Mint?
Mint is a free budgeting app oriented toward budgeting and saving. While Mint is great for people trying to get a handle on their day-to-day finances, it does not offer robust retirement planning or investment tracking.
Despite its price, Quicken’s more advanced features make it a better choice for small business owners as well as those who want to plan for years in the future. For users focused on day-to-day budgeting, Mint could make more sense.
Does Quicken Have a Free Trial?
No, Quicken does not have a free trial. It does offer a 30-day money back guarantee after purchasing, if there is any aspect of the platform you are not happy with.
Can I Invest Through Quicken?
No, you cannot invest through Quicken. You can link investment accounts and, if you buy Quicken Classic Premier, you’ll get access to Morningstar X-Ray, which can help with investment decisions.
If you are interested in exploring investment platforms, check out our Robinhood Review!
Pricing
Quicken is a bit more expensive than similar tools. This is due to the advanced features Quicken offers, which are valued by entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Quicken offers several different membership tiers, including Simplifi (their mobile personal finance app), Classic Deluxe, Classic Premier, and Classic Business & Personal. All tiers are covered by Quicken’s 30-day money-back guarantee, although no free trial is available.
Quicken is currently offering 40% off to new users. Let’s take a look at the key features offered by each tier!
Simplifi:
- Custom savings goals
- Personalized spending plan
- Automatic & custom reports
- Push notifications for upcoming bills or unusual transactions
- Download & categorize transactions
Quicken Classic Deluxe:
- Quicken mobile companion app
- Automatic income and expense categorization
- Custom savings goals
- “What-if” analysis
- Suggestions based on spending history
- Checking, savings, credit card, brokerage, asset & loan account support
- Track bills & subscriptions, bill pay
- Projected cash flow
- Basic tax reports
- Track complete investment portfolio across financial institutions
- Lifetime Planner
Quicken Classic Premier:
- All the above, plus;
- Zillow integration
- Import tax info from TurboTax
- Automatic investment portfolio price updates every 15 minutes
- Model tax implications of planned security sales
- “What if” capital gains tool
- Morningstar portfolio X-ray tool
- Advanced tax reports
Business & Personal:
- All the above, plus;
- Business reports
- Rental property reports
- Track business/rental income & expense with IRS categories
- Custom invoices
- Export data to Turbo Tax
- Track accounts payable, accounts receivable, P&L, cash flow
Pros and Cons
While Quicken is very popular and offers a number of great features, it also has some limitations that users should be aware of. Here is a quick roundup of the platform’s biggest pros and cons.
Pros
- Automatic expense categorization and ability to customize a proposed budget makes for robust, easy spending management.
- Ability to directly link investing accounts onto a single platform that includes scenario modeling simplifies retirement planning.
- Separation of business finances and personal finances, with strong functionality in both areas, is excellent for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the self-employed.
- Very popular tool with high-grade security and an ad-free business model should bring peace of mind to the privacy-conscious.
Cons
- More expensive than similar tools. While Quicken is not expensive overall, especially considering its target user base, it is more expensive than alternative tools like Mint.
- Advanced features might be overwhelming at first. Although Quicken has a robust suite of tutorials and guides, new users will likely have to take a bit of time to be able to fully utilize the platform.
- No free trial. A free trial would be a good addition to Quicken, as some users may not feel comfortable paying upfront and trusting the money back guarantee process. Still, a 30-day guarantee should bring some peace of mind to users interested in testing out the product.
Pro Tip:
Quicken offers top-notch finance tools for individuals and small business owners, such as business tax tools and rental property income reports. Right now, you can get started with Quicken for 40% off!
Final Verdict: Is Quicken Worth It?
Overall, Quicken is a powerful and robust tool for managing your finances. If you want to understand your money and plan for the future, Quicken might be the right fit for you.
With that being said, our verdict is that Quicken is likely to be the best fit only for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and the self-employed.
Most of Quicken’s advanced features will not be useful for an average user looking to balance their budget. Therefore, Quicken is unlikely to be worth the price for standard users.
There are lower-priced (and even free) personal finance tools out there which could be a better fit. With that being said, anyone who needs advanced features will be well-served by Quicken!