Quicken

Quicken is a personal finance management tool developed by Quicken Inc. (formerly part of Intuit, Inc.). On March 3, 2016, Intuit announced plans to sell Quicken to H.I.G. Capital; terms of the sale were not disclosed.[1]

For the lending institution named after the software, see Quicken Loans.
Quicken
Screenshot of Quicken 2005 Premier Home & Business
Developer(s)Quicken Inc.
Initial release1983 (1983)
Stable release
Quicken 2019
Operating systemMS-DOS, Apple II, Windows, Classic Mac OS, macOS, iOS, Android
TypePersonal financial management software
LicenseProprietary
Websitequicken.com

Different (and incompatible) versions of Quicken run on Windows and Macintosh systems. Previous versions ran on DOS[2] and the Apple II.[3] There are several versions of Quicken for Windows, including Quicken Starter, Quicken Deluxe, Quicken Rental Property Manager, Quicken Premier, and Quicken Home & Business, as well as Quicken for Mac.[4] Since 2008, each version has tended to have the release year in the product name (e.g., Quicken Basic 2008); before then, versions were numbered (e.g., Quicken 8 for DOS).

Quicken's major marketplace is North America, and most of the software sold is specialized for the United States and Canadian marketplace and user base. But the core functions can often be used more widely, regardless of country; and versions have been tailored for a variety of marketplaces, including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore.[5] Development of the UK-specific version of Quicken was stopped in January 2005, with sales and support ending shortly afterwards. There were also versions for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela.[5]

Product description
Quicken Premier 2005 box and installation CD

The Quicken name typically refers to the core product offering of personal financial management software. The software includes financial planning activities that, historically, people may have done on paper – recording banking transactions, planning a budget and measuring progress against it, tracking investments and their prices and performance. Quicken has offered various editions, with varying prices – such as Basic which includes only those typical activities for someone with simple banking accounts, to Small Business for someone who also runs a business out of their home.

Quicken includes online services that allow users to retrieve transactions from various providers – such as their bank or credit card company. In most cases, online services and technical support are now supported for up to three years after the product's labeled version. e.g. Quicken 2018 will be supported until 2021.[6]

The Quicken brand has been extended to other personal and household areas, including healthcare. Quicken Health Expense Tracker is a free online tool for healthcare consumers enrolled in participating health plans. Users can "manage and direct their health care finances, view and organize medical expenses, payments and service histories, and download and organize personal health claims data."[7] The Quicken Medical Expense Manager is a desktop software tool for managing healthcare paperwork, tracking claims and payments, and consolidating related information.

Quicken Kids & Money was a Web-based program that aimed to help parents teach five- to eight-year-old children how to earn, spend, save, and share money. It is defunct.[8]

Other products are aimed at home business and seem to fit in a space for a less formal business than would be using QuickBooks. Quicken Rental Property Manager is a desktop software tool for managing rental properties; tracking tenants, expenses, and payments; and producing tax reports.

Software as a service

Quicken Online was a free, hosted solution (see software as a service) by Intuit. Intuit hosted all of the user's data, and provided patches and regularly upgraded the software automatically. Initially this was launched as a monthly paid subscription, and was a free service for over a year.

Intuit completed the acquisition of competitor Mint.com on November 2, 2009.[9] Quicken Online was discontinued on August 29, 2010, and users were encouraged to transition to Mint.com.

Beginning with Quicken 2018, Quicken is now a subscription service. Annual memberships can be purchased directly from Quicken.com and two-year subscriptions can be purchased through several retailers.[10]

Editions

The following are current (selling and supported) and retired (discontinued in both sales and support) versions of Quicken.

Selling
  • Quicken (Starter, Deluxe, Premier) 2019 for Windows[11]
  • Quicken (Starter, Deluxe, Premier) 2019 for Mac[11]
  • Quicken Home & Business 2019 for Windows[11]

Supported

(Dates support ends are shown.) [12]

  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2017 - expires April 30, 2020
  • Quicken 2017 for Mac - expires April 30, 2020

Retired
Quicken 8 for DOS

(Dates retired are shown.) [12]

  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2016 - April 30, 2019
  • Quicken 2016 for Mac - April 30, 2019
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2015 - April 30, 2018
  • Quicken 2015 for Mac - April 30, 2018
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2014 - April 30, 2017
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2013 - April 30, 2016
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2012 - April 30, 2015
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business Edition 2011 - April 30, 2014
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, Rental Property Manager 2010 - April 30, 2013
  • Starter, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business 2009 - April 30, 2012
  • Basic, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business 2008 - April 27, 2011
  • Basic, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business 2007 - April 30, 2010
  • 2006 (Win) – April 30, 2009
  • 2005 (Win) – April 30, 2008
  • 2004 – April 30, 2007
  • 2003 – April 25, 2006
  • 2002 – April 19, 2005
  • 2001 – April 19, 2005
  • 2000 – May 18, 2004
  • 98 and 99 – April 20, 2004
  • Version 6 for Windows. "Designed for Windows 95. Release 6.0. (c) 1996"
  • Version 3 for Windows 3.1
  • Quicken Essentials for Mac - April 30, 2015
  • Quicken for Mac 2007 - retired October 2016[12]
  • Quicken Mac 2007 OS X Lion compatible - retired October 2016[12]
  • Quicken for Mac 2006
  • Quicken for Mac 2005 - retired April 30, 2015

Problems

Intuit stopped supporting its Quicken software in the United Kingdom in 2005, leaving many thousands of users with only partly functional software.[13]

In 2008 and 2009, Quicken users reported an unusually large number of software bugs for a commercial product.[14][15][16] A review of Quicken 2010 suggests that quality and user interface in that product year is dramatically improved.[17]

Existing Quicken Online users' data is not transferable/importable into Mint.com. This is in direct contrast to VP Aaron Patzer's promise, made on April 27, 2010: "[Until the merger with Mint.com is complete], you can continue to use Quicken Online just like you have. Once we have completed integrating all features to Mint, you will be able to easily transfer your information and data to ensure the smoothest transition possible."[18]

In December 2019, Quicken software abruptly disabled bill-pay services through its Quicken Billpay affiliate, leaving all Quicken users without a fundamental feature of the software. Inquiries of the company were provided a form response that the disabling was a "known issue" and "This issue has been escalated to our Product Teams who are currently investigating the root cause of this behavior. At this time there isn't an ETA available." Quicken bill paying continues to be inoperative as of December 27, 2019.[19]

History of Quicken and the absence of a common cross-platform file format

Quicken was originally written for MS-DOS and the Apple II back in 1983 and first released in 1984. The substantial differences between the Mac and these two platforms meant the later Macintosh version was written from the ground up. This led to incompatibilities between the file formats for the earlier versions and the Macintosh version. The Windows version was designed to be compatible with the earlier DOS version's files.

Then when Mac OS X came out in 1999 (server) and 2001 (desktop), a new platform emerged. Apple developed backward compatibility for OS 9 (and predecessors), so Quicken for Mac development continued in an older platform database structure (PowerPC-based). Apple continued to support PowerPC-based apps (via Rosetta) on their Intel-based Macs in August 2009 (via Mac OS X 10.6). Rosetta was a temporary measure to support the eventual transition to exclusively Intel-based software (achieved in March 2011 with the release of OS X 10.7 (Lion)).

In 2009, faced with the eventual retirement of the PowerPC, it was deemed that the structure for Quicken for Mac (2007) was not suited for the direction of the Mac (intel) and OS X. Though they got Quicken for Mac 2007 to run on Intel in 2012,[20] Intuit decided to start from scratch and Quicken Essentials for Mac (QEM) was created in 2010.[21] Quicken 2015 for Mac, released in August 2014, and later versions for Mac are built on the Quicken Essentials for Mac foundation. These newer versions of Quicken for Mac use an SQLite database.[22]

References
  1. John Rebeiro (March 3, 2016). "Intuit selling Quicken to private equity firm HIG Capital". pcworld.com. IDG Consumer & SMB. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  2. "Quicken for DOS". Intuit, Inc. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011.
  3. Field, Cynthia E. (March 17, 1986). "Quicken Offers Check Writing, Budget Analysis for Apple IIs". InfoWorld. March 17, 1986: 35–36 – via Google Books.
  4. "All Quicken Products". Intuit.
  5. "International Versions of Quicken". Intuit. June 20, 2011. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013.
  6. "Retirement of online services for older versions of Quicken". Intuit/Quicken. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
  7. An April 2007 article in the San Jose Business Journal.
  8. "Quicken Kids & Money Help". Intuit Inc. Archived from the original on June 21, 2008.
  9. "Intuit Press Release - Intuit Completes Acquisition of Mint.com". about.intuit.com. November 2, 2009.
  10. "Quicken 2018 Subscription Membership Pricing Explained". Top Financial Tools. October 27, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  11. "Quicken 2018 - Which Version Do You Need? | Compare Quicken Products". Top Financial Tools. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  12. "Currently Supported Quicken Products (Discontinuation Policy)". Quicken. February 9, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  13. Oates, John (January 17, 2005). "Intuit UK kills Quicken and TaxCalc". The Register. Retrieved April 6, 2009.
  14. nathanau (January 27, 2008). "Quicken Community - Quicken 2008 Bug List". Quicken Community. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  15. thecreator (August 28, 2008). "Quicken Community - Quicken 2009 Bug List". Quicken Community. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  16. Elmblad, Shelley (January 14, 2009). "The Best and Worst Features in Quicken". About.com. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  17. Arar, Yardena (October 29, 2009). "Intuit Quicken Premier 2010". Quicken Premier. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  18. "Quicken Support - Quicken Community". Intuit. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  19. "Online center won't "Update send" bills/Quicken Bill Pay missing from OSU (updated title)". community.quicken.com.
  20. "Intuit releases Lion-compatible Quicken 2007". CNET. March 8, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  21. Snell, Jason (February 24, 2010). "After delays and criticism, Intuit releases Quicken Essentials for Mac". Macworld. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  22. "qquery". PyPi.
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