Quicken 2003 Premier

The Web-based system is simple to understand at a glance, easy to customize, and fully integrated with Internet Explorer--so users can quickly find financial information online from banks, brokerages, and Quicken.com. This makes most banking and investment account record keeping trivially easy, though of course not all institutions are Web compatible yet. Simple planning of investments, retirement, and debt reduction is just as easy, using the templates and wizards easily available from the software's start page.

More adventurous users will find a wealth of online resources enabling them to automate tasks related to investments, but should take great care when setting up such assistance. Some of the advanced features are difficult for novices to understand; they are well-advised to consult with professional financial planners before committing resources on their own.

Quicken 2003 Premier won't make anyone rich overnight, but it will help people frustrated by the complexity of today's financial world get a good night's sleep. --Rob Lightner

Amazon.com Product Description
Quicken 2003 Premier was designed to help you optimize your personal finances. It includes all the timesaving features of Quicken 2003 Deluxe to help you manage your finances easily, plus insightful and effective tools to help you optimize your investment portfolio and maximize tax-saving opportunities.

Quicken 2003 Premier includes tax-smart investing insights that alert you to more tax-efficient investments, opportunities to offset capital gains or losses, or when taxable events occur. New Schedules A, B, and D reports help you stay on top of deductions, interest, dividends, and capital gains. The investment sale-optimization tool helps you figure out what to sell based on specific criteria you set. The Investor's Reference Guide provides step-by-step tutorials on getting started with investing, stocks, bonds, investing strategies, and more. Use Buy/Sell Preview to view your estimated proceeds and potential capital gains.

The Schedule Updates feature tells Quicken when to go online and download your data, so your information will be up-to-date when you open the program. Quicken's guided setup suggests what to set up and track in Quicken based on your goals. A fresh, more intuitive design provides faster access to your accounts, as well as the features people use most.

I wish I'd never laid eyes on this software.


Problems with Quicken 2003 H&B   January 11, 2004
Julia (New Jersey USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have been a Quicken user for many years, and have never seen a product as unstable as Quicken 2003. Bank accounts that were solidly in balance somehow becomes "out-of-balance" and Quicken forces me to put an adjustment entry that is not needed. This then forces it out of balance, although Quicken says it is balanced. Huh? Also, the Backup utility somehow stopped working and stopped allowing me to create a backup file. I get all sorts of errors now. Maybe the other reviewers are right. I probably should switch to MS Money. Arrrgh!


Too much, too little.   June 20, 2003
Steve McGuffey (Moreno Valley, CA United States)
As a previous user of quicken basic and quickbooks, Premier version has just added lots of additional,unnessary and irritating options. Advertising for more of quickens features are displayed on every menu, screen and report/graph. Quicken basic has all the good fundamentals for the average guy or small business even, and if someone outgrows basic move right to Quickbooks Pro. Forget about messing with these useless features that add no value just cost.


A Monumental Pain   June 14, 2003
Jason_Els (Warwick, NY USA)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've spent the last three evenings trying to get accounts properly set-up. I've had a horrendous time importing my brokerage data even though it download all of it from my broker. It doesn't create reports, tells me the data for my stocks are unavailable because the symbol is wrong yet, though the symbol is corrected, it remembers the incorrect one! Nothing to do but delete and re-enter.

I've already uninstalled and re-installed the program twice because it doesn't completely erase transactions that are incorrectly entered. Further it doesn't integrate my paychecks properly. After entering year-to-date information and latest paychecks it determined I've earned $-342. from my job! I know I'm not paid nearly what I'm worth but jeez.... It came to this conclusion DESPITE the fact that I cross-checked each entered paycheck and they were entered correctly. And heaven forbid you're a wage earner with different statements every 2 weeks, Quicken likes to assume all your paychecks will be the same. Your company changes its pay schedule? You're screwed. It will demand a statement on dates which are no longer valid. Have a taxable benefit from your company that isn't listed in your pay? No way to enter it!

It doesn't import TurboTax 2002 data either!

This has been a terrible disappointment. For what I paid, $$. I feel I've been completely ripped-off. The online help is a joke. I hope MS Money is better than this.


Quicken 2003 is a disaster!   May 14, 2003
Carol Adams (Felda, FL)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have had Quicken for 15 years and just upgraded to 2003 version. I have had nothing but problems with it. I just purchased a new computer and have tried to backup my quicken files on a floppy and a cd without any success. Though my original backup is there, I have tried to transfer and copy the
data without any success. It will not allow me to get that infomation. I have lost precious time in what used to be a simple procedure. There is no helpful technical support. I do not recommend this version at all and as soon as I can get out of it, I will go back to an earlier version.