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Computer and Technology |
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“Quicken 2006, Internet Explorer 7.2 beta 2, and MS Life Safety Center” Presented by Dick Curry (Branch 171)
Dick recommended that prior to installation of the program go to www.quicken.com and download and study the User Manual. The site also contains a list of banks and financial institutions that are compatible with Quicken software. See if yours is listed. There are about 2600 listings, which represents about 80% of the market. Quicken converts your data to the new format. So, backup the old file before installing the new program. Use Custom install. It provides the opportunity to not install some of the unwanted things that would otherwise be loaded onto your machine. The ones that get on anyway can be deleted later. The Basic edition contains three centers: Cash Flow center, Investment center and Property and Debt center. The Deluxe edition has a fourth center, Net Worth. To setup a new checking account in the cash flow center you enter your bank routing information then the date of a reconciled bank statement then the corresponding dollar amount. This creates a check register. Actual checks can be printed from the register. You purchase the blank check stock from Quicken. The complete entry includes the date, check number, payee and dollar amount. Each entry is assigned to a category that you select so that your transactions can be sorted and compiled. For example, all taxable items can be segregated to list individual tax line items such as charitable contributions. There is also a memo column to help identify entries. Some new “cool” features in Quicken 2006: an icon in the payee box brings up a list of all transactions with that payee, an icon in the category box gives a history of that category, you can add a note that will stay with the entry and finally there is a way to rate the payee. You can also see how others rate that payee. Credit card statements can be downloaded and reconciled like bank statements. The Investment center is where stock and other investments are listed. Cost is recorded and performance is shown. A great amount of information is available including news on individual stocks with charts and history. In the Property and debt center you list assets and liabilities including a home with its cost basis and all improvements. You can set up a loan schedule or depreciate an asset. Quicken has a bill pay feature available. They charge for the service. Dick suggests using the bank. INTERNET EXPLORER 7.0 beta 2 Dick said that he downloaded and has been using IE7.0 for two months now and is happy with it. It features RSS Feeds, has compact tool bars, Tab viewing of windows allowing multiple windows to be open at the same time.It is available for download if you feel comfortable working with a not always smooth operating beta version, if not the real thing will be out soon.MS LIFE SAFETY CENTERDick commented briefly on this feature. |