Comparison To Quicken

[N Luke]

How does Mvelopes compare to Quicken's report writer feature that allows selection by group, --- and category?

How does Mvelopes compare to Quicken's capability to copy data to the clipboard, then paste into, e.g., Excel?

How does Mvelopes compare to Quicken's capability to tie up data for Turbo Tax?

[joebanks]

Mr. Luke, I have used Quicken and find its reporting capabilities superior to Mvelopes. However, I happen to know that Mvelopes is moving forward to improve its reporting capabilities. I think future versions will not only have better reports but also allow you to export data to Excel. These changes should likely occur before the end of the year.

My feelings are still that Mvelopes is a better product for spending management, and ultimately for improving your financial position. Quicken is a great product, but from what I've observed, it really doesn't help people to build wealth.

I hope this helps.

[ggoups]

I am successfully using Quicken to actively manage spending. The key is using the budget feature of Quicken to create a budget for the current year (I create a new one for each year as well as a "fired budget" to determine my annual expenses if I loose my job to understand short-term savings needs).

Once you have a budget created through a process of guessing and reviewing past spending the key is just --- all transactions as they're downloaded (which is usually automatically done for you).

The final, and very important step is to use the budget to acutal reports to check your spending vs budget throught the month. I do a review on the 15th then again on the 20th and watch it closely until the month closes.

I only use two reports, a standard Quicken budget to actual report I modified to only show categories I can control (e.g. cash, dining out, groceries, entertainment) and that's the one I manage to. I also have a version that has all categories so I can see my total cash flow for the month with a net savings at the bottom which is all budget to actual. I have a third version of the complete report that runs for the whole year so I can see budget to actual for the year by month and in total.

I've found this method works great and still allows me to do the more advanced tracking of retirement accounts and stocks that Quicken offers. The key difference between this methond and mvelopes is mvelopes is more focused on budget enforecement so if just knowing your budget to actual isn't motivating then the mvelopes approach should be more effective.

My other advice is to use the savings goals in quicken to put away virtual money for annual payments (insurance, property taxes, planned vacations) These work like mvelopes in that they're virtual only but help keep money allocated separately for future payments.

T

[CyberSaint]

I've used Quicken for several years and have been a Quicken fan, but I must say Quicken's budget capabilities have always been weak. Mvelopes appears to have much more strength in helping one to put together and to follow a monthly budget. Mvelopes seems to be "budget focused," while Quicken presents much more of a bigger financial picture.

I really need a solid budgeting/spending plan tool, and Mvelopes looks much more helpful in that regard than Quicken.

Has anyone had any experiencing using these tools together? A Mvelopes add-on would Quicken would be fantastic, but now I'm dreaming!

[nariho]

i use quicken right now. i've tried the budgeting. it's alright, it just takes a little more work and i don't think it has as many of the capabilities as menvelopes does, like transfering the remainder money to other envelopes, something i know is very useful.

has menvelopes come up with a solution? especially with the reporting issues talked about earlier in this string? i'm interested in signing up but haven't done it yet. i'm close to, but am wondering about the reporting stuff.. since i know it'll be helpful to do taxes and yearly ---.

[nplsdvr]

It has been years since I've used quicken, but after checking out mvelopes, I'm tempted to go back to it.

Would this work in Quicken? Create a master account called "deposits", then many other cash/checking accounts named after the expenses. So you'd be using these other accounts to label expenses instead of (or in conjunction with) the categories. You'd deposit your paycheck, use transfers to virtually distribute your check to the "category/accounts". Then when you write a check, you'd record it under the proper "category/account" not the master account. Your total funds across Quicken "category/accounts" should always add up to your bank's real total.

Like I said, it's been a while since I've used Quicken, it seems like it would work. What drawbacks do you see to that?

Thanks!

Nic in Naples

[lueder]

I used Quicken for about 7 years. About 4 years ago, I was referred to Mvelopes. I would never go back to Quicken. However, having said that, I don't use an accountant nor do I use turbo tax. You just have to weigh the pros and cons and figure out what will work best for you. Mvelopes is looking toward the future and will most likely add the features that you are looking for in future versions. So if it doesn't have the features you want now, request the feature and sit back and wait a few months. It will most likely show up sometime soon.

Lueder

[Dasmasters]

I've used Quicken since 1997, and initially used it to track my expenses by creating individual accounts (Mvelopes calls them envelopes), for each spending category (eg., Fuel, Groceries, Utilities, etc.).

I have since switched to Mvelopes exclusively because once the ability to download transactions from my financial instutions became available (not an option in 1997), this method of having individual accounts made using Quicken very cumbersome, because there were toooooooooooo many steps to getting the transaction into the proper account without messing up my reports. In addition, I had to manually input the data into each account so it made downloading transactions a worthless excersise.

Mvelopes does exactly what I was initially --- using Quicken to do, but has simplified the process, and I can now have my transactions downloaded and simply move the transaction to the desired envelop (or account in Quicken terms).

Quicken has better reports, and the graphs and charts are great. However, in my opinion these excellent features of Quicken do not --- the ease and simplicity of using Mvelopes, and thus for our home Mvelopes is the money management tool of choose.

[copencap]

I have been a Quicken user for approximately 4 years. As stated, the ability to view reports, download data including brokerage - banking and retirement plans are a plus. However, my challenge has always been developing a budget - monitoring- and sticking to it.

It sounds like Mvelopes has a solid product to help me do that. Outside of reporting and charts are there any other advantages that Quicken solidly outperforms Mvelopes on? I have not signed up yet.

C

[jshaffstall]

You can use Quicken to do envelope budgeting (I've been doing it for years) using their savings goals.

But it's a cumbersome process of depositing appropriate amounts to the savings goals each paycheck (this can be automated), and removing appropriate amounts when bills are paid. There's no direct tie in with Quicken's budgeting system, which requires you to enter information in a couple of places.

I've just discovered Mvelopes, so can't offer a comparison, but am looking forward to trying it out.