I reconcile my accounts every business day. Reconciling is one of the most important functions of financial software, since it compares your bank and credit card statements with the balance and transactions in Quicken. Each new version will do such things as change the home-screen colors and menu font, but you still have to hunt deep into the Tools menu to find the Reconcile function. Each year I upgrade to the newest version, and each year I regret spending the money. I’ve used Quicken to manage my finances, both business and personal, since its pre-Windows days. The software is slick and user-friendly and mostly logical. Quicken will help you prepare a budget and scold you when you don’t stick to it. If you use TurboTax, taxable categories can be imported from Quicken. It will allow you to print charts and graphs of how much money you earned and how much you spent in the budget categories you’ve created. If you’ve conscientiously entered and downloaded your financial transactions during the year, the accounting software for non-accountants will neatly categorize them into the taxable and non-taxable categories you’ve set up. At tax time there’s nothing as helpful Quicken.
