Microsoft Money to Quicken

The Ultimate Transition Guide

DISCLAIMER: This guide details the steps the author used to transition from Microsoft Money to Quicken. Author accepts no responsibiity regarding any efforts in your transition. Always keep backup copies of your work!

Background

Recently, Microsoft announced that it will no longer support or offer Microsoft Money. For most of us, this leaves Quicken as the best option (most free versions available don't offer all that is needed, if they did, we wouldn't be using Money to begin with). So, what is the best way to move over from Money? This guide will help you through the entire complete process.

Quicken has never had a very reliable or good data conversion process for Money users. The current solution of exporting 'Account Transaction' and 'Investment Transaction' reports leaves a lot to be desired. I am particularly detail oriented with my finances, so when Quicken converted the Money data from these reports into either 'Bank' or 'Investment' accounts and no other categories, I knew that wouldn't work. There was also no way I could find to change those categories (e.g. moving from Bank to Credit Card). If this doesn't bother you, Quicken's Data Converter may be right for you.

The other option currently available is to sit and wait. Quicken states they will have a better transfer from Money with the 2010 versions. I don't hold much faith in that and since I'm going to have to switch to Quicken, I felt it is better to go ahead and do it now rather than wait until a new version comes out that may or may not transfer data as I like it. That left me with finding my own process.

Assumptions

Before you go any further into the guide, please note that this is by no means an automatic way to convert from Money to Quicken. That currently (and may never) does not exist. There are some automatic portions, but there is also a lot of manual work that needs to be done if you want to ensure a complete and accurate transfer. This isn't a speed guide by any means and there will be quite a bit of effort needed to complete. Evem as I was completing the work, many times I questioned whether to move forward or just wait until Quicken 2010 hoping it would have the data conversion I desired. In the end, I decided to push forward and put in the effort needed.

I do not use the budgeting or planning portions of Money any more. I had in the past, but they became more cumbersome for my uses so this guide will not detail anything with that portion. I know those areas have no export/import, so plan on recreating any budget/planning information by hand.

Use this guide to help build your own plan. For each major step, I will first include a description of that step and my reasons behind it. This will allow you to choose whether to do the same or make adjustments to your own plan.

I plan to add pictures where it makes sense and doesn't show any personal information. At this time, no images are added.

The Complete Guide

Preparation in Microsoft Money

The first step is to get the data out of Microsoft Money that you can. I made a copy of my current Money file and worked from the copy. We aren't deleting or changing any information in Money, but to be safe I decided not to work from my live file. With this copy, re-open (or make visible) all closed accounts. Since this is a complete transfer of data, we will work with both open and closed account information. You won't be able to import the QIF files as they are into Quicken, the header information and invetsment account information will have to be edited.

I prefered to export reports out of Money where possible and print them so I didn't have to continually click back and forth between applications. If that isn't an issue, just be sure you can run the reports and view them with all the necessary information.

Initial Quicken Setup

Regardless of how you want to setup Quicken, I recommend changing a few settings to make the QIF import match what you have in Money exactly. If you don't, Quicken will try to rename many of your Payees based on what it thinks is right. This is a nice feature for the future, but won't help during the import.

Create Accounts in Quicken

In this step, you will create accounts in Quicken as you desire. Make sure that for now they match the names of the accounts in Money exactly so they will import correctly. I recommend leaving off any online services at this time since Quicken likes to download transactions immediately when setting up online services. For initial balances, just use the current date with a balance of $0.00 except for loan accounts. We will address this portion later.

Import Money QIF Data

Take a deep breath and get ready for the hard work. Make a copy of your Quicken file from the File | File Operations menu option so that you have a clean point to go back to if needed.

Loan Transactions

This is (at least for me) the most tedious portion of the entire process. One thing that helped me keep things straight is making note of where changes were made during the loan on my Excel spreadsheet. For example, if the payee name changed on my mortgage, I made note of that prior to that line (using the red fill box) in the spreadsheet so it caught my eye and I made changes in Quicken as necessary. When I would get to that transaction, I would easily be able to use the 'Edit' feature to change 'This and all future occurrences' in Quicken.

I also found that for me the easiest place to have Quicken enter the transactions was from the account I was paying that loan for. They show up as past due bills and only keep the next one needed so if you have multiple loans at the same time, they don't get nearly as hard to find as they do if you just do the bill list.

For each loan, do the following:

Balance and Reconcile Accounts

If you are lucky, your accounts may be fully balanced. Mine weren't as the QIF import didn't handle transfers to/from deleted accounts very well. Also, security information from Money doesn't come in, so I entered stock ticker symbols at this time (if your brokerage is available online, this part may not be necessary as it may download the tickers). I also had accidentally deleted more transactions than I thought when removing the loan transactions so I had to add these back in by hand.

Final Quicken Configuration

Ahhh... you are almost done. The hardest and most time sensitive information is done and you are at a point to start using Quicken as your personal financial software. Congratulations, you deserve a pat on the back. However, your work is not complete done. There are some housecleaning items that need to take place to get Quicken just how you like it.

Conclusion

This concludes the guide. Over the next few days, I will add images where I feel it would be helpful. I'm not in the business of consulting and my expertise is limited to what I've just done for my personal finances, but I'm happy to help where possible. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post a comment on my blog: Scattered Brain. If appropriate, I will respond to any questions that I can. Good luck with your Money to Quicken Transition!