Product Reviews

Microsoft seemed to lose interest in Money for a while. Just as Intuit was launching another multimedia finance management extravaganza, Bill Gates was thinking of making deals with former rivals that included selling off Money as a going concern. Finally, the rumoured deal fell through, and now things look set to liven up again in the personal finance manager market with the arrival of Money 98.

Last year, multimedia was the buzz word of the moment, but that's no longer the case. Now the Internet and Web centricity is the way to grab people's attention. Microsoft isn't the only one going down this route, but most of its recent releases, like Office 97, have been heavily infused with Web-flavoured features. This time the programmers have gone one better. Money 98 looks and acts just like a Web browser - one which is permanently logged on to a site dedicated to keeping your finances in order.

Surfing the Net profit

In this respect, Microsoft is probably giving us a taste of things to come. As developers start using programming techniques and embedded controls from the Web environment, so its programs are quite naturally going to look more and more like an application-orientated Web site.

The Money 98 Financial Suite now consists of four major parts. Money itself still manages your financial dealings, turning income and expenditure transactions into graphs, reports and financial statements. Tax Estimator has the job of making sure you'll be ready for self-assessment and, so far, links with third-party TaxCalc or SmartTax to produce your next tax return. Goal Planner gets it's own module and helps you plan for future financial commitments, while Money Manager is a Web-updated library of financial advice and calculation Wizards.

All these parts are accessed from what appears to be a Web browser - in fact, when I pressed the Help key in no particular context, up popped the Internet Explorer 3.2 help index. The interface features all the usual hyperlinks to get to associated information, and once past the Homepage you could easily be driving a neatly designed, multiframed Web site.

The home page itself consists of a customisable summary of your financial position, with useful tips from the Expert Assistant based on your situation. You might see a paragraph detailing how you could save some interest, for instance, by paying off a loan from your savings. Money can keep track of your savings accounts and compares the interest rates with the debts you owe.

You also get a column - this is laid out like a typical Web page, don't forget - for the latest financial news and advice from the Money Insider pages on the real Internet. This is just the first clue that Money 98 isn't an island unto itself. A click of a button and the program downloads the latest Internet information and headlines from its associated Web site, updating Money Manager with share quotes and stock market news in the process.

On-line finance

Microsoft, just like Intuit, has been keeping an eye on the latest on-line developments in the UK. Banks in the UK have been notoriously slow to take on board the principles of electronic home banking, which have been commonplace in the US for a long time. The business community has been able to employ BACS and such for a while, but so far home banking has been an alien concept this side of the Atlantic. Thankfully, a couple of the major nationals are now supporting at least statement downloads, and even go so far as on-line electronic transfers.

For those fortunate enough to bank with one of these more forward-thinking institutions, you can now ask Money to download your bank statement for you. Of course, if you're using the bank's own software, you could have done this already, but using Money 98 the bank statement doesn't just sit there for you to look at. You can ask the program to compare the transactions you've entered with those that have cleared. Any transactions that don't match either in reference or amount will be highlighted. The end result is a very quick and easy bank reconciliation.

If you go one step further and ask Money to download the statement and enter the transactions found into your computer bank account, then this will reduce manual data entry significantly. Again, if Money can't match a reference with a known supplier or customer, it will display a list for you to decide what you to do with these postings.

While posting manual data entry yourself, you can also choose to select one of several means of paying bills by electronic transfer, and even set up regular payments. Money uses what it calls Epays for a normal electronic instruction

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to your bank to pay a bill you've already entered into your bills owing area. However, you can also use Apays to set up a bill for automatic regular payment, and Xfers for transfers from one bank account to another at the same bank.

Of course, all this clever stuff depends upon the exact range of electronic banking services your bank or building society provides, and Money can help you find this out. Once you have an account set up in the Online Banking area, you can select Getting Started, then click Investigate Offerings. Money will connect to the Internet so that you can see what on-line services your financial institution offers.

You can also find out how much they cost and how to sign up. I tried this exercise and found that only The Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank are Money 98-compatible at present. Still, it's early days yet.

Doing it the manual way

For those of you who don't bank with either of the above it looks like a manual data entry process for the moment. Just like all of it's predecessors, Money 98 uses a cashbook-type register for direct entry on a line-by-line basis, or you can use one of the ready-made forms if this suits you better.

Direct entry is a simple and intuitive affair: you need to decide whether you're creating a deposit, cheque, transfer or withdrawal, and then proceed to fill in the fields provided. To keep things neat, Money uses categories to analyse your incomings and outgoings, and you can further divide these into subcategories if you wish using a category of, say, motor expenses with subcategories for petrol, road fund licence, insurance, maintenance and so on.

You can set up as many as 14 types of accounts, such as the obvious bank current, bank savings and building society accounts. Credit cards, mortgages and loans are also on the menu, as are retirement accounts including pension and investments - other assets and liabilities cover the remainder for those who want a full balance sheet.

Money 98's business facilities are just about capable of keeping up with a small office or home-run cash-based business. VAT is catered for, so you can track tax on sales and purchases, but the built-in reports are quite basic.

Invoicing is available on the separate tools menu, so you can create and print quotations, invoices, proformas and credit notes, and these can then be updated to the accounts concerned. Payee names can also be used for recording bills yet to be paid and Money will remind you when these bills are due.

These facilities just about make it possible to run a business on Money 98, but this isn't the program's prime purpose. There are packages specifically designed for business use, and even if you have to fork out an extra few pounds for something as basic as Sage Instant, you'll still find the facilities more applicable to a trading situation.

Managing your money

For personal use, Money 98 is simple to use and something of a bargain, particularly when you start adding up the extra bits that go to make up the Financial Suite.

With self-assessment judgement day in mind, the Tax estimator can be used to estimate how much you might owe in taxes for the current year or, say, the last completed tax year. You enter your income, deductions and adjustments as usual, and Money estimates the likely tax bill for you. If the government changes the tax rates, you can manually change these tables to fit.

Using Money's built-in categories, the software will already know which area of the tax return your various incomes and expenses relate to, and you can then use Tax Estimator to get an estimate of your likely liability. At the end of the financial year a report can be exported to either TaxCalc or SmartTax, and that software will then complete the return for you. Microsoft advises you to consult your accountant before submitting the form. This is extremely wise.

Goal Planner takes the task of planning your various financial objectives, which could be as simple as saving for school fees, or perhaps paying off that long-term debt. Budgets can be set against goals, and Money will keep an eye on your regular accounts activity and adjust the goal accordingly for an unexpected pay rise or extra cost, for example.

Money 98 handles your basic financial ins and outs with some aplomb. The on-line facilities and Web links make it a very attractive proposition for those connected to the Internet, and the innovative user interface is obviously the way things are going to look from now on.

The reports and visual representations of your financial data fall short of Quicken's many and varied offerings, but instead Microsoft has opted for comprehensive and easily accessible personal finance functions, with a strong on-line initiative.

There's no doubt that on-line banking and the Internet will play a major role in both personal and business finance before too long, particularly once people realise that the risks involved are similar to using your debit card at the local cashpoint machine.

Microsoft Money 98 uses an innovative interface which we'll be seeing much more of in the future, and makes complete sense if you want to get connected - it's just a matter of persuading your bank.