SOFTWARE - PART 2

Financial Software

Financial software can save you time and money. You can record checks, print checks, easily balance your checkbook, electronically pay bills, set reminders you to pay bills, print reports and more. The best financial program is Quicken.

Quicken

There are four different versions of Quicken which are all inexpensive. Setting up your bank accounts is a simple process. If your bank supports online banking, you can pay bills through Quicken Bill Pay.

• The program's home page shows all of your accounts, cash flow, upcoming bills and deposits, and more. There's also a calendar which shows due dates of bills.
• Most of the time, you'll be using account registers. You manually enter your deposits, checks, withdrawals and Quicken assists you in creating and tracking them. You can easily choose a transaction by type by picking from a list (which you can add to) that has choices such as ATM withdrawal, deposit, online payment, or printed check. Quicken Basic also lets you print checks if you desire.
• Quicken remembers payees you've already entered, letting you pick them from a list. New payees automatically go into the list.
• In addition to assigning a type to each transaction, you can also associate categories you create, such as "Food", letting you track your spending habits. When you go to the category field of a transaction, the last category you entered for that payee appears, but you can override that. The software lets you split transactions among categories, assigning a certain portion of one purchase to "Food" and another part to "Household" for example.
• Reports and graphs are available as well. The program can easily manage the basics of investments, property, and debt.

Tax Preparation Software

TaxACT
The free version of TaxACT is recommended for people with simple tax returns to prepare.

TurboTax
TurboTax features an excellent tax interview system and easy to use navigation. The "Maximize My Deductions" button, will guide you step-by-step through the most popular deductions.

I personally use TurboTax Deluxe.

• This software can electronically retrieve W-2 wage, and 1099 investment data for hundreds of participating employers, and financial institutions. Enters data on the right forms - eliminating manual data entry errors.
• One-click Updates gives late-breaking IRS and state forms.
• Refund Monitor constantly displays and updates your refund or tax due as you complete your return.
• Minimize audit risk. TurboTax compares your deductions to national averages, so you can quickly see if your deductions fall outside the norm - and might trigger an audit.
• Double-checks your return for accuracy and completeness.
• Electronically file and get your refund in as few as 10 days.