Q Home & Business or Deluxe?

JRsQuick

A Basic Question: Not exactly new to Quicken, having used it since the DOS days, upgrading every 3 years or so and am now using Q2017 H&B. I spent the money for H&B a while ago since I run the books for both personal finances and sole proprietor business (separately). I started out years ago making 2 accounts, one for each use, opening Q with whatever account I needed to work on at the time. Now, with the yearly fee, I am wondering if I really need H&B. We don't use Q for invoices or sending/receiving online payments. And we don't run our investment accounts through Q. Looking at the edition comparison table at Quicken.com, we don't really need any of the unchecked features for the Premier edition or even the Deluxe edition. We could save a lot of money buying the Deluxe edition annually as long as we can open each of the accounts by specifying that QDF file when opening the program. Would there be any problem with that, using the least expensive Quicken program?
Thanks in advance.
Joel

Frankx

Hi @JRsQuick,

Its been a while since I used Deluxe so I can't remember the contents of the reports menu, but I strongly suspect that a P&L and/or Balance Sheet would not be included.  You could probably export data (i.e. account balances) to excel and use it to produce those reports, if you wanted.

And I agree that within 30 days you could get a refund. However I think you can upgrade (and even downgrade) through the program's Help menu at any time and - because it is now a subscription - they will give you a credit for what you originally paid against the H&B cost for the term of the subscription.

Good luck!

Frankx

Chris_QPW

> @JRsQuick said:
> I am also presuming that when I bring the categories and accounts over from my current 2017 QW H&B all of them would remain labeled the same in Deluxe - for example, Operating Supplies, Office Expenses, Meals & Entertainment would all still be there under those labels. If someone knows differently, please let me know.

The categories would remain the same.

Let me state this there is only one Quicken program. "Editions" like Starter, Deluxe, ... are implemented as "features to turn on for each level/edition" based on the license.

The data file doesn't get changed.

You can do this, user Home and Business and Rental with all its features, then drop down to Deluxe, use it for a while at that level, and then upgrade back up to Home and Business and Rental and never lose anything.

In fact once a data file has had the rental/business categories added to it because you were using the H&B&R those categories will continue to be there even in the Deluxe edition (and because they are "built-in" you can't delete them).

See my screenshots. Note that these both being shown in the Deluxe version, the difference is the first one was created in Rental Property (2012), and the second one is a brand new data file created in Deluxe.

Chris_QPW

Saved business reports are still available after changing to the Deluxe version.

Frankx

Hi @Joel,

As long as you've determined that Deluxe meets your needs, there is no reason not to use it going forward.  You can have more than one QDF file and you will, as you've said, need to move back & forth between files, but that's not really much of a problem.
 
BTW - Deluxe isn't the least expensive tier - Starter is, but I would not suggest the use of Starter because it would become useless going forward if you don't renew your subscription.

Let me know if you have any followup questions.

Frankx

JRsQuick

Frankx,
Thank you for your answer in record time! From some other discussions I suspect that some reports such as Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet might not be available in Deluxe. Or would they be there maybe under a "civilian" name? If all my categories and bank accounts remain in Deluxe, that is all I would need.
I suppose that if I try Deluxe and find it lacking, I could get a refund within 30 days and go ahead and buy the Home & Business addition. Does anyone from Quicken in the group see a problem with that?
Thanks again.
Joel

Frankx

Hi @JRsQuick,

Its been a while since I used Deluxe so I can't remember the contents of the reports menu, but I strongly suspect that a P&L and/or Balance Sheet would not be included.  You could probably export data (i.e. account balances) to excel and use it to produce those reports, if you wanted.

And I agree that within 30 days you could get a refund. However I think you can upgrade (and even downgrade) through the program's Help menu at any time and - because it is now a subscription - they will give you a credit for what you originally paid against the H&B cost for the term of the subscription.

Good luck!

Frankx

JRsQuick

Again, thanks to Frankx for his quick and thorough answer. Now I want to pursue getting QDeluxe to try out and see if I can custom design my own annual reports such as Profit & Loss or Expense within a non-business edition. Should not be too hard specifying which categories and accounts to use. I have to keep in mind that if this does not work out, I would like to upgrade right away to Home & Business edition.
So further questions regarding buying Deluxe:

A little bit of money can be saved by buying Deluxe from Amazon plus it is a 14 month subscription. The Amazon notes read "This product is non-returnable and non-refundable." That is from Amazon but I am hoping once I register with Quicken I could contact them about getting credit for my Amazon purchase on a H&B edition if I buy the H&B edition from them (Quicken). Anyone have experience buying from Amazon and upgrading with the Quicken company? After all, Quicken gets the revenue even though the seller is Amazon.

Then combining other ideas from the Community, I could buy the Quicken 2019 Deluxe edition for about $9 on Ebay. It should upgrade to the latest edition after installation. Again, what do you think my chances are of using an Ebay purchase to contact Quicken and pay some extra to upgrade to H&B if I think that is necessary.
Just looking for Community experiences here.
Not only thanks from me, but maybe answers to these questions could help others making Quicken purchases.
Joel

JRsQuick

Those low offers were actually on Amazon for about $15 when you include shipping and tax and I don't see where I can edit my previous comment. So I will correct it here in that what I did find were Ebay offers for around $27 and the above mentioned Amazon offers for $15 for Quicken Deluxe 2019. Sorry for the wrong information and any confusion.
Joel

Chris_QPW

@JRsQuick

In general the prices at Amazon and others do beat the prices that the Quicken Inc website has, but it just all depends on what specials Quicken Inc or the other retailers are having. Note that on Amazon they do have offers for downloading, which at least shouldn't include the shipping.

Note there is one other difference between buy from a retailer and Quicken inc. In the case of a retailer they give you an activation code, which you can use when you want and your subscription starts at that time. If you buy from the Quicken Inc website the subscription is activated immediately.

JRsQuick

Good to know, Chris. Thanks. I still have a month to go on the Q2017 features being active and who knows what the price on the Quicken website will be at the end of April. Why is life so complicated?
The low offers are from Amazon's "More Buying Choices" selection and, of course, not from Amazon itself. And I am aware that not all outside sellers on Amazon are as reputable as the company itself.
Joel

Chris_QPW

Oh and I forgot to mention you can look for 2018, 2019, 2020, since anyone of them will just update to the latest version once installed.

And on the reports, even before you get the Deluxe version you probably can figure out if one of the other reports will work for a profit and loss because your version is just the superset of the Deluxe.

I have enclosed a screenshot of the reports in Quicken Deluxe 2016 (last time I used the edition). There haven't been any new report types added.

JRsQuick

Chris, that is fantastic. I can see that the Income & Expense by Category would show Profit & Loss. We can name the report anything we want so I can print out the same old P&L report. I see this version even supports Tags which is good to keep track of specific projects. This is very helpful. Thank you. I will definitely try the Deluxe version.

NotACPA

"Profit and Loss" is a business oriented report.  You'll only find it in H&B.

The Personal counterpart is "Income and Expense"

Likewise, "Balance Sheet" is business.  "Net Worth" is personal.

If you're not running H&B, you'll ONLY get the personal versions.

JRsQuick

Yes, that is what I figured out from Chris's list of Deluxe reports. I don't see why I could not ask the program for an "Income and Expense" report then label it at the top "2020 Profit & Loss." The computer mechanics would be the same as long as I specify all the categories and accounts to use. I am also presuming that when I bring the categories and accounts over from my current 2017 QW H&B all of them would remain labeled the same in Deluxe - for example, Operating Supplies, Office Expenses, Meals & Entertainment would all still be there under those labels. If someone knows differently, please let me know.

Chris_QPW

> @JRsQuick said:
> I am also presuming that when I bring the categories and accounts over from my current 2017 QW H&B all of them would remain labeled the same in Deluxe - for example, Operating Supplies, Office Expenses, Meals & Entertainment would all still be there under those labels. If someone knows differently, please let me know.

The categories would remain the same.

Let me state this there is only one Quicken program. "Editions" like Starter, Deluxe, ... are implemented as "features to turn on for each level/edition" based on the license.

The data file doesn't get changed.

You can do this, user Home and Business and Rental with all its features, then drop down to Deluxe, use it for a while at that level, and then upgrade back up to Home and Business and Rental and never lose anything.

In fact once a data file has had the rental/business categories added to it because you were using the H&B&R those categories will continue to be there even in the Deluxe edition (and because they are "built-in" you can't delete them).

See my screenshots. Note that these both being shown in the Deluxe version, the difference is the first one was created in Rental Property (2012), and the second one is a brand new data file created in Deluxe.

JRsQuick

Chris, that super answer with visual aids is beyond my expectations. I noticed the one example has Tax Line Items for Schedule C. Do existing reports also transfer over? Certainly a business report like that would not be included in the native Deluxe edition.
Gratefully,
Joel

Chris_QPW

> @JRsQuick said:
> Chris, that super answer with visual aids is beyond my expectations. I noticed the one example has Tax Line Items for Schedule C. Do existing reports also transfer over? Certainly a business report like that would not be included in the native Deluxe edition.
> Gratefully,
> Joel

Hmm I'm going to have to test that for saved reports. For sure the block using the "default"/new the business/rental type reports. I have no idea if say one was to save one of these kinds of reports if those would come through and could be used.

Chris_QPW

Saved business reports are still available after changing to the Deluxe version.

JRsQuick

Yay! I'll be changing in a month.