I have a small trust- we are trying to transfer a Quicken document

Question

I am a member of a small trust that has been using Quicken Deluxe on a windows machine for the past 10 years.

The treasure is stepping down, and I have a Mac computer. Also, another member of the trust will need access to the documents going forward (possible Windows/ possible Mac).

What is the best quicken to use going forward to record our annual expenses, and payments?

Does a yearly purchase of the quicken deluxe make sense or should we change to Simplifi?

We are cataloguing expenses such as taxes, insurance, fees, attorney fees, and taking in dues as income- so the total input is small.

Thank you for your advice.

Boatnmaniac · Answer

What is the version of the Quicken Deluxe for Windows that is currently being used?  (Help > About Quicken)

If the treasurer is using Quicken 2014-2017:  It is very likely that the software cannot be successfully loaded onto any other Windows computer.  In this case a subscription purchase will likely be needed.

If the treasure is using Quicken 2013 (or lower):  This software can be loaded onto other Windows computers and the purchase of a subscription will not be needed unless there is a need to upgrade from Deluxe to Premier or Business & Personal.  But if Deluxe is meeting the needs of the trust then there is no need to upgrade from that.

If the treasurer is using Quicken for Windows subscription:

* Is the subscription in the name of the trust or in the name of the treasurer.  In other words, who paid for it and owns the subscription?  If it is the trust's subscription then you can use and the other trust member can use that same subscription (using the same QuickenID and PW that the current treasurer uses) instead of buying a new one.  
* If you need to buy a new subscription, I suggest that the trust buy the subscription.  Then assign a unique QuickenID and PW to it that each person who accesses the data file will need to use.  (Use of separate QuickenID and PW for a shared file is not possible….at least not yet.)
* If the data file will need to be shared by 2 (or more) people there are precautions that must be taken and followed to reduce the risk and likelihood of data file corruption.

jacobs · Answer

There are a couple of issues in your questions.

First: Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows are not inter-operable. You can transfer your data from Quicken Windows to Quicken Mac, usually without any problems, but it's not something you can do back and forth on an ongoing basis.

Second: Quicken is designed as a single-user program; it wasn't built for sharing. You can pass the data file back and forth between two users, but that's pretty cumbersome. Or you can have one person use the web interface if you sync the desktop file with Quicken's cloud server. The web login doesn't have all the feature of the desktop program, though; you'd need to see if it suits your needs. Or is it sufficient to generate reports from desktop Quicken and share the PDFs with the other person who needs them?

Third: Simplifi is a completely separate program, with no compatibility with Quicken Classic. So you would not be able to maintain your historical data if you were to switch to Simplifi.

splasher · Answer

Both users would have to use the same Quicken version ( Win or Mac) since the data files are a different format, i.e. no sharing between Win & Mac.

That would not prevent the Mac user from using something like Parallels to run Windows and use Qwin.  If going this route, make sure that you keep track of who has the master/latest copy of the data file since there is no merge capability to merge two copies of the same file to blend the changes made in each file together.

I don't know if Simplifi would meet your needs since I've never even looked at it, but since it is web based, both users would have access to it, just make sure that both users try to make changes at the same time which could lead to a lot of confusion.