Tricky Quicken 2012 Setup Problems

New Quicken 2012 users may encounter a handful of annoying setup problems. These problems can occur if you've been using Quicken on a Macintosh, if you have some missing data files, or are migrating from Microsoft Money.

How to go from Quicken on the Mac to 2012

You can use the existing Quicken files if you're working with a new version of Quicken. In fact, if the Quicken installation program can find a version of old Quicken files on your computer, it gives you the option of just skipping all the Quicken Express Setup stuff. In this case, you just begin using your existing files.

If you’ve been using Quicken for Macintosh, however, you have to export your data from the Macintosh before you can read it in the Windows version.

What to do about missing Quicken data files

If Quicken doesn’t find the old files, you need to open the specific files. But if you have this problem, you should be able to solve it yourself. What has happened, if you find yourself in this boat, is that you’ve moved or messed around with the Quicken files with some other program, such as Windows.

If you did that, presumably you had a reason. And more to the point, you should know where you put the files.

Migrating to Quicken 2012 from Microsoft Money

Suppose that you’re moving from Microsoft Money to Quicken. The question of the hour is this: Can you reuse your old or existing Money files in Quicken? The answer is, “Yes, sort of.”

First of all, the Quicken File menu includes an Import command that lets you import files from Microsoft Money 2007 or 2008. So far, so good.

Further, if you’ve got an older version of Microsoft Money you want to convert data from, you can download a program called Data Converter from the Quicken support website. Data Converter converts Microsoft Money data files from Microsoft Money 2003 and later versions to the Quicken 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 file format.

Quicken 2012 should easily then convert one of these old-format Quicken files to the Quicken 2012 file format. So, theoretically, you can move old Microsoft Money data files to Quicken.

Practically, however, moving financial information from Quicken to Money or vice versa doesn’t seem to work all that well. Transactions seem to get lost. Account balances get messed up. People ruin their lives. Well, maybe that last comment is a slight exaggeration.

But, no kidding: Migrating is problematic. If you do want to move from one program to another, make sure that you have a really good reason for doing so and that you allow yourself enough time to track down and correct any errors. The Data Converter is available from Intuit. Use the search term Microsoft Money after you select your Quicken version.

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