Microsoft Money 2003 Financial Suite

It must be autumn - the days are getting colder, the clocks are going back and there's a new version of Money on the shelves.

While the annual reappearance of this high-selling personal finance software is as predictable as the turning of the seasons, Microsoft still hopes to pack in enough new features to hook you into buying a fresh copy.

It's true you can construct a pretty good balance sheet of your financial accounts using Excel, while surfing the web for finance news, but a dedicated package (such as Money or Intuit's Quicken) brings everything under one roof.

Newcomers to Money will probably find it's the first time they've got a real picture of how much they are worth and how much they owe.

The good work with Money starts while the install CD is humming away on your PC. The quarter-inch thick manual instructs you to go and fetch all your financial paperwork - bank statements, loan agreements, mortgage literature and the rest - and gather it all in a file on your desk to input details of everything as separate accounts. Everything of financial worth will be entered here.

Similarly, when it comes to your liabilities, there will be no opportunity to escape the student loan, monthly direct debits for water and gas or the credit card bill.

But this is a good thing, because the hour or two you spend diligently inputting here will provide you with an overall financial profile. Maybe things are better than you thought, maybe they're worse, but at least you're organised.

Back to the screen and the Setup Assistant walks you through setting up accounts. You'll be entering details of your current and savings accounts, and ensuring you list every direct debit or standing order.

And in months to come you'll be glad you did - nasty shocks immediately become a thing of the past as reminders pop up, diary fashion, to tell you that your mortgage is going out on Tuesday, the payment for the TV licence is on Thursday, and so on.

But looking ahead doesn't end with anticipating forthcoming bills. Money wants you to build a plan for your finances and includes a plethora of tools to help.

The monthly reports are incredibly useful, producing line and bar graphs to show you where you are now and how much credit/debt you'll have in one month, one year, five years and so on, based on your current earning and spending.

As you use Money, the data you have grows and allows you to produce more complex reports and plan more finely. For example, you will be logging your spending in specific areas and over the months you will be able to see what proportion of your disposable income is going where, and where you need to economise.

Taking control will help you get on top of your money, but only planning will make it grow, and here Money scores again. Working in tandem with partner ftyourmoney.com, the package helps you plan your pension, school fees, build a share portfolio and investigate alternative investments. It will even help you write your will.

But if this sounds like an awful lot of data inputting, then don't worry. After the initial setup, which is a useful wake-up call, inputting your bills and spending can be a swift, weekly process.

The fact that it supports online banking from most of the big banks (and you can download statements directly into Money in most cases) makes it even easier. Money has managed to make the whole process of organising your finances easy.

So are there reasons for users of earlier versions to upgrade? Well, 2003 has new twists, such as the Bill Estimator, a more customisable portfolio, buy and sell reminders for your investments, easier transaction matching and the facility to compare your spending over time.

This isn't much, but it is worth the asking price even without these new features.

DETAILS
Price: £39.99 (£34.03 ex VAT)

Contact:Microsoft 0870 60 10 100
www.microsoft.com/uk

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• 166MHz Pentium
• Windows 98
• 32MB of Ram
• 125MB of free hard disk space
• SVGA monitor