with this beast that I have occasionally danced with in the past. And in the past, I’ve usually come away from those dance sessions tired, irritated and convinced there must be an easier way. But I’m happy to report that either I’ve gotten smarter, or Quicken has gotten more intuitive, in the last year or two (I’m betting it’s Quicken that has gotten better, not me getting smarter). I was able to get the last month’s worth of both personal and business expenses, and basic debt information, completely squared away in less than 2 hrs (starting from a brand new file that needed to be set up and everything). My next task will be to go as far back this year as I can without doing manual entry, so that we can get a running total. I also need to bring all the utility bills into the system and get those squared away. I’ve been doing those for the last number of years either at the bill vendor’s website, and/or from our bank’s bill-pay page. So those records are kind of spotty and hard to wade through. Having it all in one place will be nice.

I guess let’s hear it for cold, rainy days when I have a whole lot of time available to sit at my desk and churn through this sort of thing. Keep those cups of tea coming……..