Subtitles of the Movie

The Quicken layout consists of groupings of accounts in different Tabs which are called Centers. These Centers have been developed to keep together all our pertinent tools. When we talk in terms of these centers, the most common are the Cash Flow center, the Investment center, and our Net Worth center, or Property and Debt center. For those of you that run a business, of course, we also have the Business center. Each of these centers is then combined together into the Financial Overview so that you can see everything on one page. Now the importance of the centers is in understanding how to quickly get around Quicken. First, the Cash Flow center. You will notice it immediately uses the word Personal. This is to allow us to track all of our day-to-day income and expenses. The concept behind the Cash Flow is to really get a handle on what your spending is. As a result, you'll notice that it immediately takes you to your spending and immediately takes you to your savings. On our Home page it was set up so that we can track our goals that we will set from our Cash Flow. Now, if we move on to the Investment center you will find that everything is set up to actually track the ongoing performance of your stocks, bonds, retirement funds, and other types of investments. You will notice that it allows us to see up-to-date pricing on these stocks. Now, Quicken will allow us to automatically download this information in, and your calculations will be done for you automatically. You'll notice each of the stocks have a link and there is also the plus sign right next to them. The plus will allow us to see exactly when we purchased this stock. When we click on our link to the stock it'll take you automatically to the detailed review. This will include information about your holdings, and quotes as of particular days. Of course, I close out, and I'm right back to the Investment center. Now, our Property and Debt center is also our Net Worth center. Here, the idea is to quickly see how much you own versus how much you owe. This is what our bank will use when determining our credit worthiness. It's always a good idea at any given time to note exactly what the summary is of all your loans, and of all your credit cards. Notice also that our property and debt will give us target balances. If we know that we want to be able to purchase something in the future, we are able to figure out the best case scenario for the bank. This is significant because our interest rates are determined by what our net worth and what our spending patterns are. Now, for those of you that also have a business, we will see the Business Tab. The Business Tab, again, is not a true balance sheet, cash flow, profit and loss statement that we're used to in other programs, but it certainly gives us a wonderful handle on what we are doing, and it is certainly adequate for our service-oriented businesses. You will notice all of the income coming in, all of the income going out, and what is my projected profit and loss. Further down on the screen, I can also track everything by category, also check everything by spending. If I go to our Income versus Expenses, it will, indeed, show me a graph that lets me see how much I've spent versus how much has come in. It will also give me some options so if I do want to see a profit and loss statement I can. You'll notice once again, it always evolves around Expenses versus Income. Each of these centers are fundamental for understanding the flow of Quicken. It's a good idea to just be comfortable with the terminology. You'll probably find that you spend a great deal of time in Cash Flow, as that's our day-to-day. However, those of us that are looking for investments for our children's college fund, for retirement, or for that special vacation, don't underestimate the power of investment.