4 benefits to desktop money management
By Erin Peterson • Bankrate.com

If you're one of the millions of people who are looking to get a better handle on their finances these days, you have plenty of options, from the old-school pen and paper to new online money-management sites.

However, an often overlooked middle ground is desktop programs. From behemoths like Quicken and Microsoft Money to more specialized programs like You Need a Budget Pro and Crown Money Map, these programs offer features you won't find in other places.

Microsoft stopped selling its Microsoft Money program June 30. But the company will support the program through Jan. 31, 2011, and Microsoft points out that Money continues to have functionality on the desktop.

With at least four financial programs in use, here's why you may still want to consider desktop money management for keeping track of your finances.

1. Customized reports, robust features
Instead of relying on one-size-fits-all tools, many desktop programs allow you to drill into your spending, and slice and dice it in a number of different ways, says Get Rich Slowly blogger J.D. Roth of Portland, Ore. "You can create and customize reports that allow you to see which categories you spend money on, and break those categories down into monthly, quarterly or yearly subtotals," he says.

Such tracking helped him notice that his spending on music and DVD downloads had crept up from $10 a month to more than $80. "It's something you might not notice in your day-to-day life when you're downloading a song or a TV show here or there. But the (reports) help you see when you're developing a habit," he says.

There are other robust features with desktop money management. You can link to your scanned checks or receipts, which will allow you to keep everything in one place and discard the shoebox you might otherwise use to keep your physical receipts. One version of Microsoft Money also provides stock market updates and Morningstar ratings.

If you do a lot of international travel, some programs, including Quicken and You Need a Budget Pro, work with multiple currencies. Some will even create customized reports that will use current exchange rates to let you see how much your foreign transactions are costing in your home currency.

"For people who are detail-oriented and who are willing to take the time to put good information in the system, they'll probably find that they can get more useful information out the back end," says Wendy Barlin a certified public accountant with Barlin's Business Solutions in Encino, Calif. "Those who really commit to the system are going to benefit from it."

2. Scalable programs
While desktop budget planners can offer a huge array of bells and whistles, sometimes people really just want the addition and subtraction features, at least when they're just getting started, says Gail Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Silver Spring, Md.

"Too much analysis can be as bad as too little," says Cunningham. "You don't always need to divide the money you spent at the theater into the price of the tickets and the price of popcorn. It can be a bit much for people."

Desktop programs allow users to start simply and add more details as their interest grows, or as their financial situation becomes more complex.