Money Seeks Broader Appeal

The latest release of Microsoft Money, the company’s personal finance software, is an incremental upgrade that continues a trend toward relying on partners for a significant portion of the product’s value. New price points and rebates could broaden its audience, however.

Money 2004 includes many online services familiar from the previous edition, such as up to two years of online bill payment through MSN BillPay, online tax preparation and filing through H&R Block, a free credit check and one year’s worth of credit monitoring from Experian, and-for Small Business Edition-one year of online payroll management from PayCycle.

The most significant new feature, a free one-year subscription to a capital gains-tracking service called GainsKeeper, is only available in the more expensive Premium and Small Business Editions. GainsKeeper offers advice on how to minimize capital gains, helps users calculate capital gains and losses, and imports this information into a fileable Schedule D tax form. The comparable service offered through GainsKeeper’s site (www.gainskeeper.com) costs US$49 per year.