Quicken Rental Property Manager, a new software solution designed specifically for people who manage approximately 10 or fewer rental properties, is the easiest way to organize critical income and expense records in one place. It significantly reduces the time required to organize receipts and prepare records, and makes tax time easier for both property owners and their accountants. The software, the price of which is a tax-deductible expense, also provides a clear picture of rental property performance, eliminating guesswork as to which properties are profitable and which are not.

"This program is a lifesaver!" said Melody Takami, a rental property owner in Lake Jackson, Texas. "Quicken Rental Property is very easy to use and organizes my rental information in a much better way than I had ever thought of doing.

"The software simplifies the process of tracking my rental income and requires a lot less work than when I kept all of my records in a shoebox and had to go through all my receipts at year-end. I would highly recommend this program. It's a real jewel," she said.

Existing Methods Don't Provide an Adequate Solution
Through extensive interviews with property owners, it became clear that existing software solutions were primarily designed for property management companies and were overly complicated and too expensive for people who own just a few rental properties to use. Property owners who don't use software to keep track of their rental properties often create their own methods for tracking income and expenses. These home-grown methods based on spreadsheets, checkbooks, and accordion folders are usually cumbersome, time consuming, ineffective and error prone. Our research indicates that none of these existing methods provide the insight and simplicity required by these rental property owners nor do they address their most pressing need of making tax time easier.

Quicken Rental Property Manager focuses on the needs of the individual rental property owner with the following features:

• Quick two-step setup: Install the software, enter the property name and property type, and begin tracking rental income and expenses.
• Simple property organization: Organized they way owners view real estate - by property, not by bank account - it's easy to review income and expenses for each property separately with this drop-dead simple interface.
• Income and expense ledgers: Easily enter and categorize rental property transactions throughout the year. The data provides instant insight into rental property performance through a running cash flow total for each property. The transactions automatically populate tax and income and expense reports.
• One-click tax report: Reduce tax time hassles by automatically creating a rental tax report that maps directly to the Schedule E. Categorize expenses as "not sure" and the tax report will list them separately for an accountant to review. This feature saves time for both the property owner and accountant and ensures that entries are correctly categorized.
• Income and expense report: Understand more accurately how rental properties perform over time. This enables property owners to stay on top of cash flows, easily identify transactions and track the performance of each property separately.
• Instant drill-down into reports: See the details of any report entry by clicking on the number. Find out more about the individual transactions that make up that line item.
• Simplified vehicle mileage tracking: Obtain appropriate tax deductions by entering vehicle mileage while entering expenses. The software automatically combines the deductions and enters the total into the year-end tax report.
• Receipt tracker: Mark the checkbox that the receipt exists while entering expenses. Avoid the hassle of hunting for missing receipts if they're needed at tax time.

"Customers essentially designed Quicken Rental Property Manager for us," said Peter Karpas, vice president and general manager of the Quicken Personal Finance Group. "Interviews and in-home visits with more than 100 rental property owners during the creation of this product enabled us to give them something no one else provides: a simple and affordable tool that specifically solves their biggest need."

Making it Easier for Accountants to Assist Their Clients
Quicken Rental Property Manager also makes it easier for tax accountants to review their client's financial records.

"Quicken Rental Property Manager is a good tool for people who manage a few rental properties," said Kevin Sakai, a certified public accountant with KAS financial in San Jose, California. "Many of my clients own rental properties and I've seen them struggle to organize their income and expenses for taxes. This product is easy to use and will help reduce the time both the rental property owner and tax accountant spend preparing a Schedule E.

"The 'Not Sure' category feature alone will greatly reduce the time I have to spend pouring through transactions to find mistakes. Clients usually guess as to where expenses should be categorized and that is the worst thing you can do. Used appropriately, this software can be a great time saving device," Sakai said.

Realtor Recommends to Clients Looking to Save Hours at Tax Time
"It will save me a lot of time at tax time because it's just a matter of printing a report and giving it to my accountant. I no longer have to re-categorize my expenses because it is already done," said BJ Cowan, manager of six rental properties in Denver, Colorado. "With Quicken Rental Property Manager, bookkeeping for my rentals went from an hour a month down to about ten minutes.

"Being a Realtor, I'm recommending this product to my clients because it will be a tremendous tool for them to manage their rental properties. I say, 'Throw away the pen and paper, because Quicken has a product that you will love!'" Cowan said.

Availability and Pricing
Quicken Rental Property Manager is currently available for purchase at www.quickenrental.com and will be available at major software retailers nationwide in February 2005. The suggested retail price for Quicken Rental Property Manager is $99.99, which includes one year of free technical support (offer available one-year from date of purchase. More information about terms, conditions and limitations is available at www.quickenrental.com).