Why can't Microsoft get Intuit Quicken to Microsoft Money file conversion more reliable

Microsoft Money files should convert many Intuit Quicken files. However, sometimes the conversion doesn't work, and an intermediate version of Microsoft Money is required (see Article 3).

The problem is that it gets more and more difficult to test as time goes on, due to security changes, file types etc. Microsoft Money will convert previous Microsoft Money files (from Money 1 to the previous version of Money), plus a quite a number of Intuit Quicken versions.

For example, it can convert Quicken 98 files, but sometimes, they, like Microsoft Money files don't behave in exactly the way they should. The Microsoft Money conversion routines will occasionally choke on these (i've seen it much more with Quicken 98 versions than later releases from Intuit).

The time the development team can spend on conversion testing is limited, and it's a limited return on investment. It is therefore understandable that sometimes the best way to convert a Microsoft Money file is to use the workaround described above - after all, conversion from Quicken 98 will have been tested in Microsoft Money 2002 - it works, so their attitute may be, why spend much effort for Microsoft Money 2004 and later?

Finally, Microsoft Money tends to come out in the year earlier than Intuit Quicken does where the version (year) numbers are the same. Microsoft will not know the format of a Quicken version file until the product is released, and thus do not provide a converter until the next version of Money comes out. i.e, MS Money 2006 does not convert Quicken 2006 files, but MS Money 2007 should. Again, providing a converter midway through the year probably isn't seen as great economic sense.