Hi,
I am currently using iGuidance v4 with the Pharos GPS500 on my laptop. I am getting a netbook and thinking about putting Garmin20X on it to use for locating worksites and keeping track of mileage and if possible other expenses. I would like to download travel info from the netbook to Quicken located on my desktop.
Anything out there that will do this? Is there a better product that is simple to learn and use?
I have tried ordering from Amazon dot com but keep getting a message that says they can't ship to my Calgary address.
Recommendations about where to buy?

If you are in Calgary, check out GPSCentral.ca and GPSCity.ca. Both are located in your city and their prices are very competitive. Amazon is a waste of time in Canada.

Terry

I'm not 100% sure about it, but I think it may be a policy of Amazon.com not to ship software outside the U.S. You may order other stuff from their .com store, but not software. You would need to order from Amazon.ca, but their .ca store has a very limited selection, and you may not be able to find Garmin Mobile PC there at all.

As Terry says, if you live in Calgary, you are lucky to have some very decent stores where you can just buy it locally.

GPScentral apparantly has Garmin so I'll wander over there. When I was checking for venders at Google I assumed this was the same as the other GPS City.

Thanks for the info.
I did some further checking at Amazon and I suspect that I could order Garmin through them. There was one other item I was interested in that would not ship and so that held the order. When I deleted the other item it looks like Garmin will ship but if I can pick it up for a similar price here in Calgary and save the shipping and possible duty, thats what I will do. The GPS city site suggests they do not have Garmin in stock.

Thanks again..if anyone has info about downloading info from the GPS program to Quicken, I'd sure like that info. I suspect I'll need another program to do it.

I use Garmin products and Quicken. However, I can't think of any information in Garmin I would want in Quicken. What is it you want to transfer?

Terry

I would also like to mention that I have been pretty happy with iGuidance and was considering buying the newer version but in view of comments here in the iguidance thread, and some e-mail conversations I had with one of their CS reps, I decided to let them go their way without my business. I have had some informative e-mail conversations with Garmin which were quite positive.

Hi Terry,
It would be handy if I could transfer info like milegage directly from Garmin to Quicken rather than manually copy. I'm lazy.

Ed

The problem with iGuidance in Canada is nobody sells it. You can buy Mobile PC almost anywhere but if you're lucky you might find version 4 of iGuidance.

Terry

I can't quite get my head around what you are trying to do that doesn't involve copy and paste. Maybe Ken in Regina (also a Garmin and Quicken user) can help.

Terry

Hi Terry,
Like I said - "Lazy". When I pull into the garage it would be handy to just go on to my home network on my netbook(to come) and transfer mileage info to my Desktop where the quicken is for pay and tax purposes. This would save me from unhooking and carrying the netbook into the house with the rest of the stuff I have, setting it up next to the desktop and manually typing in the stuff I want to put in Quicken. Then later when my boss calls with times and locations it would be handy to be able to transfer info to the netbook.
There are other considerations as well, not the least of would be to have a set up that the other guys might admire. The main thing is something to play with that I can claim as an expense.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Are you using Quicken Home & Business or Quickbooks?

You might want to download the 60-day free trial of Microsoft Mappoint if the ability to extract navigation data and use it in something else is of any significance to you. It has a strong linkage in both directions with Excel. If you can get the data you want into Excel you might be able to get it from there into Quicken.

I just don't know, beyond what you'll see in the trip computer or the direction list of a route, what data you would be able to use in Quicken that isn't just a bunch faster to simply type in manually.

If you have to manually type addresses and appointment times into something when your boss calls, just type them into the notebook when he calls.

If you use Outlook for appointments and contacts, Mobile PC will connect with it to use the addresses. So you could put the appointments and addresses into Outlook, use Outlook for the scheduling and when you need to get directions to one of the addresses you can just point Mobile PC at the contacts in Outlook. This means you would need Outlook on the netbook, of course.

It's impossible to provide anything more useful than that without some specifics about the sorts of things you need to track in Quicken. If I knew what you want to put into Quicken I might be able to make better suggestions about how to get it out of a nav program, and which nav program might be the easiest to get it out of.

...ken...

Hi Ken,
Thanks for your reply. I am going to get the netbook and I'll work with it and see what I can do with it. Your suggestions will help. I have part time contract work and have to bill my boss for hours worked. I also have to keep track of my expenses and mileage and gas. I have been using my laptop and updating info on breaks. The laptop is a good one and bulky. I am concerned it will get damaged so I want something else that is smaller and less expensive that I can attach with velcro so it does not move around.
Part of my problem is that I retired two years ago from my job that required extensive detailed notetaking and learned to hate notebooks and pens.
My wife describes me as a cranky stubborn old man, very appropriate!!

Thanks
Ed

I'm also a cranky stubborn old man. And lazy. If it was me I would use my car odometer for mileage. That way I don't have to screw around with a computer and GPS.

Being lazy and cheap I would head for the nearset Staples and pick up a small notebook specifically designed to make it as simple as falling off a log to keep track of time and mileage.

If I was really opposed to pen and paper, which never has to be recharged, I would use a PDA for this sort of thing.

Using a computer for tracking time and mileage is a real pain, compared to alternatives like paper or PDA which make it almost trivially easy.

The startup time alone is a killer. Then you need to wait for some application to launch. If you're going to try to include your nav software in the mix somehow, you need to wait for the GPS to get a location fix.

And you still need to figure out some way to identify when the business portion of a trip started and when it ended.

If you really want to be totally automated find a suitable application for PDAs and get a PDA. You can get applications that are designed specifically for such tracking, for consultants, lawyers, real estate folks and other people who need to track their expenses, including time, mileage, meals, accomodations, whatever. The good ones are designed to sync with something on the computer.

If Quicken is your central tracking tool, I suggest you look at Pocket Quicken. You can get it for Palm OS and Pocket PC.

Here's a review.

Pocket Quicken Review - Pocket Quicken Personal Finance Software for Palm, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile

Or you can just run Quicken on your netbook. Make entries from your watch and odometer as appropriate. Anything you are doing now on your laptop you can do on a netbook. My netbook actually has the same speed processor, the same RAM and same hard drive space as my laptop.

...ken...

I recommend Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2010 (NOT earlier versions) for your needs.

The feature that I think would help you most is its capabability to rename route stops. When you have data that you want to record associated with any particular stop, you can easily rename the stop with whatever content you want.

For instance, you can write the address, time spent on the job, billing details, and additional expenses as you go through your day. It seems that S&T will accept quite long entries. That will produce driving directions with all of this data for your stops.

When you get back to your home garage you can copy the directions to an Excel spreadsheet on your netbook. Then, you can copy that file onto your home network and massage the information on your PC if you like and, I suppose, import that into Quicken.

Have you considered using a digital recorder such as VN-6200PC to make verbal notations as you go along and then play it back when you get home to fill in your reports?

I think here lies the flaw in your plan. If you want to export data to anything but a GPX file you need Mappoint. You sure can't export anything from Streets, not even 2010 (except GPX).

Everything he enters in Streets is going to stay in Streets.

...ken...

I didn't mean anything as fancy as doing a GPX export; I meant a plain old fashioned copy of the directions by going to the Driving Directions, right-clicking, and selecting Copy Directions. That is then pasted into an empty Excel spreadsheet.

I didn't mean a GPX export either (wouldn't do anything useful). I assumed from the way you worded it that you thought he could export it to Excel. Sorry for misunderstanding.

I just think doing anything through the nav program is a waste of time because it adds extra steps in almost every possible solution I can think of and adds nothing of value that I can see. If he's going to type stuff in anyway, why not just type it directly into the final tool where he needs it. Or at least into something that will allow a totally automated transfer into the final tool.

It's just way easier to get the times from a watch and the mileage from the odometer. They have to be itemized anyway, so that has to be typed into something. Adding a time or a mileage from watch or odometer is trivial at that time. Expenses have to be entered and itemized manually .. no way to automate the collection of that information.

Just the thoughts of a lazy person ... someone who has tried about everything over the years for that sort of thing, both for myself and in consulting for others to do similar. It always comes back to the fact that the simplest methods for collecting that information are invariably the manual methods.

...ken...

No problem, Ken.

I think we've been responsive in throwing out some ideas and I hope it has been helpful. At the end of the day, we all develop our own personal styles of using this software to solve our problems and there is no right or wrong.

There certainly is good info here. It's what I was hoping for. Thanks!!

To Clarify..I have a condition called Tremors that makes using PDA's difficult. Dexterity is a problem for me. PDA's are excellent tools, both my son's have them and swear by them. My dexterity problem also makes handwriting legibly difficult.
I also have fairly good vision, but not like it was 30 yrs ago. I have bifocals etc etc and a PDA or GPS unit mounted on the dash is visible but not the details unless I move my head up and down. I can clearly read the screen of an 11 inch netbook from anywhere in my vehicle with just a quick glance.
The condition I have is stable and I consider myself fortunate to be in pretty good health otherwise.

At this time it's my intention to purchase a netbook and install Garmin Mobile PC 20x on it. I will wait for a bit to see if prices come down a bit on netbooks and also see if windows 7 works as well as expected on netbooks. I want a good quality netbook with good graphics.

I have downloaded the trial version Streets and Trips 2010 and played with it. I like it but I have not been able to locate a local dealer who sells it. Thanks to info from a contributor here I was able to locate the Garmin Mobile dealer locally. I have iguidance v4 installed on my laptop now and it works well but personal experience with iguidance CS, comments and other reviews suggest I should use a different product. I don't think I'm particularly demanding but Iguidance seems reluctant and Garmin folks sure respond quickly and clearly. I sent some requests to Streets and trips last week and still have not heard back.

So sometime in the next month I will probably make my purchases. I will update here about any progress I make with transferring files and info on my home network.

edh, I agree, I too think it is wise to wait now a little bit. Windows 7 will be released very soon, and it will be followed with netbooks sold with the new operating system installed. Holiday shopping season is just around the corner, too. Good deals come to those who wait patiently.

Hi edh,

Thanks for the background. It helps.

I'm a long-time Quicken user - started using it in the DOS days back in the '80s and currently using 2009 Home&Business - so I'm still curious about what sort of thing you put into Quicken for your consulting purposes.

I understand expenses and mileage and time from a generic perspective. I'm just not sure exactly how you track it in Quicken. If you could give me an idea of how you track your expense items in Quicken I might be able to give you some better tips about how to capture some of that information from other programs.

...ken...

Ken, I use Microsoft Money to track my consulting Receivables which can include expenses as well as hourly charges. I assume that I could do the same in Quicken and, I guess, next year I will find out for sure when MSFT kills Money if I can or not.

I set up an asset account in my master file entitled "Consulting Receivables." I simply make an entry that shows an increase when I have a new billing for the client with the name of the client in the "Payee" field (yes I know it is a payor but I don't see how to change that). I designate it as Consulting Fees in the Category field. I can link to an external file, such as a pdf copy of a submitted bill or a spreadsheet with more detail. There is a memo field where I can make other notations.

Then when payment is received, I show the payment amount as a Decrease with an offsetting amount in my bank account where the payment is deposited. This is a single entry if I show the category as a transfer to that particular account.

I can sort the register by Payee to see where I stand against each client or by date to see how I stand overall.

I hope this isn't too Microsoft-Money-specific.

Hi Ken,
Right now my thinking is that I will just do a draft in Gmail on the netbook that I can send when I hit the garage. As long as I remember to open gmail and go online when I get home, gmail will automatically take the draft and hold it available until I open it on any computer I want, whether it's on my network or not.
All I'm doing right now is handwriting my hours, mileage and gas expenses and then copying into Quicken whenever I work. My handwritten stuff is not received with great glee by my acct, although she says I must keep it.
This work is with a bunch of retired co-workers and is just casual. I can work as much as I want and I invoice by e-mail at the end of the month. Quicken works well for this.
The casual stuff is fun so I enjoy it. It's not very financially rewarding but has the great benefit of no stress and a bit of exercise.

SpadesFlush,

You would do it exactly the same way in Quicken, including the links to external documents. Any time either Microsoft or Intuit comes up with the occasional good idea (rather than just fluff for the user interface) they copy each other in the next release. So you'll be in great shape if you ever have to move.

I looked at moving the other way a few years ago when Intuit annoyed me with their "sunset" policy on older versions. Older, sunsetted versions still run but Intuit's servers refuse to make the connection to your financial institutions for you. When the version I was using went sunset and wouldn't connect to my bank and credit card company any more I looked really hard at alternatives.

Money was at the top of the list ... briefly. First I downloaded a trial version and imported my Quicken stuff. That went reasonably well so I checked to see what their policy was on supporting older versions, particularly for online connections to your financial institutions.

When I discovered that their policies are even more barbaric than Intuit I dropped them from the list.

The other program that made the shortlist was Moneydance. It was quite good but it still had a couple of glitches that affected me. (If I was looking for an alternative again, I would give them another close look because the program has evolved greatly since those days.)

In the mean time Intuit Canada came through with a free two-year extension to the version I had at the time (I won't bore you with the details of that dialogue.... ) so they won me back.

edh,

You could take a look at what SpadesFlush is doing. You can do exactly the same thing in Quicken. That would make your accountant happy. I can't think of any convenient way to get information out of your nav software, but if you load Quicken on your netbook you can just do the "receivables" entries that SpadesFlush described directly into Quicken on the netbook. That would save typing them twice (once into Gmail and again into Quicken).

...ken...

Thanks, Ken.

Yes, it was Intuit's approach to sunsetting that drove me from Quicken into the arms of MSFT. Once I got there, I liked Money better than Quicken. It did not have the bugs that drove me wild about Quicken athough it has a few minor ones of its own, but tolereable. What really irriated me about Intuit was their slyness in their approach to sunsetting. Made me feel like I was having my pocket picked in the subway. MSFT was, at least, a little more up-front about it. And, I agree, MSFT's sunsetting policy was worse but I could buy Money cheaper than Quicken so it evened out.

But, within the next year, I will have to go back into the market for financial management software because MSFT will cease to provide download services (vital) for Money. I appreciate your suggestion about the other app and I will look at it in a year or so. Or maybe by then, someone will have a decent app "in the cloud" that I can go to. My problem is that I torture Money into doing things for me that are, I am sure, non-standard and certainly not mainstream uses that a vendor is likely to cater to. The consulting fees thing I describe would be an example.

Seeing what MSFT is doing with Money and and did with Autoroute and Encarta, however, gives me feelings of vulnerability with respect to Streets and Trips.

Up to date..
Well I was in Costco yesterday, Oct 23,09, and saw the Acer netbook on for 30 off so I yielded. Costco has the 90 day return no questions asked so I'll keep an eye on what is available in the next 3 months in case a really good deal shows up. I discussed this with the Costco computer guy in Calgary and he said yup, thats what their return policy is, bring it back if something better shows up. I also picked up the Acer external drive, mouse and case. Then over to GPSCity and got the Garmin Mobile 20X.
Last night I installed the Garmin 20X and the installation went smooth. I had to take the netbook with the garmin program running and GPS receiver attached to expose the receiver to the sky unimpeded. Once it made contact I guess it was happy because when I came back inside the house it maintained contact and the program was ready for use.
I think the Garmin 20X requires the Garmin GPS receiver for initial setup. I have not tried my Pharos receiver with it yet.
I also found a very light freeware accounting program that appears to be perfect for my needs so I'll try it for awhile. I have the Quicken Home and Business and this freeware has the same invoice app for free. It also has a lot of other stuff that I have not looked at closely yet but the example used in this freeware learning program is identical.

I'm going to guess that what you actually bought was the Garmin Mobile PC navigation program bundled with the GPS20x USB GPS receiver?

If my guess above is correct, that version of Mobile PC requires that specific GPS receiver to work at all. Period. (That's not a criticism of Garmin. It's just a simple fact of how that program works, so you'll know.)

Please don't be disappointed when it doesn't work. That's what the software-only version of Mobile PC is for: to use with non-Garmin GPS receivers.

I hope that freeware accounting program works well for you.

...ken...

Hi Ken,
Yes, Garmin Mobile PC 20X. I guess there's no sense trying the Pharos receiver then.
The freeware is Quickbooks Simple Start.

Ed

With Quickbooks Simple Start you might also be able to share data back and forth with Quicken if it turns out to be useful.

...ken...

There isn't much documentation other than how to use the GPS, like set destinations etc. But I looked around the Garmin site at FAQ's and it appears I can put the software on all my computers. The catch is that I will need the GPS receiver like Ken said.
My Pharo's receiver does not work with my Garmin setup now. It would be nice to have a backup GPS receiver.

Here's the Garmin Mobile XT Users Manual. Mobile XT is not identical to Mobile PC but it's very close. I found it helpful.

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GarminMobile20_GarminMobileXTOwnersManual.pdf

...ken...

Hi all, I'm very fortunate to have found your website. I've been reading about Google rocking up the GPS scene with their free downloadable software for Android phones. I've bought an MSI U100 net book with N280 Atom processor about eight weeks ago, so I thought with a GPS radio added via a USB and maps for my area - I should be able to have turn by turn & spoken street names. I'm an old guy and a pretty indifferent sort of driver - I sort of thought - I could then be a little more adventurous.

I've cheked out an article in the New York Times - that recommended Garmin for hardware & software - their website is pretty cluggy and opaque. I then thought it would be a good idea to hunt out - those that have already trod upon this road - hey presto - you guys were there - via kind courtesy of googling.

I"ll be grateful for any advice both for the hardware and software - I'm in Victoria, Australia. Thanks for your patience.