Accounting and personal finance software expert Intuit had a great idea: Use its expertise to help families track medical expenses, payments, and insurance reimbursements. But while we applaud the attempt, this first version of Quicken Medical Expense Manager leaves us wanting more.

Medical Expense Manager is a slightly modified blank slate, a framework for entering the bills and statements you receive from suppliers of medical services and the companies that insure you. From this, you can see quick overviews of what you're spending and receiving, and track missing money.

Like every other Intuit product, Medical Expense Manager is exceedingly easy to use. Prefab, customizable fields let you record things like provider, service, and reason; insurance and co-pays; and additional payments. Other fields in the detail box can hold provider billing amount and write-off, insurance payment, mileage, FSA status, and notes. Reports show you any claims in dispute (dispute letter models are included), any claims pending, tax deductions, and other groupings.

That's all fine, but it's not enough—and it's not up to Intuit standards. There are many omissions, like the ability to track insurance premiums and deductibles more intuitively, partial payment and refund processing, and in-depth tools for medication management. Smaller changes (like customizable columns, keyboard shortcuts, better help, and more flexibility in field definition) would make the program more usable, too. Medical Expense Manager does not import or export even existing medical payments and deposits from Quicken or data to Excel.

That said, the shortcomings are not all Intuit's fault. We pulled out a stack of old medical bills and tried to enter them. We were quickly stymied by several things, including billing line item differences among providers and insurers, and unfamiliar breakdowns of insurance payments, discounts, adjustments, and so on. Still, we say wait until the next version. And to that end, Intuit has announced that the next build will be free to users of version 1.0, so you've got nothing to lose if you need to get started now.