Outlook Series | QEM Quicken Essentials for Mac Released

QEM Quicken Essentials for Mac Released

February 26, 2010

For those who manage their money on a Mac, Quicken Essentials for Mac now available from Intuit. Built from the ground up with the look and feel Mac users expect from their products, QEM, as it's known, provides a simple and easy way to handle the essentials of money management.

QEM launches a new era for Quicken on the Mac. It marks Intuit's first Mac-native application for Quicken, that is, a product developed specifically to run on a Mac operating system, instead of adapting a product originally designed for a PC. QEM's features serve a broad array of essential customer needs, focusing on quick set-up, ease-of-use, and Mac-like intuitiveness in design and workflow. The redesign reflects the influence of the Mint.com product team and its deep experience with Apple products.

"Quicken Essentials for Mac is the first Quicken product to take full advantage of the Mac operating system and development platform," said Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit's Personal Finance Group. "We're bringing a completely new Quicken experience to Mac users, helping them answer essential money questions - what do I spend, what do I earn, where do I stand on my budgets, what is my net worth, and where can I do better?"

Infusing Quicken with the intuitiveness of the Mac, QEM features:

Easier set up; faster to use: QEM offers the unique Mac look-and-feel, easy navigation, and all the keyboard shortcuts users expect on Mac. Setup only takes 10 minutes. Users simply search for their bank, and synch using their online credentials.
Broad banking support; no data entry: QEM currently imports data from 12,000 financial institutions, with support from 18,000 expected by year end. This is nearly quadruple the previous support of banks, credit unions, credit card companies, brokerage houses and lending institutions. All of that means less data entry.
Improved categorization; better understanding: QEM "learns" the most popular categories from users, improving categorization over time. This means users spend less time organizing transactions, and more time understanding where their money goes, and how to save and do more with their money.
Easy conversion: The converter feature easily transfers historical data from past Quicken for Mac (2005, 2006 and 2007), Quicken for Windows (2007, 2008 and 2009), and Microsoft Money.

"We plan to continue using these new design and usability elements and bring them into additional personal finance products," said Patzer. "The combination of Quicken products and the talent of the Mint.com product team brings the best of both worlds to customers."

Mac users can join the Quicken Inner Circle user community to provide product feedback that will be used to determine future features and development priorities.

Quicken Essentials for the Mac is $69.

Intuit continues to support Quicken Mac 2007 for those users who rely on features that have not been added to QEM, including:

Stock lot accounting and other high-level investment tracking: QEM will show basic investment information, including net worth and changes in value. Detailed reporting similar to past Quicken Products is expected to be included in future versions
Bill Pay: Because only 6 percent of Quicken users rely on this service, it wasn't added in the Essentials version of Quicken for Mac
Integration with TurboTax: The Essentials version is designed for day-to-day financial management, and may include more robust features, such as integration with tax products, in the future.