Last week, Intuit announced a new version of Quicken specifically for the Mac.  They haven’t released a Mac version of Quicken in several years, so it was a welcome addition to the Mac Finance market.  That alone wouldn’t make the grade here on VizWorld, but after talking to the folks at Intuit they’ve revealed some of the new visualization and financial analysis tools they’ve integrated, and I felt that warranted sharing here.

Read on after the break for details, comments, and several screenshots of what you can find.

Recently, Intuit acquired popular online financial site Mint (of which I am a user) bringing several new tools and ideas to their disposal.  In addition to Mint’s far greater list of supported financial institutions that Quicken now supports as well, this new version of Quicken plays to Mint’s strengths and includes several of their popular organizational and budgeting tools.  In particular are three new visualizations that Mint users may recognize:

  • The Category Explorer is a tool which helps users navigate their spending and income data, as well as encouraging them to accurately categorize their transactions to get insight. Users can filter their data by clicking on slices of the pie chart to drill down and explore where they are spending their money.
  • A new Spending Cloud report displays all the categories and tags, where the font size is proportional to the amount of spend. This gives the user an at-a-glance view of where they are spending their money, and also allows them to easily click in to show a list of transactions that make up that tag or category.
  • The category-based budgets in Quicken Essentials for Mac provide a simple way for users to watch their spending in categories they select. Users set a goal for a particular category of spending (like “Dining”), and as the month progresses, the bar fills up as they spend in that category. Users can see at-a-glance how they are doing by comparing where the bar is with the line indicating the day of the month.

But that’s not all, all of the visualizations have new streamlined interfaces and animated effects to make it easier to “pull out” relevant categories and charges for further review.  From Intuit:

In general, we have tried to make reporting simpler and easier-to-use by reducing the number of options that users have to select, while still providing flexibility. For instance, we have a default category summary report that rolls up spending and income by category. This report can be customized for a specific timeframe and selected categories, which can produce a report on tax-deductible expenses like charitable donations.

We have also used animation and visual design to make the experience more appealing and easier to use. When you mouseover a pie chart slice, it will outline and highlight the corresponding row in the legend. In the register, when you double click on a transaction to edit, the other transactions will gray out to highlight the row you are editing.

Perhaps the biggest improvement of all is that this is a Native Mac Application, not a PC application run through an abstraction layer.  The application is responsive, quick, and familiar to mac users (Check the screenshots for the obvious iTunes/iPhoto/iAnything style they have adopted).

Quicken Essentials for Mac is available for $66 (From Amazon), and works on OSX 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

The Official Press Release:

Quicken Essentials for Mac: Bringing Easy Money Management to Mac Users

Native Mac Product is Easier to Set up and Use; Supports More Banks, and Simplifies Transfer of Data from Previous Editions

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Feb. 25, 2010 – For those who manage their money on a Mac, Quicken Essentials for Mac now available from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU).  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?”

Making Money Management Easier on a Mac

Infusing Quicken with the intuitiveness of the Mac, QEM makes financial management easier, featuring:

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.

Pricing and Availability

Quicken Essentials for the Mac is $69 and is available for purchase or download directly from Intuit at www.quicken.com and at retailers.

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.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit’s leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. The company’s financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2009. The company has approximately 7,800 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

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