Sneak Preview: Quicken for Mac overhaul due out this fall

[AppleInsider]

Intuit in the far corner of its booth at this week's Macworld Expo is quietly previewing a major revamp of its personal finance software designed exclusively for users of Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system.

The new version, code-named Heathrow, has been redesigned from the ground up as a Universal application that makes extensive use of modern-day Mac OS X technologies like CoreData, an Intuit representative told AppleInsider.

Due out this fall, the software has yet to reach the beta stage, but its advancements are considered to be so vast that Intuit plans to completely re-brand Quicken for Mac as "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" at that time.

Most apparent is a completely new and streamlined user interface that conforms to Apple's modern-day interface standards. Upon first glance, it's possible the new version could be mistaken for one of the Mac maker's own apps with its iTunes-like sidebar and CoverFlow data views.

Much effort has been made on Intuit's part to reduce the clutter and confusion often associated with the existing versions of Quicken for Mac, which include countless menus, buttons and dialog boxes that often serve to complicate the learning process for more novice users, rather than aid them in their financial management.

Replacing all those toolbars, palettes and dialog boxes is a simple, single-window interface. A sidebar on the left is separated into categories such as Banking, Loans & Assets, Investments, Budgets, Calendar and Taxes. Associated data views display on the right side of the single-window interface. Intuit also promises some "Community" features that it will detail at a later date.

Quicken Financial Life for Mac will also reduce the emphasis on traditional data views in favor of simpler, more concise reporting formats that take advantage of the application's wide-spread use of "tags." For instance, a new Tag Cloud view displays a simple summary of a user's financial spending by displaying in a larger font size the names of financial categories in which the user spends the most money. Categories in which the user spends less money are presented in a smaller font size.

Another reporting view, called "How am I doing?," is crisp and clear, listing scheduled expenses in the next thirty days, a list of unidentified transactions, colorful pie charts, and written feedback on how well a user is managing their budget.

Quicken Financial Life for Mac will also feature semi-translucent pop-up dialogs akin to Apple's iMovie controls, and several other interface aspects that will be familiar to users of Mac OS X Leopard.

Intuit, however, has not yet decided on how much it plans to charge for the next-gen Quicken software.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[cubedcompanies]

WOW!!! Now I don't give a flip if MS Money is available on the Mac... this blows it away... I can't wait till this ships... too bad it's not till Fall but no worries... Mint.com will tie me over till then.

[Gandalf]

Let's hope Intuit finally makes the data files for Windows and Mac fully compatible and that the Mac version has all the features and functionality the Windows version has. This lack of commonality and the nightmare of transitioning my Windows Quicken data to a Mac version of the software is the only reason I haven't switched this yet.

[2stepbay]

It's about time Intuit gave the Mac some respect. Finally a Universal app surfaces from the makers of Quicken with some Mojo. Curious about $$$ and when delivery can be expected - $79/early 2009?

[zoboomafoo]

lol. thank you for the beta signup link in the pic

Reaction #1 = looks pretty good. in a good way.

Reaction #2 = are they throwing all kinds of new HCI stuff at us in hopes we'll like it (hello, tag cloud)?

Reaction #3 = will they get the banks to come back to them?

Overall, all signs point to this being a good direction, and perhaps worth the wait. But we won't know for sure of course.

[NOFEER]

THIS FALL?????
i'm soooo pissed at quicken that i asked for info about ibank 3 from i think igg software

their online product is sooooo weak and expensive and can't import old data and can't get backups (they say you can keep 5 years online)

tell me quicken why should i wait for YOU, we've been a bastard child of your for too long
whose with me!!!! i have refused to upgrade since 2003 i just download in qif and import.

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php

[BK0001]

Wow! I thought Intuit was just going to milk the aging cash cow until it died. Do a few things on the surface to convince customers to cough up $$ each year, but make no real investments of time or resources, etc...

Someone at Intuit appears to have persuaded the powers that be that Quicken could be successfully reinvented on the Mac. This is surprisingly sophisticated, and gives me hope!

[NOFEER]

i quess a growing mac market share, and the iphone convinced them

[kkerst]

Maybe it's just me but I'm getting a little tired of every single app looking like iTunes. I know, don't mess with a good thing, and it's good for consistency between apps - a problem Apple has had before in the past that I think they've long since fixed.

[success]

Honestly it looks sweet however there are already solid alternatives out there and there will be even more options by the time this thing rolls around. Going by their track record it won't be out until 2009 anyway so...

What would really blow me away is if Intuit release a POS application that worked with Quicken. I'd so be on that ship.

[faithfulFrank]

I wish they would make their "rental Property Manager" for Mac....it is currently windows only.

I've run into that a few times lately....really irks me, but not enough ever to go back to windows....

Frank D.

[cubedcompanies]

Originally Posted by NOFEER

THIS FALL?????
i'm soooo pissed at quicken that i asked for info about ibank 3 from i think igg software

their online product is sooooo weak and expensive and can't import old data and can't get backups (they say you can keep 5 years online)

tell me quicken why should i wait for YOU, we've been a bastard child of your for too long
whose with me!!!! i have refused to upgrade since 2003 i just download in qif and import.

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php

aesthetically, i think iBank has done a great job... i use to use their iWork/iBiz product so I'm familiar with their quality.

however, any app that can't connect to your bank and download your transaction history is useless for me... there's no way in heck i'm going to waste my time logging all those transactions by hand. I remember reading on IGG forums that they had no intention of building in support for it... and in an age where debit cards are used like cash, i think that's a big mistake if they want to see significant sales....if a web-app like Mint.com can offer such, iBank should.

[Cory Bauer]

This looks incredibly elegant, which is the last word I'd use to describe Intuit's past products. What a difference!

[CAM]

It's definitely a shame that it took so long, but I'm excited to see Intuit take a "from the ground up" approach. I'm sure the Mac's steadily increasing market share has a lot to do with this.

Hopefully Intuit will be inspired by the Mac development environment. If they really get into it we could actually go beyond feature parity with the Windows version.

The screen shots look quite clean, though I'm curious about the multiple windows. I'm hoping there is the option to see everything in a single window (like iTunes) rather than the mess of windows Quicken has now.

[jragosta]

Originally Posted by Gandalf

Let's hope Intuit finally makes the data files for Windows and Mac fully compatible and that the Mac version has all the features and functionality the Windows version has. This lack of commonality and the nightmare of transitioning my Windows Quicken data to a Mac version of the software is the only reason I haven't switched this yet.

I agree. It's been about 10 years since the Windows version got stock option calculations. We Mac users are still waiting.

[gdmoffitt]

it's about time..I've used windows version for many years and then wasted $$ when buying the mac version last year. It was awful..am skeptical that it will match the functionality of the windows version in budgeting and investment tracking, plus the download features. I'll watch the reviews for a while before buying, maybe it'll be a nice 2008 christmas present to meself!

[grpaul349]

It's about time... quicken for windows is the ONLY reason I have boot camp on my Mac.... the current version is a shame. I hope they come out with a decent product comparable to the windows version.

[NOFEER]

has anyone used mint?? or other online products?

[jon.pdx]

Personally, I used to try to support companies that had software on both platforms, because I thought that those companies did a better job than their peers. However, they've done such a poor job and yet they are still insistent on getting paid for a new version each year, I'm not sure I really care about Intuit/Quicken anymore.

[Dave K.]

I don't get people. Quicken for the Mac has been absolute crap for years. Why is anyone giving them the time of day...

[tundraboy]

That's well and good. But if there is no simple way to transfer my Quicken for Windows files then it's NO SALE. Seriously, Quicken for Mac is the crappiest POS software ever that came out of a major software company so I'm not holding my hopes too high.

[Frank777]

So is QuickBooks this far behind? Or should we expect a new version earlier?

[success]

Originally Posted by tundraboy

That's well and good. But if there is no simple way to transfer my Quicken for Windows files then it's NO SALE. Seriously, Quicken for Mac is the crappiest POS software ever that came out of a major software company so I'm not holding my hopes too high.

POS? It's not POS.

[cubedcompanies]

Originally Posted by NOFEER

has anyone used mint?? or other online products?

i use mint off and on to monitor it's progress... thankfully if there is a security breach, nobody can transfer money between or out of your accounts... it primarily helps you monitor and budget your financial spending, with minimal effort on your part. it's a free service and it looks like they make their money on 'spliffs' by notifying you of which banks/credit cards can offer you better rates... thus saving you money.

my primary gripe is the fact that they use too much javascript/AJAX on the forefront, rather than focusing on a solid feature set... they've addressed some of the major bugs now but at one point some of the bugs were pretty ridiculous, making me second guess their attention to security simply because the javascript was so buggy. however, their dev team is very responsive in the forums... and i love their SMS/email notifications. also, i've found that you can easily delete your accounts and have all your transaction data removed in the event you're not happy with the service... unlike, for example, facebook which retains your entire user-profile, even if you close your account down.

[nofear1az]

I can't say that Intuit has ever made Quicken strikenly interesting for a very long time. Each new version pushed out is the same old version just with more buttons and menus that people don't use... u know, kinda like Microsoft did with MSOffice until they innovated with MSOffice 2007 (PC).

It sure is nice to see them actually re-doing the interface and giving it a new face with more intuitive screens. I'm not sure how the whole me-too iTunes look is going to work but at least they are giving it a try from the ground up. I have to say, that since Intuit lost its innovation, there have been many smaller companies picking up the pace with their competing product. Maybe, this has also helped Intuit start rethinking Quicken for the Mac along with Apple's precedence overtaking people's attention away from the PC/Windows world.

[Silencio]

Originally Posted by success

POS? It's not POS.

Depends on your definition of POS.

QuickBooks POS is only available for Windows, naturally enough. However, if you want a great Mac-based POS solution then I suggest you check out Lightspeed from Xsilva Systems.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by success

POS? It's not POS.

Uh, POS = Piece of Shit and not Point of Sale.

[auribe14]

According to the first article from ars technica, "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" will not even feature-match Quicken Mac 2007. The investment side is apparently going to be severely lacking. No word what will happen to all the data you have in the 2007 version.

And it will never be equal to the concurrent Windows version.

[Mystic]

If history is a lesson, you can bet it will be FULL of Bugs,,,

[NOFEER]

i'm going to wait to upgrade to anything
i want to keep Q2003 and upgrade to leopard but it's not compatible

soooo how about this, make a clone of the HD with superduper THEN upgrade my macbook to leopard and run q2003 on my external HD clone, and backup my necessary files when i get timecapsule i could still open tiger in my HD backup and download my transactions to the HD version of q2003

do you think this would work, i could download to the HD and when something comes out i can upgrade both..does this make sense???

[knightlie]

I'm pretty desperate for this, iBank is just riddled with really dumb bugs. I used to love Quicken on Windows a few years ago.

[johnmcboston]

hmmm. Some interesting thoughts in the article and in the postings!

I tried quicken many moons ago. I just wanted a simple checkbook register and couldn't get it to work. Thus ended the free trial of quicken. I use XL sheets and am a happy camper. Kind of a sad reflections on the product I couldn't figure out how to do something simple and common. pert of it kind of felt like "We thought of a better way to do it, and we want to force you to learn our way". When the new version came out I wonder how easy it will be to do just what you want - or if it will be easier to understand their model of how to organize finances.

Some of the screen shots were a bit weird. Coverflow? I've yet to find any use for it, and now it's in a financial program showing me coverflows of spreadsheets? The tags are interesting, but will they be used. if Shoes is bigger than Food, you either make too much money or you're in trouble? The 'how am i doing' is also interesting. All I can think of are jokes about 'insolvency ahead' pop up windows. but - it's the 'not planning ahead' that gets people into trouble to begin with. Maybe this is what people need to avoid such troubles. If you can see the red flags months ahead of potential problems, then you can do something about it now...

[Macvault]

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

[tjboucher]

I'm trying not to get my hopes up that INtuit will pull this off. However the past 5 years of Quicken have been very disappointing to me.

hope they have a 30 day time bomb demo, because that'll be the only way I try it.

[Lancaster]

Originally Posted by Macvault

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin...er/sign_up.php

[olliedog]

Originally Posted by Macvault

What is the URL to the Quicken Beta signup page in the pic above?

https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/sign_up.php

[Jargon]

Why can't they just make it like Quicken for Windows?

Quicken for Windows is great

[SuperMacGuy]

I don't think Coverflow really has a place in banking software. How interesting could it be? Like you have 3-10 registers for checks, savings, or stocks... and all registers look the same. Lots of lines of entries. Coverflow is good for visual graphical data, not for numerical and tables that LOOK similar.
I hope there is an option for opening up more windows also. I find it useful to see multiple registers at once, or move transactions, or have my Reconcile window open and pop back into the main register to add or correct an entry. If this is forced to be a 1-window solution then I will be upset.

[Starhawk]

Originally Posted by NOFEER

just sitting back waiting for a good competitor to quicken then jump

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/index.php

Thank you for this link! I have been using Quicken 2007 for Mac and have been eagerly awaiting the new version. Based on the fact that it wont even be out until late fall, I checked out iBank and version 3 looks like it's going to be awesome.

They say they beta is coming soon and the full version will be released in February. I dont know how many people here use iBank, but just looking at the features (and quickly checking out ibank2) I have to say I was impressed.

[canuckguy]

I've been using Quicken since 1999. I've upgraded every other year. Quicken's online banking feature has been quite good and reliable over time. In June of last year something changed - for all users, regardless of version or platform - online quotes service for investors in Canadian equities and mutual funds ceased to function normally. In recent weeks problems are reportedly manifesting themselves for US quotes. Users experienced sporadic outage of service for mutual funds and quotes multiplied by 10 for equities. The Quicken support forums (Windows and Mac) have recorded hundreds of posts and thousands of views (hits) in the last eight months on this failure. Quicken has clearly been non-supportive of affected users. Of course there is the well-documented problem with Quickbooks Pro for Mac 2006 deleting the Desktop folder and its contents during an automatic update.

If Intuit/Quicken believes that "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" is the answer for regaining favor with Mac users - let's hope they got it right. What users expect is a comprehensive overview of their finances and predictable online functionality regardless of Leopard spots. Baby Boomers (for example) may be more interested in knowing what they're net worth is or how well their IRA/RRSPs are doing without getting out the ol' pencil and pad and adding numbers from this app and that app. Now Quicken has much at stake - many Mac users are feeling abandoned and Quicken has demonstrated a lack of interest in a fundamental failure to transact online which does not bode well for "Quicken Financial Life for Mac".