Quicken Essentials for Mac Personal Finance Software

by Intuit

Product Features

• Quicken Essentials for Mac makes understanding your money a snap
• Updated interface designed by--and for--Mac users
• View your accounts all in one place
• Shows your current balance, including upcoming bills and paychecks
• Automatically categorizes transactions so you can see where your money's going

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00317VMX8
• Item model number: 409954
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 1, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (252 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #111 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

  #36 in	Software > The Mac Software Store
  #34 in	Software > Business & Office
  #5 in	Software > Personal Finance > Money Management

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Quicken Essentials for Mac lets you view your accounts all in one place. It shows your current balance, including upcoming bills and paychecks, automatically categorizes transactions so you can see where your money's going, and helps you avoid those pesky late fees.

Redesigned with you in mind. Click to enlarge.

View a snapshot of your most important info. Click to enlarge.

See all your accounts in one place.Click to enlarge.

See where your money's going. Click to enlarge.

Personal finances made easy. Built Mac smart.

Improved--Redesigned with you in mind
Quicken Essentials for Mac personal finance software makes understanding your money a snap. Our interface has been completely reimagined, resulting in an intuitive, elegant application designed by - and for - Mac users.

View a snapshot of your most important info
Our easy to understand Overview gives you a snapshot of all money coming in and going out, including upcoming bills and paychecks. You can also customize budgets and goals for yourself, to help you save even more.

See all your accounts in one place
View your entire financial picture in one place with Quicken Essentials for Mac. See exactly where you stand with all your accounts, such as your bank, credit cards, loans, and more!

See where your money's going
Quicken Essentials for Mac automatically categorizes your transactions to show you exactly what you've been spending money on.

New--Avoid late fees and overdrafts
Keep track of upcoming bills, paychecks, and your current balance so you can avoid those pesky late fees.

Transferring your data is easier than ever
Quicken Essentials for Mac easily and seamlessly converts your data from all supported Quicken Mac and Windows versions - in three easy steps!

Improved--Connect to more banks than ever
Quicken Essentials for Mac now downloads transactions from over 12,000 financial institutions, making it faster and easier than ever to see your whole financial picture.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee
If you're not 100% satisfied, return Quicken Essentials for Mac personal finance software with your dated receipt within 60 days of purchase for a refund of the purchase price (Return shipping and handling charges not included).

Quicken data files that can be converted from Windows to Mac
The following components of your Quicken for Windows data file can be converted to Quicken for Mac:

• Account types that exist in both Quicken for Windows and Quicken for Mac.
• Banking transactions.
• Most investment transactions. For information, see Converting investment data.
• Categories, classes, and securities contained within the exported transactions.

Using a Prior Version of Quicken Mac?

We're very excited about the all-new Quicken Essentials for Mac. Not only does it solve the core Quicken jobs better, it also provides the ease of use and elegant user interface Mac customers have come to expect from their applications.

Quicken Mac 2007 and earlier users should note that this is a brand new product, so some of the features you've grown used to may not be included. Because we want to make sure we're providing you with the solution that best meets your needs, we've answered a few questions that can help you determine whether or not Quicken Essentials for Mac is right for you.

1. Can I track my investments?
Yes, Quicken Essentials for Mac allows you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of your specific holdings. It will not, however, track investment buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports. If you need more more advanced investment features, try Quicken Mac 2007.

2. Can I export my data to TurboTax?
Quicken Essentials for Mac does not support that capability. If you'd like that functionality, we recommend trying Quicken Mac 2007.

3. Can I pay my bills within Quicken?
While you cannot pay bills within the product itself ("direct bill pay"), you can track your bills and make sure you have enough cash to pay them when they're due. A few alternatives available include using Quicken Mac 2007 or using the bill pay functionality on Quicken Bill Pay.

4. Can I transfer my data from an older version of Quicken Mac?
Yes, you can transfer data from Quicken Mac 2005, 2006 and 2007.

5. Can I convert my Quicken Windows data to Quicken Essentials for Mac?
Yes, it converts Quicken Windows 2007, 2008 and 2009 data.

Product Description

Easy guided set up gets you up and running in minutes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

403 of 413 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't even waste your time, February 24, 2010

By	Ralph Brent Stanley "Brent Stanley" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Quicken Essentials for Mac Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)

I bought this software Feb 18, almost as soon as it hit the stores. Believe me, it was the biggest disappointment ever. As a Quicken user of 12 years, this software is not recognizable. It's nothing but a budget tracker, with none of the advanced features of Quicken for Windows. Actually, this software is like Quicken for Windows, minus 90% of the functionality. Quicken Essentials is really just that, the bare bones basics. You cannot even set up your paycheck, cannot use online billpay, cannot use with TurboTax, and you cannot even download or manually enter individual stock transactions. And most shocking of all, you can't even back up your data!!!! Am I angry? You bet I am. Instead of Quicken Essentials, it should be called Quicken Kindergarten. The following is quoted directly from their setup guide. I wish they put this stuff on the box.

"As much as we improved the experience of using Quicken when we rebuilt it from the ground up, there are some features you may have been used to using in Quicken for Mac (or Quicken for Windows) that we didn't include in this version of Quicken Essentials.

Investments
Quicken Essentials lets you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of specific holdings, but the software does not track individual buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports.

Exporting to TurboTax
Quicken Essentials does not currently support the ability to export your data to TurboTax.

Direct bill pay
You can track your bills in Quicken Essentials, but the program doesn't have the direct bill pay capabilities that allow you to pay your bills directly from the program.

Other advanced features
Quicken Essentials does not include many of the advanced features in other versions of Quicken, including Business features, Rental Property, lifetime planner, cash flow forecast, spending plan, debt reduction plan, emergency tax records, tax planner, and home inventory manager."

If Quicken for Windows is worth a retail price of $60 to $70, then this new version of Quicken for the Mac is worth at most 5 bucks. Seriously, it does nothing more than downloads transactions and helps you track your spending or maintain a budget. I feel like a total fool for purchasing this product and will be returning it to Intuit. And to think I waited almost 3 years for this product. I was really expecting to be impressed. After Intuit's horrible experience with TurboTax last year, I really can't believe they have the temerity to unleash this worthless product on the market. I expect people at Intuit to get fired over this disaster, and deservedly so. This product looks like it was designed by an 8th grader in order to help a 3rd grader do his arithmetic. And did I mention the graphics? Oh, so elementary. That little pink pig next to my savings account makes me want to scream !!!!!!

223 of 231 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Optimistic, understanding, and horridly disappointed, February 23, 2010

By	Jonathan Bowers "JB" (Sherman Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quicken Essentials for Mac Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)

I've been a quicken user for 8 years now, almost always on a mac. In my opinion Quicken was by far the best option for personal money management. In fact it would take a lot to make a loyal user of their products ever consider switching. This program, Quicken Essentials for Mac has made it blatantly obvious that I need to look elsewhere from this point forward for my financial software needs.

I won't nit pick at the software for the specific features that are missing(many of what I'd consider to be basic requirements for even calling it Personal Finance software) but instead I'll simply say that this software provides so little, and is so far off the mark from doing half of what prior versions of Quicken did that I'm not really sure what the purpose of having it is. The user interface upgrades are so lackluster in comparison to the degradation of usefulness that you don't even notice them.

to those consumers considering the purchase I'd like to point you to either Quicken 2007(if you need check writing, better online transaction downloading, bill pay, investment account updating and tracking) or [...] if you like the budgetary and overview side of things(Mint was purchased by quicken and the Mint team ultimately developed Quicken Essentials). Unfortunately if you buy this you'll be getting very disabled versions of both Quicken & Mint and will be left frustrated, constrained & forced to acknowledge the waste of money.

178 of 185 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worthless--non essential for the Mac. Cannot print checks any longer!, February 23, 2010

By	jsschi - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Quicken Essentials for Mac Personal Finance Software (CD-ROM)

If there was a way to give this product 0-stars that would be my rating. Good thing that they have a 60-day money back policy as I am sending this back today.

I did see, before I bought this, that you can no longer track investment accounts (other than a balance) and I was fine with that as well as some of the additional items listed that were no longer included. However, they should put in big bold letters on the box and on Amazon's product listing that, "This program no longer allows users to print checks." What were they thinking? I, like many, do not write a lot of checks but for 5 or 10 each month that I do write--I used Quicken and printed the check in the program (using the overpriced Intuit checks--which I just happened to re-order 3 months ago) .

There are so many more things missing from this program that were in older versions (and are not spelled out in detail) it would be silly to list them. However, needless to say, if you made use of even one of these features then you will be asking for trouble in getting this program. For example, you can no longer keep track of loans or mortgages and show the actual principal and interest due. All you can do is show a "liability" account and the balance remaining.

What a complete and absolute waste this program is. It is little more than a conduit to download your various bank and credit card accounts in one place without going to the various account websites.