New Quicken 2006 includes Smart Payee, .Mac backup features
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 1, 2005 at 11:43am
Intuit has released Quicken 2006, which includes such new features as a Smart Payee feature, scheduled transactions and .Mac backup.
“We’re not resting on our laurels with Quicken,” Aruna Harder, product manager for Quicken, told Macsimum News. “We keep in touch with our customers to determine their needs. And we know our Mac customers want a version that’s specifically for Macs, not just a port of a Windows version.”
With Quicken 2006 you can customize the names of downloaded payees with the Smart Payee feature. Downloading transactions is supposed to save you time and eliminate the need for manual data entry, but downloaded transactions often contain extraneous characters that customers don’t want displayed in their registers, Harder says. Turning the convoluted description into a meaningful name is a tedious, time-consuming chore that defeats the purpose of downloading transactions—until now, she adds.
“By using the new Smart Payee feature, customers can now rename the payee in any downloaded transaction with a name or nickname that makes sense to them,” Harder explains. “The new name will be automatically applied to future downloads from the same payee. And, for Mac users only, past transactions will also be renamed in the register. Now payee names appear the way users want them, not the way financial institutions transmit them. There’s no learning curve with the Smart Payee feature. In fact, Quicken learns from you as you work.”
Quicken automatically creates a rule for renaming the downloaded payee to the Smart Payee name. Customers can also create more powerful rules for renaming downloaded payee names if they wish.
Another Mac only feature is the ability to back up your Quicken 2006 data to .Mac (shown in screenshot), Apple’s US$99-per-year subscription service of Internet services. Harder says that approximately one in three of Intuit’s customers use the service, so it made sense to add the ability to back up to the iDisk storage feature of .Mac.
“iCal and iPhoto integration were introduced in Quicken over the last two years,” she says. “Now with .Mac support, all your important files are protected in the event of floods, viruses, theft and other causes of data loss. Backup is a breeze since your .Mac account is accessible from within Quicken. And restoring your valuable data is quick and simple. By uniquely leveraging the Mac OS, this feature provides customers with a convenient way to back up their data files to a secure offsite location.”
Quicken 2006 also adds more choices in scheduled transaction frequencies. Users have shown Intuit that effectively scheduling transactions is the key to managing bill payment and cash flow, Harder says. The improvements made to the Scheduled Transactions feature make it easier for consumers to more accurately schedule their upcoming bills and deposits so they can forecast their cash balances, pay their bills at appropriate time and avoid bounced checks or late fees, she adds.
This feature is designed to provide greater flexibility and an easier-to-use structure than the limited set of scheduling choices available in older versions of Quicken. Examples of new options include: mMonthly: the [Third] [Monday] of every [1] month(s); twice a month: On the [15th] and last day of the month; twice a year: allow user to enter specific dates for payments; and customer can also select estimated tax payment dates as an explicit option.
Quicken 2006 also makes it easier for couples to view their complete financial picture together. It isn’t uncommon for users, especially couples, to have separate accounts at a financial institution. In the past, these accounts with different IDs couldn’t be downloaded into Quicken together.
“Customers requested a change to this process and we listened,” Harder says. “Quicken for Mac 2006 users can now view and analyze their complete financial picture with the ability to download multiple accounts from the same financial institution.”
Users with multiple accounts at one financial institution will now be able to use these online features for all of their accounts: download transactions; PIN Vault; one step update; scheduled update; online payment; online transfer; email; and outbox. What’s more, more than 50 customer suggestions have been incorporated into Quicken 2006, Harder says.
Accounts Registers now include a line separator to indicate future dated transactions. An expanded check number field now displays up to eight digit numeric check numbers. Customers can create customized entries for the transaction type field. They can add, edit and delete new choices in this pop-up field to supplement the existing list (e.g. ATM, deposit, withdrawal.) A new print format will be presented to customers in addition to the current Voucher, Standard and Wallet style. This brings check printing in line with new bank standards. Selecting this option will print checks in the new Check 21 ANSI format. Quicken for Mac 2006 will include a Pocket Quicken trial on CD which will feature instant access to account balances, transactions, credit limits and budgets available anywhere via PDAs.
Quicken 2006 costs US$69.95, and Intuit is offering a US$20 rebate for all users through Nov. 30. System requirements are: a Power Mac; Mac OS X (10.2.8 or higher); 128MB of RAM; 40MB of hard disk space (100MB to install); and a CD-ROM drive: double speed (4X or higher is recommended for multimedia); and an Internet connection *56 Kbps or faster modem required to access online features).
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
