Quicken Essentials for Mac is now available from Intuit. Its release 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, says Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group. “

He says that QEM offers a Mac look-and-feel, easy navigation, and all the keyboard shortcuts users expect on Mac. Setup purportedly only takes 10 minutes. Users simply search for their bank, and synch using their online credentials.

QEM currently imports data from 12,000 financial institutions, with support from 18,000 expected by year’s end. This is nearly quadruple the previous support of banks, credit unions, credit card companies, brokerage houses and lending institutions.

QEM “learns” the most popular categories from users, improving categorization over time, according to Patzer. The converter feature transfers historical data from past Quicken for Mac (2005, 2006 and 2007), Quicken for Windows (2007, 2008 and 2009), and Microsoft Money.
 
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 and is available for purchase or download directly from Intuit at http://www.quicken.com and at retailers. Intuit continues to support Quicken Mac 2007 for those users who rely on features that haven’t been added to QEM.