Intuit Inc. has introduced QuickBooks for Mac 2006, a new version of their small business accounting and financial management software application for Mac OS X. QuickBooks 2006 costs US$199.95.
With QuickBooks, Mac users can create estimates, invoices and purchase orders, pay bills, track inventory, track employee time and job costs — the software also works with payroll software.
“With this release, we’ve focused efforts on saving customers time,” QuickBooks senior product manager Peggy Chang told MacCentral .
New to this release are enhancements for Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger,” including support for Tiger’s Sync Services. You can automatically synchronize business contacts between QuickBooks, Address Book and iSync 2.1-compatible handheld devices like cell phones and PDAs. Contact info will automatically update in multiple places, so you don’t have to duplicate updates to contacts as content changes.
“More than half of our customers who store contact information in QuickBooks have had to re-enter that information in other programs,” Chang said.
Intuit has long offered Aatrix Top Pay, for QuickBooks users who also want to manage their payroll through their accounting software. This year Intuit has added QuickBooks Payroll for Mac, powered by PayCycle Inc. QuickBooks Payroll is an integrated online service that lets you cut paychecks, process tax forms and W2s and more. You can print paychecks, perform direct deposits and make electronic tax payments and filings.
You can now import bank and credit card statements for participating financial institutions. “It’s supported by any financial institution that supports WebConnect,” said Chang, who reports that more than 1,000 institutions do.
Mac users can share data with Windows users, so small business owners can exchange information with a PC-using accountant, for example.
Available for order now, Intuit will deliver QuickBooks for Mac 2006 in late November. It should be on retail store shelves in December, bundled for the first time wtih a tutorial CD produced by Real World Training.
Previously, QuickBooks was priced at US$299, and existing users could upgrade for $100 less after a mail-in rebate. With this release Intuit has lowered the price to $199.95 and done away with the rebate all together, lowering the bar for new users and simplifying the upgrade for existing users.
System requirements call for a G3 or faster, Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, 128MB RAM, 100MB hard disk space, 1024 x 768 display.