Intuit unveiled QuickBooks 2012 for the Mac on Wednesday with plans to ship the business accounting app later this month. Instead of working to bring the Mac version’s features in line with the Windows version, Intuit instead decided to focus on what it sees as core needs of its users.
QuickBooks 2012 targets user needs, not Windows feature parity
“Most of our [Mac] users are service businesses and small businesses,” QuickBooks for Mac group product manager Pranay Kapadia told The Mac Observer. “So we’re giving them the features they’ve been telling us they want.”
The new version of QuickBooks includes a new setup assistant and a setup service for new users where a real person walks them through setting up accounts.
The Interface has beed redesigned, too, for easier and quicker access to common tasks. The new version also includes a new Customer Info panel that shows important details at a glance such as outstanding bills, recent payments and recent orders.
Intuit redesigned the Invoicing system so users can finally preview invoices in-app, and added progressive invoicing that tracks partial payments and handles incremental billing.
A new app-wide search system that includes filters and support for saving customer searches.
QuickBooks 2012 shows customer activity in a single view
Intuit also worked to improve efficiency by adding contextual menu support, one-button saving, trackpad gesture support for navigation, and by cutting down on the number of mouse clicks needed to perform common tasks.
The 2012 version improved electronic bank record support by adding the ability to rename imported bank activity entries, and adding support for auto-linking specific entries to clients or other accounts by name.
According to Mr. Kapadia, QuickBooks 2012 includes over 50 new features and enhancements, many of which aren’t available in the Windows version of the application.
QuickBooks 2012 will ship on September 26 and will be priced at US$229.95 for a single user license, $439.95 for two users, and $599.95 for three users. Additional user licenses will cost $209.95 each.