Intuit Set to Announce Quicken 2002

UPDATED Quicken 2002, formerly known by the code-name "Kayak" for the PC and "K2" for Macs, will be officially announced early Wednesday morning. The launch of Quicken 2002 comes on the heels of Microsoft's Money 2002, which was publicly revealed yesterday.
Intuit has added a host of new features in an effort to deflect the software gaint's push to gain ground as the two companies duke it out for market share.

Available in Deluxe, Suite, Home and Business varieties, Quicken seeks to maintain its position as market leader. New features include an easier setup, tax and investment impact insights, a portfolio analyzer, automatic bank reconciliations, and automatic categorizations for transactions. Intuit has improved the variety of investment types that it can track, has more accurate tax forecasts, tracks reoccurring payments such as mortgages, and allows users to update all online accounts in a single step.

In the actual press release, Theresa McGinnesss, enior product manager said, "Due to our time-crunched society, the volatile stock market and the introduction of new, complex tax laws, people are more uncertain about making the right financial decisions. Quicken 2002 provides the tools to make it easy for them to quickly and confidently take care of financial tasks and help make better decisions."

Existing Quicken customers can check up on new features that have been added since their particular version via a special comparative
Web site. All Windows operating systems from 95 on are supported, as is Mac OS 9 or higher. An Internet connection is highly recommended in order to take advantage of all of Quicken's functionality.

Beta Testers received their full Deluxe version of the software on Tuesday. Included in the information sent to testers was a hotline to call in the event that bugs were found in the retail version. After August 24, the show stopper hotline will be closed.

Interested users can review the PC system requirements, or those for Mac OS.