"We're thrilled by our pre-sales numbers and that Mac small business owners are enthusiastically choosing QuickBooks," said Cary Rosenzweig, business leader, Macintosh products, Intuit. "Our dedicated QuickBooks for Mac team is committed to supporting the Mac small business community and we're looking forward to providing these customers with the essential and easy-to-use tools they need to run their businesses now and in the future."

Intuit estimates that 5,000 QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac units have already been sold through its direct and reseller partner channels.

"Our customers have been waiting for a new release and already we are seeing sales exceeding our expectations," Gertrud Pillay, director product management, MacMall. "This will be one of the most exciting launches at Macworld and we are proud to be teaming with Intuit on this launch."

Currently, QuickBooks brand products are used by approximately 2.6 million small businesses. Since 1995, Intuit has sold nearly 250,000 QuickBooks for Mac units. Designed specially for Mac OS X, QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac leverages the powerful platform to deliver the essential solutions to help Mac small business owners better manage their business finances. The new and improved features were based on a customer survey that identified what Mac small business customers most want and need. The result is a new version that runs on Mac OS X, supports Mac OS 9, and offers greater customization and new productivity tools.

Intuit's dedicated QuickBooks for Mac products team has redesigned QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac with an entirely new Mac look and feel, with windows and controls - including the revised icon bar - designed to conform to Mac OS X's dynamic Aqua interface, making it fast, familiar and easy to use. Now more than ever, Mac small business owners can create, customize and e-mail reports, statements and invoices, track expenses and organize their business finances all in one place.

QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac also offers payroll functionality through Top Pay v12 from Aatrix Software, Inc., which is installed with QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac. Top Pay v12 helps small businesses easily track deductions, employer paid contributions, vacation, sick and holiday time and automatically posts payroll data into QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac. A one-time tax table update is included in the price of QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac and is available through Aatrix. Aatrix also offers a subscription and fee-based service that delivers up-to-date tax tables throughout the year.