Intuit is announcing major news this evening around its mobile credit card swiping device and Square-competitor GoPayment reader. Intuit is one of the first major U.S. mobile payments readers to go international, with a launch in Canada. And Intuit is debuting a newly, redesigned sleek version of its reader.

Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones and similar to Square’s device, the card reader simply plugs into the audio jack of a phone or tablet. The credit card data is also encrypted, (and never stored on the phone).

The GoPayment mobile payment app is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, and offers a 2.7 percent rate for swiped transactions. Intuit and Square actually both eliminated the per transaction fee. And Intuit recently started allowing merchants to keep and receive funds on a prepaid credit card as opposed to depositing the amount in a bank account.

GoPayment hardware reader and payments apps can now be used by Canadian small businesses and entrepreneurs as a way to accept credit card payments on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device. Intuit says that GoPayment for Canada and the new GoPayment card reader will both be available in early 2012.

The most physically noticeable aspects of Intuit’s newly designed reader is its color and shape. The reader is now black (compared to its older white sibling, pictured in this post), and cylinder-shaped, creating a sleeker, smaller look. The reader has been designed to feature a silicone sleeve that conforms to the phone or tablet to provide stability support to keep the reader from moving or spinning when swiping a card.

Intuit says that without the stability, the readers spin on the audio jack, causing misreads of the credit card and requiring the user to need to hold the product in place while swiping. Intuit has also improved the swipe channel of the device to read cards accurately the first time by putting it on an angle, beveling it and making it longer.

Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division, says of the news today, “This is part of our strategy to offer GoPayment internationally and to innovate in ways that make it easier for our customers, in all markets, to never miss a sale.”

For Intuit, being the first to market in Canada is a big win for the mobile payments device. Navigating international markets is tricky for mobile payments companies because each country has different cards and payments infrastructure. We know Square also has ambitions of international expansion in 2012.

As for the native competitors in Canada, Kudos is a mobile card reader that is currently available in the country. VerFone’s PayWare mobile reader has also been available in Canada for some time. But considering the massive growth both Intuit and Square have seen among small businesses, the readers should see traction outside of the U.S.

Intuit has just released some good news for  ”Quicken for Mac” users.  The accounting software company says they will have a solution that makes Quicken 2007 for Mac “Lion-compatible” by early spring 2012. Yes, irony alert. Back in July, I wrote about the dilemma facing those users, because Apple Lion OS was dropping support for Rosetta.  Without Rosetta, Quicken 2007 wouldn’t run on the Mac with Lion.  And I wrote each of the three options Intuit proposed (Quicken Essentials for Mac, Mint.com, Quicken for Windows) had their own flaws.

Aaron Forth, Intuit’s General Manager of its Personal Finance Group which includes Quicken and Mint.com, wrote a note to existing customers saying “I am committed to creating products to help you reach your financial goals.  I recognize, however, that we have not always delivered on this promise to Quicken Mac customers.”

Forth adds “I understand the frustration this may have caused you and have put a team in place to address the issue.”

The details have not been worked out yet, but Intuit says they have a team in place to solve the problem and they ask for their customers patience.

Back in July, Cult of Mac reported one solution might be Intuit bakes some Rosetta libraries into Quicken.  It’s unclear if that’s the solution now being worked on.

After calling them out for this problem earlier, it’s only fair to give them credit for doing this now.  Forth says “working toward a … solution is just a first step in winning back your confidence.”  I agree. Ok, I realize it is about to become 2012 and we are talking about a 2007 product, but it’s still a widely used product.

Intuit has made an interesting move today with its mobile credit card reader GoPayment reader. Intuit is allowing merchants to keep and receive funds on a prepaid credit card as opposed to depositing the amount in a bank account.

Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment, which competes directly with Square, is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones and the card reader simply plugs into the audio jack of a phone or tablet. The credit card data is also encrypted, (and never stored on the phone).

Similar to Square, the GoPayment mobile payment app is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, and offers a 2.7 percent rate for swiped transactions. Intuit and Square actually both eliminated the per transaction fee.

With the Intuit GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card, merchants and retailers can have the funds they collect with GoPayment deposited into their GoPayment Card account. They can then use the card to make payments online, in stores and withdraw cash at ATMs everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted.

So who does this arrangement work for? For smaller businesses or individuals who don’t have a business bank account and still want to conveniently separate the money they make with GoPayment from their personal finances, this could be a good option. Using the prepaid card can also help merchants start accepting payments quickly as there is no bank account required to sign up. Those who prefer using a business or personal bank account can still choose to have their funds deposited into their bank account. And for the millions of U.S. consumers who are “unbanked,” a prepaid Visa card allows them to accept payments for a business without a bank account.

This makes GoPayment especially friendly for fledgling entrepreneurs or businesses who want to accept payments but don’t have a business bank account.

Intuit is the latest company to enable e-commerce on Facebook, announcing today that businesses using the company’s Websites software can create a store on the social network.

Intuit SimpleStore for Facebook will automatically sync the merchant’s website and Facebook page, loading inventory and enabling payments. Business owners can accept credit or debit card payments directly on Facebook, via Intuit, with no added log-ins required for the customer. All transactions are powered by Intuit’s payments back-end.

Intuit SimpleStore for Facebook is available through Intuit Websites, a service that allows merchants and businesses to set up a website and payments platform.

While a Facebook e-commerce product makes sense, Intuit is pretty late to the game on this. Payvment, ShopIgniter, BigCommerce, and many others have been offering this technology to merchants for years.

Inuit’s GoPayment reader, which competes directly with Square, is making a significant move in the mobile payments space today, partnering with Verizon Wireless to sell its credit card readers in Verizon Wireless’ 2,300 retail stores and business-to-business sales channels.

Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones and the card reader simply plugs into the audio jack of a phone or tablet. The credit card data is also encrypted, (and never stored on the phone).

Now, GoPayment will be offered in retail outlets and on Verizon Wireless’ website for $29.97 but you can receive the reader for free with activation of a GoPayment account and a mail-in rebate for the purchase price. Similar to Square, the GoPayment mobile payment app is free and the basic service has no monthly, transaction or cancellation fees, and offers a 2.7 percent rate for swiped transactions. Intuit and Square actually both eliminated the per transaction fee.

While Square’ reader has been free for some time now, it was only in the past year that Intuit shifted its model to offer the its GoPayment card reader for free. A paid version of GoPayment is also available for more high-use businesses for $12.95 a month and provides rate of 1.7 percent for swiped transactions. With the partnership, Intuit is offering Verizon Wireless customers two months of free service when they select this monthly paid plan.

Verizon says that customers who purchase a smartphone for their GoPayment use will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 for monthly access. Tablet and smartphone users require a data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2GB of data.

Chris Hylen, general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division, frames the partnership around attracting small businesses that are using Verizon Wireless’s smartphones or tablets. And a move to Verizon makes sense considering that the carrier features the iPhone, Android phones and BlackBerries. It’s also important to note that this is GoPayment’s second retail availability—Intuit’s reader is available on Apple’s retail site (as is Square and VeriFone). For basis of comaprison, Square’s device is selling at the Apple store for $9.95 but users get a $10 square credit when they sign up for an account.

Hylen explains: “Rather than lose out on potential business, anyone who sells a product or a service can now easily and affordably give their customers the option of paying with plastic…GoPayment is meeting a huge need and is one of the fastest growing mobile payment solutions in the market. With Verizon Wireless, we’ll help even more people discover that they too can process credit card payments on the phones or tablets they already own.”

Of course, a vote of confidence by a carrier as popular as Verizon is sure to help GoPayment remain competitive with Square, who took an investment from Visa recently, as well as VeriFone and other smaller players like Erply.

Hylen tells us that there are number of reasons to choose GoPayment over competitors, including Intuit’s ‘trusted brand,’ the company’s ‘focus on consumers,’ 24-hour customer service support, security, and most importantly, the integration with Intuit’s immensely popular accounting software Quickbooks. GoPayment can also sync transactions with recent versions of QuickBooks. GoPayment also supports up to 50 users on one account, which is ideal for businesses with multiple employees who work in the field.

GoPayment is actually one of Intuit’s fastest growing businesses and Hylen says the service is on track to process over $1 billion in transactions for the year. Intuit declined to reveal how many businesses are using GoPayment but did say that customer acquisition has gone up by eight times since January.

Intuit says that it will consider similar partnerships in the future. I will say that the whole rebate trap does throw me off a bit, and considering that many people forget to send in their rebates, the credit option that Square adopted with their Apple deal seems like a better fit for the consumer. But there’s no doubt that an endorsement from a carrier is a win for Intuit’s GoPayment and should help boost usage.

BigTime Software, which offers cloud-based productivity software tools to professional services firms, this morning announced that it has raised $2 million in Series A funding in a round from LTC Partners, Geneva Venture Investment Management, Hickory Grove and Howell Capital.

The company delivers time, billing and practice management software-as-a-service that integrates with Intuit QuickBooks to professional services firms in industries like accounting, architecture, marketing services and IT services.

BigTime Software was originally founded in 2002 and used to go by the name Edison’s Attic.

The extra capital will be used to enhance sales, marketing and product development efforts.

Intuit, the same company that brought you QuickBooks accounting software, has today announced the QuickBooks Mobile app for Android. Now, small businesses that use QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Online will have access to their data from their Android phone.

The app has already been made available to iOS users, but Android fans will now be able to get in on the amateur accounting action. Features include access to customer and sales info, as well as customer balances, the ability to create estimates on the fly and on-site invoicing. Information added to QuickBooks Mobile is automatically synced with QuickBooks.

“The majority of small and medium-sized business owners feel that staying connected through wireless devices is critical to the success of their business,” said VP and Financial Management Solutions boss Dan Wernikoff. “As the demand for mobile access continues to accelerate, we’re working to give customers the solutions they need most so they can save time and make money.”

The app is currently available in the App Store and Android Market for free to all QuickBooks online subscribers and is available to QuickBooks Pro and Premier customers through a subscription.

Intuit’s “Quicken 2007 for the Mac” users have a problem. The personal financial accounting software is not going to work under Lion, Apple’s new OS 10.7, due to be released as early as Wednesday. Intuit suggests three solutions. But each has its own flaws, especially if you want to track investments, reconcile your financial statements or not have to buy 3 software programs or a PC. There are non-Intuit alternatives out there, each with their own fan base. None of them match Quicken 2007, a far-from-perfect but still very useful, powerful program.

Software is supposed to get better over time, but for Mac home accounting users, that’s not the case. One of the very first killer ‘apps’ for Apple computers was VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program used by some to balance checkbooks, track credit cards and determine net worth. We’ve come a long way since then, but for Mac users looking for a traditional and full featured personal accounting program, there is no easy solution.

Quicken 2005, 2006, and 2007 won’t work in Lion because Apple has dropped support for Rosetta. You can’t blame them. Rosetta was software designed so PowerPC-based programs can run on Intel-based Macs, starting in 2006. Rosetta was just supposed to bridge the gap until developers had time to re-write their software for Intel-based Macs. But, Quicken 2005, 2006, and 2007 weren’t updated and still require Rosetta.

After a gap of 3 years, Intuit came out with an Intel-based program, “Quicken Essentials for Mac.” It’s one of the options Intuit is pushing for users of the older software. There’s even a limited time 50% discount. While this might work for some, “Essentials” is really “Just The Very Basics”. Even Intuit admits on its website, “this option is ideal if you do not track investment transactions and history, use online bill pay or rely on specific reports that might not be present in Quicken Essentials.” Next. TUAW’s site had the best imagery, showing Quicken Essential being flushed down the toilet.

Intuit also suggests users could switch to Quicken Windows. The Windows product has always been a more robust and stable version. But few Mac users are not going to buy a PC just for Quicken. While running a PC virtualization program like Parallels or VMware Fusion on the Mac is possible, it can be a frustrating experience. And you need to buy and troubleshoot three programs: Windows, the virtualization program and Quicken. No thanks. Re-booting your Mac in Windows each time you want to use Quicken is a non-starter as well.

Intuit’s third suggestion is former TechCrunch 50 winner Mint. Intuit purchased Mint in 2009 for $170 million. Before the acquisition, it was growing like gangbusters. Last December, TechCrunch reported on concerns Mint was losing some top executives and users weren’t happy. The company responded saying there was “no glut of departures” and it was working on iPad and mobile apps. There’s still no native iPad app.

From a user perspective, Mint does offer a free and new way to manage your money. According to Mint’s website, over 5 million people use it. But for some users who liked the features of Quicken, it’s not the answer. You can’t import your old Quicken data to Mint. In fact, you can’t enter any transactions in Mint. That’s a feature not a bug.

Instead, you enter your account info and Mint pulls in your transactions automatically. This feature can be a big plus, but there is no ability to reconcile your credit card and bank statements – a pretty basic requirement for many. Because the transaction data is read-only, you can’t make your own adjustments or include a cash account. It’s also works in the cloud. While another great feature for some, others want to keep their financial data offline, despite assurances of privacy and security. (Ok, all your data is online already, but it’s not bundled together behind one login.)

There are several non-Intuit programs trying to take advantage of the situation. One of the most popular options, iBank, proudly advertises it’s “Ready for Lion” and fully compatible with Mac OS 10.7. I found the UI a bit awkward. While it did import my Quicken data files, the investment section is weak and the report customization is poor.

Another frequently mentioned and popular alternative is Moneydance, also “fully compatible” with Lion. It has some good features and does a lot right. But I found the interface very quirky. For example, you can’t add categories on the fly. Reports could not be customized. The budgeting setup was confusing and lacking. Moneydance is written in Java, so it will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. But a Java app might be a turnoff for some.

There are a batch of other basic programs available but they don’t match Quicken 2007′s features either. This list includes Checkbook Pro, iCash, Liquid Ledger, and SEE Finance.

Other options include Quickbooks by Intuit or AccountEdge. But they are designed for business and are missing many personal finance software features like tracking stock market investments.

Of course, Quicken 2007 users don’t have to upgrade to Lion. There is no requirement to upgrade right away. But then you won’t get to take advantage of Lion’s cool features. And sooner or later, you will need to upgrade. Hopefully by then, new developers will emerge or the current offerings will get better.

Update: Intuit’s Small Biz Twitter account has responded to some readers tweeting this post saying “I’m sry we dont have a lion compatible version currently, we’d like 2 B able 2 offer a solution 2 every 1.”

Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones. So now, businesses using the mobile payments reader will only pay a flat 2.7 percent fee of a transaction for any swiped cards. Intuit will charge 3.7 percent for both key entered and non-qualified transactions.

This is surely a competitive move against Square, which also dropped its transaction fee (which was $0.15) recently in favor of a flat 2.75 percent fee for all transactions. One important fact to note—Intuit will still charge the transaction fee for transactions using American Express but this is something the company is working on negotiating. Square does not charge a fees for transactions on Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

For higher credit card processing volume (recommended for more than a $1,000 per month), Intuit is continuing to charge a $12.95 monthly fee but has dropped the set transaction charge of $0.30. The per transaction percentage remains at 1.7 percent for cards swiped; and 2.7 percent for key entered.

Mobile payments is a competitive space and it’s hard not to notice some of the attention Square has been getting from both Visa and Apple. Because of this, companies like Intuit have to up the ante to remain competitive and attract businesses. For example, Intuit recently extended the offer of a free version of its GoPayment reader indefinitely. Square’s readers have been free for some time now.

Chris Hylen, VP and general manager of Intuit Payment Solutions said this explaining this change in pricing: We started simplifying GoPayment pricing back in January when we eliminated the monthly fee. Now we’re removing transaction fees. As we continue to evaluate the market and talk with customers, we believe that making our pricing even more affordable is the best way to give more people an easy way to process credit cards on their mobile devices.

While Square is growing fast, as more and more businesses are looking for innovative, inexpensive and painless ways to accept credit cards, Intuit’s reader does offer a compelling product. The company reports that it has seen a nearly 700% increase in the number of people signing up for GoPayment each week compared to the beginning of the year (driven in large part its free swiper offering). Intuit declined to reveal exactly how many users are signing up per day vs. a year ago.

And GoPayment users are  processing in excess of $15 million a week using GoPayment and related services. These services also include payments from the Web and through QuickBooks using a GoPayment merchant account, so it’s unclear how much of that $15 million is coming through the readers themselves. Intuit says GoPayment users have processed more than $3 million in a single day over the past month as well.

For basis of comparison, Square just revealed that it is processing $2 million in transactions per day and $66 million for the first quarter, but COO Keith Rabois says forecasts that this number will triple in Q2.

The other competitor in the space, VeriFone, has yet to eliminate the set transaction fees ($0.17) associated with its payment product. But with pressure from both Square and Intuit, that may change soon.

Erick recently got a sneak peek at Intuit’s GoPayment app for the iPad, a mobile payment app that lets anyone who sells a product or service get paid on the spot by processing credit cards.

This morning, the company announced that the iPad app is now available.

The GoPayment apps brings a new layout that takes advantage of iPad’s large, high-resolution display and multi-touch interface. It also includes new features such as the ability to add product photos.

GoPayment is compatible with the free Intuit Credit Card Reader.

As Erick wrote when he saw a preview of the app:

GoPayment has been around for two years, but only recently started to target the lower end of the market where Square is gaining traction—small businesses without merchant accounts at banks who don’t already take credit cards.

Another competitor, VeriFone, is making noise in an attempt to enter this market as well, but Square should be more concerned about Intuit. The company already has relationships with 4.5 million businesses through QuickBooks and has a few advantages in payments processing.

Square has its own iPad app, which has been available for over a year.

Last night I caught up with Intuit founder Scott Cook and Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint who know runs Intuit’s personal finance group. I whipped out my iPhone and did an impromptu interview. Cook and Patzer talk about where growth is coming from at Intuit, how it tries to encourage entrepreneurism, and the “payment graph.”

Cook is really excited about SnapTax, the TurboTax iPhone app that lets people do their taxes by snapping a picture of their W-2 forms. The same OCR technology will soon be baked into the company’s upcoming GoPayment apps for accepting checks via photo. Patzer came into Intuit through the $170 million acquisition of Mint. Cook knows the value of injecting entrepreneurial DNA into the larger organization, and he tries to foster that spirit throughout Intuit.

Since Intuit bought Mint, it’s kept on growing from 1.7 million to 5.6 million users, and gradually it is being connected with hooks into Intuit’s more established products like TurboTax and Quicken. Off camera I asked why doesn’t QuickBooks offer a similar service to help businesses visualize and organize their expenses like Profitably does with QuickBook’s APIs, and Patzer agreed, “That is something that should be in QuickBooks.” (That is just his opinion, he doesn’t run QuickBooks).

In the video, Patzer imagines a Mint-like service which suggests deals on business services to QuickBooks users. Patzer goes beyond that and talks about the idea of a payment graph which tracks relationships between businesses and how much they are paying each other. Before the video, he told me: “People talk a lot about the social graph and interest graph. One third of the economy goes through QuickBooks in terms of businesses invoicing other businesses. Each invoice contains a connection between vendors, suppliers, and customers, and also the price of that connection. Representing the payment graph is huge opportunity and something no other company can do.” At it’s core that is a very interesting idea—to map out business relationships based on payments, with the strength of each tie determined by the flow of money either way. I wonder if it would look anything like social influence graphs that look at who retweets and @replies whom.

It is clear that Intuit is still extremely product focussed. I asked Cook what is more important to nail down first, the product or the business model. For Cook, product always comes first: “If you’ve got delighted customers, you can figure out downstream where the money is. If you don’t have delighted customers, stop. Don’t go there.”

Mobile payments are finally taking off right now. But it is not mobile wallets for consumers with NFC-chipped mobile phones leading the way. It is payment apps for small merchants like those made by Square and Intuit’s GoPayment. Tonight at an Intuit showcase in New York City, I got a sneak peak at several new Intuit products still in development, including an upcoming GoPayment tablet app that aims to replace the cash register for small businesses, Intuit 401k, and an iPad Check-in app for doctor’s offices.

The GoPayment app will work on both the iPad and Android tablets In addition to taking credit card payments with a swiper that plugs into the headphone jack, it also lets merchants set up a cash register with their own products and prices. They can even take pictures of the products with their iPad 2 and the picture is placed on a virtual button to make it easy for any employee to ring up the items. It will also have the ability to take pictures of checks and deposit them from the image.

Square, of course, has its own iPad app which has been available for almost a year. Add a cash drawer, and these systems can readily replace a register that can cost thousands of dollars. All a merchant needs is an iPad and the software. Intuit and Square still make a tiny fraction off each transaction, but they get rid of much of the equipment, and all the maintenance, costs associated with typical credit card readers you find in most stores.

GoPayment has been around for two years, but only recently started to target the lower end of the market where Square is gaining traction—small businesses without merchant accounts at banks who don’t already take credit cards. Another competitor, VeriFone, is making noise in an attempt to enter this market as well, but Square should be more concerned about Intuit. The company already has relationships with 4.5 million businesses through QuickBooks and has a few advantages in payments processing.

The trick to making money in payments processing is to keep the fraud rate down. Intuit already handles payments for many small businesses through and has built up an expertise in fraud detection to the point where it transfer money to its payments customers in a matter of two or three days. Square reduces its risk for larger accounts by holding the money for 30 days. Intuit’s credit card swiper might be uglier than Square’s, but don’t underestimate how important it is for small businesses to get getting paid faster.

Both services seem to be neck and neck in terms of the volume of payments that go through each. GoPayment processes about $9 million a week, whereas Square is processing about $7 million (but GoPayment’s numbers include payments from the Web and QuickBooks, not just mobile). GoPayment has processed $113 million since it launched in 2009. Intuit’s director of mobile strategies, Omar Green, who happens to live in the same building in San Francisco as Square founder Jack Dorsey, acknowledges that Square led the way in opening up this new market. But it’s a wide open field and Intuit is going after the opportunity just as aggressively. Update: Intuit says it is now up to $12 million a week in payment volume and $120 million cumulative GoPayments.

While I was at the showcase, I also saw some other new Intuit products for businesses. One is called Intuit 401(k), and is part of Intuit’s Payroll business. Any small business that uses Intuit Payroll can now also set up a 401(k) account for their employees for significantly cheaper than other 401 (k) management services. It costs $495 to set up and starts at $75 a month for up to ten employees. The contributions are withdrawn automatically from payroll and managed by Morningstar, with a few simple options based on risk tolerance. Intuit also removes the financial risks of any liability associated with managing the plans off the shoulders of the small businesses

The other iPad app I saw is being developed by Intuit Health, which already offers health portals for doctor’s offices to help manage appointments and billing. Now it is working on an iPad Check-In app which will replace the paper forms on the clipboard you have to fill out every time you visit the doctor. Instead, you just sign in with your name and password, and fill out any necessary details on the iPad app. It also ties into payments and will allow patients to charge their co-pays electronically.

Last night, after much procrastination, I started my taxes—on my couch with a movie playing on the TV, using only my iPad. I was testing out an early build of TurboTax, which is now available for the iPad (in addition to the online and desktop versions). I got through the bulk of my taxes by the time the movie was over.

Taxes are never fun, even on the iPad. But the new TurboTax iPad app makes it fairly seamless. Anyone familiar with TurboTax will recognize the interface. It takes you through the same guided questions the online and desktop versions do, asks you about your financial situation, and keeps a tally of your refund up top (or, gulp, taxes you still owe). The app works in both landscape and portrait mode, and knows when to pop up a number keypad or the full keyboard.

Just like the desktop version, the entire app resides on your iPad, with no need to connect to the Internet until you file. It is free to download and do your entire taxes on, but once you want to file, it costs the same as other versions of TurboTax (starting at $29.99)

The one big drawback of the app for existing TurboTax users is that you cannot import last year’s data. You have to start from scratch. I thought entering all my personal and W-2 data on the iPad would be a pain, but it really didn’t take that long. And while you cannot import data from previous years, you can move your current year taxes over from the desktop version. So you can start on your computer and type in the bulk of the data, and then move over to the iPad and vice versa.

Next year, you should be able to import data from previous years. And who knows, with the new cameras in the iPad 2, maybe you will be able to simply take a picture of all your tax forms like you can with SnapTax for the iPhone (which only works with W-2s for now, but that’s a start).

Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones.

GoPayment now offers two payment plans to choose from: For lower or intermittent credit card processing volume, Intuit offers a free credit card reader, no monthly fee; and discounted rates (2.7 percent for card swiped; 3.7 percent for both key entered and non-qualified transactions; $0.15 per transaction.) For higher credit card processing volume (recommended for more than a $1,000 per month), Intuit offers a free credit card reader; $12.95 monthly fee; and further discounted rates (1.7 percent for card swiped; 2.7 percent for key entered; 3.7 percent for non-qualified transactions, such as corporate cards; $0.30 per transaction).

That compares to Square, which has always offered a free reader with no monthly fee and currently charges 2.75 percent and $0.15 for swiped transactions and 3.5 percent and $0.15 for keyed-in transactions.

While Intuit is clearly growing in terms of usage and sign-ups, so is Square, which is unarguably a smaller operation with a lot of buzz. Fresh off a $27.5 million funding round, Jack Dorsey’s startup is expected to process $40 million in transactions in Q1 of 2011.

Clearly, this is a competitive space. What Intuit has in its favor is that it already has a built in small business network with users of its popular business applications, including Quickbooks, Quicken and TurboTax. And another player has joined—VeriFone entered the mobile payments arena with a deal with PayPal. Intuit is no doubt extending its free version because it is getting more traction from small businesses with a less-costly GoPayment product.

Perhaps Intuit should spring for a Times Square billboard.

Intuit’s best-known products include Turbo Tax, Quickbooks and Quicken, software that helps consumers, the owners of small and medium sized businesses and large financial institutions save or manage their money. The company’s more recent releases include the Intuit GoPayment mobile app and Mophie credit card reader, the latter of which began sales at Apple stores about three weeks ago, and Turbo Tax SnapTax, a mobile app which allows users to “snap, prepare and file” their taxes with a smart mobile device.

GE’s business encompasses: power generation from traditional and renewable sources, hybrid and electric vehicle technology, financial services, health care solutions, and television programming among others. The company recently committed to spend $10 billion on clean tech research and development in the next five years via its Ecomagination initiative. Ecomagination includes a business competition for smart grid technology startups.

Comstock said more competitions focused on specific clean tech and health concepts would likely follow (and would help build GE’s portfolio). GE is also investing, over a six year period that commenced in 2009, $6 billion in healthcare ideas and businesses that decrease costs, improve quality and increase global access to healthcare.

For Intuit, Cook said, acquisitions are part of an approach to innovation and growth that starts with growth from internal talent and resources. Over the long term, Intuit expects double-digit organic revenue growth and revenue growth that exceeds expense growth. Whether Cook is reviewing a business idea that was hatched internally, or was pitched from an external source, he doesn’t apply a rigid hurdle rate, he said:

We look for…the deep and abiding problem that consumers and small businesses have that has not been solved. [We ask if] we can cobble together technologies that will solve that problem, and delight people in doing so to build competitive advantage. If we can do business there, it doesn’t matter what’s on a spreadsheet.

In the last few years Intuit acquired Homestead, Paycycle, Mint.com (which launched at the TechCrunch 40 in 2007) and more recently, MedFusion. Intuit spends its cash on high-yield opportunities, targeting risk-adjusted returns of 15-20 percent, generally.

Of its acquisition of Mint.com and others, Cook said:

You either disrupt or you get disrupted. If you’re not engineering, and somebody else is, you gotta get on the bandwagon. We bet on them, they also bet on us. [After we acquired Mint] we gave them our Quicken business, and now they manage both! They’re bringing invigorating new thoughts there.

Comstock said that GE has a “hole in its pocket” now, where great clean tech and health ideas are concerned. She emphasized that the company has been more open of late, investing in promising startups through competitions and more, and striking joint ventures with companies that complement GE’s existing lines of business:

We have great battery technology relating to electric vehicles. Our lab is great at sodium science! So we’d created this battery, and we had to make them. Our marketing team then asked: what other markets can I take this to? Auxillary power for planes? Cell phone towers? That is like a virtual startup. It could make $200 million in the first couple of years. At the same time, we invested a couple of rounds in A123. They have lithium capabiltiites. We brought them into our R&D lab, and its the first time we’ve co-created like this. So now, we’re backing the A123 battery, too.

Comstock advised founders wanting to attract GE as an investor, buyer or partner:

We have a whole combo of things we’ve grown and invested in, both…We are always asking ‘Does it scale?’ All the time… Technology is the thing that we do. But business model innovations are really important, especially when you lok at the data that’s coming out of everything! Jet Engines. Medical [devices]. You name it. Don’t just think: ‘I have to have a thing.’ It’s also software, algorithms and business models that we haven’t had experience with that interest us.

Cook advised founders more generally:

Select your team very carefully. Get the right people on the bus and pick the very best for each slot. Have a mission, a big dream, go out and change the world. The big dreams make a difference. But get there one successful experiment at a time. If there’s something I’ve learned in the last 4 years, it’s the power of iteration. Rapidly create, test, change… Run experiments with customers, let the customer vote, don’t rely on the boss to vote.

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Back in June of last year, a report in The Washington Post stated that the U.S. Department of Justice had begun a probe looking into the hiring practices of some of tech’s biggest companies. The probe was at its early stages at that point, but they were specifically looking into if any companies had agreements in place not to recruit one another’s workers. In August of last year, we reported that two of those companies, Apple and Google, did have such an agreement in place — and we even obtained an email that seemed to confirm it. Neither Google nor Apple responded to our request for a comment on the issue. Of course, they couldn’t sidestep the DoJ so easily. And today, the government is announcing a settlement on the issue.

Specifically, the DoJ is saying it is settling with six companies — Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar — ensuring that they will not enter into no solicitation agreements for employees going forward. In the complaint and settlement proposal they’re filing today, the DoJ is saying their findings indicate that there were agreements in place between a mixture of these companies over the years that prevented poaching. Here’s how they outlined it:

According to the complaint, the six companies entered into agreements that restrained competition between them for highly skilled employees.   The agreements between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Apple and Pixar and Google and Intel prevented the companies from directly soliciting each other’s employees.   An agreement between Google and Intuit prevented Google from directly soliciting Intuit employees.

Again, Apple and Google is the one we reported on.The DoJ says:

Beginning no later than 2006, Apple and Google executives agreed not to cold call each other’s employees.   Apple placed Google on its internal “Do Not Call List,” which instructed employees not to directly solicit employees from the listed companies.   Similarly, Google listed Apple among the companies that had special agreements with Google and were part of the “Do Not Cold Call” list.

That’s pretty much exactly what we had heard for our source on the matter. Here’s the key part of the email we obtained back then when someone from Google accidentally did cold call an Apple employee:

Google has an agreement with Apple that we will not cold call their staff.

Further, we heard that when Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s Board of Directors in the Summer of 2009, that agreement (which was of the under-the-table variety among executives at both companies) may have been called off. As we’re all well aware, the companies began to be at odds with one another at that point. You’ll note that the 2006 timeframe when the DoJ believes the agreement began is when Schmidt first joined Apple’s Board.

Even more interesting in the DoJ’s findings may be that Apple and Adobe actually had an agreement in place not to poach employees as well. Yes, the two companies that hate each other. From the DoJ report:

Beginning no later than May 2005, senior Apple and Adobe executives agreed not to cold call each other’s employees.   Apple placed Adobe on its internal “Do Not Call List” and similarly, Adobe included Apple in its internal list of “Companies that are off limits”

The Apple and Pixar agreement should be no surprise given that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has led both companies in the past.

The DoJ notes that the settlement still has to be accepted by the courts (but you have to believe it will be) and that it will put these new competitive rules in place for five years. Here’s the key:

Although the complaint alleges only that the companies agreed to ban cold calling, the proposed settlement more broadly prohibits the companies from entering, maintaining or enforcing any agreement that in any way prevents any person from soliciting, cold calling, recruiting, or otherwise competing for employees.  The companies will also implement compliance measures tailored to these practices.

The DoJ also notes that this complaint/settlement is a part of the larger antitrust inquiry into employment practices by high tech firms. And it says that they’re continuing to investigate other claims.

Update: And further confirmation from Google on the matter:

In order to maintain a good working relationship with these companies, in 2005 we decided not to “cold call” employees at a few of our partner companies. Our policy only impacted cold calling, and we continued to recruit from these companies through LinkedIn, job fairs, employee referrals, or when candidates approached Google directly.

[photo: flickr/mackz]

Disruption happens. If you are a startup, you try to be the disruptor. But what if you are an established company with billions of dollars in revenue? Then you try to create a culture of innovation that rides the wave of change before it leaves your company behind. The trick is to know when to catch that wave. Next week at TechCrunch Disrupt, Intuit founder Scott Cook and GE’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer Beth Comstock will sit down to share with the audience how they keep innovation humming at scale.

They will be joining other speakers including John Doerr, Michael Moritz, Barry Diller, Zynga’s Mark Pincus, HP’s Todd Bradley, Google’s Marissa Mayer, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, and Twitter’s Jason Goldman. (See agenda here, buy tickets here).

Cook, of course, started out as a disruptor himself in the 1980s when he brought accounting software to PCs. Intuit’s products (Quicken, Quickbooks, TurboTax) are the gold standard in financial software for individuals and small businesses. As software transitions to the Web, Intuit is coming right along with it. (I file all my taxes through TurboTax online). A year ago, Intuit acquired Mint, the personal budgeting service which launched at TechCrunch 40 in 2007 and won. More recently, it partnered with credit card reader Mophie to take on startups like Square in the mobile payments business.

In addition to running all of GE’s marketing, Comstock is also responsible for growth initiatives. She is spearheading its Ecomagination and Healthymagination programs. These go way beyond traditional marketing efforts. As part of its Ecomagination Challenge, GE is investing $200 million in greentech startups and technologies to come up with the next disruptive wave of energy products.

At Disrupt, we like to put interesting people together and see what conversations follow. Cook and Comstock both have a fine appreciation for the power of new ideas to drive growth. But what is the best way to capture those new ideas: through acquisitions, partnerships, organic projects? Join us at Disrupt to hear what they have to say on the subject and how they are trying to create cultures of innovation within their companies.

It looks like Intuit just acquired Cha-Ching, a Mac web app and iPhone app to help consumers manage their personal finance. According to the site of Midnight Apps, the developer of Cha-Ching, “The Cha-Ching team has merged with Intuit and will continue to provide you great design, useful features and incredible products as part of the Intuit Personal Finance Group.” See update below.

Cha-Ching appears to have been taken down from the App store. Similar to Mint.com (which Intuit acquired last year for $170 million), Cha-Ching’s Mac and iPhone apps allow users to keep track of daily transactions and bank accounts. You can schedule bills and payments, set budgets and upload receipts.

It’s unclear how Cha-Ching will be folded into Intuit, but the company could be using the technology to boost their Apple applications, which includes the Mint iPhone app and a Quicken app for Mac. And its looks like Intuit is trying to replace their existing personal finace product Quicken online with Mint.com, so Cha-Ching’s consumer-focused technology could be part of this strategy. And of course, Intuit will be acquiring the team from Midnight Apps.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed at this time.

UPDATE: It appears that Intuit only acquired the assets of Cha-Ching, including the code and graphics. Mint founder and VP & GM, Personal Finance Group for Intuit Aaron Patzer sent us this response:

We did purchase the Cha Ching code and graphical assets from them, after the two developers who created the company joined the Intuit Personal Finance Group as employees earlier this year.

The code created by these two talented engineers in the years before they joined the Intuit Personal Finance Group has already begun to enhance our personal finance offerings. First, we’re using some of the visual assets and chrome to give Quicken Windows a facelift. Count on Quicken looking like a smooth, polished, modern desktop application when it releases this fall – along with additional influences deeper in the product’s architecture and function. Second, we’ll use Cha Ching iPhone code for new features within the Mint iPhone app. There are some tricks they were using that will make some highly-sought new features very slick when they launch.

Hat tip to Brazil’s Mac Magazine (translated version here).

By February that idea had been changed. The new plan was to turn Quicken Online off at a set date and then merge all those users over to Mint:

Quicken Online users will be migrated seamlessly over to Mint.com, preserving all of their account history and account connections. On Mint.com, they’ll be able to track their investments, avoid more bank fees, and find more savings opportunities with a completely free product – while maintaining aspects from Quicken Online (like manual transaction entry).

Fast forward to real life and this is what Quicken Online users are facing:

Q. Can I transfer or import my Quicken Online data to Mint.com?

A. No. After careful consideration we made the decision to not transfer or allow customers to transfer their data from Quicken Online to Mint.com.

We realize you may have received messaging several months ago that we would migrate your Quicken Online data into Mint.com. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the different categorization tables, budgets and account authentication between Quicken Online and Mint.com, there was no way to achieve this with elegance or accuracy. We felt this would give you a very inaccurate picture of your financial situation and require too much manual reconciliation.

One very upset customer asked Quicken to “at least wait until the end of the year so that people can have a complete year’s worth of financial records for tax purposes? I know it’s free, and I know you don’t necessarily “owe” anyone anything, but shutting down the product before the year ends is just a really bad idea, and basically tells consumers “Our product wasn’t worth anything anyway, and you probably shouldn’t use Mint.com either, because the same thing might happen with your data.”

This same user also say he’d be willing to pay a fee to keep Quicken Online going until the end of the year, to avoid reconciling two sets of data.

This seems like a boneheaded move to us. A mid year move for fiscal products must have some porting feature to move accounts and data over. Otherwise you’ve just waisted all that time your users put into the product. Quicken should hold the take down of Quicken Online until end of year, or figure out how to port accounts over to Mint. Because some of these users are lawyers. And most of these users at least know a lawyer. Bad stuff happens when you annoy lawyers. They see stuff like this as a big fat class action case waiting to fall into their laps. And fall it will.

Nobody likes doing their taxes, which is why an upcoming iPhone app from Intuit called SnapTax is so genius. As you can see from the exclusive sneak peek demo video below, the app lets you snap a picture of your W2 form with your iPhone and automatically fills in your tax return. The app uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to translate the images into words and numbers, which it then uploads into a light version of Intuit’s TurboTax software. The tax filers then correct any mistakes, enter additional data not on the W2 (such as interest income), answers a few more questions, and they are done. They can even file electronically from their iPhone.

The app should be available in the iTunes store in mid-January, and will cost $9.99. It is only for people who file simple tax forms, such as the 1040EZ, which is about 70 percent of Americans who file taxes. “I think we are more limited by the iPhone numbers than the EZ return numbers,” says TurboTax product manager Barry Saik. Although, this year the app will only work for California residents, who will serve as Intuit’s beta testers. Next year, versions will be available for many more states (TurboTax files both federal and state tax returns for users, and uses the same information to fill them out).

The OCR technology works better on newer 3GS iPhones than on 3G iPhones because they have more sensitive camera lenses. The app is about 80 percent accurate on 3GS iPhones versus 60 percent accurate on 3G iPhones, according to Intuit. The app takes you through all the data it captures and lets you correct any inaccuracies. And as you go along, you see your refund (or tax owed) tally up with each step. If only they could do this for people with more complicated taxes (people with mortgages, kids, and businesses). What if you could take a photo of every receipt and taxable event throughout the year, and then add your W2 and other tax statements at the end of the year, and be done? Hopefully, this is a first step in that direction.