I just used my 2004 Quicken for Mac and exported from the FILE menu a full export to the Quicken backup folder. I am running 2004 for Mac on a flat screen iMac(PPC) with 10.4.11. I then used the terminal mode restart on the old Mac and connected to the new iMac(intel) running OSX 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) with a firewire cable (needed a cable converter for the old (400) and new (800)firewire port). I opened the Quicken for Mac 2007 Lion compatible version on the new mac and used the open file option from the file drop down menu. I opened the newly created QIF export in the old Mac from the new Lion version and saved a copy in the new Quicken Backup folder. Presto! All accounts and balances transferred into the new 2007 Lion version. Now not everything transferred over to the new version but the accounts all did with correct balances as well. The items missing were mostly preferences and setup configurations. These were easily matched with the old 2004 by adding upcoming and scheduled bills, hide and show accounts in the accounts window, toolbar accounts, and quickfill transactions. I just copied manually the scheduled bills. Edited the accounts shown and hidden at the same time as I checked the accounts I wanted shown in the toolbar. I used the registers to re-spell a word in old transactions and hit enter to create new quickfill items. I finished the conversion by editing the toolbars to match what I was using in the 2004 version and that was enough for me to get rolling. So, long story short, no Quicken Essentials conversion, no Quicken for Mac 2005, 2006, conversion from Essentials, and no conversion back to 2007 from Essentials was needed. No file exchange utility needed. Maybe it's just the PPC version that creates the .qif file but since I never had 2004,2005, or 2006 on an Intel Mac, I really don't know what the "export full copy" creates on those. I know if you try to save a copy, it creates a .qdfm file that the new Quicken for Mac 2007 Lion or the 2007 version will NOT import or open it with a note telling you 2004 is not compatible to update. Just food for thought.