WSW - Podcast Intuit Accountant Suite is the New QBOA: Pt. 1
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[00:00:00]
Dan DeLong: Oh, welcome to another workshop Wednesday, which is Casual Conversations for Serious Workflows. Looking for the little banner to show up there on the bottom. And it's brought to you by school bookkeeping.com where it's all about keeping to learn.
Learn. Oh my gosh. New year [00:01:00] new mouth
Rachel Dauchy: learning QuickBooks your way.
Dan DeLong: Thank you Rachel. And it's a pleasure to see you again.
Rachel Dauchy: I'm back. I'm back. I hope
Dan DeLong: you took a sabbatical.
Rachel Dauchy: You had Shanna
Dan DeLong: right? So for those that were wondering what happened to Rachel. We did a series on job costing with Shanna Quinn.
And allowed Rachel to take a, step back and focus on her clients and new exciting stuff in your world.
Rachel's Sabbatical and New Acquisition
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Dan DeLong: So how was your sabbatical?
Rachel Dauchy: Rachel? It was great. And by the way I, will say Shanna is the job costing guru, so that I'm sure you guys had a great time.
And I met her at Intuit Connect for the first time, so that was really great. She's super cute and I love her hair.
Dan DeLong: Exactly.
Rachel Dauchy: But [00:02:00] my sabbatical was good, actually. It was really good 'cause I was off with my masters and I just started up back on Monday, so I'm already doing homework again, which is lame.
But I do, I have very, big news. I bought a firm. Woo. I am, for all intents and purposes, pretty much done with the whole process, and it was my first acquisition, and I can't even believe I'm saying words like that because I feel like when I first started, my entrepreneurial journey in really 2019 is when I first started.
I never in a million years would've imagined I would've had 10 employees and a basically two firms. Although now really we're gonna keep net deposited, focusing on the niche of e-commerce and inventory [00:03:00] and, with the out, with the external inventory platform, software specialization, and then really bookkeeping and accounting with.
Core Financial Pros, which is the name of the business that I bought from Sharon Fuller, who is your co-host on the Power Hour.
Dan DeLong: I had nothing to do with that. I just happened to
Rachel Dauchy: be
No, and I sometimes, I think people forget, Sharon was the 2025 Intuit Educator, pro Advisor of the year.
Yeah. So she's very well known and she really specializes in. Scaling a business. And actually the reason that she wanted to sell the business is 'cause she's really focusing more on her community, which is clone and conquer, which is to scale a business, clone your processes. Not only is she a great accountant.
She is an amazing entrepreneur [00:04:00] in building a business specifically for bookkeepers and accountants, and her community is just getting going with that. With, I know she's actually sold a business before, but with this one. Specifically, it's really for her clone and conquer community, which I know she's gonna have a lot of information coming out about that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. It's really exciting stuff for both of you and, I'm, glad to just even know you both so
Rachel Dauchy: I am telling you, and I told you before, I would not even be where I am with net deposit if it weren't for you, dad.
Holiday Updates and Personal Anecdotes
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Dan DeLong: And hopefully you and your family had a wonderful holiday holiday.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, we did. We did. We didn't get as much snow as we wanted. We traveled to Seattle where my family is to go skiing and there was no snow, which is unfortunate. But I do also have an update for you. This is a message from my husband.
[00:05:00] He says, you have a really good voice.
Dan DeLong: Oh, yeah. When I worked. Actually it's funny because that was when I first I would get feedback about my voice a lot people 'cause
Rachel Dauchy: very deep,
Dan DeLong: you should be on the radio and
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: All those things. And then I would break the news like that's what I studied in, in, in college was video and RA radio production.
But, my, one of my coaches there at Intuit, he called me in after I was talking to somebody. He's your voice is just so calming.
Rachel Dauchy: I was like, it's, and that's probably what made you so good at your job at Intuit with troubleshooting and a lot of that. And it probably set a lot of people at ease.
That's why you're a great educator.
Dan DeLong: Yeah they would, come in with their hair on fire ah, yeah, I can't do payroll. And just. [00:06:00] The, timur of my and tone, it would just. Seemed to calm them down like he was listening to the call at the time. He is you just said something and they were like, ah, okay, you.
Rachel Dauchy: That's probably not my forte. I probably would like them up into a bigger frezy hold.
Dan DeLong: When you need somebody to get stuff done, that's where Rachel comes in. She's the clicker.
Announcements and Future Plans
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Dan DeLong: But did want to give a couple announcements on the school bookkeeping side of things. You saw the intro where Blake was talking about the earmark CPE.
We are going to put a pause on that. In the coming years. So 2026, you can still go to our earmark channel on on earmark and any of the. The historical ones. They're good, I think for a year. So you can always go to [00:07:00] the earmark channel for school bookkeeping at the earmark app and still get CPE credits.
But moving forward in 2026 new workshops will not be eligible for CPE which is totally fine. We appreciate our friends over there. They, do a great job. So now moving into our topic du jour and actually topic due month, I think is the not topic of the day. What is, month in French?
I don't,
Rachel Dauchy: I'll have to ask my daughter. She's taken four years of it, but I don't even really, she probably wouldn't even know. Yeah. I dunno where this is going. In her mind, she's taken French for a long time.
Dan DeLong: She's planning on. Going abroad, apparently.
Rachel Dauchy: Actually she is going to France this summer and I'm, we're hoping that the immersion into the actual culture will help.[00:08:00]
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Taking French and middle school And high school hasn't or,
Dan DeLong: or Quebec, one of the two.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Either gonna end up in France or. French Canadian.
Intuit Accountant Suite Overview
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Dan DeLong: So this month we're going to be unpacking the Intuit accountant suite. So we'll break it up into four major topics. So there's a lot to take in.
So we'll first talk about today about just some of the. The overview navigational changes, because that's typically the first thing you noticed is where did this go? When you're, opting in, we'll talk about some of the, the thoughts of as we try to speculate.
What was Intuit thinking when they decided to make these changes? But then in the coming weeks we'll, break down some of the newer functions of the Intuit Accountant Suite. So Books Close, which is [00:09:00] a new function or feature and the client insights. Coming into that, and I will probably segue into, what does an accounting firm.
Need to be able to Yeah. Work with clients so we'll. In the coming year we're looking to create a a course at school bookkeeping about accounting firms and, fulfilling the accounting technical needs of, firms. We'll be discussing some of those topics in our upcoming workshops.
I put in the comments or the chat, where did I put it? I put into links for, some blogs that we're gonna be talking about. And I had created one on, a while ago. Actually right after, we went to Intuit Connect. [00:10:00] And let me just share my screen here real quick. And there it is.
Okay. Where do we go?
We usually, when I share stuff it, it doesn't take up the full screen and we get to, we get the stole look at it anyway.
Rachel Dauchy: This is good actually because I feel like it, the screen, when you shared your screen, it wasn't as big before and I had a hard time seeing it. This I can see a little bit better.
Dan DeLong: Okay. That's all making good things. Good for, you, All right. At first what was your first thought when you saw it at, at in Intuit Connect. And I know you opted into the
Rachel Dauchy: I did. Yeah. I I knew that they were switching to that before Intuit Connect, and I think yeah, they, it did give you, although remember we were talking about it, it wasn't like you couldn't see it, but for [00:11:00] some reason I did, like I, my version of it, I must have been able to opt into it sooner and I did just 'cause I wanted to get used to it.
I thought it was. I thought it was fine. My, my attitude towards it is always, I don't really have a choice. I have to, it's, I, it's, I'm going to have to use it, so I might as well just do it. At first though, I thought probably what everybody else did in that. I thought, is this, are they just rearranging things on the screen and just giving it a new look and giving me a headache or are they adding some things that are useful?
And I'm a really, heavy right tool user. I've always had that caveat before. And I really default to right tool. And [00:12:00] and that, that's nothing more than a tool that's on the right hand side of the screen. That is a. An add-on that you can use to navigate around.
And because I'm so dependent on that I don't usually use the actual QBO navigation, but I have noticed that they have added some things that I have found useful for sure. I don't think it's, a waste at all. I think it looks good.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah. That's, the first thing is that.
The navigation changes and trying to find where something moved to is part of the, take a step back to move forward. And then the more struggle that you find in that finding of those things, it tends to. Either support, yes, this was good change [00:13:00] or no.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And and if I have to use up a whole bunch of time searching for something, I'm just like, forget it.
Tool put it as a shortcut on my right tool. But I will say an example of what I'm meaning is that first example you have there with the client list. I like the new view of the client list, and what I mean by that is you can just show the ones that are act an actual QBO subscription.
Because what it looked like to me before was sometimes I had customers that I didn't necessarily have a connected QBO. In my QBOA, which is what it used to be called, QuickBooks Online Accountant. Now it's Intuit Accountant Suite. But, it used to be that, that I would sometimes see all these random little customers that maybe I would just send a [00:14:00] one-off invoice to, but I didn't necessarily have a connected QBO and in that new.
View in the client list, you can actually filter those out and you can have a view of just my connected Q Bs, which I really like because I like it more streamlined. So that's just one example of I, like it. I, think it's a net positive.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Good. I figured out the problem here, so I'm gonna share my screen again.
Oh. There's a layout thing. Oh, where'd it go? No, there. Look at that. How's that?
Rachel Dauchy: Oh, did, yeah. Did this program like change their layout too? Don't you love it when they do that? Yeah,
Dan DeLong: exactly. Or we could do it down. We're helping.
Rachel Dauchy: Here
Dan DeLong: we go. There we go. Now we're, oh
Rachel Dauchy: yeah,
Dan DeLong: that's good. Yeah. Alright.
Okay. So we can change the layout there in the in the little studio here, [00:15:00] but but yeah, the bar, the blog article that I wrote here has pretty much high level what is, what has changed. Intuit has created a nice article two which kind of goes through and I made this a little bigger so we can, see it.
Oh my goodness. And what's nice about this one, and it's in the, it's in the chat there as well, is it has not a side by side, but a, like a before and after. Screenshots. So they go through, oh, that's nice. Each major, section, and and gives you an idea of how, it looked before so that you can you, get an idea of where it is now.
So to your point, the client, list was. A little bit. You could do the same some of the things that you were talking [00:16:00] about in the old client list, but in the new one it, it's just a little bit more smoother. Yeah. So this one here,
Rachel Dauchy: I like, yeah, that's what I'm talking about,
Dan DeLong: looking for subscriptions.
And then let's see here. I don't know why this. Banner at the top is so freaking large when I scroll up, but that's that's 'cause I'm zooming in so that we can see things a little better.
User Interface Changes and Navigation
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Dan DeLong: But that's the biggest the, first thing is the user interface has changed quite a bit, it is mirroring the new user interface of QuickBooks online for your clients.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah,
Dan DeLong: it would be. Quite cumbersome to have this user interface for QuickBooks Online Accountant. And then going in, you see something like this for your clients to go back and forth. Once you're [00:17:00] used to the new user interface, I think. Finding things will be a lot easier. I am still stumbling, looking for certain features, like where did it go?
Like, where's the fixed asset management list? I don't know You gotta hunt those things down. But that's to your point where you would just use a tried and true thing, like right tool or something like that didn't change to find those things that much easier.
But the first big thing that is changing is of course the left side navigation overhaul. So it's, changed from this section of your practice and your books into this hodgepodge of. Apps
Yes.
And, sections that are on the, left side that are, it's customizable. So you can change that the way that you wanna see it [00:18:00] put app areas better or in put app areas in different areas that, that maybe you might be more, more used to working with.
To make the NA left side navigator navigation. More customized. Which is, what, that, that's the whole thing is doing things for you or your teammates that you, that you focus on, right? So if you have in your firm of 10 people now you might not everybody does the same thing.
So they might want to have different workflows or different. Apps or bookmarks or sections of,
Rachel Dauchy: of, yeah. And even me, there's certain things I don't wanna go into anymore. Now that I've got team members doing things maybe that I used to do that I, I don't want that in my view anymore.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And then the, [00:19:00] one of the first things that we wanna talk about is, the when it was announced the changes that were coming to, the, this, platform there was a lot of verbiage that was used that made things seem like they're, things are going away.
Like they would announce things like QBOA is going away. That is a knee jerk reaction.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Especially,
Rachel Dauchy: we're not having account accountants anymore for our accounting software.
Dan DeLong: Exactly right. This is just another the way that they mentioned it at Intuit Connect, I probably, wasn't the best way for the audience that was there
Rachel Dauchy: Right.
Dan DeLong: To hear that. And especially along the same lines of, proAdvisor is being reimagined. This is the [00:20:00] second time that they've reimagined the ProAdvisor program.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, I was just gonna say that. Yeah. And what about what they said about ProAdvisors? Who knows? Exactly.
Dan DeLong: So QBOA as QBOA is going away, right?
Yeah. And then that's and, part of that is is a branding thing for Intuit,
Rachel Dauchy: which is a good thing 'cause we all knew that it was annoying. We have QBOA QB online, QBO online advanced.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: And that was always confusing 'cause we'd go, not that QBOA, accountant not advanced.
And so I think that was probably effort to
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Quell that confusion.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And they've always had an intuit. Branding problem. You've seen this over the past couple years.
Branding and Marketing Shifts
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Dan DeLong: When you see the Super Bowl commercials or any commercials that are on, they always put the word into it [00:21:00] in front of whatever product, right?
Into a MailChimp, into a Credit Karma, into it, QuickBooks, on the commercials so this is following suit with that, right? The Intuit Enterprise Suite. And now we have the Intuit Accountant Suite in replacing of the, quickBooks online accountant. Because it's more than the whole idea is that it's designed to be more than that, right?
It's not just QuickBook line for accountants, it's the accountant suite. And,
Rachel Dauchy: which it's weird. It's like you almost, to me it almost seems and I don't necessarily know the driving motivation behind it, but it's going from what seemed like its own. Branded product that you wouldn't even necessarily know was an Intuit product, which was QuickBooks.
7, 8, 9, 10 years [00:22:00] ago, it was QuickBooks. And now I feel like there's a bigger push to make sure that it's being lumped in with other Intuit products. And I, and maybe it's. For some more brand awareness for Intuit. I'm not really sure why. The brand awareness for QuickBooks was very high and it still is.
And, so I don't, really know why they walk, but it's obvious they want to get away from QuickBooks as a standalone brand, and they want it under the realm of Intuit. It's very deliberate.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And, their messaging or their marketing messaging that is, is very specific. I Alicia Kaz Pollack and myself, we've been corrected, a [00:23:00] couple times for that or, suggested that when we talk about, QuickBooks, we'll, talk about QuickBooks on the Intuit platform, where that, yeah. That is the, idea. And I, get where they're coming from because,
Rachel Dauchy: wait, they do or they don't want you to say it that way?
Dan DeLong: They wanna, yes it's, QuickBooks on the Intuit platform, right?
Rachel Dauchy: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Which is really weird because like when I first got my ProAdvisor. Several years ago, I remember, like I was looking through the the, rules and regulations and you were not allowed to say that you were an Intuit Pro advisor.
You had to say you were a QuickBooks Pro advisor. Yeah. And I remember that being very specific and I was like, oh, that's definitely a branding thing. They really want those separated. And now it seems like it's the complete opposite.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. But considering their core. Suite of services that they have.
Like [00:24:00] Intuit MailChimp, TurboTax, and and, QuickBooks. If you have access to all of them in one place, which, that's where they're headed, right? That's ultimately what things what they're hoping to do.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. As an end user, right?
Introduction to Intuit Accountant Suite
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Rachel Dauchy: Not as an accountant user.
Dan DeLong: Right.
Rachel Dauchy: Don't try and do that.
Dan DeLong: They are starting to incorporate these features in one place. And that, yeah, that's the main goal of this Intuit accountant suite is for accountants to be able to do things in this platform that doesn't require them to go into their. Their client's QuickBooks.
They, maybe they can do some things and we'll talk about that when with books closed and when we get to client insights and things.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that you can pretty much stay within [00:25:00] one place and you don't have to open up another tab or go into another, link or website in order to in order to complete the, functions that you're trying to do.
Yeah. If,
Skepticism and Concerns
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Rachel Dauchy: but I don't know why. I always get the, do you watch Stranger Things?
Dan DeLong: Yes.
Rachel Dauchy: Okay. So you know how Will gets that like weird, like tickle on the back of his neck whenever vena's around, whenever this, you don't have to log into here and all your stuff is gonna be in one spot. I get that same like creepy, weird feeling.
'cause I'm like. Really? I dunno, I'll believe that when I say it.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. There's there's, some things that I saw in the no webinar. They're, talking about as far as roadmap the things that we'll see today are probably not. What we might see tomorrow, but the goal is for less clicks.
[00:26:00] So to be able to do the things in one place that modifies something else. And
Rachel Dauchy: yeah I hope that can happen successfully. 'cause I I will say I have used other systems in the past, in other jobs. And it things have worked more cohesively than Intuit products that I have used. And so that's all I'm saying.
I'm not trying to put them down. I'm just saying that historically my use of QuickBooks logging in here, logging in there and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and this product and that product, it's been very convoluted and I am hesitant to jump on that bandwagon and say, oh, it's gonna be so great. Because I've had a lot of trouble and with the, I don't know, with just a lot of the logging in and, for a lot of different reasons.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And the flip there is a flip side to that coin [00:27:00] that when you do have all your eggs in one basket. And there is a problem with that basket. You're pretty much
Rachel Dauchy: yeah, that's what I'm saying. So who wants to go there anyway? Remember the combination TV VCR and the one thing, it's like, what happens if the VCR breaks then you know, you still have to use this ratchet tv, right?
And then what if the VCR works and the TV doesn't work? Then it's like rendered useless. So I feel like we could learn. The mistakes of come all in eggs, all in one basket history.
We need to revisit history and see how that worked.
Dan DeLong: But we always I think it's human nature to be like, this time it's different.
Comparing Intuit with Apple
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Rachel Dauchy: Actually who does it really well? Apple.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah. They're always reinventing.
Rachel Dauchy: They are. And I. [00:28:00] Logging into iCloud and then my information is there and then this and that, and they seem to not have royally screwed that up. I seem to feel that's a cohesive space because they have different products.
They've got iPhone, iMac, iCloud. Whatever. And I do feel like when I log into that, I'm seeing the footprint of my other stuff. I'm not really able to describe it the right way into it. On the other hand, I, yeah, I would, I couldn't say that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. There there's two sides to that story, right?
I'm wearing my, my, my new air pods that I got for Christmas, right? Oh. And with my iPhone and my Mac, sometimes those two fight [00:29:00] for supremacy of which one is actually connected, especially when. I'm physically sitting in relatively close to both of them.
Rachel Dauchy: I know the apple, I, the iPods are so presumptuous.
I'm like, don't just assume that you're gonna be connected to my laptop, like you belong on my phone.
Dan DeLong: Right.
Rachel Dauchy: Actually that's the Mac, that's that, the MacBook that's doing that, not the actual AirPods. Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you.
Dan DeLong: AirPods the flip side of that. But the flip side of that.
Having, when you have text forwarding and things connected to your, from your mac to your phone,
Rachel Dauchy: that can be dangerous.
Dan DeLong: It's, so convenient to start a conversation on your phone and continue it on your computer.
Rachel Dauchy: I do that every day.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So you can see things back and forth.
And those types of things. So like the, convenience factor that they have figured out there always shows up in a, [00:30:00] flip side of that, in something else.
Potential Issues with Integration
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Dan DeLong: And Intuit is going to probably have the same problems, right? Because if they have a problem with their payroll service and it's all that you're using this platform of connected services, it only takes one of those.
Failures of those, of some of those systems to potentially spoil the entire basket for everything. Right?
Yeah.
Yeah. 'cause especially when you're dealing with real money movement, I think that is a, concern for, for Intuit and, all of the small businesses that when they're using, when they're relying on Intuit to, make those real things happen in the real world. And one of them doesn't it then has that casts a shadow of doubt on the other services that they might be, might,
Rachel Dauchy: yeah and I think that a lot of us [00:31:00] out there are like, we like improvements. That's fine. Engineer something really cool and I'm gonna get on board, but don't mess up what?
We are already using and doing. And that's, unfortunately that's happening. It's reports are getting goofed up and functionality is getting goofed up. And we're that's a topic for another day, but that's happening. And there's a lot of folks that have their feathers ruffled about that, including me.
Dan DeLong: Exactly. So the.
Changes in Intuit Accountant Suite
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Dan DeLong: Let's, get back to what's changed in inside of QBOA. Now Intuit Accountant Suite, which first we wanna also mention that there are going to be two flavors of Intuit Accountant Suite. There is going to be an Intuit accountant Suite core, which for the time being is.
Totally free. And that essentially if you're thinking, oh, my QBOA is going away, I won't have a free option [00:32:00] as an accountant, they have cleaned that. When you use Core Intuit Accountant Suite, suite core, then that will stay free.
Rachel Dauchy: Yep. Yeah, I forgot about that. That's really cool.
Dan DeLong: There is a feature in core that's available in Core that. We'll likely have a cost associated with it. And that's the books close. We'll talk about that next week. But you don't have to sign up for that if you don't want to. Yeah. You don't have to use the books close feature. You can still be Intuit account suite core and pay nothing.
Yeah. And of course we are. We are unaware of what those announcements would be. They said May or so we'll, probably there will be some kind of formal announcement because they're gathering usage data and feedback and all of those things during [00:33:00] this extended beta period.
But it just, the core functionality when you opt in to the Intuit Accountant Suite core, or. Or Accelerate. Accelerate is the other one that will have books close as well as client insights and some other, features that have yet to be fleshed out yet.
Rachel Dauchy: That, I know a lot of people are a fan of that because then you'll, you're gonna weed out people that aren't really using it to do client work.
And i, and I'm I'm a fan of that too.
ProAdvisor Program and Certification
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Rachel Dauchy: But what I was gonna ask you is, do you know, or have you heard of yet about the ProAdvisor being connected to that at all? The way that it is now? Because what I really wanna know is, and the only thing I care about [00:34:00] is I don't really I'll pay for it.
I'm gonna get it. And because I wanna designate myself as a paying. QBO into an accountant suite user, because I want to be in the community and I want to get the insights and I want to be in that, but and I'm willing to pay for it as opposed to people that don't wanna pay for it. 'cause I am a serious user.
But what I, am very curious to know is, there going to be some. Level two or advanced ProAdvisor or something that we can have some kind of recognition. For by upgrading and paying for QBOA?
Dan DeLong: Yeah, I I imagine we'll find out
Rachel Dauchy: into an account suite. Sorry, I can't stop saying qbo A
Dan DeLong: At least you didn't say, you're not saying QOA.[00:35:00]
Somebody called, I remember somebody called it when we were piloting and they're like, what's this C OA all about?
Oh my gosh.
It's a QuickBook snake, that it suffocates you. Anyway, gosh, I imagine that there were, there is going to be more, information about that in, in May, right?
Yeah.
Because that's what they that's what they were teeing up in, into a connect. And if history is a predictor of the future they will likely. Change the terms associated, and the, actual naming convention, not the terms of service but they'll, probably change the term of ProAdvisor because it, has been slowly being removed from other [00:36:00] things as far as,
Rachel Dauchy: yeah.
Yeah.
Dan DeLong: But I don't know if there is going to be a paid pro-advisor membership. Other than what, what exists today?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: But the whole idea of of being a pro advisor is if Intuit provides training and services and and, access,
Rachel Dauchy: the search should be listed in their directory.
To me, that's the most important part of it. And if that isn't really gonna be a thing anymore and we're on our own with Google and whatnot, that's fine, but I just really wanna know what the situation is going to be.
Dan DeLong: And, you started to see this when the incorporated the point system, with, the different tiers.
Yeah. And definitely connect more. [00:37:00] Subscriptions, more clients with more points and the very they would weigh different services with different points.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah,
Dan DeLong: So you can, see what they're incentivizing, right? Bring, yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: That's what I was just gonna say is you've gotta have some kind of incentive incentivize in what?
Incentivizations, I don't even know the right word. You've gotta have something because otherwise. You're gonna lose a lot of people. And people like to know that they've ratcheted up, I did this, check the box, did this check that, And they've jumped through these hoops and they've achieved a certain status.
Regardless of it is meaningless or meaningful, it doesn't really matter, but it is, it feels tangible for some people. Then you have, and the reason that I like the this paid [00:38:00] option is because I know that a lot of people are hacking the system and getting A-Q-B-O-A version just to have a free.
QuickBooks instance. And so I'm sure they're probably wanting to get rid of that, which I am too. And I don't like people doing that. And so I'm hoping that like overall it's a positive thing and they get what they're seeking and we get what is important to us. That's really the only outcome that I care about.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And there are always there there are people outside of Intuit. That that are t that are seek, they're finding opportunities in the way things that are structured. And you mentioned that. A there's, a way to get a free QBOA QBO company if you just sign up as an accountant.
You don't [00:39:00] have to prove anything.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And if I were in charge, it Intuit, that's the fir one of the first things I would try and make going to,
Dan DeLong: and that has always been something that has been hard to police, right? Because they started off with that policy of, Hey, you just need to sign in, and you're, a.
A cloud ProAdvisor, which is what they've called it at first, but A-A-Q-B-O, a ProAdvisor, or whatever you wanna call it today, whether or not you had clients, and that's where they started with the whole points system.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: And then, other ways that they've been trying to do that is limiting functions when you don't have.
Paying clients as part of your firm.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: All of these little things that they've been trying to do to, not police, to to make sure that the right user is in the [00:40:00] right place. Yeah.
And, avoid those things, right? And certification was always one of those things, one of those ways that you could distinguish yourself as a person.
But there's plenty of bad actors out there who you go to Fiverr and search for ProAdvisor certification. There's plenty of people in there that are willing to. Take the test for you.
Rachel Dauchy: Are you serious? I didn't know that.
Dan DeLong: Oh, yeah. I,
Rachel Dauchy: dunno if you need somebody to take that test for you.
I don't think it's all that hard.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. I've reached out or I've been, reached out to, and somebody has actually offered to take the test. I'm like, wait a minute.
Rachel Dauchy: Okay. We, I'm sorry.
That's insane
Dan DeLong: because that was a requirement to get your, your your pub your thing [00:41:00] published. Your profile was published. You couldn't publish your profile as advisor unless you passed a certification. You know that. Opportunity knocks when you know.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. It's hard when you're a software company wanting to make money, right?
You're like, anybody's an accountant. Woo.
And then,
Dan DeLong: and also in the grand scheme of things, right? If you're not paying for something, you are the product, right? Yeah. Those types of things. If you know you, you can't have it both ways. You can't have everything given to you and assume that just because, you, you are potentially who you say you are, right? I'm, yeah. I'm a pro advisor. Intuit has to have some skin in ha have,
yeah.
Have you have some skin in the game. And that's where points came in. It's okay, bring in some clients. We'll give you these tiers. Right now the grand scheme of.
The ProAdvisor [00:42:00] program, are those tiers worth the tears? Or the sweat or the blood, that you're doing in order to make those tears that remains to be seen. And it,
Rachel Dauchy: I don't think I, it really matters to clients, but, so I, don't mind
Dan DeLong: an elite pro advisor.
What does that mean, right?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, because I am, but. I don't think anybody cares but I'll say like I said, I don't mind paying for it, but if you're listening into it, I don't wanna pay a lot calm down.
Dan DeLong: Right.
Rachel Dauchy: I'm not talking $600.
Pricing and Value Considerations
---
Dan DeLong: Ultimately, I think that's what, they're trying to figure out.
What's the price point for these features that, that people. Would find value in. We're at this point in the, in, in the iteration of Intuit Accountant Suite as they're trying to [00:43:00] figure these things out. Yeah. And it's not a great place to be as an accountant accounting professional because there's a lot of change.
There's a lot of things happening that didn't happen yesterday. And all you're trying to do is just take care of your clients.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And that's the thing is, that's why I don't see realistically firms like mine. It doesn't make sense to do all things Intuit. We never will. I am even testing out different general ledgers and like within the inventory space.
We're already work in different accounting software, so sorry. There's no way I would put. All of my everything in two Intuit, only to have them stab me in the back and say, oh, guess what? Now to use [00:44:00] Intuit Accounting Suite is gonna be $2,700 a year. That's not, no way. No way. That's not gonna fly.
Dan DeLong: Because, you take a look at the desktop pricing, right? And that's now that you're there, right? Or, if you like desktop. And you want to stay in desktop, it's getting more and more painful because Yeah, that's the lever that Intuit is, is bearing down on people, is making people uncomfortable with paying the price.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah and I already, one hand can count several other cloud-based AI that their is better than Intuit that I could use to do the bookkeeping for my clients Now. I also use other apps. I just, I, you can't argue the fact that Intuit is, or QuickBooks there's errors in it right now.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. [00:45:00]
Conclusion and Next Steps
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Dan DeLong: So I was gonna go through the, changes here, but we're already at 45 minutes.
Rachel Dauchy: Well, and we just had so much gossiping to do about Intuit. I'm sorry. It was necessary.
Dan DeLong: Exactly. So we are going to table the the navigational changes for next week. And then we'll go into the books close and the client oversights oversight insights, not oversight.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: It's not insights, it's it's, not oversight, it's insight.
Rachel Dauchy: You know what though? The one thing I'll say just to wrap that up though, is the other part of firm ownership is that you spend so much money, it's astronomical. And and I'm an app gal like. Diversifying all the apps, but it does get to a point where it's cost prohibitive.
And so the idea of doing the books close in [00:46:00] a product that you're already paying for or utilizing this little thing for a product you're already paying for, I, that's not the worst thing in the world. There's options. We have a lot of different options, and I think that's ultimately why things get very confusing is because you can do this here, you can do that there. You don't have to, but you can. And it's it's a lot.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And I think ultimately that's where QuickBooks is Sweet spot is not to use Accountant Suite as a pun, but I did, is that, QuickBooks and Intuit and the platform, we'll do a lot of things.
For a lot of people, but it won't do everything for everyone.
No.
So that's where you need to find where your lane is and it's with your clients. Is, this sufficient for what I, need my, my, my [00:47:00] firm and team to do? Or do I need more than what QuickBooks is offered?
Yeah.
Or is it good to have your be able to pivot and have both so that if there is a blockage on one or the other, you are not, you're not dead in the water by,
Rachel Dauchy: yeah.
Yep.
Dan DeLong: Able to, or not being able to work if something is is down. So next week we'll go over, the, navigational changes. Where, did this go? Where did that move to with Intuit Accountant Suite. And we'll continue on with this journey this month on, qBOA, IT or Intuit accountant suite, which
Rachel Dauchy: qoa
Dan DeLong: qa,
Rachel Dauchy: not to be confused with
Dan DeLong: Qdoba, right?
Rachel Dauchy: The taco restaurant.
Dan DeLong: That's delicious. Not as delicious as QBOA.
Rachel Dauchy: Bye on
Dan DeLong: the [00:48:00] workshop Wednesday. Have a great day everyone. [00:49:00]
