Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/667870
12th Annual COMPANY OVERVIEW: Intuit's Accountant Segment is dedicated to helping accounting pro- fessionals save time and grow their practice while confdently helping their clients succeed. Working with Intuit's Small Business Segment, the Accountant Segment supports accounting professionals use and recom- mendation of Intuit's fnancial and employee management solutions, including QuickBooks Online, the number-one cloud accounting solu- tion used by 1,257,000 subscribers worldwide. The Accountant Segment also supports the more than 130,000 global ProAdvisors with products and services that help them serve as strategic advisors to their clients. MARKETS SERVED: Today, our expanding portfolio serves customers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, France, Brazil, Israel and India, making it easier for small business owners and accountants to manage their fnances, offering localized, desktop and online versions of Quick- Books. Our products also have evolved from the desktop to the cloud, with many available online and for mobile devices. PRODUCTS: Our fagship products – QuickBooks, TurboTax, Quicken and Mint – defne our commitment to revolutionize the way people manage their personal fnances, run small businesses and pay employees. Our lineup of tax preparation products helps individuals and small business owners easily and accurately fle their own taxes. And working with accountants, we've become a staple of American small business, with a widespread and deep-rooted presence that's second to none. INTUIT, INC. 2632 Marine Way Mountain View CA 94043 Phone: 650-944-6000 Website: www.Intuit.com Number of employees: 7,700 Year Founded: 1983 16 April 2015 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com ADVERTORIAL Q: What is Intuit's key differentiator in the market? A: We uniquely bring together and connect a global ecosystem of more than 60 million small businesses, developers and accounting professionals. QuickBooks Online is the number one cloud accounting solution for small busi- nesses and accountants worldwide with more than 300,000 accounting professionals using QuickBooks Online Accountant, more than 130,000 ProAdvisors and over 1.2 million paid QuickBooks Online subscribers worldwide. QuickBooks Online was built on an open platform, and to date there are hundreds of apps that integrate with QuickBooks Online in the Intuit marketplace. This means that small businesses can create an online accounting solution that integrates with a variety of apps to meet their specifc needs. It also means that data is shared seamlessly between accounting, tax and app solutions, which helps accounting professionals reduce the amount of time it takes to enter data so they can focus on provid- ing their clients with proactive, strategic advice. We also share the same mission as account- ing professionals: to improve the fnancial lives of customers, which is why we have always viewed accountants as our valued partners and striven to work together on products and services that achieve this common goal. Q: What is Intuit's focus for the account- ing profession over the next 5-10 years? A: We are focused on lowering, if not eliminat- ing, the barrier to help accounting profession- als transition to an online accounting platform so they can focus on being strategic advisors to their clients. We are dedicated to providing even further product integration end-to-end, from book- keeping to tax. For example, Trial Balance, a new feature within QuickBooks Online Accountant, makes it easier for accountants to move client data from QuickBooks Online to Intuit Tax Online. As a result, accountants can save hours of time when reviewing year- end QuickBooks Online clients' books by performing and saving all their work directly in QuickBooks Online Accountant. We're also concentrating on workfow and automation tools that will eliminate data entry on the front end of all accounting systems. Updated automation processes address a common problem that frms are facing: they can't fnd employees to do low-level data entry work. At the same time, this digitalization of the practice makes it easier to change to value pricing and add in advisory services as another major revenue stream. Finally, we are focused on helping account- ing professionals transform their practices into frms of the future by aiding them as they tran- sition to the cloud, becoming trusted advisors and connecting with clients and prospects. Q: In addition to anytime, anywhere access, what other benefts do online accounting solutions offer accounting professionals? A: The time savings and effciencies gained by moving to online accounting solutions provide accounting professionals more time to serve their clients as true strategic advi- sors. As a trusted advisor, accounting profes- sionals improve clients' fnancial lives with valuable advice and guidance. Intuit provides QuickBooks Online wholesale billing to accounting professionals using QuickBooks Online Accountant, so frms can bundle ser- vices in easy-to-buy service packages, which leads to closer, more transparent client rela- tionships. Inspired by our accounting part- ners, we offer QuickBooks Online Accountant for free, including Trial Balance, designed to help reduce or eliminate manual data import, export and entry work to help accounting pro- fessionals save 5.3 hours on average. Additionally, apps and the data that inte- grates between these products also saves accountants time. Our app partnership with Fathom, exclusively for QuickBooks ProAdvisors, gives ProAdvisors the opportu- nity to provide better performance insights to their small business clients. Q: What are you doing to help account- ing professionals adapt to the adoption of online accounting solutions and transition to become a frm of the future? A: We know that for those who have never tried an online accounting platform, the pros- pect of switching can be intimidating. That's why we provide accounting professionals with the free ProAdvisor Program. Accounting pro- fessionals have access to one free QuickBooks Online account to use themselves. In addition to the one free QuickBooks Online account and free access to QuickBooks Online Accountant, ProAdvisors also receive certain benefts, including free trainings, phone and chat support, exclusive third party app offers, and more. We've also integrated the Find-a- ProAdvisor listing service directly within QuickBooks Online and improved its func- tionality so that ProAdvisors can differentiate themselves by more accurately describing their expertise, thus making it easier for small busi- nesses to fnd a QuickBooks Online Certifed ProAdvisor. In fact, the Find-a-ProAdvisor website gets almost 700,000 unique visitors each year and is responsible for more than 130,000 connections every year. Jim McGinnis Vice President, Accountant Segment Jim McGinnis is the leader of Intuit's Account- ant Segment and has led accountant teams since he joined Intuit in 2010 as vice president of marketing. His extensive marketing, general man- agement and global experience has been invaluable as the Accountant Segment continues to serve as a center of excel- lence for Intuit's worldwide efforts with accountants. Before joining Intuit, Jim was executive vice president and general manager of Activision's $400M Licensed Products Division, where he was responsible for videogames associated with blockbuster movies franchises such as Shrek, Trans- formers, James Bond and Spiderman. Previously, Jim led marketing for Pep- siCo's Tropicana business, where he was responsible for the company's $3B juice and juice drink portfolio, including the acquisition of Naked Juice in 2009. Earlier in his time at PepsiCo, Jim led marketing for Smiths Snackfood in Australia. Before that, Jim introduced Proctor & Gamble's detergent portfolio into China and later into Argentina as they expanded globally in the 1990's. Jim received his B.A. from Duke Uni- versity and his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chi- cago, the Chicago Yacht Club, and leads the Duke Alumni Association in Dallas, TX. Jim is married and has two young sons, James and Charlie.