The Top 10 QB Connect 2023 Announcements

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Hector: Welcome to the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. I am joined by my good friend Alicia Katz Pollock, the original, the one and only Rockstar CEO and founder of Royal Y solutions.

Alicia: And I have the privilege of collaborating with Hector Garcia, CPA, the founder of Right Tool for QuickBooks.

Hector: I know this episode of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. [00:00:30] We're going to be covering all the announcements from the QuickBooks connect conference in Las Vegas on November 2023. Hi, Alicia, how are you?

Alicia: Hey, Hector. I'm great. I think I finally recovered from the conference.

Hector: Yeah, the conference was great. It was exciting. You know, you come back home with this renewed level of excitement and hope for what Intuit and QuickBooks is going to do for accountants in the future, including big announcements from many of the heads. You know, Mariana David, [00:01:00] Cassie Devine, Jeremy Saltsman, Ted Callahan, you know, like all the all the big heads that are basically in charge of QuickBooks partnerships and accountant relationships were all on stage talking about, you know, the Intuit has big plans to partner with accountants in the future. And we're going to mention the top ten things that stood out in the conference for us. So I'm going to mention all ten of them really quick. And then we're [00:01:30] going to go through them fairly quickly. So first is the reimagined ProAdvisor program, which we actually just covered in a past episode in detail. So we'll skip through any details on that. The second one is QuickBooks ledger. And we have a couple of updates because we did cover a more speculative type of episode a couple of episodes back, but we're going to cover the things that maybe we we weren't so clear about. And now we have total clarity on. The third one was QuickBooks Accountant Edition permissions for team [00:02:00] members. And this this got a lot of claps because a lot of firm leaders want to add more and more of their members to access QuickBooks, the QuickBooks online ecosystem, to serve the clients, but they want to have limitation in what those team members do for the firm accessing the firm's books. And that was something that was completely overlooked for a very long time. The fourth one was QuickBooks Online chart of Account templates, which we covered on a on a previous episode, but we have a small update to that very exciting one as well. [00:02:30]

Hector: The fifth one was and this one. This one got also a lot of high fives and and standing ovation is bringing true payroll job costing to QuickBooks online. And that's huge. It feels like it's niche but but based on how many people were excited about that maybe it's not so niche after all. Then we have balance sheet budgets, like being able to to bring budgets in for your balance sheet. So we'll do a couple of updates on that. And then the one that wasn't really mentioned on [00:03:00] stage, but they said, hey, go, go talk to the people in the booth, the QuickBooks booth, the innovation booth to discuss what they're working on. So they were showing us this, this new thing they're working on, which is called custom KPIs. So we'll discuss that briefly because that's really cool as a reports person, as an advisor, a custom KPIs. Very exciting. The eighth one is adding AI or Intuit Assist or generative AI driven analysis to reports to management [00:03:30] reports. And they showed us a quick preview of what that may look like. That was super cool and exciting. The ninth one is this thing that they're called, they're calling accountant approved apps or accountant approved app bundles. So we'll discuss exactly what that means. And the 10th one tenth one is and this was really exciting for me because I'm an inventory head, is bringing sales orders finally into QuickBooks online and bringing much more of that multi-location type of inventory functionality, [00:04:00] but bringing it into the world of e-commerce or the world of what they're calling commerce, which is a Post-trade gecko acquisition. So you want to add anything, Alicia, before we jump in?

Alicia: Yeah, there's a number 11. There's a new partnership with Allstate for insurance.

Hector: Oh, that's interesting too. We'll discuss that as well. So we have 11 top 11. You messed up our title. It was going to be top ten. Now it's top 11 anyway. So let's start with the reimagined ProAdvisor program. We don't need to discuss anything about this because [00:04:30] we actually went into deep detail on a previous episode, and you're going to be hearing more from Jim the Zoom SaaStr, I think, is his name. He's been doing webinars. He's been doing town halls there. There's mixed feelings from people in terms of whether this is good or bad, or losing prior statuses and stuff like that. I have a feeling this stuff is going to play out in the next couple of months, and some of these things might be changed on the spot just because of how people have been reacting to it. So we'll keep [00:05:00] you abreast of any changes to that. But the last episode that we did, everything that we talked about stands 100%. So it's been changed. People statuses are changing, and now people are just going to be learning about the program changes as we go. So the second one was QuickBooks ledger.

Hector: So we did tons of speculations on QuickBooks ledger. We do want to clarify a couple of things from the QuickBooks ledger. Episode number one, Alicia and I were debating whether or not the. Purpose of QuickBooks ledger was to bring your as [00:05:30] an accountant, your QuickBooks desktop clients into it. And the reason why we weren't sure doing this speculative episode is how complicated it is to bring an accrual type of file into these sort of seemingly cash basis style of accounting. So we weren't sure whether or not that was the underlying purpose. But in the main stage at QuickBooks connect, they talked about QuickBooks ledger, and they immediately talked about a firm that they helped move all their desktop clients to the cloud. And it was like [00:06:00] 700 plus clients. And that firm was like, hey, I can't do this one by one. So Intuit is developing a a batch tool for you to convert up to 50 clients at a time. So quick, so 50 desktop files at a time into QuickBooks online. Did you get a chance to look at that? Alicia.

Alicia: Yeah, the fact that you can now not have to do them one at a time. That was what was daunting for a lot of firms that have been 100% is [00:06:30] who's got the time to. You have to take a whole year to move all your clients over. And the idea that you can now do it all in a few hours is pretty transformative.

Hector: Yeah, it's funny you would think that the reason why a lot of firms were not moving from desktop to online is because the costs are not liking online, but it could have been just like, hey, I'm too busy to do the conversion that that could be one. And I did get to see a preview of that tool. And I got to tell you, I'm excited about the the prospect of converting. [00:07:00] I mean, anything that saves me hours of time I'm going to be excited about. I didn't like some of the approach. And I'll tell you what I looked at in the innovation booth. Obviously I haven't done a conversion myself, but you still have to convert every single desktop file one by one. You still have to like press a button, choose all the files you want to convert, and it's going to ask you, hey, if this has inventory, what's the initial data Fifo? And if you done conversions you actually know what I'm talking about. It asks you like, are [00:07:30] you moving? Just just a list. Are you moving the transactions? There's a series of questions that they ask you. That stuff still stays, and you have to do it in your own QuickBooks desktop. And after you finish converting the file, it actually creates a file. It puts it on your desktop or whatever folder you want, a file which is interesting, a file. And then you can and you can do this in batch and you do up to 50 or whatever.

Hector: And then you sort of drag and drop this 50 in the conversion tool and [00:08:00] then all the files get started. So it does save you tons of time. But like in like what I imagined, and obviously I was probably just, you know, dreaming at this point. But what I was imagining is just take my client's cube, a file or cube backup file and just upload it. Like, you know, I didn't want to, like, open desktop to start the conversion process. So I feel that part actually needs to be tweaked a little bit, but that's what it's going to look like. So once we get our hands in this conversion tool, some [00:08:30] of it will still feel familiar because you're sort of initiating still initiating it from QuickBooks desktop just to have to put your admin password. So a lot of things will feel familiar. But the nice thing is, once a file is done converting, the next file opens, and then the next file opens and the next file opens. So that part is kind of neat. You know that you're not like actually going out and hunting the file. Each time you pick all 50 files you want to convert and it takes you through the cycles. So not bad. I think it's a good version one.

Alicia: Yeah. So is that related to the website tool that they already have now [00:09:00] where you go in and you literally just drag your file in and it uploads to your Qbo. Is this kind of like a pre preliminary step to using that?

Hector: I don't I don't think so because the, the web version of the conversion tool, this web virtual desktop version of the conversion tool is for people that don't have desktop installed in their computer, and basically they copy a backup or a working file, a QuickBooks desktop onto this remote server, and then they do the conversion in the remote server. So it's it's really just this, this, this. What you're mentioning is really [00:09:30] just for people that don't have desktop installed in their computers to initiate a one by one conversion. This is actually a desktop tool you're going to have in your computer that after you convert 50 files at a time in your desktop, you go to this, you'll be able to just drag and drop all 50, and then the files get all. Basically, the new Qbo clients show up in your Qbo dashboard after conversion. All right.

Alicia: Well, now that payroll converts and even your QuickBooks payments credit card information comes over, [00:10:00] this is definitely helps remove all the barriers to entry for these conversions.

Hector: Yeah, yeah. No. Intuit is on the right direction of moving all the desktop clients to online, that's for sure. So the next one that was announced is QuickBooks Online Accountant. Granular permissions for firm members. And the reason why this got a big standing ovation was because Intuit seemed to miss. The mark in this particular part, where they went out there and said, hey, accountants, [00:10:30] one of the benefits of being a ProAdvisor is that your own firm file is not just going to be continue to be free, but it's not going to be just plus it's going to be advanced. And we all know that advanced has better granular permissions, but we never had that level of permissions for team members.

Alicia: And why this is important is in a situation kind of like mine where I have a firm and but I also have just staff members who have nothing to do with our bookkeeping. But, [00:11:00] you know, Jeff has to go in and make invoices, and Jamie has to go in and run his charges, but they need permissions to do that. So their choices are either full permissions or nothing at all. And I'm really happy with this, because that means that I can now give each of them the permissions to only do the things in our file that they're supposed to be doing.

Hector: Yeah, 100%. And one part that they sort of hinted at, and it wasn't very clear, is that they're going to allow you to do that for your clients as well. So what I what I think [00:11:30] they meant is once you add a team member and your team member can only access bills or invoices or reconciliation or whatever, you could also choose that limitation onto the individual clients that you give them access to. Now, Alicia and I were talking about before the show, it's like, wait, hold on, how are they going to be an effective bookkeeper with limited permissions? I don't know, and I'm not sure if I maybe misunderstood that that announcement.

Alicia: I mean, when I look at the interface right now, it's not [00:12:00] clear there's a section at the top for giving the permissions, which is definitely to your own file. And then there's a section down below that to give client access. But right now we can't tell if the settings in the permissions area are applicable to the clients down below or not. I would imagine that they're not, because normally a bookkeeping firm needs their bookkeepers to have full access unless they've really got it compartmentalized. Yeah, so that may be something down the line that [00:12:30] first they implement this level of it and then they go granular all the way across the board in the future.

Hector: Right now. And Alicia and I are definitely planning an episode just on permission structure, because once all this stuff starts panning out and I think they said now through February 2024. So it's so we're not we're not sure exactly if like right at the beginning of tax season, if we'll have all this stuff active. But if we do, we'll do an episode where we'll dig in and go, okay, you have access to this and that access to this, we'll get into the details of that. [00:13:00] But the problem with some of these announcements is that they're made with like they're made, they're made. So we get really excited about it and clap and standing ovation and high five each other. But they don't release it until later. So we don't get to like, truly understand what it means in the real world until it gets released.

Alicia: Well, I'll look forward to that conversation, because I've also noticed how it trickles down into essentials through plus, and I'm right now rewriting my book for 2024, and it's completely [00:13:30] different. And I really like what I see as far as those permissions go straight across the board. So I will look forward to digging into that with you later.

Hector: Absolutely. Okay, so the next one is QuickBooks Online Accountant chart of account templates, which we discussed this in detail in a different episode. But Alicia, you noticed that they added one more thing to that.

Alicia: Yeah. So one of the things that we had commented on when we recorded our episode about the Chart of Accounts was that you didn't have the ability to upload your own chart of accounts, [00:14:00] and you had to start from scratch, either completely from scratch or by using one of their templates as a baseline. You can now upload your own chart of accounts as your starting point, which is huge.

Hector: And on the main stage, what they actually talked about is giving us a whole bunch of sort of like canned chart of accounts by industry that we could grab, adapt, change. So like giving us that starting point, like for example, say, hey, this is your chart of accounts for lawyers. [00:14:30] And it might not be the same that I would use, but maybe 80% of it is. So it'd be great for me to grab a template they gave us. And then I add my own Hector spin to that. Or you add your own Alicia spin to that. So I'm actually liking that direction.

Alicia: I really like that a lot, especially for bookkeepers who are getting started with a new niche. Or they take on a client in an industry that they haven't been in before, being able to take one of those charts of accounts just so you can find out what you don't know, that you don't know, and what are these strange asset and liability categories and what are they used [00:15:00] for. So I think it's a great learning opportunity and experience. Opportunity very new ability 100%.

Hector: The next one and to me probably would have been the biggest breakthrough because like getting this on my hands now would be huge, which is true job costing on payroll. Okay, so they did show a screenshot. And that screenshot looks. Similar to if you've been at QuickBooks desktop users and you've been [00:15:30] doing job costing on QuickBooks desktop, you see that every individual paycheck has the ability for you to assign pay types and hours to individual customer jobs or customer projects. The screenshot looks very similar to what a QuickBooks desktop screen looked like when you did payroll job costing, and that especially for the old school accountants that did that. That felt really good, because that's always been the problem that, you know, even when they introduced this quasi [00:16:00] payroll job costing about three years ago, where you can you can create a timesheet, you can assign time to projects, then you run payroll. You couldn't really view how that payroll was being calculated and allocated. You just had to trust that it came from the timesheet and you couldn't change that. You had to literally delete the paycheck and recreate the paycheck. And you know that in QuickBooks online, that's a nightmare. So now just being able to view it in each individual paycheck and know exactly how [00:16:30] things are being allocated and maybe even editing that, that would that would be huge. So like when they showed that that was amazing.

Alicia: The specific things that you are going to be able to allocate are the customer job and the class as well. And so an employee doesn't have to have just one class. You can actually allocate hours by class and hours by job. So that's going to be it's going to be great saving those giant journal entries at month end. What I don't.

Hector: Remember is if they said that was going to be [00:17:00] both plus and advance, I'm going to make the assumption that because we have projects in plus that would be in plus as well.

Alicia: I would think that it has to be plus and that and payroll would be the the key there is that you've got to be running payroll and you have to have those classes and job costing.

Hector: One thing that's interesting. And Alicia, you know that when you add Payroll Premium and Payroll Elite, they it comes with QuickBooks time, sort of like bundled in [00:17:30] there. Right. But when you have QuickBooks premium you have QuickBooks time. But if you added any job information to QuickBooks time, those do not transfer into Qbo. You have to be in Payroll Elite for the project to transfer into, which is the darndest weirdest thing. And I wonder if they're going to require you to have. And this didn't mention this, but if you're going to require it for you to have, you know, Payroll Elite [00:18:00] for this to work, or it would just work with QuickBooks Payroll Core. So I wonder if that will get missed, you know, misunderstood somehow or mis implemented somehow.

Alicia: Well, actually, what you said was kind of new to me. I knew that none of the time imported until you actually approved the hours, but I don't think I've ever experienced QuickBooks premium not importing.

Hector: Right? No QuickBooks premium imports, but it doesn't bring the project information. So you can only [00:18:30] do job costing with QuickBooks time. We're not talking about job costing with using timesheets and just running payroll inside job costing or project costing. With QuickBooks time, you have to use a Payroll Elite because the interconnectivity of QuickBooks time to Qbo does not transfer project information. If you have Qbo Time Premium or Payroll Premium. [00:19:00]

Alicia: I'm going to have to go test that out, because that might be a solve for one of my clients that hasn't been working.

Hector: That that's exactly we've been through this in our firm and we've been trying to figure this out. And, you know, we read through the documents and we talked it through. People supported. They're like, oh, yeah, you don't have elite, which is the strangest thing, because if if this would make sense, they would have removed the ability for you to select a project in Qbo in QuickBooks Time Premium. That way it would never be confusing. But the problem is that you can choose a project [00:19:30] in Qbo Time Cube Time premium. So the problem is because you're assigning it in cubic time, you're assuming that that's going to transfer to Qbo. But that was to me, it's a completely miss mis implementation, not necessarily a misunderstanding of the situation, but I'm just warning people that when these, you know, payroll job costing comes in, you know, you read the fine line to see if there's any, like specific things that you need to have a specific version of payroll or QuickBooks time or whatever for [00:20:00] this to work. So I'm just throwing throwing that out there. Well, thanks.

Alicia: For saving me a couple hours of research right there.

Hector: Yeah, exactly. And then we have balance sheet budgets, which actually was released I think like a month ago. But they mentioned that. And the reason why we're sort of re mentioning these things is because there's a, there's an underlying message that they're trying to give us, which is quote, we are listening to you the accountants comma therefore. For the improvements are coming from direct feedback, end quote. That's something [00:20:30] that Ted Callahan says, something that Casey Devine says, something that Jeremy Salzman says, something that David Talbot said. And again, I'm just mentioning names of executives at Intuit that Alicia and I happen to know. But the thing is that beyond just reporting what we see in QuickBooks connect, we're also shaking hands and looking at these people in the eyes, and they're telling us the same thing. So we're not just reporting what we're reading. We're reporting what we're experiencing. Right. And and there is again, there is an underlying message that they want to partner [00:21:00] with accountants. So they're saying it with their words. Okay. And then when they tell us the things that they add to qbo, that's how they're justifying, they're saying, okay, because we added balance sheet budgets. We are listening to you. Therefore we're your partners because because we had. A chart of account templates. Because we listened to you. Therefore we're partners. So that's, that's that's how they're that's how they're sort of circling that square. Right. They're saying, hey, we're partners with you. And then we're adding [00:21:30] these features. I think there's a lot more that needs to come with the territory, but that's the reason why we're mentioning it, because the overall message at QuickBooks connect is, hey, we're your partners, not your competitors, because they haven't just been listening to us in terms of what we want QuickBooks to be improved. They've also been listening to how we feel about Intuit's posturing, you know, with accountants in the last couple of years, right?

Alicia: I mean, I think some of these were ideas that we had hashed out at that influencers event that they had brought us to in March [00:22:00] 2022. I remember us talking about the chart of Accounts imports. I remember us talking about the. Oh well.

Hector: The payroll, job costing, the balance sheet, budgets, all that stuff.

Alicia: These were things that we said. These are things that we need. And lo and behold, a year later, here they are, year and a half later. Right.

Hector: I mean, year and a half later. Still too slow for me, but they're here, so I'll definitely be appreciative of those.

Alicia: Programing takes time.

Hector: It takes a long time, especially implementing, because obviously every time [00:22:30] you add a new feature, half the world loves it, half the world hates it, and it's just very difficult thing to manage. The next thing that was not announced on stage, but it was like, hey, go check out Know the Innovation booth or whatever was the concept of custom KPIs. So imagine. So just imagine this because this is not released yet. So imagine, you know, the performance center that you have now where you can, you know, give it certain metrics and say, give me a graph for this. There were they were showing us what they're thinking, which is you pick the metrics like you pick, you [00:23:00] pick, you know, this number in the balance sheet. You pick this number in the profit and loss. Maybe you even add this variable that's outside the financials. And then you build your own KPI for your customer to see. That is exciting stuff. Like to me, like I was looking at that, I was saying, when can I have this? They're like, Hector, probably May 2024 or more like, this is more of a sort of a forward looking thing. And they're not going to throw this in the middle of tax season. So if it's not ready now, it won't be ready until after tax season, that's [00:23:30] for sure. So this might be something that might be like summer of 2024, or maybe even creeping up to QuickBooks connect 2024 and the fall whenever the conference is. But this is super exciting. Like, this is the type of stuff that accountants go, okay, that's that's partnership, right? You help me look better in front of my client. That's partnership. Then you get a chance to see that by any chance or would you pull in different directions?

Alicia: I was pulled over to the projects or to the products.

Hector: So what? What were you looking at? What did you look at from the innovation booths? Yeah, [00:24:00] I.

Alicia: Love the innovation booth. That's kind of where I try and spend as much of my time as possible. They are revamping the products and services and inventory in conjunction with the Commerce section, and people have been thinking about commerce only in terms of e commerce if they have e commerce. But they recognize that when you do have multichannel ecommerce, inventory is an ongoing problem. And so it comes on the heels of their purchase of Tradegecko, but they are in the process of moving right now, [00:24:30] any of your inventory products over to the Commerce Center. And so that's going to be coming fairly shortly. And then down the line they're going to introduce the idea where you can have your inventory in Qbo. And it will keep it all up to date, real time in your Shopify and your Amazon and your eBay all at the same time. So they're actively working on this and expect to have it in 2024.

Hector: Yeah. And this is actually number ten. So we skipped a couple. That's number ten. [00:25:00] I'll just I'll add my notes that I had from here. So the first thing that made me jump out of my I don't know what I was sitting on, but maybe I was just standing but maybe jump in place is they showed me an example of of a sales order. And like you don't understand for an inventory person that has been using QuickBooks for 15 plus years, finally seeing a sales order in Qbo, it's a really exciting concept. And they actually went through and showed us like sort of all the entry points of sales orders, you know, like the sales order being converted to an invoice, a sales order being used [00:25:30] to create a purchase order, an estimate being used to convert a sales order. And they asked us, do we need this or do we not need this? It's all within the context of commerce. And I asked them, hey, if I have a client that doesn't have e commerce, don't have, you know, Shopify or Amazon or whatever, would they still be using this? They said, yes, but the entry point will be commerce. So I think what Intuit is sort of visualizing is that in in a not so distant future, if you're a company that manages inventory, you probably have some linkages [00:26:00] to commerce. And when they're thinking about like multi-location inventory, they're also what they're thinking. Exactly. What you said is, hey, if I tell QuickBooks, I have 17 of these left in warehouse A, that's Amazon and I have 27 on warehouse B, that's Shopify, that this information gets transferred over to the e-commerce channels as well. So you have just your multiple multiple locations, multiple quantities in stock updated between QuickBooks and the multiple channels. That's brilliant. That's amazing. [00:26:30] I mean, that might take beyond just 2024, but we might start seeing some, you know, start, you know, some hints of this in 2024. But this will sure take 2 or 3 years to develop in my opinion.

Alicia: Yeah, absolutely. And that's why the section is called Commerce and not e Commerce, because it's not just about online sales. It's about buying and selling of your stock and your your products. And it is going to take a few years to roll out, which is welcome. But it's also one of the giant barriers to [00:27:00] migrating from desktop. And so once they get this nailed down, that's going to be another power solve, moving us out of desktop and into online. But still, like you said, got to be at least three years down the line before they get this, right?

Hector: Right. And if you're a QuickBooks desktop lover and you want QuickBooks desktop to survive, you want this implementation to be slow, right? Because obviously I don't think Intuit would be stupid to just kill QuickBooks desktop before having at least fundamental inventory features in. [00:27:30]

Alicia: Yeah, no, I'm not saying this in terms of the death knell of. It books desktop, but I'm just saying it in terms of the barriers to entry. But they've got to get it right. They can't rush this out.

Hector: Absolutely. So number eight was adding AI analysis to management reports. And what they showed they showed they showed this on stage is imagine you're creating a balance sheet are aging report in a you know even possibly custom KPIs in a management report [00:28:00] pack that you give to your client every month. And also imagine you pressing a button and it using generative AI, you know, so sort of like copying and pasting a PNL to ChatGPT and saying, give me an analysis and it writing a narrative for you and you being able to sort of like make corrections. I mean. I think most accountants don't write any narrative on financial statements. It's just like too much pressure to get it right. Or maybe it just opens up a can of worms. And most people just give a PNL balance sheet and say, figure it out. Maybe, you know, maybe [00:28:30] you don't know. Maybe, you know, maybe we talk about it. But like, actually writing notes in a financial statement is something that most accountants don't do and like. Having this as a little push is going to be huge, in my opinion.

Alicia: Right. And it's going to fill in that gap for bookkeepers who are not CPAs, that if the CPA isn't providing this kind of analysis, the bookkeeper gets to look like a rock star.

Hector: Yeah, totally. In my opinion, giving the bookkeeper more power to me is more important. At this point. Most accountants or CPAs have all the like, sort [00:29:00] of PR power, right? They have the three letters and they get the automatic trust. I think the bookkeepers, which are the ones that work the hardest, really are the ones that should have access to these tools and should look good in front of their clients because they certainly deserve that. Yeah.

Alicia: They've got their hands in the books. They're the ones who have those instant answers.

Hector: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So number nine is this thing called accountant approved bundles. I don't know why they use the word bundle, but it's called accountant approved bundles or accountant approved apps. And what you're going to [00:29:30] start noticing is that green checkmark kind of like the Twitter blue checkmark. You're going to see a green checkmark on apps that Intuit has gone through, like a panel of accountants and have asked them questions about, like, does this work? Does this screw up your books? Does this, you know, map to the chart of accounts correctly? Does this conform to GAAP? You know, is this app a good app to app add to QuickBooks? Now what's interesting is technically, everything in the App Store should be that. But the reality is that it isn't. [00:30:00] And most accountants are just afraid of adding an app if it's going to destroy. You know what took me so long to build and and get my books straight from my client? So having like knowing that Intuit is, is getting people like us, you know, two, three, four, hopefully ten accountants to look at a specific app like notify or whatever, and going through the details and making sure that everything comports to what an accountant hopes, you know, an app would do. You know, having that little check mark or stamp of approval is [00:30:30] going to be valuable because it should make it easier for you to basically start recommending the apps or tell your clients or it would. It would reduce the level of anxiety per se that you would have to looking at a third party app. So that was nine and we covered ten. And then let's let's do our last bonus, the 11th. The one you mentioned, Alicia.

Alicia: Yeah. They have mentioned a partnership with Allstate for insurance, which will be through their H.R portal. If you are running QuickBooks payroll, they have, [00:31:00] you know, in the past they've dabbled with offering insurance and then they actually canceled almost all of those policies as of this fall. So if you had any insurance that you had gotten through, whether it was business liability or health insurance, they've been backing away from that. So it was interesting to me that they're moving forward with it again.

Hector: But what Allstate doesn't sell all lines of insurance in all states, which which is kind of interesting. So what I'm thinking is happening is when you go [00:31:30] and want to add maybe health insurance for an employee, or maybe life insurance for the owner of the business, or maybe business liability insurance or whatever. And you click on the button they're going to add. Eventually it says add insurance or inquire insurance services. It's going to go through Allstate. I assume all states are going to, you know, whatever they sell, they're going to offer that first and whatever they don't sell. I assume Allstate will also be the broker finding, you know, insurance providers because, you know, health insurance is complicated because you could have like, you could have an insurance [00:32:00] provider that covers, you know, 20 of the 50 states. And okay, so what happens to those states? So I'm pretty sure Intuit thought about that. And I'm hoping that Allstate also gives alternatives. But it's all it's all organized through a single company or a single sales team. This is interesting. I'm not super excited about my my software company also getting into the insurance business, just because the more stuff you add is, the more stuff to manage and the more things that can go wrong. [00:32:30] But I do like having a one stop shop.

Alicia: Yeah, exactly. I mean, their whole idea was that it's a one stop shop for the business owner, for the people who are just starting up with their QuickBooks, and they're getting started with their business, being able to just go, oh, I don't have to research which one has the best rates. Let me just go ahead and get it through. The interface is a is a good service for for a lot of business owners. But I'm somebody who shops out all of my different insurances and I found it kind of a mixed bag. The [00:33:00] health insurance through Qbo was the same price wise or within a couple of dollars, but the coverage was not the same. For example, my regents I could the insurance I have now I can go anywhere in the world and I'm covered. I can get that same plan through into it. But. Only in covered in my state. But the cyber insurance and my info and my business liability insurance were all cheaper through qbo. And so [00:33:30] I do have some of my insurances inside qbo, although I did get a notice that they were getting canceled as of the end of this cycle. So. But I haven't gone looking again because I was actually wondering if it's going to get picked up by Allstate or directly from the companies, not through into it. So for those of you who are in the same boat as me, if you have any insight, if you've heard from any of these companies, please go to our show notes and reply and let me know what your experience has been.

Hector: I [00:34:00] don't want to go into a rant because we wanted to keep this episode under 40 minutes, and now we're past 30 minute mark. The only thing I would say is, I wish that my software company made really good software and all all of the efforts of innovation which are making the software really good. The general issue I have with all these banking products, and I agree with you, Alicia, if if they can leverage economies of scale to [00:34:30] bring those savings to small businesses, that's an absolute win. But insurance is complicated and most people are not super happy with their insurance company. So what ends up happening, in my opinion, is something goes wrong with the insurance or they don't no longer serve you in the state, or something that you thought was covered isn't covered, or like just a million things that can go wrong with insurance and medical and that sort of thing. Or maybe they don't cover a claim. We and this is my worry about, you know, as a shareholder of Intuit, we [00:35:00] as a consumer will start attaching those negative feelings we can have towards the insurance company or the insurance broker or the situation regarding an insurance claim to intuit. You know, and I don't I prefer that Intuit is not connected with that mess. Like, one of the great things about loving the accounting software is you love it because it does really good accounting, but then it sucks that you have a great accounting software, but then you hate it because the company itself does a million things, and those million things are just there's just more margin of error. [00:35:30] I don't know what your thoughts about that is, but sure.

Alicia: I mean, it's the balance of the one stop shop, because in a way, it's kind of a natural affiliate, and it's a way for them to have a new revenue stream without having to do anything except have a click through on their website. But I agree with you that any feelings or experiences that you have with that insurance company, then go and color it for Intuit. And, you know, I see that they're doing it because it's a revenue stream. You know, they get a cut of every sale, even [00:36:00] though all they're doing is being the sales person for it. And so I agree, I have mixed feelings about it. I was happy to get my worker's comp down by doing it through payroll. I mean, I'm in full support of that one, but I don't like the idea of getting my health insurance through my QuickBooks.

Hector: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we'll see how it pans out. You know, Allstate's a huge company, very reputable company. You know, I'm sure they picked a company that they can count on and they can, you know, force [00:36:30] to do certain things a certain way or whatever it is. So we'll see how it pans out. Like it's too early to criticize it, of course. But like you said, they already tried this. It didn't work. And some people are getting their insurance canceled. You know, it's not necessarily something you can directly bring a net positive image towards the brand, like quick QuickBooks. Checking is a great example. You know, like QuickBooks, checking works fairly well, but it doesn't work. People get super, super mad, you know, because they couldn't transfer the money or enough money [00:37:00] or or they closed their account, but the bank account is still open and it's just a complete nightmare to, like, figure out how to close it, you know, so, like all these little things that have nothing to do with the accounting software, just add it just makes it more complex. It just like and look, if you talk to every thought leader in every conference is specialized specialized, right. Pick your niche, specialize like Intuit is doing the opposite or specializing at this point, you know, with all the things on their plate. So I'll end my rant there. Hopefully this episode was was useful [00:37:30] for you. These were the now top 11 things that we took from QuickBooks connect. Alessia, I'll give you the last word.

Alicia: Best conference ever. You know I the the way that everybody comes together as a community there and whether it's doing the research about apps or making strategic alliances with everybody. But oh my god, accountants are not boring. I actually had somebody in the casino come up to me. They saw that I was wearing my conference badge and he's like, who are you people? [00:38:00] What conference are you with? And I said, we're accountants. And the look on his face was just absolutely shocked. And so for those of you who are getting into the Intuit world and the QuickBooks industry, you're in a great place with a whole bunch of really great people. And, you know, shout out at the holidays to all of our community and all the listeners out there, because you are what keep us going.

Hector: Absolutely. And Ryan Reynolds said it on stage. He said, wow, the accountants are a wild bunch. I'm going to the wrong conferences. [00:38:30] And look, that might be a line that he uses in everyone. But it landed. We were like, yeah, we love that Ryan Reynolds things that were cool and wild. It was. It just worked out really well. And I agree with you. Best conference ever. I walk out of there always just very satisfied of of attending. And even at the higher price point that was this year. I mean, Intuit absolutely brings the value. And the one thing I'll mention, and I hope people from Intuit are listening, you know, whether it's one person or a bunch of people, the [00:39:00] human tunnel they made cheering people in was brilliant. I mean, like, just like they won, you know, getting people super excited about the conference sort of cheering you on. Again, the overall message is, hey, we we intuit are cheering your success accountants and we want to partner with you. So at least in terms of landing the message, they totally landed it with that human cheering tunnel.

Alicia: And I hope they send us all those pom poms. I think they should email to all of us.

Hector: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so with [00:39:30] that said, we'll see you on the next one.

Alicia: See you in the next one.