What’s a QSP and Why Should I Care?

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Alicia Katz Pollock: In this episode of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, we're going to talk about QuickBooks solutions providers, otherwise known as Q, and I have actually invited a panel of people to join me today. And so I would like to introduce you to Carrie Kahn of Complete Business Group, Jeff Siegel of Siegel Solutions, and Dan DeLong from School of Bookkeeping. And what we're going to do [00:00:30] is talk about the program, the history of the program, and the benefits for all of us as ProAdvisor years of working with Qsp. How's everybody doing?

Carrie Kahn: Doing great. Thank you.

Jeff Siegel: Doing wonderful. Thanks. Thanks for inviting me.

Dan DeLong: Always a pleasure to see you, Alicia. And everybody else.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. This is a really good group of people. I'm really looking forward to the conversation. Uh, so, uh, let's go ahead and dive in. Uh, who would like to define [00:01:00] Qsp for us and tell us what it is.

Carrie Kahn: I think that actually Jeff was a qsp before me. I joined the program in 2008 and I had to pull out my handy dandy calculator. So I've been in the program for 17 years, but I believe Jeff was in the first iteration, the year or two before me, so he can explain how it started.

Dan DeLong: So what you're saying is age before beauty.

Carrie Kahn: We're the same age.

Jeff Siegel: We're the exact same.

Dan DeLong: Age [00:01:30]o Qsp before.

Carrie Kahn: Age of qsp. Being a qsp member? Yes, because it started out different and it's gone through many iterations and it's been qsp. I don't even know how long, but.

Jeff Siegel: Right. We've had multiple names. I think I started, I think 2006 or 7. It's been a long time and uh, it's gone through different names right now. It's obviously QuickBooks solutions providers, and it used to be The IRP. What did that stand for again? Intuit reseller.

Dan DeLong: Intuit reseller [00:02:00] program.

Jeff Siegel: Program.

Carrie Kahn: Yeah, it was.

Carrie Kahn: Irp for quite a while and got mixed up because people would. And then ISP, it was ISP for a bit, which is people got confused with that acronym, and I don't remember what it started out. I think we were in the Enterprise Solutions program. Yeah. And it merged. Point of sale.

Jeff Siegel: Right. Point of sale was its own program at the time, and they merged afterwards. Um.

Dan DeLong: Yeah. And that's an intuitive as an Intuit employee. Uh, I saw [00:02:30] the iterations on the other side of things, and I was confused about what is this program? So, yeah, it was it was it's not surprising to me that other people are also confused.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. So, Jeff, what is a qsp program?

Jeff Siegel: Oh, what is it? So it's really a program, um, that is designed for, companies who are more in the solutions business of helping their clients, [00:03:00] not necessarily just doing bookkeeping or accounting or taxes, because a lot of there's a separate program for that. The ProAdvisor program, where they're doing a lot more services, and they may be selling QuickBooks to help their clients. I think our approach is really helping our clients from a solution side with QuickBooks and QuickBooks products and all the add ons that work with QuickBooks. So it's a subtly a different program than than the regular ProAdvisor program.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Do [00:03:30] you want to add to that, Terry?

Carrie Kahn: Yeah. So when I found the program by accident, we were using the regular desktop Premier because it had Pro was three users and Premier was up to five or something. So we upgraded to that and I was like, wait a minute, doesn't give me more room. It just gives me more users and a couple more, um, options. So then I learned about enterprise. I was like, what is this? And I found the program, applied for it, and that's how I got in. And when I joined in 2008, they required [00:04:00] you to go to their conference. They required you to do all these things to become certified. And you, you had to sell. And, uh, and that's where I was. I, I thought, well, this is interesting, but they don't they don't know I don't sell. So I went to the conference and met Jeff and met a whole number of people that are still in the program, like Marjorie Adams. And, um, that's actually where I met her. And then a lot of the Intuit folks that were, uh, Simon passed that were in the program. He [00:04:30] was actually my first, um, rep. They've got all the acronyms in the world for that. But what they do is they assign you a rep, and the rep helps you understand all the products that you can that you have at your fingertips, and they help you understand the the exclusive discounts that you get And in the program there are often and it comes and goes tears.

Carrie Kahn: So the more you sell or order, the more of a discount you might get. So what it does is it gives [00:05:00] us the opportunity to have access to the entire book of solutions. This this had originally started and it gave us the opportunity to purchase it at a special discount. Summer lifetime some or not that that changes as well. But we also have the opportunity to to earn a commission on those products. And those carrots also change it. Also, the one unique thing that the Qsp program has that none of the [00:05:30] other programs have. It allows you to recommend the Intuit Merchant service. You know, when you send someone an email invoice and wherever you are, you can click the buttons to pay it. And that's always worked very, very well inside of QuickBooks. Books, so we have the opportunity to order that, connect it for the customer and earn a residual. And they taught us that it's mailbox money, and it's really one of the unique benefits of [00:06:00] the program, besides having a direct contact to Intuit.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now, when I think of cusps, I think of volume that you guys have benchmarks that you have to hit every month to stay in the program, right?

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. And they've just recently, in the last year increased those. So we're seeing a big consolidation in the Qsp program with a lot of the shops who may not be hitting those benchmarks are getting you know, because the if they don't and they're out of the program well they lose like Carrie mentioned, those [00:06:30] residuals on even merchant services, they lose those in any residuals they may be getting or have gotten over the years for clients that are still on enterprise and they're renewing things like that. So I think the benchmark carries it was 18,000 every six months.

Jeff Siegel: Now.

Carrie Kahn: It changes. They used to have like huge, huge tiers where you were to hit million dollar sales and you would unlock more benefits, but they have since changed it. Now, um, [00:07:00] they're obviously into its primary focus right now is the I. And and this is sort of interesting is the USPS do not have direct access to the EAS program that's still behind like a curtain.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I Intuit Enterprise suite.

Carrie Kahn: Yes.

Carrie Kahn: So Intuit Enterprise Suite, not to be confused with the QuickBooks enterprise, um, software that's still desktop. It's [00:07:30] different. I don't think it's a mistake. They use the word enterprise in it to be confusing, but what they've tried to do is, uh. And Jeff can back me up at every Intuit connect, conference we would go to. They would they would tell us their roadmap and they're like, we are, you know, we're pushing QBO QuickBooks online and we want it to be we want to be able to take enterprise all the features in enterprise and put it into Qbo. It'll be 5 to 10 years. Well, [00:08:00] that that ship has sailed. It's that was um, whenever the first uh, it's been at least ten years. So now what they've done is they're using the IIs, the acronym to, um, to make that make that happen. It's still in the early phases. Um, the ships are not quite I'm not involved in giving feedback, which was different from when we joined the program back in 2008. And [00:08:30] then, Jeff, earlier when enterprise was our focus, they wanted us to sell Recommend enterprise. We were able to be on councils and give feedback and a lot of the product improvements are in enterprise today because of our councils. So sadly, we're not they're not tapping into the people that would really be able to help them excel.

Carrie Kahn: They're doing it all internally. We do have access to is as far as passing a lead to them, and then the team runs [00:09:00] with it. And whenever we have a partner or one of our team members that needs to do that, I always recommend staying on the call with them, because Intuit has a very strong and can support this notion of sales team. So it's heavy, heavy sales. You know, we got to close by. We need you to order by tomorrow or this discount will disappear. And, uh, and in the Qsp program, even though they give us sales goals [00:09:30] and whatnot, we've always had the notion of put the customer in the right product, no matter what it is, whether it's QBO or whether it's enterprise or whether it is. This is um, and so the program is it's it's a nice alternative for a customer that's going to purchase under somebody that is a qsp, because we sit back and look at what's the right fit, rather than meeting sales goals into it, those salespeople will have [00:10:00] to meet sales goals for a number of QBO units. Number of, you know, whatever at the time enterprise units is. So that's that's a nice idea for customers.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. What you just said about the the best fit for the customer, for me is really important. There was a shop here in Portland who would just put every client in enterprise, even if they would have been better in Desktop Pro. And so we actually spent a lot of time going, wait, you don't need this [00:10:30] at all. And then actually downgrading people about, you know, ten years ago and it they seem to have changed their model a little bit, or we don't hear from them quite as much.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. We um, real quick on that one because, cuz, because we're coming from the solutions approach. So the, the right fit is like Harry mentioned is really important. You know, we have clients that are like hey Ise looks great, let's move to it. And we may be like time out. You know you may you may need these inventory features that aren't there or you need [00:11:00] you may need an invoice template that you can't get from that. You know. So there are certain things that we may know because we're, you know, with we know that client, um, that could be a client of ours. And, but the sales team has mentioned, you know, it's a push, push push for Ise. And it just may not be the right solution. I'm not saying it is the isn't the right solution. But we know that client probably intimately um as far as their needs.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So and you know the product line [00:11:30] that as well so that you can a good Qstp is going to find the best fit product for the for the client.

Carrie Kahn: And with the eyes. It's like Jeff was saying, it might not be the right fit. We had the same issue with customers that would come to us. Hey, I just switched to Qbo and they're doing something that requires inventory or job costing, which is or sales orders, the three red flags. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And oftentimes they're mad. And then we have to fix them. And they don't want to [00:12:00] pay to fix it. So we try to stay ahead with the client like, hey, maybe we'll look at those options and it's going to now be a choice of Qbo or IIs. But let's look at them together instead of running and signing up because of the heavy marketing and puts you in the right product for you.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, that's um, that's definitely a. Struggle, I guess, is the nicest way to to, uh, to talk about that because, you know, Intuit has is [00:12:30] has a great. Well, I don't want to say great because it's good, but a massive marketing effort, um, where they can, you know, they can market directly to their customers or, you know, people who use the software but aren't necessarily their clients. And that's over the past year, you know, the accounting and ProAdvisor community has been getting frustrated, I guess is the nicest way [00:13:00] to, um, about, you know, those clients that they're intimately familiar with getting marketed to something that is a homogenized solution, um, that seems to be in their best interest. Hey, cube, live assisted or cube live, uh, we'll do your taxes. I'm like, hey, that's that. That's my jam, you know, what are you doing with that? And that's kind of the, uh, the the, the, the delicate [00:13:30] fence that she and ProAdvisor are trying to straddle that fence. Yeah. Which is quite challenging.

Jeff Siegel: Features that are in QBO and eyes that are to me are surface level features. Yeah. And it looks great. Oh, it does this. We could add that, you know, this extra stuff. But when you dive deeper it just may not work. And, um, that's why, uh, that's why QuickBooks enterprise is still a [00:14:00] viable product for many clients, um, to this day.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So it seems that when ProAdvisor does work with ships, they get that extra level of expertise to make absolutely sure that it's not the best fit according to their own research or according to Intuit sales, but because you actually have a verified level of expertise there.

Carrie Kahn: That's our approach. And, uh, doesn't always work. We often get the aftermath and, uh, you know, product. It affects [00:14:30] our productivity and our billing ability because we are we feel like we're fighting that, um, the marketing of Intuit and trying to then, you know, course correct. And get the customer to understand these options. So we're I don't know if Jeff's doing it too, but we often will be proactive on. Are you considering QBO? Let's talk about what's, uh, what when it's a good fit and when it's not.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. What we do is at times, uh, we will we'll [00:15:00] put their file into a trial version of QBO just to say, here's your data in QBO. You know, you got 30 days to play with it, or we'll work with you and see if it's going to be a good fit. And they may see stuff that they don't like. Oh, I can't change this. I can't add that. Where's this field? We had a custom field on an item. Well, there's nothing there. Like we know all the things, but many times they want to look there. We want to try it. It looks good. My. My accountant told me. Or someone told me I should go to QBO. And, um, [00:15:30] we're not saying it's a bad thing, but we want to test it first. Let's put it up there for you and let's work with you, because it's. You can't really go back like there. We've had problems with people have migrated and they're like, we want to go back to enterprise.

Jeff Siegel: And that's a challenge.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah, exactly. It used to be a way, and I think they stopped that a while ago.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So it seems that there's two ways of working with the Qsp. Then it's from the top down, but then also from the bottom up that for us individual bookkeepers and Proadvisors [00:16:00] A Qsp is kind of a solutions provider to provide them with a solution for recommendations. But then there's also a different level of the Qsp program where you're integrating with like other vendors and other, you've got arrangements and agreements with other companies like Jeff. You had mentioned at one point that, for instance, like fishbowl or some of the other software, they [00:16:30] have the ability to bundle QuickBooks with their solutions as part of a qsp arrangement, which is a different animal than what the the four of us are talking about.

Jeff Siegel: Right? Yeah. Intuit. I mean, traditionally Qsp were kind of accountants or, you know, uh, value added type resellers of our, of our, of QuickBooks in the, the existing product line of Intuit. And uh, these other software like a fishbowl [00:17:00] or, you know, NOAA, Fi or any of those other companies that provide solutions that bolt on add ons to QuickBooks were not qsp. They were just resellers and QuickBooks. Intuit over the last couple of years, probably a little bit more than a couple of years, really started bringing them into the the The channel, and even recently created a whole different quick ship program just for them to sell. So, uh, now there we [00:17:30] we work with them, but they're also competitors at the same time. Um, so I'm not sure if Carrie's had any example.

Carrie Kahn: Yeah.

Jeff Siegel: But yeah.

Carrie Kahn: So we're, you know, we're expected to be in the channel and sell a certain unit number of units of QBO. And, uh, as you can hear in our voices, we started as enterprise people. So we know that very, very well. And, um, and so if fishbowl becomes, yes, a qsp and they're bundling [00:18:00] it, that takes away our sale. So we don't mind partnering with them. But we need to have, you know, it's like we have to say, okay, when we work with you, fishbowl, we're going to send, you know, send the recommendation through, attach it to me. So I get the commission and let me do the QBO sale because that I have to make those goals. So there's there's that the vendor partnerships. And I'm glad you brought that up because as the Qsp channel changes and the commissions and so forth [00:18:30] change, we have new leaders and they're the the one thing that's remained that's really still wonderful is the merchant service residuals. Um, they have added that over to the ProAdvisor department so Proadvisors can sign up there, but they get half the amount and they get it only for 2 or 3 years. So anyway, as the the, uh, qsp channel evolved, we started realizing that in order [00:19:00] to meet those QBO sales units, we needed to do something. And so some of the partner, some of the Qsp decided to launch a partner program, which, um, which I did, and we're actually hitting our ten year anniversary. And, um, and what we have done, we've actually changed it over the years, like originally it was done so that we can meet those QBO goals.

Carrie Kahn: And we brought in a lot of bookkeepers that were selling 1 or 2 units. And that's fine, because with [00:19:30] more partners than we can meet those sales. And over time, the, um, the, the level of the sales that we need to do and all has changed and the commission structure changes and it's changes and gets less and less over time. We're realizing QBO requires apps to add the functionality that enterprise has. So we go to these conferences and we become friendly with the vendors. And we [00:20:00] have been negotiating. And I've got a list of vendors that I love and recommend, which take a lot of vetting and a lot of, you know, are they going to make it or are they vaporware? Who are they or are they Well known. And we have established a really cool thing where we have a vendor and they will do unlike and unlike QuickBooks, if we have QuickBooks order, we all scramble and help each other do a demo or the sales assist [00:20:30] or whatever it is. But with these vendors like Lightspeed's and example, you send the lead in and they will do the sales call, the demo, the assist, the onboarding, the training, the support forever. And and then if you have if you're signed up in the program which CBG is, you are in there. We pool our sales and then we're able to unlock higher tiers, higher payouts that someone just doing one order a year wouldn't even be able to touch. [00:21:00] So that's that's where we've changed our focus into building a really good tier of we call them gold vendors, where they they have been able to do that for us and give us the ability to earn a commission, and then that mailbox money that we enjoy so much and from into it.

Carrie Kahn: And, and that's really helped us continue to grow and and and help our partners help their customers and be more of a hero to them instead [00:21:30] of saying, I don't know, and going and googling what's a point of sale. What's nice is when we didn't have this opportunity to find vendors, because they certainly have increased in the years we had QuickBooks Point of sale, we had QuickBooks online, we had QuickBooks, so we had to make it work within the Intuit Book of Business or their catalog. And the first time I saw QuickBooks Point of Sale, I was real savvy in QuickBooks. I was like, no problem, I know QuickBooks. And boy, it [00:22:00] hit me like a ton of bricks because I didn't know QuickBooks Point of sale I did. In time. I had to give away a lot of time to learn it. And that that's what's nice about these new vendor relationships is you can choose if you want to become a lightspeed point of sale expert, or you don't have to be. And you know that your customer is in good hands, and we have the community of people we can reach out to. We I know exactly who to text. If I have a problem with lightspeed, to do an hour or two consultation to get the customer [00:22:30] back on track.

Jeff Siegel: And we have the same type of thing. Kerry, with a lot of the same vendors, probably Lightspeed is one of them. You know, things, you know, we do a lot with the inventory and manufacturing. So, you know, like a like a seven or an SOS inventory, um, reporting. We have relationships with the software players who do reporting like, like reach reporting. So we um, that's part of being a qsp because these clients need a solution. [00:23:00] And like Kerry, you know, can pull in lightspeed or maybe payroll, maybe you're not happy with the quick Intuit Payroll. Quickbooks payroll. I'm not sure if that's the case, but, um, ADP, you know, has a great program. Um, I think Carrie a part of that too.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm.

Jeff Siegel: Um.

Carrie Kahn: You know, a great example.

Jeff Siegel: Hey. Exactly. So it's not like we don't want to, you know, refer QuickBooks products, but there are times when other products are better that we just bolt on to QuickBooks. But it all [00:23:30] starts with QuickBooks. That's how I look at it. It's like that's kind of the center of the ecosystem. And you kind of go out from there. That's kind of.

Jeff Siegel: That core.

Dan DeLong: And that's that's back when Brad Smith was the CEO of of, uh, of QuickBooks or Intuit. Um, you know, that's kind of the mission that they were trying to do with QuickBooks online is that QuickBooks is the is the ecosystem of small business, and that's the foundation. And that's where all of these additional, [00:24:00] you know, third parties came on is like, hey, we're we're going to we're going to feed into QuickBooks. Not necessarily take away from QuickBooks, but or replace QuickBooks. It's going to augment. You know, QuickBooks and ADP is a great example of of how, you know, working together as a as part of a partner program, uh, is is way better for, you know, independent practitioners because they have they have a threshold where you [00:24:30] don't get dollar one until until you have a certain threshold met. And as an independent person who might be recommending payroll, you know, once or twice a year, well, it doesn't make much sense for them to be a partner of those of those vendors when collectively they're already past the thresholds of of something like that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. And I really I really appreciate that as a practitioner because it gives me a vetted tech stack, at least a starting point [00:25:00] of saying, okay, Mike USB works with these vendors. Let me see if these. Are a good fit first. And then that way I get either a bounty or a residual for. Making the recommendation. Whereas, you know, as an individual I might have like a. Low level partner tier, you know through their through their affiliate program. But by joining through you I can get a higher bounty because it's leveraging that volume. And it's nice because [00:25:30] I don't have to make any sales goals. You guys get the responsibility of meeting the sales goals. And so if I just have a client here and a client there and a client over here, I have that dedicated support team without having to to go it alone.

Carrie Kahn: The the other thing that's really great about it too is I don't I don't know if you guys remember back when QBO came out and Brad Smith was like, it's going to be the center of the ecosystem. Log on to the App Store. And you clicked on it. There were 1000 [00:26:00] apps and I said, what am I going? I mean, it took me forever to, you know, get fully acclimated with QB, desktop, enterprise, point of sale, online payroll, all those and certified and all the things that we love doing. And I'm looking at it this daunting list, like, I have to become an expert in this and this and this or worse, I'm just going to recommend it because it's in there, but that's not vetted to me. That's just because somebody paid for a slot at Intuit.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, [00:26:30] I mean, you so you, you end up doing the, um, you know, the adult diaper answer of, you know, it depends. Um, because, you know, you somebody asks what does, you know, what's the best Shopify integrator to to QuickBooks? Um, you search their app store, there's 34 of them. Well, one of them will do it a certain way. Another one will do it another way. So being in the QuickBooks solution provider space of finding the solution for for what it is that [00:27:00] they're looking for, doesn't mean that there's a one sided answer to what is the best. It's what is the best for me and my my desired outcome.

Jeff Siegel: Well, and the other thing, Dan, is that the the Qsp community is tight, tight because people have been in it for years. So I may not be a big, I don't know, e-commerce person, but maybe Kari knows someone that is or does and or Hector, you know, so we we [00:27:30] have a resources that we can pull from. And it's a very collaborative community too. So even though we all compete, there's so much business out there. So and everybody like, like Kari said, I can't know those 15, 2000 apps that are on the App Store, but I can call somebody and go, have you worked with this product? No, I haven't, but this one is great. Check it out. So. Or hey, can I refer one to you? And you know, [00:28:00] we can share referral commissions as well so that that happens too.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So yeah, I love that the Qsp program is as collaborative as the ProAdvisor community is now.

Carrie Kahn: I was going to say it's when I first joined the program, because I literally don't even know how I found it. It was by accident, and I walked in and I saw all the people that go that teach all these classes, you know, back years ago. And it's really a lot of the people that [00:28:30] are like heavy experts in different things that teach the classes. And I was like, these are my people. Now. I have, you know, you get your reps, so you get behind the scenes with, you know, you can get help through Intuit. Um, but then you meet people like Jeff and, and, you know, people like Dan, who's on the other side of no longer an end to it, but he still has his secret people there that can help us find things.

Carrie Kahn: So yeah, I mean, maybe.

Carrie Kahn: They're gone every time there's a wipeout or [00:29:00] a layoff, we don't know who's still left. And we we wait, but we all, like, have our, um, you know, I can I can text Jeff right now because we often run into things. You know, it's taken ten years for my partner program where our ten year anniversary and we still don't have the perfect solutions for everything. We're just filling in with the big the big ones that are well known. And we've negotiated, you know, special, exclusive things because we have a large partner group to pull from. And they they're [00:29:30] excited because they don't have to onboard these one order partners that it is hard on their resources. And we have the ability to track a lead and follow up and, and yell at somebody about payment. And when I first became a in the Qsp program, I. I remember I recommended fishbowl and signed up for the commission and all that. Well, I forgot about it because I'm too busy. I'm just one person and I don't think I ever [00:30:00] got paid. I had to send an email and a text and finally I got the commission that I was due. But what we've and I'm sure Jeff has too.

Carrie Kahn: What we've figured out is as long as we get our partners to order under us, we have our dedicated team. We can say, hey, what happened to that fishbowl order Jeff made? I never got that commission we have. We're hyper focused on those types of transactions so that the partners can hyper focus on their niche and learn, you know, what's the best solution [00:30:30] for nonprofit or manufacturing or whatever it is? Um, and then in turn, when we have leads that come across our desk that need some support, we know there's a partner in our program that might want to do that. And it's so collaborative. We have a giant Facebook group and, you know, it could be anybody from just getting started with QBO to somebody that is, you know, heavy in the desktop desktop space, but [00:31:00] is realizing some of their clients need to move over. I mean, I have Dan, I'm like, um, we have a partner that needs to do a conversion, and he can either do for them or with them so that then they become empowered to be able to do that sort of billable work themselves.

Dan DeLong: It's the it's the old adage of, you know, if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. And that's really the the mindset that that you guys take as far as your, your qsp programs. [00:31:30] And and I really appreciate it too, because I knew of it and I still was confused by all of the programs. So glad somebody smacked me upside the head and said, hey, you need to talk to Gary.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, now

Alicia Katz Pollock: One of the things that that you said was get help through into it. And so this is actually one of the things that I really appreciate about working with Complete Business Group is that you have your dedicated Intuit reps. And so that has actually allowed me [00:32:00] to develop direct relationships with some of the people at Intuit, like you have, um, Joey Yellen at QuickBooks payments. And then there's somebody who's a payroll liaison, so that when I'm signing somebody up, I can actually talk directly to them because I'm a CBG member. And then sometimes I don't even call you, I just go direct to them. And that's actually been invaluable.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah, I mean, I like right now I'm dealing with a [00:32:30] client that's having a payroll issue. Not that anyone ever has any with QuickBooks payroll. And I went right to my rep and he looked it up and said, oh, I see the case. Let me, uh, Escalate this. I'm on top of it. So it's just just be able to do that. Um. It's just so invaluable. Um, yeah. And just getting back to your last point real quick, um, on the collaboration. So like, I work with another shop that all they do is migrations. And even though [00:33:00] we do, like, you know, migrate to QBO, but they we may meet a client that's going from Sage to QBO or NetSuite or something, or even it's a difficult migration. Things aren't happening correctly. I can reach out to that shop and they'll do it for me. Or you know, Matt Clark from QB or not QB, right? You know, how many QuickBooks shrinks have we done with this company? And again, we get a break on that. So there's it may not be a it's just a break in the fee. We charge our client whatever and make [00:33:30] the profit. So just being able to reach out to these people that have their skill sets that we don't have, but be able to offer it to our clients is, if, you know, for us is just really cool.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So I want to take a minute and frame it for the ProAdvisor for like, what all their options are and where ships fall in this range. So when I started out, there was a wholesale program which meant that I would pay for my client's. Quickbooks. And originally it was a 50%. So I would be charged [00:34:00] 50% of the retail and then I could pass that price on. I could build it into my fees and the client pays nothing. I could have them directly pay for it in their monthly billing and charge whatever they wanted. So when I started out, basically my clients were getting 50% and I was charging and I was giving them 10% off of retail. Originally it was 20%. I was giving them 20% off of retail, so they had a 20% savings then until it changed it from 50% down to 30%. And so I had to make [00:34:30] it 10% instead. So I still have about 60 people on on that where I get this big, several thousand dollars bill from Intuit every month, and I have to make sure that I'm charging all my clients the right amount. And if they're on payroll and their number of employees changes, I literally have to go in every single month and adjust their next invoice for the number of employees. So in the the next level of program, beyond that wholesale, which still has its benefits, [00:35:00] is the preferred pricing, which is now in all of our boas under the billing, where every ProAdvisor can get 30% off of the retail by signing the client up, instead of the client going directly to and do it. And those that 30% is good for a year I believe.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm. Um, but then there's going to the um the ships directly. And so I don't use my preferred [00:35:30] pricing. I still have some people on wholesale, but I have mostly moved towards the model of working with CBG or with with a Qsp. And Jeff, I don't know how you do it, but with Complete Business Group, they actually gave me a landing page where I go to my sign up page and I can see all the different QuickBooks products and all the different partners, and I fill in the form with the client, and then that starts that, that relationship. And then it's nice because I can be as [00:36:00] involved with the onboarding as I want to. Some of them, I'm still doing all the onboarding and some of them I'm passing it off to them. But then I get a residual from the sale and so I'll get the some depending on the product. Maybe there's a bounty like I'll get $75 for making the referral, or if I sign them up for QuickBooks payments, I get a residual for the life of that client. And because I've been doing this now with for ten years, [00:36:30] I actually get a check from CBG every single month. That's like, honestly, almost $1,000 a month. And that's, you know, it's pennies on the dollar from their merchant services. But it's still, you know, as Kyrie used the term mailbox money. But it basically means that I have a growing, um, little nugget that I get just for working through CBG. And so it's been a really nice, um, it's a nice relationship, and it's a nice benefit for me as a ProAdvisor. [00:37:00]

Carrie Kahn: And there's a couple things that have changed. So that preferred thing that you were talking about, we've compared that to what ours is, and you end up getting, you know, more under us. Um, and the client gets the discount. And I think the way that the ProAdvisor program made that work is the client doesn't really get the discount, but you get like a quick commission or something. So it's like the wholesale billing is different now that Wayfair and all the sales tax and avalara, uh, just [00:37:30] puts too many question marks over my head. Like, I don't want to worry about that. Um, and then the third thing that's changed is the, um, the merchant service so used to be, you know, real easy. We would do the applications and send them to, uh, to Joe, and then he'd process them and they changed it, because what they have to do is they have a new system to to do the applications. And obviously with, um, banking information, social securities and all that stuff, they have a [00:38:00] new system where they can collect it and he does it directly. So we're we we order the QBO and then we quickly try to put merchant service on for two reasons. One, there's no monthly fee, so it doesn't cost anything to do it. Two, we can pass along a discounted rate. It's slightly less. Everyone wants a discount. And um and three into it's going to send them 100 emails to push them to do it. And when they're in product they're going to click, click, click and they're going to sign [00:38:30] up anyway. But they're not going to if they do it without us they don't get the discount. And if they do it without us we don't get the residual. So there's this quick scramble. And then in the Intuit world they changed the number of days we can do this. It used to be anytime two like

Jeff Siegel: Seven r something.

Carrie Kahn: Yeah seven.

Carrie Kahn: Days. So we're it puts a lot of work on us. And it's the constant changing stuff is um it's frustrating. We still have it. We still have our rep. We do the best we [00:39:00] can trying to capture those, but often the the partner or the customer will say, I don't really need that. And then he looks later he can look it up and he goes, they signed up anyway and they're using it, but it's too late because, you know, it's it's the the marketing efforts from Intuit are very strong. And I really do like how the new rates are used to choose between monthly a monthly fee or not. And they're all no monthly fee, so it's real easy to recommend it. And [00:39:30] while I'm saying that I want to, I just thought of something. That's when I first started this talking to you. I told you when I joined the program, I'm like, I don't think they realize I don't do sales and I still don't, but I do. I do passionately love QuickBooks, particularly. You all know, enterprise. I'm not gonna lie about that. But, um, but I passionately love enterprise and or QuickBooks and the whole Intuit world. Um, so I'm [00:40:00] just happily recommending and refitting my client, and I'm actually doing sales without realizing it, because all of the people listening, if you're a ProAdvisor, you're their trusted advisor. So rather than waiting for your client to come to you mad at Intuit and then you have a big, you know, boo hoo session over how mad you are at them, talk to them ahead of time, like Jeff says, and put him in a trial just to let them see it, let them play, let the team see it. And if they're not ready, say it's okay. You don't have [00:40:30] to be ready today. But I have your back. I'm your trusted advisor. Come to me before you go listening to the marketing efforts.

Alicia Katz Pollock: One. One thing I want to just say about that when you talked about the difference in the pricing, like just as a specific example, ACH, if the client signs up directly in QuickBooks, there's no cap on the ACH. But if they sign up through, uh, through a pro through Qsc, then there's a cap [00:41:00] of I'm not sure if it's currently $10 or $15.15, but they don't pay more than $15. And I have some clients that process hundreds, tens, tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And instead of paying $200 in ACH fees, they can pay $15 in ACH fees. So it's kind of important to take this route.

Jeff Siegel: And like Kerry said earlier, I am a qsp. We get those residuals for as long as they're on there using merchant services. It's [00:41:30] and it's double the rate where I think, like you said Kerry, it's like three years for.

Carrie Kahn: Right.

Carrie Kahn: So the ProAdvisor they're they're put this is kind of stepping on our toes and we get a little frustrated. But the ProAdvisor program and it just launched it doesn't mean it's going to you know sometimes these things launch and it's not popular. So they just don't do it. But you can sign up as a ProAdvisor yourself and you get 20% residual. And those numbers are really hard to figure out. It's of a net profit. And there's no it's really hard to even know what those numbers [00:42:00] mean. We get 40% of that same number at CBG. Everything's 50 over 50 covers all of our overhead to process and track and the landing pages and all the technology we have. So you have a choice. If you are CBG partner of getting 20% for the lifetime of the merchant service or for three years.

Carrie Kahn: So we actually still come out ahead. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And I want people to be clear that it's not 20% of the amount charged through merchant services. [00:42:30] No no no no no no. It's it's after.

Dan DeLong: Basis.

Dan DeLong: Points after.

Alicia Katz Pollock: The banks, after.

Dan DeLong: All sorts of things.

Jeff Siegel: That Intuit gets. And you get a piece of that. It's like.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right.

Carrie Kahn: It's there, it's there. Yeah.

Carrie Kahn: Their net income. And trust me, I've tried to figure out the math and I've said I need better reports. And they're.

Carrie Kahn: Just they're just not going to give them to us. So we just we know that roughly, uh, I think, um, you know, if you just assume that each account might earn a net profit of $25, [00:43:00] some might be $2, some might be 100, you know, you have this average. It's an average game. But anybody that buys QuickBooks should go ahead and get that, uh, the merchant service set while you are in there, while you're getting their attention at a discount, Save them some money. And obviously if you do it under qsp, you can earn that residual. Or even if you don't, some people actually don't care about the commission and the residual or they're not allowed to care. [00:43:30] Um, you do want your customer to get a better price, so just make sure you're doing that little bit of discount.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So now I want to find out, like how does a ProAdvisor pick a qsp. Because there's a lot of them out there. Like what are the benefits, for example, of each of your programs. Like why would we choose Siegel solutions over CBG or vice versa?

Jeff Siegel: Well, I would choose CBG over me any day. Any day.

Carrie Kahn: See? We're friends. Isn't that crazy? Exactly. Well.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. [00:44:00] Well, I think.

Carrie Kahn: I can answer that. Since you said you choose me i'll tell you.

Jeff Siegel: Go ahead you answer that Cafrrie

Carrie Kahn: Yeah, how about that?

Carrie Kahn: I'll turn it back.

Carrie Kahn: So Jeff is, uh, an Acumatica expert. And so CBG will eventually be a partner of Siegel Solutions, because we don't have a way to get Acumatica or a resource right now, I would just send them a text. So it's crazy that the that the SPS are partners with each other over their expertise. [00:44:30] Um, we're a partner of Marjorie's for Lane because she's developed a software that allows you to take desktop to the cloud and reduce your users, because the pricing is going cray cray, and you can add a mobile interface to it and keep the customer in the product that they need until they're ready for AIS or QBO. We're sort of holding on to people and keeping them where they're the right fit. And a and another just I wanted to add this because, um, [00:45:00] I'll still answer your question, but I'm unaware of any other place that you can still purchase enterprise. It's hidden from the website. It's it's alive and well. And they we have been promised that until all the futures are showing up into Ise, it's not going anywhere. And I think we're a long way away from that.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. And we get residuals or commissions or bounties that ProAdvisor program can't get even on the referral side, [00:45:30] where we actually go in and place an order, um, through a different platform as these commissions that we're seeing that the ProAdvisor program doesn't see or get.

Carrie Kahn: Right. So if you do need if.

Carrie Kahn: You do need a desktop solution, we we have the ability to not only purchase it, we can get a discount and we can get the commission. So there's there's more options than they are through the, uh, wholesale. And you don't have to worry about sales tax. [00:46:00] What's nice when everything turns to subscription, what's nice is we our model completely changed. We used to purchase QuickBooks, turn around and sell it. And it was something you bought. You had CDs, now you own the subscription. So we're actually the middleman. Getting your customer to be a subscriber of QuickBooks. And QuickBooks handles all the billing, and they handle all the sales tax charges so that Avalara solution [00:46:30] is unneeded if you have Intuit manage that.

Dan DeLong: So you, um, you had said that, um, you know, where does somebody go to find out? Of course, we would recommend Carrie or Jeff here because they're here. Um, but if you wanted to, you know, do some due diligence and see what all the ships that are available, there is a qsp directory, uh, on Intuit's website, and you can go in and you can you can see all of the shops who are registered, uh, on them. Reach [00:47:00] out to them, see what they're kind of what what they might specialize in. You know, maybe they're maybe they specialize in, you know, data conversions and you want to involve with that, right? So you can really take a look at what their specialty is, reach out to them, talk about their program and then, you know, see what's what's best for you. Because again, as QuickBooks solution providers, we want to best fit the people who are listening to the right, right fit certain strengths.

Jeff Siegel: So [00:47:30] I think Kari, like she mentioned earlier, built up a wonderful partner program. You have a lot of partners. I'm not sure how many, but.

Dan DeLong: Two of them are talking on.

Jeff Siegel: Right here. Okay. So I think our.

Carrie Kahn: Our landing page.

Carrie Kahn: Is the big thing that we have. And then building out those, um, the gold vendors, which is a which is a process. It takes a long time to vet and find them. And we're never we're never going to be done with that because there's you mentioned something Dan I'm like connector [00:48:00] to Shopify. Ah, there's so many things that you need to know.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah. So we are real quick on with us. We haven't focused on building a big partner program. We're doing a lot of that solution selling. So people who would want to partner with us, you know, we're like, you know, we're involved in putting in a solution, actually doing the work, consulting, research. There's a lot of, um, we're like an operating [00:48:30] kind of, uh, I guess a CAS practice as well. And then there are certain ones, um, there's a qsp that has a they they have a cloud based. They'll host your stuff for you as well as other things. Um, there's some that are, like you said, Dan, that are mostly migrations. So it's so there's everyone has their own little maybe niche.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm. Um, and it's.

Alicia Katz Pollock: A free for you and for single solutions. What's your ideal client. Like what would be the ideal [00:49:00] ProAdvisor. Who would turn to you.

Jeff Siegel: Uh, someone who actually deals a lot with. We love inventory. We love manufacturing, you know, product. You know, we have a lot of service client type clients, but a a a a ProAdvisor, an accountant, a bookkeeper who may have clients that are in that type of business that requires inventory type of thing. I mean, we we'll take almost any. But that's kind of our specialty. And we also do a lot with construction. So um, again, [00:49:30] we're not trying to build a big program. So we're probably selective as well. But that's that's where we, we, we don't have we should get a landing page. So Kerry, maybe I'll talk to you, uh, afterwards. But yeah.

Jeff Siegel: So we have a lot.

Jeff Siegel: Of other ships that are not making the cut that are coming.

Carrie Kahn: Under our house.

Jeff Siegel: Under our account. We call them secondaries. So they actually still have a lot of the benefits, as if they were still a ship, their own, um, Microsites, [00:50:00] things like that. But we're getting a lot of those folks.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You mentioned Acumatica. What is Acumatica?

Jeff Siegel: Well, great. I'm glad you asked. Um, so for client companies who have kind of outgrown QuickBooks as far as functionality or they have like five apps connected to it or ten, and they've got Excel to track and stuff. They may need a product that has a lot more functionality and is all more all in one. So Acumatica is an ERP [00:50:30] enterprise resource program. Um, and it incorporates, you know, uh, reporting and inventory if you need it, and field service if you need that as well. And consolidations and multi company multi entity including Acumatica has multi language. So a larger company that may have a branch in Spain or France, their menus would be in their language even though you're on the same platform. Um, and [00:51:00] it's typically for a larger company. So I would say 7 million in revenues and climbing and even higher than that. Um, it really depends on the functionality that they need. And do they want it all under one roof and.

Dan DeLong: An alternative to NetSuite.

Dan DeLong: Right?

Jeff Siegel: Yeah, it's an alternative to NetSuite. Um, dynamics Sage Intacct. It's written in SQL. So a lot of the third parties we're talking about for QuickBooks who also integrate with Acumatica, well, what they a [00:51:30] lot of them will actually build their product inside Acumatica. So you never leave the program because it's SQL based, like Dan said. So they could build out the menus inside product. So it's just part of it because it's frustrating. Obviously with QuickBooks, like I wish there was something I could put here or a button that did that. Well, you could actually do that in Acumatica and security. It's fully cloud based, but security is great because you could actually from a roll you could cut out, you could take out fields [00:52:00] that they don't see. So I could log into an invoice and see all the fields. I may have someone log into an invoice and only see ten fields and that's it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Oh, interesting.

Jeff Siegel: They wouldn't even know there were other ones there. So it's really kind of a nice product.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So you're not just QuickBooks, then you actually can go up to higher scale companies.

Jeff Siegel: Exactly.

Jeff Siegel: I mean, you'd have to.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Support that a qsp provides for Intuit, but do the same thing with other solutions.

Jeff Siegel: Yes. Our missions on our website is to provide world class services and cutting edge solutions [00:52:30] to help businesses grow and succeed. So it's not like we're QuickBooks resellers. Um, now QuickBooks is 95% of what we do, but that other 5% is for that company that we may have been with for years. And they're like, yeah, we just we're looking we're growing. We need more. Um.

Dan DeLong: You grew with them.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah, we grew with them. And we wanted a product to, um, move them to. And there's there's a lot of them out there, so we can't be an expert on every single product. So we chose chose Acumatica.

Carrie Kahn: So [00:53:00] that's why that would help me to add that option. This is our future list.

Carrie Kahn: Because.

Carrie Kahn: Uh, with Acumatica, it's one of those software programs where they require you to try to, to run the billing. And CBG doesn't do that. I don't like doing that. So I would send him a lead. He could run with it and I could earn. I think it's a residual with that.

Carrie Kahn: Right.

Jeff Siegel: Yeah, absolutely it's a residual. Yeah. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. You're here folks. You're seeing a new relationship built right here on.

Jeff Siegel: Residual [00:53:30]for resellers climbs. We're we're probably a smaller reseller in in Acumatica program, but it goes up to like 50% of the fee that the client pays. Acumatica. Oh wow. And there could be, um, clients that are paying. Now, these are big companies, obviously. Right. So they could be paying three, four, 5000 a month for this program. And I'm not saying it starts at that because it starts lower than that. But can you imagine getting, you know, 2 or 3000 a month in residuals and [00:54:00] splitting that with, with whoever it is, a month.

Jeff Siegel: A month? Yeah.

Carrie Kahn: That pooling the sales is uh, is where if I see the word Acumatica, I know. Okay. I would think Jeff would be Acumatica. And then with all of us sending our leads or Acumatica leads to him, he can grow his pooled sales and unlock higher tiers, a higher payout for everyone. And then he's more relevant in the program. He'll get they unlock more benefits. You get a rep and all the things.

Jeff Siegel: And, [00:54:30] uh, from an Acumatica point of view, I heard that 40% of their new businesses come out of QuickBooks.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Interesting. So there's a different a different road in addition to, uh, Intuit Enterprise Suite for clients who have that more ERP kind of need and not just enhanced projects and multi-company.

Jeff Siegel: And I and I will say that the pricing for I and IIs is a little tricky to figure out. Um, but when you look at what you get, you can be pretty [00:55:00] comparable in the Acumatica side for the same or in some cases, lower pricing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So all right. Well, well excellent everybody. Thank you for helping define what a QuickBooks solutions provider is and why it's an asset and a benefit to all of our listeners and ProAdvisor, whether you're an individual shop or, you know, you're a solopreneur or whether there's an accounting firm listening to this, accounting firms may not want to become their own ships and have to worry about sales and benchmarks. [00:55:30] And so establishing relationships with a qsp is excellent. No matter what the scale and scope of your accounting firm is.

Carrie Kahn: That's a really good call out. We have a large accounting firm that has a division and they do a workflow analysis. And then they'll they they right fit the client. It might take up to a year to get the job done, but they come to us to buy QuickBooks when that's the solution because they know that we're we'll give them good support and and they don't take commission. So they [00:56:00] just, you know, are thankful to have not have to go straight to well, they can't get enterprise directly from Intuit anyway. But years ago they could and they chose to come through us because we, you know, like Jeff said, we try to give excellent customer service to, um, anybody purchasing under us. So.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right, so, um, we always end our episodes with a what's going on in your world? So, um, Dan, let's start with you.

Dan DeLong: Yeah. So, um, I'm working on creating [00:56:30] a, uh, very similar to the vein that we've been talking about here is a cohort, uh, called Passive aggression, how to be aggressive about passive income. And part of that is is joining a qsp Cusp program and really dividing. What are these different options, but also what other options are out there for accountants and bookkeepers? So that's what I'm working on. Uh, how about you, Carrie? What's, uh, what's going on in your world?

Carrie Kahn: We are just about to [00:57:00] celebrate our ten year anniversary of our partner program, which is a big milestone, and we've got up to 800 partners, so we're into being a big part. Yeah, we have a couple on here. Um, and we are just, you know, better together. And we all like to I call it Co-opetition. We we are all competitors, but we're friendly competitors. We know our weaknesses and our strengths. And, um, I'm just so excited that we've made it ten years and we're still going. How [00:57:30] about you, Jeff?

Jeff Siegel: God, I wish I had 800 partners, but no, um, we we're actually, uh, from a business point of view, we are hiring an AI expert because we're from that solutions approach. A lot of our clients need help on the AI side. They're like, what is this? What can I do with it? Because we're we're seeing places where they could actually utilize it. So we're going to start offering that as a service to our clients. Um, I think it's [00:58:00] it's going to be great because we're needed. They're asking us like what they could do with it. Um, and on the 30th, we're going to have a webinar on the new Quickbook QBO interface, which some people love and a lot of people may not love. So, um, we'll have a link later on for that. But, uh, that's coming up on the 30th of this month.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. And so there'll be a link to that in the show notes.

Carrie Kahn: And [00:58:30] Alicia, he just brought up something that I realized you are about to launch.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So in the same vein as Jeff, we're recognizing that a lot of people are scrambling to make sense of the new interface. And, you know, nobody likes that moment of lost productivity where you actually have to take some time and stop what you're doing to look around. So we've been doing a several different demos of the the old interface versus the new interface. There's there's some on YouTube, but it also means that we [00:59:00] are redoing all of our classes. And so we started a couple weeks ago and we just finished the QBO boot camp, which is all the basic workflows but now shown in the new interface. And our upcoming classes include the brand new banking feed and a reconciling class. And there's a brand new reconciling tool that I've tried a couple of times that reconciles for you, and it was actually pretty slick. So the when you [00:59:30] look at my class schedule, know that every class that I'm teaching involves all the new tools. So even if you consider yourself a seasoned pro. This will take you to the what's new and keep you moving forward into the future. So come check those out@learn.com and the great QBO refresh. Um, I also want to take a minute. Um, this is our two year anniversary of this podcast. Awesome. Today as the recording day was, the [01:00:00] was the the day Hector and I released our first podcast episode. So we are officially two years old. You're, of course, listening to this a couple weeks down the line, and we kind of missed the anniversary. Um, but we celebrated our 100th episode a couple a couple months ago, and now we're two years old and we are still going strong. And so thank.

Dan DeLong: You. Not the terrible twos, then.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, let's let's see how this year actually plays out. Um, but we are going strong. [01:00:30] You know, Dan and Matthew and and, uh, Margie, thank you all for co-hosting with me and thank you for all of the listeners. Continue subscribing. Continue spreading the word. We need to grow in order to keep going. And also definitely check out our sponsors. We have show notes for every episode, so whatever you're listening in, whether it's Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Amazon or wherever it is, go [01:01:00] take a look at the show notes and click the links of the show who are here today, and click the links of our sponsors. And that's how I can keep giving you all of this information and doing this show that I'm really passionate about. So thank you all for being here.

Carrie Kahn: Thank you for having us.

Jeff Siegel: Thank you.

Dan DeLong: Love it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. So thank you all for listening. And we will see you in the.

Dan DeLong: Next the next one.

Carrie Kahn: Bye see you later.