Conference Season Recap

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Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey, everybody, this is Alicia from Royal. Com and welcome to the latest edition of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. This episode is going to be a little wonky. I have been away from home now for almost a month. It started back in October when I went to the Women Who Count Conference, which was the annual conference [00:00:30] from the Accounting and Financial Women's Alliance. And so I was in Mesa, Arizona, both as a sponsor and a speaker, giving my QBO Tips and Tricks class, where I also talked a lot about the changes in the interface so that people could understand the context. I went directly from women who count straight to Las Vegas for Intuit Connect. And so you've already heard our breakdown episode that I did with the accounting podcast, Blake Oliver and David Leary. And if you missed that episode, go [00:01:00] back a week because I think you will get a lot out of that one. Um, but I'm going to continue breaking down everything that I learned at Intuit Connect in this episode and in future episodes. I went home from Las Vegas for two days right over Halloween, and it was also my daughter's 18th birthday. So I got to celebrate that with her and dressed up as a monarch butterfly for all of our two trick or treaters. It was pouring rain and it was the kids who lived on the block, so it was kind of a bust. [00:01:30]

Alicia Katz Pollock: But then I flew out the next day to Miami for a reframe, which was the conference from Hector and Carlos Garcia, the Garcia brothers. And that conference was all about pricing with confidence and transformation. So I am going to be talking about a lot of this stuff over the next few weeks and telling you what I learned at the different conferences and the conversations that I had with a lot of people. Now, going from conference to conference to conference was definitely [00:02:00] really grueling, but it was also really invigorating. You know, for me, being in touch with all of my colleagues, which is also my social circle, was some of the best parts. But each of the three conferences fed a different part of me. Intellectually. They were all incredibly, incredibly different. Women Who count was essentially the annual meeting for the AWS organization, but they are really going out of their way to transform the conference. Sharon Fuller and Kelly [00:02:30] Gonsalves and Charlotte and Jessica and their whole team did a really good job, both as an educational conference and also fundraising for the organization. It's a small conference. There are only a few hundred people there, but there were several different breakout rooms and all of the issues really focused on what it is like to be a woman in an industry that has been traditionally and historically male, although I when I walk around, I see more women [00:03:00] doing it at the conferences than I do see men.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So I'm not sure exactly how that dynamic came to be. But it's very, very clear that the that the industry is moving towards being heavily female. But the conference really took its time to dig into the things that are unique to women in the industry, whether it's, um, speaking up in a male dominated room to your work life [00:03:30] balance with the traditional roles of being the mom in the family to technology innovations in the, in the industry. And so it was a very, very professional conference. Um, Sharon and Kelly and team, you did a really great job. And I really like all the new people that I met in a whole new world for me. So congratulations on the good conference. And, um, we'll look forward to next year as well. Well, it's one thing for me to talk [00:04:00] about women who count, but I mentioned that I did that recording project where I talked to attendees, and one of the questions that I asked is, what was the best thing that you've learned at this conference so far? So let's start by hearing from the attendees of women who count. What were the best things that they learned at Women Who Count?

Nayo Carter-Gray: My name is Nicole Gray with First Step Accounting, and the best thing I've learned at Women Who Count this year is that the biggest ROI you can get in your [00:04:30] business is from your people. So make sure you're investing in your team and training them up responsibly.

Nancy McClelland: My name is Nancy McClelland and I am with the dancing accountant. And the best thing I've learned at this conference, the Women Who Count conference so far is Terri Warren showed us in a workflow, um, workshop how to use AI to help you design a template to automate the month end close. [00:05:00]

Megan Tano: Hey, my name is Megan Tano. I'm with DCB consulting, and the best thing I've learned at the Women Who Count conference is I'm hit with two. One is the power of women and community, and another that coming up with ways to support employee growth in small firms is simply a challenge.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now, one of the highlights for me at Women Who Count was attending the auction. I got to sit next to [00:05:30] Blake Oliver and a question from Earmark Earmarks podcast. So we had a little podcaster table, and I found myself bidding on the Caribbean vacation, kind of the big prize for their auction fundraiser. Now, to be fair, it said on the slide, tax deductible. And I really should have known better that it wasn't really tax deductible. So if I bid more than I had planned on thinking that I was going to get a tax deduction, [00:06:00] but no. Um, but because I have been committed to being nomadic and working from anywhere, I was like, well, hey, I'll go ahead on this conference and see if I can if I can win this trip to the Caribbean. Um, so it turns out it's only between January and April, so it's during tax season. But for me that actually works because as a trainer, my practice gets kind of quiet in March and April. So I can probably take that trip then. And [00:06:30] so I won the trip. So I am either going to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, um, in sometime between January and April, and I am really looking forward to it. So we will definitely have some work away from home episodes, uh, in 2026. Then came Intuit Connect. I've been going to Intuit Connect since 2014, I haven't missed one. I've been a presenter for the majority of those years, not the first year and not the last two years, but all the years [00:07:00] in between.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's actually where I won my crown of the Queen of QuickBooks Live. It's not just me being snarky. I actually have an actual physical crown given to me by into it. And for me, Intuit Connect is both a reunion of 500 of my best friends and my opportunity to talk to all the developers about the new features that are coming out, and also to forge relationships with them so that when things are not going correct, I have somebody to call. And so it's my opportunity to develop [00:07:30] my contacts at Intuit. The impression this year, as you'll hear in an upcoming clip where I talk to Margie and Dan, was really, really different this year. It was not 500 of my best friends in this big family reunion. I actually only knew a few dozen people. Intuit invited a whole different group of people. They just like the software is going up market. So did the attendees. The audience was not individual ProAdvisor this [00:08:00] time it was firms and firm employees. So I got to meet a whole lot of new people. But the vibe was very, very different. It also wasn't a celebration of us as ProAdvisor as the all the content really was around around the software itself. I mean, there were practice development workshops and personal development workshops, but as you're going to hear the takeaways from Intuit Connect, we're much, much more about the software and the company than it was about personal growth strategy.

Olga Hurtado : Hi, my name is Olga Hurtado [00:08:30] and I'm with Brex. The best thing I've learned at this conference so far is that QuickBooks is getting more expensive.

Intuit Connect Interview : The best thing I've learned at this conference so far is to see where Intuit is going with the new technology, and what I realized is that the new, the new features that will be coming in and will need expert setup. So the experience for advisors will be needed much more in order to help the clients and set it up to make use of all [00:09:00] the new features. Quickbooks is releasing.

Olga Hurtado : With platinum Tax, and the best thing I've learned at this conference is that human connection still matters, and it will matter forever and ever.

Martha Jaso: Hi, I'm Martha Jaso with Physical Therapies, and the best thing I've learned here at connect is the new accounting center.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Which leads me to reframe, which is my my second year going out of [00:09:30] three. And reframe is a conference like no other. Hector and Carlos are really making it about reframing the accounting industry and changing its reputation from being stodgy and stuffy and about data into being literally personal transformation. Last year, they focused on a book by Phil Jones called Exactly What to Say, which is about using language to forward a conversation and help bring people together so that you can gain new clients, [00:10:00] for example, by the way that you talk to them. This year was just as transformational. The topic this year was pricing with confidence. And it really they brought together Ron Baker, Blair Ennis, Tricia Bowers and Chris Doerr. And the four of them brought different perspectives. But the big, big, big takeaway is that when you are onboarding a new client or having those initial conversations with a potential client, [00:10:30] we've always thought about what we do as a list of services that we're going to provide them, almost like a checklist or a task list, and then pricing those services according to how much time it's going to take us to do them. Even if you're not keeping time sheets, you're still kind of looking at it from a time based perspective, and what they work to do is approach the conversation as how can we transform their business? What is it that sources them? What are their goals in three years, [00:11:00] and how can we get them to those places? Which is changing the conversation? More from compliance to advisory and from backwards recording of history to forward advisory.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so that does mean for some of us that we actually have to change our service packages. But your pricing is not based on the list of services. Instead, it's the what ifs, you know, the what are some of the contingencies that could happen and pricing [00:11:30] according to the value of what you're going to bring them from the peace of mind to the transformation. And so it was a very, very different way of looking at pricing, very impactful. And the conference all takes place in one room, where all the attendees move from table to table to table, and during each session, do different exercises so that they can really make it real. So it's a whole different approach to conferences, and a huge shout out [00:12:00] to Hector and Carlos for transforming conferences, as well as all of us as individuals, as well as all of us in the industry. Well, that was my impressions of reframe. But of course, we want to hear from everybody else. So let's go back to that question that I asked attendees. The what is the best thing that you've learned at reframe?

Caroline Passmore: My name is Caroline Passmore and I am with CRP specialists, Inc. and the best thing that [00:12:30] I have learned at reframe so far is that I need to make sure that I am, um, asking better questions when I do my, uh, clarity calls because, uh, I feel like I'm not doing that right now, so I need to improve that a bit.

Tanya Schulte: My name is Tanya Schulte and I'm with the Prophet Constructors, and the best thing I've learned at this conference so far is that I finally put together a piece of the value pricing puzzle that I'd never had before, which was how to [00:13:00] have a really good value conversation with a well designed and well thought out value framework.

Veronica Wasek: My name is Veronica Wasek and i'm with five minute Bookkeeping. The best. The best thing I've learned at reframe so far is to really think about the customer experience, and how we can deliver something above and beyond what we think that they want, and really asking the right questions to learn what they really want and deliver that experience to them. [00:13:30]

Caroline Passmore: My name is Amanda Chestnut of Money Mastery, LLC, and the best thing I learned at reframe this year was how to transform my clients experience.

Gloria Fenn: My name is Gloria Fenn. I'm with Gloria CPE plc are. The best thing I've learned at this conference so far is being aware that sometimes I really need to unlearn what I have learned so far.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So [00:14:00] those are kind of my conference comparisons in a nutshell. Now let's go ahead and do a deep dive, and let's roll the clip of Margie and Dan and I.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey everybody, welcome to the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. And I'm here with Dan DeLong of School of Bookkeeping and Margie Davis of Acadian.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And this is Alicia from Royal Wise. And we are right on the tail end of Intuit Connect like everybody else is left. But we decided to stay and talk to y'all for a few minutes. [00:14:30] Um, to do a quick recap. So what I wanted to do is basically just find out what's top of mind for everybody. Like, what's your where are you? After walking away from the the last speaker.

Dan DeLong: Well, for me and, you know, for my experience being with Intuit and also, you know, observing into its behavior, you know, on both sides of the employment band, it's always been about the messaging [00:15:00] and the the conversations that evolve from that messaging. And, and the biggest thing that that showed up for me when they were announcing the changes with Accounting Suite, um, there was a lot of mixed messaging that that got interpreted. They launched the product or I guess they released the product into the wild at the same time that they were announcing it. So it was very interesting to see, you know, external [00:15:30] people talking about something that we're just hearing firsthand at the same time. And we're trying to understand, you know, what it is that they're talking about, um, you know, and, and assimilate what it actually means. So, you know, with the announcement of the Intuit accounting suite, because now we have to understand the terminology of what and how that affects qbo and, you know, flippant, [00:16:00] not flippantly, but, you know, off the top of his head, maybe off script or off messaging, which is why things get so confusing, you know, saying that ProAdvisor is being discontinued. Right? So that instills the the panic, you know, and adds to the ever growing list of things. Right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: So a little bit of context for what Dan is talking about. Unfortunately, I was actually not in the room because I was getting ready for my book release party. But from what I know [00:16:30] about this, he actually said the end of the ProAdvisor program, right? Yes. But that.Slide.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Right. But it from talking to everybody that I could talk to. The ProAdvisor program is not ending, right? Right. Um, what they are doing is they're replacing QBO with what they're now calling Intuit Accountant Suite and that, you know, there's talk of of paid parts of it, but it's there's still the essential core of it, as we know as QBO A is still going to be free. Yeah. [00:17:00] And then over the next year, they're in the process of developing some new elements for it. Um, a client management portal with KPIs. I think that's actually still in the free version of it. Um, and a, uh, a books closed kind of like Double and Keeper does and a, uh, capacity management tool, and those are going to be paid. So when you hear about them saying, oh, it's not going to be free anymore, it the basic where you [00:17:30] get your certification and manage your clients is still going to be free. It's that they're going to charge if you want to use the management.

Dan DeLong: Right. And we won't know any of those details until for months. So the way that, you know, how do you talk about something that you're going to be ultimately charging for when you don't know what that price is actually going to be and the the coming months is going to give them some of that information so that they'll be able to, to, to do that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. They did say it's the end of 2026. So it's basically [00:18:00] going to be a year of developing and testing. And then they'll figure out how much it's worth to us.

Dan DeLong: Of course my concern was are they now going to be charging for all the things that they have been giving for free? You know, and that's not the case, right? So it's it's the tools that they're enhancing in the platform.

Margie Remmers Davis: Right. And one thing that was super interesting was um, the I spoke to the, I don't know, one of the product manager, I don't know what his title is. And um, [00:18:30] and he said he's actually excited about us being charged for it because one of the reasons they haven't put any time, effort, and attention into QBO is because it's a free product. So why, if it's not revenue generating, why would they put any time into it? So the fact that they're charging now means they're we're going to get more attention. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's a really good point about it. And I actually remember back in 2022 at the Influencer Summit where everybody in the room was like, you [00:19:00] need to pay for this. We have tire kickers. We have people who should not be doing bookkeeping, getting free A, QBO, accountants and doing people's books and calling themselves ProAdvisor. So we were always in favor of just a nominal, like $5 a month just to get the people out who shouldn't be there, right? So, Margie, how about you? What was your big takeaway or where are you after all of this?

Margie Remmers Davis: Yeah. So one of the things that they announced was something that they're calling Intuit Intelligence. So [00:19:30] right now they have, uh, they've already released these little A AI agents for each of the little features, but they're very they just kept saying very soon they're going to be releasing this overall thing. Kind of like ChatGPT for your books where you can ask natural language, human questions about your, you know, KPIs or about your, you know, products and services and how they're performing and all of that stuff. [00:20:00] And, and he they demoed lots of different use cases for, you know, they said, oh, you can put in your vendor list and, and it will analyze, you know, your vendor pricing list and it will analyze all of your things. Maybe you can renegotiate this, that and the other thing and the thing that just kept every time that they talked about this, the thing that kept coming up for me was how are they going to know what questions to ask? Like that's that's where like for us, the three of us here, we're all trainers. [00:20:30] Like that's how we have to like kind of reframe how we how we have our students think about what's available so that they can become more familiar with that.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, natural language and asking like I always freeze when I know I'm talking to a device, you know, because I'm trying to be very clear, talking to a machine. And I always screw it up so [00:21:00] I can only imagine, you know, this is going to be a lot of iterations until they get it right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I actually remember about four years ago they had tried releasing something like this, like there was a product announcement at connect about something similar to it, but that predates AI and ChatGPT as we know it. And so it came and it went, and I think now they're just more interested in it. But what that leads me to is that you're right on. And it what I came away with is one of the things that they kept repeating is AI versus AI, [00:21:30] artificial intelligence versus human intelligence. And I kept hearing the theme about, um, about personal development and personal growth. You know, it could be learning what questions you need to ask. It could be developing your leadership skills. That to me, it almost seems like now we can get the data out of the way and we can develop as our skills as human beings and communicators and coaches and friends, um, to companion [00:22:00] the fact that we don't have to spend our time on the technology anymore. So I'm interested to see how that plays out. But I really liked hearing. Hi, hi hi hi, hi, hi.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, I'm here. And and really, as technology is in its infancy stage, it still needs adult supervision. Absolutely right. So you want to have that, you know, human interface to to it so that you [00:22:30] you can ensure the quality of what is going in there. Um, and one other thing. I had a couple conversations with the guys at the booth about the agents, and one of the things I gathered, I don't know if they, you know, explicitly said it in any of the things, but, um, what is Intuit intelligence or what will be is going to be some consolidation of some of the agents that are currently. Yes. So, um, you know, you may [00:23:00] see, because that was my question to them is like, how do I know which agent I'm talking to? Right, right. Is this from the agent? You know, or is this from the accounting agent, or is this the payments agent I'm talking to? And because they might have different responses if you don't have those services. Right, like if you're not in an advanced and you don't have the finance agent, right, are you going to get the same answer from the agent?

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's great.

Dan DeLong: Question. You know, and he's like, well, a lot of those are [00:23:30] going to be homogenized into account or into it intelligence. And then your specific agents that are associated with a feature will be the agents that remain.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So we all have like different, you know, it's like the elephant, you know, you've got the tail and you got the ears and I've got the trunk and that elephant's going to get wrinklier as we go. And so, um, the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast will continue breaking it all down as [00:24:00] news develops. Um, but I want everybody to, you know, continue to come at this with a positive attitude. That one thing that we did see is that there was really a shift in attendance this time, that it wasn't like 500 of my best friends from the people that I've met over the last ten years. This was a lot of first time people, um, a lot of, um, of caste teams from firms, which is really indicative that Intuit is moving up market. And the [00:24:30] sentiment that I keep hearing is, don't forget us little guys. Um, uh, Suzanne actually said during his, uh, during his speech that right now we're at like that, that QuickBooks and Intuit powers 24% of all business in the US, and he wants to up that to 50%. And so, hey, Intuit, if you're going in the next five years and hey, Intuit if you're going to do that. Sure. You need the firms who have the volume of clients, [00:25:00] but all the individual small businesses still have to know how to use the product. So you need us. You need us. So don't kick the leg out from under the table because the whole table is going to collapse. But I want to give a shout out and a thank you to all the PMS and developers that I talked to. I spent my whole entire time in the, um, in the Intuit, um, suite in the middle, um, getting to know everybody. And I'm actually really excited about some of the features and enhancements [00:25:30] and solves to our problems and a lot of those things that we saw. So, uh, three of us, we have a lot of work cut out for us in the next year.

Dan DeLong: Very.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Quickly. All right. Any last words?

Dan DeLong: Stay tuned.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right, all right, all right. Thank you everybody. And we will see you in the next one. Now that reframe is over I'm actually still in [00:26:00] Florida. My cousin is getting married in West Palm Beach ten days after reframe. And so since I live in Portland, Oregon, and it takes me three flights to get here, we decided instead of me taking a full day to take three flights home, and then a week later taking three flights back, I would just stay in Florida. So I got myself a little Airbnb studio in West Palm Beach, and I am practicing the nomadic life, the balance of working and [00:26:30] traveling both at the same time. Now I have a long term goal. My five year plan is to go fully nomadic and be able to travel around the country and work from wherever I'm at. I didn't plan on going nomadic this early, but this was kind of a good experiment as a taste of what it takes to actually be able to be productive when you are out of your element. So I have this cute little Airbnb studio. You can see it in the background if anybody's watching [00:27:00] the videos. And I'm spending my mornings getting my work done and also doing, um, and then going out on some adventures, eating a lot of seafood. I even went snorkeling yesterday. At least I tried to go snorkeling. Unfortunately, the weather had turned cold and it got a little rough and so everything was murky and I couldn't really see anything. And I'm used to just diving down and getting in close, but I was wearing a wetsuit and I didn't have any weights, and so I literally [00:27:30] couldn't get off of the surface to see anything close.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So the guide was kind enough to send me all of his GoPro videos because I literally couldn't see anything. But hey, I still got to go snorkeling. And you know, that was awesome. So by this time next week, I will be back in my home studio and back into my standard routine. But I certainly see the appeal of not having routine at all. All right, now for the what's going on in your world? Uh, I [00:28:00] am back in after my travels to teaching my classes, and we're picking up with QuickBooks payments, a two hour class on the 25th. And I'm really looking forward to this particular class because, uh, Intuit has this approach of make all invoices payable, and there's so many different ways that you can now accept money. So I'm going to break down literally all of the changes. And I've been teaching QuickBooks payments literally at QuickBooks connect [00:28:30] ten years ago. So watching the evolution of it has been really exciting. It's one of the services that I think Intuit really does well, with the exception that there have been some glitches. Um, and I will be talking about those, but not right this moment. Okay. Um, after that, on December 2nd, I'm teaching my class on using credit cards inside QuickBooks online. Um, including corporate cards, those pesky subaccounts that we need to manage. And [00:29:00] then on Thursday the fourth, I've got an expense management class, and we'll be talking about accounts payable and all the different ways that you can pay your bills and use online bill pay. This is Alicia Pollock of Royal Wise Comm, and I will see you in the next one.