But How Do We REALLY Feel?

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

Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey, everybody, this is Alicia Pollock from com. And in this edition of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, this is going to be kind of an interesting one today. This one is called. But how do we really feel? So as you all know, uh, we just got back or I just got back from three different conferences, women who count, intuit, connect and reframe [00:00:30] all one right after another. And one of the things that I did while I was there was do interviews with everybody that I came across ProAdvisor employees, just about everybody. And I had asked them three questions. And in the last few episodes we've been over many of those questions. We had one episode where we talked about the most impactful change that people had made over the last year, and then we had another episode where everybody shared the the thing that they liked best that they [00:01:00] learned at each of the conferences. But the third part that I handed everybody was, my name is blank, and I'm with blank. And if I could say one thing to intuit, it would be and I intentionally made this an open ended question that I know for me, you know, if I could say one thing to intuit, it would be, well, thank you for my career and giving me a perfect storm to celebrate my skills of computer software geekiness and my master's [00:01:30] in teaching, where I get to teach people software. And I'm grateful that over the last 15 years, I have been able to kind of rise up and help as many people as possible navigate QuickBooks so that they can best serve their clients and their firms.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, so that's my underlying. But when I came back from the conference, the first thing that I did was record a crossover episode with the Accounting Podcast [00:02:00] with David Leary and Blake Oliver. You can go back and listen to that episode on either platform, where we broke down the feel of the conference and the direction that QuickBooks and Intuit are taking. And, you know, did a whole lot of analysis. But something that I said really struck a chord with some people, and I was actually called to the carpet by somebody on Facebook. As for essentially being an apologist and just dismissing everybody, saying, oh, it's just the ProAdvisor [00:02:30] don't like change. And, you know, and QuickBooks is great. And like, you know, anybody who's listened to me knows that that's not the approach that I take. I hold it to its feet, to the fire and talk to the developers and help them with the programing. And unfortunately, it's not even a paid position and kind of like doing the goodness of my own heart. It feels sometimes. Um, and so while I do see my role as a bridge, I see my role [00:03:00] as a translator between Intuit intentions and our ProAdvisor experiences, so that I can frame the changes in a way that makes sense to us so that we can roll with it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And I also do it in the other way. I take the feedback from the ProAdvisor, and I set it up the chain to intuit so that they know that people either love something or hate something. So I'm the last person in the world who's just like, I'm just going to put sunshine and rainbows all over all of this. Um, you know, I want it to be real. That [00:03:30] I want intuit to succeed, you know? And so it does not fund this podcast until it does not give me any paid money as a, as an advertiser or a sponsor or anything like that. I do work for them as a contractor occasionally in order to help with ProAdvisor Academy, for example. I'm a long time Intuit trainer, but that's all project based and they don't fund and source anything that I do. And so I want everybody to realize when I say that this is [00:04:00] the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, I really mean it's the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. If you probably put a price tag on all the contributions that I've made to them, whether it's sales and subscriptions or QuickBooks payments or any of the products or anything, you know, they probably owe me at least a half $1 million. And, you know, unfortunately, I'm never going to see it. And I just kind of have to, you know, suck it up that I've built a company around software without any support from the company's software. [00:04:30]

Alicia Katz Pollock: The company added software. So it's definitely puts me in a in an interesting position. But I love what I do and I love the people that I serve. I love the members of the royal wise owls, the people who come to me for QuickBooks training. You listeners out there, it's really gratifying to me to know that I make a difference in all of your lives and make your work a little easier, and that's why I do what I do All right. Now, what I want to do [00:05:00] is I would like to open up the floor to all of the people who gave me feedback and answered that question. If I could say one thing to intuit, what would it be? So for the rest of this episode, you are going to get to hear all the things that everybody wants to say to intuit, and I know that we've got into it, people listening. And so I would request that somebody, hey, can somebody please send this episode up to Sasan Goodarzi and let him know that, you know, he does need to listen to the things that [00:05:30] we need to say. So I'm going to introduce each segment, each category of feedback. So the first one, you know, the the the elephant in the room is AI. So let's hear from people and how they feel about AI.

Conference Interview: Hi I'm Martha Jaso with physical therapies. And the one thing I want to say to intuit, thank you for the AI. Hi, my name is Deborah Kilsheimer and I'm with behind the scenes financial services. If [00:06:00] I could say one thing to intuit, it would be watch your back. You've got AI people coming up behind you. You are the disruptor. So many years ago. They are the disruptors. Now watch what they're doing so you don't fall back in the dust. And don't forget about us little guys. It's the little guys who made you what you are today.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay, now that we've got the AI elephant out of the room, let's take a look at some of the features that people would like to see in QuickBooks.

Conference Interview: My [00:06:30] name is Kim Kelleher and I'm with Luma Accounting. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be please let me break up with my clients right now. I cannot break up with them because even though I disengage, and even if they remove us as a user, I still get emails for their payroll and for other things. Thank you so much in advance for fixing it.

Conference Interview: Hi.

Conference Interview: My name is Karen and I'm with your [00:07:00] numbers person. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be allow me to have somebody who can administer all my client accounts in QuickBooks accountant without having access to my books.

Conference Interview: My name is Tyler Otto with the Unaccountable Podcast, and if I could say one thing to into it, it would be keep making friends, keep building with other apps, and keep the ecosystem growing beyond just what you're building.

Conference Interview: Hi, my name is Margie Davis and I [00:07:30] am with Acadian Accounting Education. And if I could say one thing to intuit it is please, please, please, please, please give us an updated sample company all the time. We need sample data to be able to practice and learn before we have to go out and deal with, you know, clients and real books and all of that. Please, please.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Next, one of the things that we know is that as Intuit develops its [00:08:00] software, they kind of test it on us as they go to see what works, what people like and what they don't like. And then once they know that people do basically like a feature, then they start developing it. But unfortunately, what that basically means is that their beta testing on us, they're using us as live development, and that doesn't go over so well. So let's hear from some people about how they feel about Intuit's, um, method of what they call minimum viable product.

Conference Interview: My [00:08:30] name is Veronica, and I'm with five minute bookkeeping. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be, I think lately we felt like, uh, their beta testing on us with all of the different new functionality, and we're excited to get new functionality, and we need it to work so that, um, everyone can stay, uh, profitable. Can take care of their clients and to really [00:09:00] be able to rely on the software. So, um, stop beta testing on us.

Conference Interview: My name is Nancy McClelland.

Conference Interview: And I'm with the dancing accountant. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be please test the software more before you release it, because I love all of the changes that you're making, and I'm sure that it's going to be for the better. But in the meantime, it feels like the construction that's going on in my neighborhood, like I know it's going to be better in the future, but it's kind of a disaster right now. And [00:09:30] so, yeah, if you could lean into the testing, I would really appreciate it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Now I separated out these next two while those other ones were about all of them doing their development and using us as beta testers, there's also the call for just the way software used to be, where it was solid and stable for a year, and then they released a new version. So there's a little bit of call for that as well, where they don't make changes all the time, they just make changes sometimes. [00:10:00] So let's hear from a couple people about that.

Conference Interview: My name is Jennifer Kepner and I'm with Universal Accounting Center. If I could say one thing to Intuit would be stop making changes.

Conference Interview: My name is Nicole Gray with, first up, accounting. The one thing I would say to Intuit is stop changing stuff. Give us a whole full year without making any major changes, and I'll be a happy camper.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. Now, personally, I agree with everything that people [00:10:30] are saying, and I do want to let you know that Intuit has decided to not constantly roll out new features that are now trying to do it in quarterly rollouts. So their things will be a little bit more stable than they've been, and they're going to focus the changes to all come out at one time. I'm a little concerned that that means that when they release everything all at once, a bunch of stuff is going to be broken all at one time, which is also going to kill our productivity, but at least it's not constant. So [00:11:00] we'll see how that goes. Okay, so now while people are talking about wanting to stop making changes, this is a good time to bring in the clip that I mentioned in the very beginning. Um, that was that went viral on Facebook, taking me to task after my conversation with Blake and David on the accounting podcast about thinking that I'm just dismissing everybody because we don't, like, [00:11:30] change the complaints that her name is Courtney, the complaints that Courtney had about the software were absolutely 100% valid. She's really leaning in on the problems in the software being inaccuracies and bad data. And so, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and play her clip almost in its entirety. I do have Courtney's permission for this. So with that, this clip is a little bit longer, but I think the rant is excellent. So let's [00:12:00] roll it.

Courtney: Hey Alicia. I just want to post this because I just listened to Blake and David's podcast, and it's really frustrating because I'm young, I'm 40, but I'm still young. I'm very tech savvy. I pride my firm on being tech savvy. I can learn any software. I pride myself on knowing a lot about different softwares. I've worked in a lot of different avenues. I've worked, worked with a lot of different industry and companies and um, I am [00:12:30] like, I love change, I love updates, I love AI, I love all the technology stuff that's coming out. The problem isn't our attitudes. The problem is Intuit has completely changed its focus. And we feel that as accountants. Yes, the AI is not promised, like David said, to go in and do the work for them, but they're charging okay as much as an accountant, $275 [00:13:00] a month for advanced as an example, to use their software that they know doesn't work. By the way, as you said, they know that there's glitches and they're working on them, which, hey, things happen. It's technology, right? So we're sitting here and we're having to be their test bunnies because you can't use beta testers, right? Whether they're test bunnies because they cannot themselves, even though they keep saying, we're developing all this new stuff and we're putting all this money into whatever, they're charging [00:13:30] us more to develop their product like they always have.

Courtney: Let's keep that in mind where they appreciated us and had more couth in who they were as a company. Since this new CEO took over into its name has fallen. And it's fine. Like I get it as an investor, as a shareholder, you know, I can get and see why they're making the decisions they're making. They're making strategic business decisions. But the problem is, every single [00:14:00] one of my clients and I am not exaggerating. Every single one of my clients has mentioned that are on QuickBooks, so they don't have. Most of my clients on QuickBooks have said QuickBooks is getting too expensive. I don't need all the extra crap. I don't want all the extra crap. And I have clients as young as 20 and as old as 89. Okay, so I have a variety of ages. They have all said if we're not using all this stuff, why are we being forced on it? Why is it that I'm paying you if they're going to [00:14:30] do it because I've had clients go with AI is going to do it. And I said, well, the AI doesn't do everything specifically in certain industries when it comes to classifications, locations and all the data, you have to give it information to this day, the suggestions and recommendations that you're talking about that don't work yet because they're new. Digits, for example, has been working on this for years, If Intuit knew seven years ago that they wanted to be leaders in this transition, they would be ahead of digits right now.

Courtney: And [00:15:00] they're not. When it comes to AI, because digits right now will do the books for their people, for their customers, using AI fully and automate all of that where Intuit is charging three times the amount and doesn't do a digits does when it comes to AI automation, their their data is not right. I've had issues with reports, even me. Even in training my staff, I was like, this is not right, why isn't it adding the numbers we just added? They're failing miserably because they're trying [00:15:30] to put things out quickly and desperately. It seems like they're desperate to be on the on the you are already. I just want to say this to Intuit you are already the leader of the pack. Why are you so desperate? Something is going on in my mind, I. I fear for Intuit if you are this desperate. Because if nobody can mess with you right now and you're this desperate and you're just throwing things under the wind. And I have clients who are willing to leave QuickBooks, even though they've been with you guys for 20 years, [00:16:00] they've gone online and they said, hey, we'll change, we'll do it, and they've been okay with it. They're okay with the change.

Courtney: They understand the future, but they're starting to see cracks in into it, get it together, understand that it's not people's attitudes, okay, that don't want change. It's older people that maybe don't want change. Not all older people, but older people, but us young people. What we're seeing is the breakdown of how poorly put together into it has put out their product. And I [00:16:30] think it is an absolute disaster. That lesson, or whatever his name is, doesn't understand that he could have an even stronger product products if he did that. I have I literally tell my clients to not use anything outside of their accounting software because nothing can be trusted yet because everything is thrown out, whipped out, and there is no end to justify the means. And when it comes to customer service, I would much rather deal with [00:17:00] a third party who is focused on customer service, helping and finding out resolving issues versus Intuit who will say, oh well, we'll report it up. And then 30 days later there's no resolve and I will report it up in 30 days later, there's no resolve. The problem with Intuit is they stopped caring about their clients. They stopped caring about their accountants who supported them for over 20 years, I being one of them. I've been on QuickBooks for over 20 years of my career. Okay. You know, and I loved [00:17:30] the switch from desktop to online.

Courtney: I was one of the ones that said at first I was like, no, I'm not going to do it. And then when I got on it, I said this. There's so many benefits. I see it, we see it, we understand it. We're not idiots. We don't have bad attitudes. My attitude is when people are putting profits above quality and then trying to charge us more, and then we're were also the test bunnies that we're also seeing the lack of what's happening. I think Intuit needs to be all over the news. I think that people [00:18:00] need to be researching and deep diving into what they're creating as a monopoly in their industry, because they are they're trying like, you can tell me ecosystem all day, but I have I have seen complaints online about multiple, multiple instances where money has been held. Um, I crazy things like I don't even want to get into because I don't know what's true, what's not true, but crazy things where I cannot trust I have no longer have the trust [00:18:30] that I once had and into it because of how poorly the software, the, the, the solution has become. I love so many things about Intuit. I see the vision. I want to be there. I want to support it. I have talked my clients through the lines of doing what they have to do.

Courtney: But I will tell you right now, if my client says jump, I want to go to something else because I want something that's more affordable. I'm jumping. It's [00:19:00] that simple. I can learn anything I have. This year alone, I have learned zero Sage, uh, little bit of NetSuite. Um, I've learned about, um, uh, Account Edge and a little bit of, uh, FreshBooks. And although Intuit is still by far the best because it's what we're used to, once you get used to something else, it becomes easy to write. Zero. I hated at first. I will say that it was a transition, but they've got the new reconciliation feature. I'm able to jump in. I understand kind of the process and how it works more. I'm able [00:19:30] to go in and jump in and use Xero just as quickly as I can. Quickbooks now, so don't give us the opportunity to test this option. Give us, give us a better intuit, give us what we know is Intuit. If you want to focus on Midmarket Intuit, we're all about it. Do it. We all want to increase our profits. We all want to work with bigger companies. We all want to do these things. We don't mind if you're the one. Only I don't. I don't need resale. I don't need money to use. And you can take all [00:20:00] the money I don't need. I don't need payback.

Courtney: I don't need to be a reseller. I want to do my accounting job. I just want software that works. You know, I've got. There's accountants that use Drake accounting. You know that that they use for third parties. Is it as good? No it's not it's not as easy. Quickbooks is easy. Quickbooks allows us to maneuver and manipulate data very easily. That is how you got in the market. So if there's any developers out there, learn how easily maneuverable and double entry accounting can be through QuickBooks. If you can do it as easy as [00:20:30] that, doing journal entries and creating that double entry accounting on an easy platform, people will jump ship. You can get those connections, you can get API's and, and, um, third party apps like, uh, client Hub and keep or double now called double formerly keeper. We'll use your product because it's going to it's going to give us the data we need. If it can give us the data that QuickBooks can give us, and you can report that way. Bring it on. We will. We will happily switch. At this point. It is not about us having attitudes. It's completely about [00:21:00] the lack of responsibility Intuit has shown as a software developer across all platforms, to their clients, to their accounting partners, to their software themselves. They should be ashamed of themselves. Whoever's in charge of development should be ashamed of themselves.

Courtney: I have put that on Facebook a ton of times. This is my personal feeling. This is ridiculous that I constantly hear that people are just complaining to complain. If there wasn't an issue, nobody would be complaining. You know who people aren't complaining about keeper. [00:21:30] Now double. You know why they changed their name. They got sued. They said it. We got sued. We made a pivot. We want to focus on our people. They have the most loyal customers. Because of that. You realize that, right? And Intuit have those same customers because you partnered with us and we kept your platform alive, but we'll easily tear it down if we have to. By telling our clients no more, we'll use other platforms that can give us the same data that we can pull bank feeds because everything's connecting to the banks. Note now, you ain't [00:22:00] special, by the way. You ain't special. Um, we'll figure it out. We'll we'll do we'll learn more workflows. We'll figure it out. So I think it's I think it's asinine to say it's just attitude. It's frustration. It's for being with a company and loyal to a company for years and them turning their backs on the accountants, them being completely disloyal to their clients, to their customers who are paying [00:22:30] them by giving them subpar software. That's the problem. And that's what I want you to know.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. Our next one. This was the most that I had heard from everybody. So the next category is called Don't Abandon the ProAdvisor.

Conference Interview: My name is Jenny von Blankenburg and I'm with Jvb Bookkeeping. And if I could say one [00:23:00] thing to intuit, it would be pay attention to bookkeepers. We are your bread and butter. Your focus on this large, large firm is appreciated because that's very important too. But you don't have us behind you. Your AI is not going to make up the difference. My name is Tanya Schulte and I'm with the profit constructors. And if I could say one thing to intuit, it would be that at one point [00:23:30] I got to take a tour of the Intuit offices, and I got to see the kitchen table. And I really believed that that meant that they valued people and that they were able to see and hear their clients. And as an accountant, I used to feel seen and heard, and I no longer feel that way. And so I'm sad about that.

Conference Interview: My name is Amanda Chestnut of Money Mastery, LLC. If there's one thing I could say to intuit, it would be be accountable. Be there for me.

Conference Interview: My name is Gloria Feng. I am with Gloria Feng, [00:24:00] CPA, LLC. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be, uh. I used to love you so much. It's been over 20 years. Um, I'm a little bit disappointed so far, and I really hope that Intuit, uh, really work with accountants. Um, and more consider [00:24:30] their perspective. Um, and working with Intuit.

Conference Interview: Hi.

Conference Interview: My name is Tanya with platinum Tax. And if I could say one thing to intuit, it would be don't forget those human connections you've made along the way.

Conference Interview: My name is Katie Healy.

Conference Interview: I'm with Scaled Accounting Solutions. And if I could, uh, say one thing to end to it, it would be as you are growing the platform, please don't forget about the little people, the little firms that, um, have supported you for so long. All the [00:25:00] changes are amazing. But as you grow, just don't forget about us.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now. I personally really stand with both feet in that category that over time, Intuit has started by building QuickBooks, by calling in all the ProAdvisor and bookkeepers so that they would put their clients on the software. And a lot of Intuit's growth came from the ProAdvisor level. We were celebrated at QuickBooks connect. Most of the marketing was [00:25:30] through that mid level, so not direct to consumer and not the accounting firms. It was all about the pro advisors. And as we've been talking about in several episodes now, Intuit's attention is going both up to mid-market and down direct to consumer and kind of leaving that middle level alone, so yeah. Into it. We're feeling it. And Alicia's fear is that, uh. Well, let's actually take it this way. You've heard me use this analogy before that, um, Scott Cook invented [00:26:00] QuickBooks at the kitchen table. Four legged table. And originally, QuickBooks was the only software. And now the table has four legs. It has not just QuickBooks, but MailChimp and Credit Karma and TurboTax. Um, but QuickBooks was the foundation and the ProAdvisor were the foundation of QuickBooks. And my big concern is that if the table leg gets a little wobbly, the table [00:26:30] is going to fall over. And with the rise now of zero and competitors that are AI forward like digits and puzzle, it's very possible that the the the elephant, the unstoppable force that was QuickBooks Live now has some viable competition and so into it. I don't know if you realize that by making your ProAdvisor was frustrated, loss of productivity, [00:27:00] angry with being abandoned, that if they start turning to the other platforms, the monopoly that you've enjoyed for the last 15 years may not be a monopoly anymore.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And I don't know if, as you are doing all of your actuarial work with like, okay, if we go both up market and down direct to consumer and have all everybody in QuickBooks Live and outsource our support overseas, and we're making all this money, I don't know if you realize [00:27:30] that you've really taken the people out of QuickBooks. If you even think about the Intuit logo, the original Intuit logo had the T's had little heads, the Little T's were people. And then you change the logo and you literally took the people out of into it, and that is what we are feeling now. I do not want to end on that note. I want to go back to the gratitude and some of the good things, because the truth is that with all of the frustration [00:28:00] and all of the lost productivity that we are feeling as Intuit is entering this new realm, the truth is that most of us still love using QuickBooks, and we love our clients, and we love doing bookkeeping, and we take pride in our expertise, and we take pride in the transformation that we have of our clients businesses. So let's end on some good notes. Let's end with some compliments from the peanut gallery.

Conference Interview: Hi, [00:28:30] I'm Jennifer Johnson with Gate City Accounting Solutions, and if I could say one thing about Intuit, they've really started to invest in me and partner me with a partner agent that has helped me realize, you know, some potential in my business and make sure that I have the tools and support there to continue my journey.

Conference 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 [00:29:00] new, the new features that will be coming in and will need expert setup. So the experienced advisors will be needed much more in order to help the clients and set it up to make use of all the new features. Quickbooks is releasing.

Courtney: What my name is Melissa miller.

Conference Interview: Ferguson.

Courtney: And I'm with bookkeeping for good. If I could say one thing to intuit, it would be thank you for making my career possible.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. So thank you to all the people [00:29:30] who participated in this experiment. Now, I also want to point out that I did not ask, what's your favorite thing about Intuit, or what's this thing that what's your biggest complaint about Intuit? It was an open ended question. It was just if I could say one thing to into it, it would be. And you would hope that it would be lots and lots of positive things. I was not surprised that the majority of it was negative, but that was absolutely not my goal. When I brought forth this question, [00:30:00] it was really, really, really to see what were people's opinions from people who were boots on the ground and actively using the software. So in conclusion, wrapping this all around into it, I know you're listening, but into it, I hope it's not just listening. I hope it's hearing. I really hope that you hear that the people who you've built your company on, and the people who rely on you for their [00:30:30] success are frustrated and hurting. And the best thing that you can possibly do to ensure your success is circle back around to us. Make sure that you know that we are valued. Find ways of appreciating the time that we put in dealing with the bugs and the learning curve, because it does impact our productivity. It is money out of our pockets, and it's really important that you that [00:31:00] we find some way of getting compensated. In the past, it's always been, you know, lots of swag and celebration, but there has to be some sort of way that you can make sure that we are feeling the love we love into it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: We don't want it to be. We loved into it. We want to still continue to love into it. So into it. Uh, here's to you and hope we get to feel the love, too. All right, so now for the [00:31:30] what's Going On in your world section of the podcast. Um, we have Royal Lives has just a few more classes left in December. On December 9th is QuickBooks checking and envelopes where I would take a deep dive into QuickBooks, checking what I love about it, what I don't love about it, and all the best practices for you to maximize your use of it. Then on December 15th and 16th, I'm doing two reporting classes. They're both three [00:32:00] hour classes. They're both also sponsored by fanatical flash reports. And in the first class, I'll be going over all the basic fundamentals of how to run reports in QuickBooks online. And then in the second advanced reporting class, I'm going to go deep dive into spreadsheets, sync customizing reports, and a lot of the specialized reports that you can only get in Qbo advanced. So I hope everybody comes and takes those two classes. All right, everybody, [00:32:30] I think that'll do it for today's episode. This is Alicia Pollock, and I will see you in the next one.