A New Dawn

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Hector Garcia: Welcome to the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. I am joined by my good friend Alicia Cat Pollock, the original, the one and only Qbo Rockstar CEO and founder of Royal White Solutions.

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

Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey there. This is Alicia Katz Pollock, and in this [00:00:30] week's episode of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, I'm going to pick up where Hector left off in last week's podcast episode that he called an end of an era. Now, right now, we're at a pivotal moment in QuickBooks development and Intuit's direction as a corporation. And many of the people listening to this episode began their careers with QuickBooks desktop, and it's all you've ever known. The Intuit culture 40 years ago was built on the folksy origin story of Scott Cook inventing [00:01:00] quicken at his kitchen table while his wife struggled to balance the family's budget. But the world has changed since 1983. Although I kind of wish the music hadn't. Intuit is now a global company with a five pillar strategy that they call their five big bets. And they've moved beyond accounting software with QuickBooks by adding tax Prep with TurboTax, lending with Credit Karma, and customer communications with MailChimp. The benefit is that they can [00:01:30] create an all in one financial management platform for both businesses and consumers. One of Intuit's slogans is powering prosperity. The drawback is that for those of us whose entire life has been centered around small business accounting using QuickBooks, we're afraid we're going to be neglected. With this month's announcement of Intuit Enterprise, the mid-market enhanced version of QuickBooks online.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's clear that Intuit's goal is to continue its growth [00:02:00] trajectory from its beginnings in personal finance to its expansion into small business and now its evolution into more mid-market companies. As a stockholder as well as a numbers geek, I want to see Intuit succeed. My own business has grown because of my robust bookkeeping, along with the discovery that I made about ten years ago while running a profit and loss report by class that my QuickBooks consulting [00:02:30] and training far outstripped my Microsoft Office and Apple divisions. So Royal was pivoted. And now my whole life is all QuickBooks all the time. And I know that that's also true for most of the people listening to this podcast right now. You've lived and breathed QuickBooks, and you're passionate about helping your clients succeed in their passions. For an industry perceived as boring. That's kind of ironic, since all [00:03:00] we do is based on those passions. But according to the latest earnings report, QuickBooks desktop now only accounts for 11% of Intuit's total customer base versus 59% ten years ago. It's no wonder they're leaning into their online platform. The whole world has moved to a software as a service. Now, if you asked me even two weeks ago, I [00:03:30] would have said that we can't completely let go of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise yet because of all the features it has for construction and manufacturing that are not yet available in QuickBooks online.

Alicia Katz Pollock: With the new Intuit Enterprise, they've tackled one of those two industry verticals. They've ported over all the construction workflows and reports that were lacking in QuickBooks online. And that means for me, that I can now migrate about 20 more clients over. My point [00:04:00] is that we're in a transition time now between the old to the new. And it's not just the proadvisors. The whole accounting industry is modernizing. We have a labor shortage that Intuit is solving through bringing nontraditional workers into QuickBooks Live. Another revolution is financial technology. Fintech is now in the hands of generation Z users right on their cell phones. By integrating Credit [00:04:30] Karma across all of their products, Intuit is making capital available to young entrepreneurs with new, brilliant ideas. For those of us caught in the pinch point between the old ways and the New World, it's uncomfortable. We have to learn new systems. We have to change our methods, and we have to live in the unknown. While Intuit works out the bugs. Some of us thrive on change, but for others, it's stressful. It's [00:05:00] up to us how we choose to accommodate the evolution of our careers. A lot of my colleagues have opted to retire, and I'm honestly jealous of their travel photos and new ventures as they spend their time making their hearts happy, doing what they've always wanted to do. They deserve it after all the hard work they've been doing. But for the rest of us, it's all about your attitude moving forward.

Alicia Katz Pollock: We can't control into it, but we can control our own firms and [00:05:30] our own experience. I always tell people that using QuickBooks online means that you need to be comfortable with the unknown, and you have to have strong problem solving skills, and you have to have strong critical thinking skills. And that's important so that we can help craft the evolution of the software that we use every day. When you read online forums, remember that the complaints you see are actually a really small percentage of users, the people using and loving the software. Don't head to social [00:06:00] media to announce how thrilled they are. They're too busy doing the work that they love to complain about the management software that they're using. I'm sure you've noticed that a lot of this really shows that Intuit is blending the software opportunities together. There's already an integration where you can use MailChimp to harvest different customers out of your QuickBooks, either by who they are or what products they purchased, and then send [00:06:30] an email directly to them. We've seen that you can get loans and and financing, although kind of the features are there, but I've never actually seen anybody be able to use it yet. But I can see signs that Credit Karma is going to start popping up inside QuickBooks online, and that's kind of nice. Like if an owner is having cash flow problems, being able to take out a loan right inside the software is kind of handy.

Alicia Katz Pollock: What I'm getting at is that there's [00:07:00] actually now an opportunity for all of this to become one unified platform, and, you know, it is going to change how we're thinking about things. And as long as Intuit is responsible with the terms on all these different agreements, I think it makes a lot of sense. I mean, the data is right there. When they talk about data privacy, they mean that you're identifiable information is is yours and is private. But they can absolutely [00:07:30] look at your spending habits, for example, in the cash flow, because all of that is training all of their AI for more automations and more easier ways of explaining things. One of the things that we have to look forward to is that when you're trying to decide how your business is doing, being able to just get an a AI explanation instead of having to pore over those multi-column PNL reports that I keep talking about, and having to actually do the mental gymnastics [00:08:00] to compare the numbers in your head, it'll be nice to have I just be able to go ahead and show you where those anomalies are, or where you've categorized things differently over time, which completely streamlines and streamlines our workflows and makes everything way more accurate. Personally, I see a lot of good in what's happening here.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It does mean a shift, and it really is a shift in consciousness as well, because the new features and [00:08:30] opportunities that are available are things that are completely different than what were available 30 years ago, and we kind of have to get our brains in the gear to think about things in a brand new way. Part of it's also generational. We've got Gen X, which is where I am, and some of the boomers are still in the workforce, and this whole world is a very different place than it was. What we need to do is be offering software and solutions that work for the brains of the Millennials and Gen Z [00:09:00] as they're now entering college, entering, entering the workforce. It's their world. They all grew up with a phone in their hands, and babies on iPads are now grown up and hitting their 20s, and everything that Intuit is doing now helps them with a whole different set of financial goals and expectations than the ones that we grew up in. For all these reasons, I really like the use of technology for [00:09:30] transforming our worldviews, and that's a lot of what Intuit is doing, whether they intend that or not. But my one ask of Intuit is to not ignore the culture behind your brand. What you did well, that brought you to this point in time, and all your global success is that you fostered community. There's an entire sub economy of bookkeepers and tax preparers who not only support their clients, but we support [00:10:00] each other.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Your brand has to continue to include the input of the people who use your software most and use it best. You may have a new revenue stream by bringing support in-house through QuickBooks Live, but you're independent. Proadvisor are the lifeblood of the QuickBooks brand. You spent 15 years elevating us and fostering goodwill through conferences and partner councils and feedback opportunities and certification training. [00:10:30] Now, as Intuit's in this pivotal growth time into it, we need you to make sure that we're still feeling the love and that we're feeling supported and that our expert level feedback results in action and improvements. And please stop experimenting on us. Live AB beta testing in product causes loss of productivity and revenue for all of us. Please just bring back QuickBooks labs and let us [00:11:00] opt in to new feature development so that you get intentional, actionable product testing. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. What I want all of you to take away from this episode is that evolution is good. Modernization is good. Growth is good. Progress is great. Now, I have no problem with QuickBooks Live because you're providing hands on training to a new generation of bookkeepers who aren't ready to run their own firms. And [00:11:30] I'm happy about QuickBooks enterprise. Nope. I got to watch myself there. I'm happy about Intuit Enterprise because a whole new set of tools have arrived for multi-company management and multi-dimensional reporting, as well as the construction tools that we've been asking for.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And me? Well, I've got job security. The software will continue to evolve. The accountants will always need CPE, and every book I write will constantly need to be updated. I am totally [00:12:00] here for you to help you navigate the ever changing landscape. At the end of every episode, we always do a hey, what's going on in your world? So I want to let you know that I am on my way to Hector's reframe conference. We did an episode a couple a couple of weeks ago where we talked about exactly what to say, and I really love that he is talking about how we can use language to achieve our outcomes, and it's been already been extremely helpful in working with my [00:12:30] clients. Just from my preview of the book that a lot of his content is based on. And then in my own world, I am really super excited to announce that I have a brand new course in a whole different approach than I have ever taken before. It's called the QuickBooks online Hands on training or Hot, and what it is is a college style course that's actual hands on, click by click guidance. In starting a company from setup all [00:13:00] the way through your AR and AP workflows, reconciling projects, inventory, payroll, and year end close.

Alicia Katz Pollock: This is going to be a 16 session class over eight weeks, so it's going to be every Monday and Wednesday between November 4th and December 30th for two hours from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific Time, which is noon to 2:00 Eastern Time. And what we're going to do in that [00:13:30] class is I wrote a textbook for consultants called Qbo Complete that's used in colleges and vocational programs in high schools on how to use QuickBooks, but I've never actually taught it myself. So in the class, we're going to take each one of those 16 chapters and we're going to do it together as a group. I'll actually demonstrate the chapter information, which is where the teaching comes in using Craig's landscaping, which also means that anyone can go back in and practice it themselves because Craig's landscaping restarts every single [00:14:00] time. Then in the second half of the class, I'm going to provide a Qbo plus file for free. That's a one year subscription where we're going to build the file together as a class, creating a company called Imagine Photography, that is a real life case study of a retail store with two locations, who also provides photography and retouching services. And we will set up that company and dial it in and add in the customers and sell things to the customers [00:14:30] and take the money and spend the money and buy some inventory, and then close all the books and and manage inventory, run payroll, everything.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So it's a real life scenario. And if you're an advanced user, we're going to have two lab days that are hands on days. But if you are caught up, I actually have a second company called Yinyang Graphic Design. And then you can try your hand at a service based company. So it's going to be a really good opportunity [00:15:00] for people to get real life instructor contact and a step by step guide through making two different companies. If you would like to sign up for this class, please head over to learn Dot Royal wise.com and look for the QuickBooks class called QuickBooks Online Complete hands on training and I would love to have you. Listeners of this podcast can use coupon code Qbo [00:15:30] complete 50, and you'll get $50 off of the class price. The course is 1497, so $1,497. That is for 32 contact hours 32 CPE. If real life gets in the way and you have to miss a class, don't worry, it's going to be recorded and we can work with you one on one to keep you caught up. So everything that I can do to give you a real practical training in QuickBooks online, [00:16:00] that is my goal with this class. So thanks for being a loyal listener of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. Please share this episode with your firm and your community, and Hector and I will see you in the next one.