Deconstructing Sasan Goodarzi's Opening Address at Intuit Connect

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

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's CPA, the founder of Right Tool for QuickBooks. In this episode of the unofficial QuickBooks Accountants podcast, [00:00:30] I'm going to revisit Intuit Connect, and I want to focus specifically on the keynote speech from Suzanne Gonzales, who is the CEO of Intuit, because I thought he said some really interesting things. And I know that right now, you know, a lot of Proadvisors are kind of skeptical as to the direction of the company. So I wanted to share with you what he said about it. I actually I use Goodnotes on my iPad, and I write with my pencil, and I have pages and pages and pages of [00:01:00] scribbled notes. And so I want to go through all of those and share some of the things that he spoke about in the beginning of his presentation. What he said was that electricity was one of those inventions that changed everything. And before there was electricity, all we had were candles. Electricity literally made everything, um, possible that we have in our world now. Now, as I'm saying this, I do want to actually, [00:01:30] it's going to be hard sometimes to distinguish between what Suzanne said and what Elisha is saying about it. And so I'll try to to make that clear, because I don't want to be putting words in Suzanne's mouth. And I don't want you to think all of these things I'm saying are what he said.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So he started with electricity is the invention that changed everything. And he said that we're in that same place right now in this day and age that, you know, think about your smartphone. What would your life be like right now If [00:02:00] you didn't have your phone in your hand all day long as the, you know, the universal resource to the all information, you know, we would have to rewire our brains again. We would have to rewire our lives. For me, it's been 18 years since the invention of the smartphone. The smartphone came out literally the same year as my kid. My job at the time was actually an Apple consultant. And so I started teaching iPhones literally the day that they came out. [00:02:30] And, you know, in a lot of ways it really has improved things because we have a tool at our disposal that makes our life so much easier. Although, on the other hand, we also have an addiction problem. This is Alicia, that we have an addiction problem because we can't put our phones down. Like if you go out of the house without your smartphone, I know that I'm lost. I can't get anywhere without my map and my family can't reach me. And there's so. And I'm always still checking to see what's happening on Facebook and LinkedIn. So, [00:03:00] you know, I myself have a slight preoccupation with is all of this healthy? But I'm digressing. That's about smartphones.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's actually even about electricity as well. I dressed up as Ben Franklin for Halloween in fifth grade. So like, you know, serious geek over here. But I also kind of think electricity might have been the worst invention that humans have ever had. Okay, let's go back to Suzanne's speech. So one of the things he said is that if you took [00:03:30] away AI tomorrow, it would be no big deal. But there's over $1 trillion being spent right now going into the machines and the technology that the large language model, the cloud hosting and all of the applications. And in a very short period of time, literally everything that we do is going to come with an assistant that, you know, we can ask it a question and it's going to give us [00:04:00] the answer, or it's going to do some of the automated tasks that we had to do manually. You know, this is Alicia now, like, you know, right now, if I'm hungry and I want to pick a restaurant, I go to Yelp and I do a search, but it'll I will be able to ask it. Okay, I want to go out for Thai food, and I don't want to drive for more than 15 minutes. Where do I go? And then it will just give me a list of Thai restaurants. So there's going to be changes in how we relate to this universe of information. [00:04:30] He mentioned, you know, technology like that, your door is going to open automatically as you approach.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's going to recognize you, it's going to unlock the door and it's going to open the door, or your fridge will be able to order your groceries. You know, once you program what you want, your fridge, what to what you want it to be in your fridge, your fridge will monitor it and let you know when you're low. And Susan said that we're going to get so used to having AI assistants Assistance that they're going to become as [00:05:00] essential to us as our smartphones are now. Then he went into the who, what, and why of Intuit's strategies. So the who, they're moving towards serving much larger businesses. This has been in the works for several years. And the accountant partners, all of us pro advisors listening to us, listening to this, where are the businesses that they serve? They are [00:05:30] serving us as we serve those larger businesses. The what is that? All of their direction is AI driven. They are going towards done for you with a gateway to a human assistant. So if it can do it, it will. And if it can't, it will pass it off to a real live human being. And this is going to be true for not just the accounting and the bookkeeping [00:06:00] piece, but for your marketing and your taxes as well. The why is so that human beings can focus on the things that human beings are good at, that I can't do.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Focusing on our growth, focusing on our cash flow, focusing on our create. And this is Alicia, but focusing on our activity, our our creativity and our passions. That's where the the human being element [00:06:30] comes in. So when I read all of this, my first thought to his comments about okay, done for you with a gateway to humans means at the at the surface level that the AI is competing with us. But no, this is where it's the evolution, where we can focus on the things that human beings bring to the equation, and we can let the machines look up the data that it doesn't have to be us who does it? So in [00:07:00] conclusion, on this section of the speech, Intuit wants to be our artificial intelligence system so that we can focus on growth. That was a direct quote. So the next section of his speech was how Intuit is going to partner with us differently than they do now to serve us in the future. So the first thing he said is that we're going to be blown away with what we're going to see. He says that he's [00:07:30] going to make a workplace for accountant partners, and this workplace for the accountant partners is going to contain marketing tools, tools to go from, quote to cash, payroll tools to manage our firm and manage our clients, tools for scheduling appointments and tools for capacity planning.

Alicia Katz Pollock: These are some of these are not things that we have right now. And so they're looking at building essentially to me [00:08:00] it looks like they're building in firm management tools into the artificial intelligence. Now this is when he addressed the the elephant in the room where they put their foot in it with that advertising campaign, with the tax, um, with the tax advisers. So I've got some direct quotes written here. He did say we're in the people business and in relationships. Sometimes you screw up. And [00:08:30] then he got a lot of laughter when he said, you may question our intentions. And then he acknowledged the tax campaign, and he said that the thought behind it was that they serve over 100 million consumers who feel that they're paying too much for their tax services, and they have over 12,000 experts that are using their platforms. And the mistake that he made is that the campaign came [00:09:00] across as about us, the experts, not about the platform. So that's actually what he apologized for, was that the campaign was misguided. There was no apology for the the element of competition in it. And this is the part that's still delicate, the just in the same way that they've started QuickBooks Live to do some of the low level bookkeeping. They are moving into [00:09:30] the business tax area and the the transition is going to be awkward.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But it was interesting that they're they're not going to change that. They're not going to do anything differently. That is where it's going. His apology was more about about how they were positioning it. So I found that a little interesting. Okay. So then he went into the relationship with Intuit and the Proadvisors. [00:10:00] And so he says that intent and trust does matter, and that their focus is on the best experience at the best price, quote unquote. I'm on your side. So I think Intuit has this this is going to be kind of a rough transition. Again, all of this is focusing on the the change in how the technology is going to affect us. And it is really, really [00:10:30] clear to me. This is Alicia speaking that Intuit's intent is to go direct to consumer with a lot of their services that they are. They want to be able to just advertise the bookkeeping and the tax prep inside the software. But for the people who are the real live human being, proadvisors and tax providers, they are also going to give us robust Tools to manage our clients. And then hopefully and this is just [00:11:00] me wishing, but I think it's a good idea that when they bring on the people and if they can handle it through AI, great. But if they can't, sending people to us as the professionals to actually do the work and do the things that we're good at and help our businesses grow and help our clients grow.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So that's kind of the the takeaway. And I know a lot of you right now have furrowed brows, but if you go back to what he [00:11:30] was saying about the the direction that the industry is going, we're changing what accounting looks like. And we need to because we don't have enough CPAs. We don't have people going through official college college programs learning bookkeeping. We now have a world of nontraditional bookkeepers and Intuit is kind of taking that basic level, accounting for the smallest [00:12:00] businesses out, out from under us. But they're realizing that if we have a shortage, then they're addressing the shortage. I just want to make sure that they do it delicately and with us in mind. But they did reinforce over and over again partnership, partnership. And I saw things on the floor that I will address in, in the future where I actually know. Let me, let me do some of this right now. One of the things that [00:12:30] I saw that actually gave me good, solid hope on the veracity of this, of what he's saying right here, is that when I went to look at the Qbi live program and what they're doing in the innovations with Qbi live, they demonstrated they demoed the fact that if you that ProAdvisor are going to be able to sign up our clients for Qbi live through the revenue [00:13:00] share program, which means we actually get a cut of it, and then that gives the client the do it with me, where if they have a question on how do I do this transaction, how do I do this in the banking field? You know, I bounced a check.

Alicia Katz Pollock: What do I do? We don't have to take our time to explain to every single one of our clients how to manage a bounced check, so they go to Qbi live for that. But here's the cool thing that I saw is that the Qbi live is now going to have a history. So [00:13:30] there are additional tools now in Qbi live that there's a Live Experts tab that's going to be coming soon. They already are going to track what you earn on the revenue share from signing your clients up for Qbi live, and what's coming is that you're going to be able to see their call history. You're going to be able to read the summaries of their calls. And this is whether it's the QuickBooks Live expert assist [00:14:00] or the end of month close or clean ups. It's going to be across all of their services and coming soon, you're going to be able to see in that summary, actually the name of which expert they talked to at QB live, and a photo of them and the actions that were taken during this call and pending tasks for future calls and recommended actions and next steps.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So this is what they're building into the call summary for each one of these calls. [00:14:30] And on the roadmap is that the accountant is going to not only be able to read these things, but the accountant is going to be able to connect with that expert from QB live. So it will actually be a genuine relationship between QB live and the accountant user. So this is how Intuit is envisioning this. And this is why I say that I have some hope that when they're talking about these partnerships, [00:15:00] that it really is a genuine relationship because they are making it so that QB live is not happening in a black box. They're not stealing your clients. You have complete transparency to how your client is leveraging QB live and the advice that they're being given. And if that advice is not correct for your particular situation with that client, that you have some say in the matter and that you can communicate with Intuit of, well, in this case, here's what I'm doing [00:15:30] and why, and then they do it your way, I hope. I don't know if that's going to fit with their standards, but at least we as pro advisors are going to have complete visibility into your client's relationship with QB live, at least at the expert assist level. The way that they're positioning QuickBooks Live is three different services. There's the expert assisted, which is that, you know, the one that I call paid support, [00:16:00] where the I think it's 50 bucks a month right now and it gives them unlimited calls and it's do it with me.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's a video call and the expert can highlight on the screen, but they can't take over the screen or actually do any of that work. So that's the first level of it. And I think that's something that all of us can build in, especially if you don't have a whole lot of time and you get that revenue share out of it, then I think that's a great service. The [00:16:30] other element of the QuickBooks Live bookkeeping services is the do it for me, and this is where they're kind of addressing the affordability of bookkeeping and the shortage of bookkeepers that they're offering two different flavors of it. One is a clean up service and one is an ongoing monthly service. And so they're offering monthly bookkeeping services, and they're offering cleanup services and those, [00:17:00] you know, maybe things that you do. So you might not put your give your client over to them. But if you do, again, it's going to be part of this revenue share program. So again, the fact that they're stressing the partnership part of it with us, that's the part where we as advisors need to keep speaking up and keep making sure that they know that we are paying attention [00:17:30] and that it's our needs that are getting, getting served as those businesses.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's not just the direct to consumer that we are a huge piece of their product base, because each one of us is responsible from anywhere from 1 to 100 client files, and they know that they can't just cut out that whole layer and go direct to consumer. That is the industry. They're not. No matter what they did, they couldn't take on everything from the industry. [00:18:00] So they are really trying to emphasize anything that can be automated and become routine. They can set that aside. That will allow us to take on more clients, change our services, provide better advice and advisory. Now here's another practical example of what that means. One of the demos that I stopped at was a demo about dashboards and their building in brand new dashboard abilities, and it's [00:18:30] starting with Intuit Enterprise Suite. But he said that you may be able to buy it as a standalone purchase and add it on to other SKUs. So if you're using Qbo plus, you may be able to still implement those dashboards. Now, just as an aside, that goes back to what Hector and I were saying in the previous episode about turning Qbo into more of a modular experience, which is why they're considering the whole ecosystem as a suite with modules now. And not [00:19:00] just this is what Qbo does. So he mentioned that this dashboard tool may be available as an add on to whatever level of QuickBooks that you have.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And what it does, is it build your own dashboards where the AI will suggest these different widgets and it will analyze graphs for you. But he showed an absolutely crazy level of charts and reports that was right up there with Excel where there were tornado charts, matrices, [00:19:30] all different kinds, like over 30 different chart types, which we don't have right now in Qbo at all. And we've had to go out to third party apps for. So you have the ability with these new analysis tools to set your own X and Y axis on any field. You can actually make your own calculations. There's trend lines and you'll be able to access this and add these to your dashboards and [00:20:00] even to the sales center. So I really did see some exciting tools coming. As for advisory, that in Qbo, you're going to be able to get an eagle eye view of all of your client's KPIs just in a row. So if something dips in red or dips negative, you can call them up and say, hey, I noticed something is happening here. Let's talk about this. So what I want you to come away with, after listening to [00:20:30] Susan's speech and some of the innovations that I've been talking about, is that the industry is changing and it's not Intuit ripping the carpet out from under us. It is literally a change in what's possible, where the use of technology is offering new opportunities that didn't exist before.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And we have to, you know, learn what they are and we have to guide their development. What is it [00:21:00] that you want? If you were going to recommend something to your clients, where do you get that information? What charts are you running? What analysis are you doing? Communicate that to intuit and help guide the whole process. Uh, that we have an opportunity to become more ourselves as human beings once the the daily tedium of the grind happens. I mean, all of you who hate change. Okay, [00:21:30] so everybody here who is completely skeptical about what I'm saying, I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think back to your first bookkeeping job. And for some of you, that's a couple years ago. And for some of you, we're talking 30 or 40 years. And especially you folks, that's who I'm talking to here. If you think back to the first thing that you did. You were probably gathering receipts and typing information into QuickBooks. Receipt by receipt by receipt or bank statement. [00:22:00] Bank statement. Transaction by transaction. And you spent your day categorizing expenses. Now we don't do that. I mean, we do, but we have the banking feed. And you know, I can go in even now. It's November, I can go back to January. And I can sometimes categorize a quick and dirty history all the way back to the beginning of the year in just a few hours.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And that's a big change. But that's the types of changes that are coming. [00:22:30] I'm going to keep communicating what Intuit is telling us and try to interpret it, try to contextualize it, and really try and help all of you and all of us, because there is no us without you really trying to frame all of this in a powerful and productive context that we're not going back to the days of data entry wrapping this back into Suzanne's speech. Leadership [00:23:00] doesn't come with instructions. Treat every day as day one. Fall in love with the problems you're trying to solve, not the solution that you're creating. This is one that I really liked. Your mindset shapes your behaviors, and your behaviors shape your outcomes. So if you want to see certain things in the future, you need to be them now. And the most important one was leaning into the future. [00:23:30] We can't fear the future. The future always wins. And electricity was not invented by continuous improvement of the candle. So it's up to us. It's up to the human beings, the proadvisors, the bookkeepers, the accountants, the cast practices, the tax practices. All of it to be in partnership with Intuit. Make your voice known. Communicate with them. Use the feedback up under the gear [00:24:00] and continuously give your opinion right to the office of the president.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Participate in their forums and in their events and keep making your opinion known. It's going to be counterproductive to come from fear of change. The future is happening. We have opportunities of. Just like I said in the previous episode, right now, I'm actually reimagining my entire QuickBooks curriculum and all the ways that I can offer [00:24:30] training. You know, I could say, well, I've always done it this way, and this is how it's done best. Well, no, I've got new opportunities happening all the time making my own certifications, you know, all kinds of crazy ideas. So I encourage you to brainstorm what is it that you bring to the table and what makes you unique as a ProAdvisor, as a financial professional, what do you do better than anybody else? What are you passionate about? And [00:25:00] as the technology basics get taken out from under you, and that no longer has to be your daily lean in on what makes you special, what makes you powerful, and what makes your you the best bookkeeper for your particular clients and can continue articulating that both to your client but also to yourself. Your inner self-talk is as crucial in this time as the [00:25:30] outer talk that's being said to us. So continue joining me on this ride. Um, I love the thought leadership happening inside this podcast. In addition to the QuickBooks training and anything that I can do and that we can do to support you on your path.

Alicia Katz Pollock: We are here for. And again, it's all a community. Even though Intuit is $1,000,000,000 trillion [00:26:00] monolith. It's the people that matter. And that's what their mission statement is all about powering prosperity around the world. So let's go off and be powerful and be prosperous. At the end of these segments, Hector and I always do a what's going on in your world? And I want to announce that I have two upcoming classes. One, in the end of November is going to be QuickBooks [00:26:30] Online Advanced. And what I'm doing in that class is going over the features that are only in advance, that make it different from all the rest of the SKUs, all the rest of the versions. It used to be a one hour class. This time it's going to be a three hour class, and I'm actually going to be going in and demoing like I'm going to be using revenue recognition. I'm going to be using the fixed asset manager. I'm going to be using the bulk uploader, I'm going to be using the modern reports and actually demo how [00:27:00] to do all of these things, not just tell you that they exist, because I just did, but I want to actually do three hours of demonstrations in how to use it so that, you know, when QuickBooks Online Advanced is a best fit for your clients. Then in December, I'm actually going back to basics, and I'm doing my QuickBooks online from setup to Tax Time course.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's the very first course that I ever taught. That was originally my class for my clients, all the way back in the day. And [00:27:30] then my notes from that class became the book that I have on Amazon from the same title, QuickBooks online from setup to tax Time. And so on December 17th, I'm teaching that whole class. It's going to be an all day class, and it basically shows you how everything works in Qbo. From editing your chart of accounts to setting up your products lists, to making your invoices and taking your payments and your deposits and your expenses, and the banking feed and reconciling and running your reports. [00:28:00] Like all the fundamentals that anybody needs. So it's a really good way if you are experience of making sure you just didn't miss anything. And if you are a new bookkeeper listening to this, this is kind of the class for making sure that you are good to go. And everything that I teach in this class is also part of the Intuit certification test as well. And it's mapped to the Certiport certification test. So you can go take Certiport test. So those are the things that I [00:28:30] am up to. Please head over to Learn Royal Comm to see what's up with our upcoming classes. This is Alicia Pollock and I will see you in the next one.