QuickBooks Live is Dead, Long Live Intuit Experts

Attention: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding!

Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey everybody, welcome to this week's edition of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. I'm your host, Alicia Katz from realize.com. And I have with me not just one co-host, but two co-hosts. This conversation today was so important that I pulled in all the brains to help us analyze. So with me today, I have Dan DeLong from School of Bookkeeping and Qbi Power Hour [00:00:30] and Matthew Fulton from Parkway Business Solutions. How are you two doing?

Dan DeLong: Fantastic.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Doing amazing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Good. Well, thanks for thanks for taking time out of your day. I mean, this this topic has kind of spun me a little bit to the point that for today's recording, my t shirt of the day is the Strange New Worlds shirt from Scaling New Heights this year. That was the theme for 2026, and we definitely with the announcement of [00:01:00] some, um, some changes at Intuit that started literally was it today? Um, we are in a strange new world. So the topic of today's conversation is the change from QuickBooks Live to intuit experts. What? That the queen is dead. Long live the queen. Is that how that expression?

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I was going to say what is old is new again, but. [00:01:30]

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, yeah.

Dan DeLong: Deja vu.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Right. Three, three different ones. So basically what is happening is that QB live is no more. Now the the switch with QB live, there was a little bit of indications for those of you who listened to the episode that I did a few months ago with, uh, with the Q2 earnings report that QuickBooks Live as a revenue category was strangely absent, [00:02:00] and I kind of indicated that something was up. Well, we have found out what is up. Qb live as a support service is no longer available, and instead they are repurposing the experts as Intuit experts and reallocating their services towards onboarding and bank feeds and meetings with clients. And this kind of. I didn't even realize it was happening until [00:02:30] the. In the know when spot and I were going over that slide about the bank feeds and there was one little bullet point about the, the Intuit experts coming in and doing your bank feeds. And here they were like.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Wait, what, what?

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: It kind of makes me think of that. My an old question I always had of what does a title really mean when you have a position, right? So if one day we're called your QuickBooks Live person [00:03:00] and now you're an expert, what changed? What made the person the expert?

Dan DeLong: Yeah. It's like the difference of a job description. Like, you know, I'm an instructional designer and now I'm a senior. Does that mean I get a walker with the. Or a cane? What? What does that mean with a senior? You know, usually there's different duties associated with with the with the role. But yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's one [00:03:30] of the key points I think that we want to unpack here is, is this just a name change or a branding change? Or is this actually a different area of focus?

Alicia Katz Pollock: It looks to me like it's an entirely different area of focus that QuickBooks Live was your bookkeeper who was with Intuit, and you signed up for bookkeeping services with Intuit. This is not that. This is something completely different.

Dan DeLong: And and they also had like different [00:04:00] tiers of those different services. Like you had like the QB live assisted or you had the, which is essentially, you know, to me, it was a bookkeeper with tech support, right? Like it was a bookkeeping tech support type of thing. And then you had, you know, full service and then you had cleanup. And then, you know, they had all these different flavors of services for tax assisted, full service, whatever, you know, um, those types of things. But I guess they're still the same people. They're [00:04:30] just doing different specific tasks.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I mean, there's one other piece to kind of talk about before we dive into it. We also had the, I believe it was called QuickBooks experts, which was, hey, we will log in and look at your screen with you, but we will never touch your books. And that was a key distinguishing factor. So it was a okay, we can help give you some guidance, but we can't touch your books at all. So is the expert, because [00:05:00] the AI is now added into the whole process. Is the AI the expert in this?

Dan DeLong: I think this kind of goes back to into a Kinect and some of the announcements that they were making there, and they kind of separated these things into, into three things like there's AI, you know, artificial intelligence, then there's business intelligence, and then there's human intelligence and, you know, it. It's always been my [00:05:30] question like, who's this human that they're talking about? Like, like, who is the expert? Like three of us, we would probably consider ourselves in the level of, of expert when it comes to, you know, doing stuff inside of QuickBooks. But I don't think that's the definition of what they're calling an expert, right? Like there's external experts Pro partners. Pro advisors. Whatever the the, the branding term is is for today. And then there's badged employees [00:06:00] that work for Intuit that are that have a title of expert. And I think that's, that's where things get wonkily confused. It's not even a word, but.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: We should probably just be happy they didn't call it expert plus. So, you know.

Dan DeLong: Pro pro expert.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Pro expert, sorry.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Advanced. Right. Um, so let's call something else advanced. Okay. So so I mean, we can go conjecture route [00:06:30] for hours, but we actually do actually have some answers to some of these questions that that you guys are raising. So let's, let's organize the conversation a little bit. What I am actually going to do is share my screen. So for those of you who are watching us on YouTube, you actually get a visual for what we're doing, which is also, for those of you listening to us on podcasts, hey, we have a YouTube channel and you can, uh, and see, you can see what we see as we talk about it.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: It's a great time [00:07:00] that if you are watching anywhere that you're listening or watching, drop a comment. Be sure to tell us what you think about these changes as you're hearing them.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right, so this is what we are looking at is an article from firm of the future.com. And if you haven't been going to firm of the future.com and going and checking out the news, I'm finding it kind of essential to really know what's going on now more than ever. Um, I will have in the show notes, there are links to [00:07:30] the articles that we are going to talk about today. And for those of you who are wondering, like, where do I get the show notes? If you go to uccb dot show and then you can click on the episode, and then the links are all there for you. So there is an article on firm of the future called Intuit Experts and Accountant Controls. Your questions answered. Although usually your questions answered follows when they've made an announcement. But this, as far as I can [00:08:00] tell, was the announcement. And so the it actually starts off with Intuit leadership recently shared some significant decisions about QuickBooks, Intuit experts, and where the company is headed with our accountant relationships. We know it's been a lot to sit with. This article is meant to answer the questions you're likely asking right now, specifically around the role of Intuit Expert Services and the controls that remain in your hands as an accountant. However, I have not been able to find anything about the actual [00:08:30] announcement, so as far as I'm concerned, this was the announcement. Um, so here we go.

Dan DeLong: Well, I think they were referring to the Intuit Connect on, which is the virtual event that they had. It was where they actually made these announcements. So this was kind of like the, the follow up to, to those announcements.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. And I watched it, but this still didn't land on me like, hey, this is, this is major. So, okay, so they started the article with reinforcing [00:09:00] that we are also our customers. We've been talking about this in a couple of different episodes that they're reframing the bookkeeping layer as no longer a sales channel, but we need to be happy as well. And so a lot of everything that you're seeing from Intuit is reframing us from, from feedback and support that they're really trying to reengage with us in a positive way. So I'm going to take everything that we're talking about through that lens.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Dan DeLong: And, and this is something that, you [00:09:30] know, from my experience with, uh, being an employee of Intuit for 18 years, this has been a pendulum of, of things sliding back and forth where, you know, yeah, the way, the way it's been structured is, and the way that any company that offers some kind of service or customer support is they support the products or the services that they're.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Selling.

Dan DeLong: Selling and accountants [00:10:00] have never had a home because they, they are a customer that could potentially be across all of that ecosystem. And not not every accountant is the same, right? Like some don't do tax, some don't do, uh, you know, advisory, some do you know these various different things and some don't even touch payroll. Right? So it's not like there's always the same demographic of, of who's who. Um, [00:10:30] and, uh, but, but you could, you could essentially touch all of them or just some of them. And it's not, it's never the same. So they've gone through various iterations of, okay, we're going to have an accountant channel for care and, and now we're going to support all of them. And then when I get a call from somebody using Proconnect tax online, I can't help you, right? Like, because I can't, you know, be an expert, you know, an internal expert for all of these [00:11:00] things too.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. The second point that they make in this article is that we are the human intelligence that you, meaning us bookkeepers, belong at the center of the relationship. When a business chooses you as their accountant in this practice, this means Intuit employed experts will focus on onboarding new early stage businesses that don't yet have an accountant, helping them get set up on the Intuit platform and overseeing verification work in the background. [00:11:30] This is a meaningfully narrower scope than the previous QuickBooks Live offering, built around being a bridge towards deeper engagement with an accountant.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I guess the question I have out of this is, is the initial part of it the narrower scope, and is it going to blossom into something larger? Or once people go over that bridge, are they done?

Alicia Katz Pollock: So the one of the statistics, and I don't know that I have this statistic completely accurate, but it's something [00:12:00] like 70% of all QuickBooks users don't have an accountant user attached. And so while we as accountants think like, oh, everybody's got a bookkeeper, the truth is, is that 70% of the QuickBooks files do not have an accountant user. And that's who QuickBooks is or Intuit is trying to support with the Intuit experts is the people who don't yet have a bookkeeper who are doing this all themselves. Now, you know, you and I all make [00:12:30] our livings finding these people and showing them the value of having somebody watching their back and getting them set up and cleaning up their books and showing them how to use it. But the truth is, is that most people just go to QuickBooks, sign up and try and hack at it themselves. And so that is what Intuit is trying to support and that that's valuable. Um, and so that's kind of the population that we're talking about here. We are not talking [00:13:00] about years of my clients. We're talking about the 70% of small businesses that are winging it.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Maybe that's an important part to talk about at the beginning is one of the things they have tried to stipulate. I'm not going to go too deep into it, but I want to let people know is this is heavily divided that distinction between connected to an accountant or not as to what's going to be offered, what's not. I'm sure we'll go into it more, but keep that in mind. They really are, [00:13:30] um, trying to focus heavily from what they say on not connected to an accountant at all, right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right, right. And so we're going to emphasize that through this whole this whole thing today. And then the third part at the very beginning says, we will invest in your growth into it annually, invest billions in accountant specific software development, fueling our firms growth. In practice, that means co building a matching network with firms, the tens of thousands of new non accountant attached businesses joining the platform [00:14:00] every month will have the opportunity to be connected with firms in the Intuit Pro Partner Accountants program who are positioned to serve them on an ongoing basis.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: You know, so this is the ProAdvisor program revisited in a sense, right? And yes, I will say there was a time and place where my profile would bring me different leads way back in the day, but I definitely have not felt that way in quite some time when it comes to.

Alicia Katz Pollock: They took away the button, [00:14:30] they took away the the logo. So so now. It now it's just a listing. There was so much spam going through it that they. They took away the ability so they can still reach out to you. You still have your listing, but the communication buttons gone. And yeah, I feel it too. That was how I got a lot of my clients.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Dan DeLong: It's one of those things where you, you have to know what you're looking for in order to find them. And, you know, it's, it's not as easy to find the find a ProAdvisor site when it's not called find a ProAdvisor [00:15:00] anymore. It's, it's quickbooks.intuit.com/find an accountant or whatever it's called.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, exactly.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Doesn't roll off the tongue like Google businesses or whatever.

Dan DeLong: No.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But they, they have said that in the pro partner program, they are revisiting that. They're basically going to find a way to make it a matchmaker service. Okay. So but we're going to put that conversation on hold until that.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Different.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Time. Okay. That's why we have job security. And, you know, we're coming up on our third year of [00:15:30] this podcast.

Dan DeLong: Wow.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Yeah. All right. So continuing on next one. Here's what Intuit Expert Services can do. Starting July 29th Intuit employee I'm going to slow down and really emphasize this. Okay. Starting July 29th. So that's already happened. Intuit employed experts offering a set of key services will be integrated directly into QuickBooks online subscriptions, simple start and above as a native feature, [00:16:00] rather than a standalone add on for every client connected to an accountant. These services are disabled by default.

Dan DeLong: That's that. That deserves repeating that last sentence there. So and I think.

Dan DeLong: We I.

Dan DeLong: Think we can spend the entire.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Can you can you guys read that sentence?

Dan DeLong: Every for every client connected to an accountant, these services are disabled by default. We could spend the whole. We could spend the whole episode [00:16:30] Dissecting that sentence, I.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Just want I want to hear you say it too.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: For every client connected to an accountant, these services are disabled by default.

Dan DeLong: Yes, we're doing the level of the question.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Interpretive dance here. Yes. All right. So. So we're going to we will come back around. I will actually tell you the mechanics of how they're making that happen. But I want to first focus on what these [00:17:00] new services are. Okay.

Dan DeLong: All right. I'll sit on my hands.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So everybody. So zip it for a minute. Okay. So, um, if you and your client agree to use an Intuit Expert service included in their QBO plan, here's the breakdown of the work they can do. So again, this is either somebody who is a business owner signing up themselves or you've given permission, but not your clients. Okay. So services, new services available and built into [00:17:30] QBO. The first one is called Books Check in a once a year scheduled check in between an Intuit bookkeeping expert and your client. The Intuit expert will review the current state of your client's books with them, walk through AI flagged anomalies, and help them clean up the chart of accounts. This is included in Qbo Essentials and Plus. The second one is smart expert categorization combines AI assisted transaction categorization with expert verification in the [00:18:00] background to keep the books up to date between your engagements. This is included in Qbo plus and a part of the Expert Books Upkeep offering in Qbo advanced. And then the third one is Expert Books Upkeep. This service combines books, check in and smart expert categorization, and provides continuous automated bookkeeping combined with expert support, building upon smart expert Categorization in all caps. It delivers a more comprehensive [00:18:30] solution by integrating AI transaction matching, expert validation, and posting regular accuracy checks and quarterly review meetings. This is included in QBO advanced. Okay, so let's go back over these. So three different services books check in a once a year scheduled check in smart expert categorization, which is basically.

Dan DeLong: Seems to me, it seems to me that these are two services and a combination of [00:19:00] the two. Yes, it's three different. Yeah. So two services.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And then or both. So if you're in essentials and plus you can meet with the, the Intuit expert once a year to kind of go over and do a review and look for errors basically.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: And then who fixes the errors?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Good question. Okay. Um, well, we'll see if we can get that answered as we go. Um, and [00:19:30] then smart expert categorization, I think that is them basically doing the bank feeds. And so this is somebody actually going into the books and doing the bank feeds for the client.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Now, okay, so that's with or verifying.

Dan DeLong: I think, I think in this case, it's verifying what's been done in, in the bank feed as far as the categorization has been concerned. And basically making sure that the AI suggestions categorizations [00:20:00] was done correctly. I think this is the human verifying the the machine.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. And along with that.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Is this still once a year, because we then go down below and talking about, I believe once a month or if I remember correctly. Right. So is that one still just once a year? Because it only says between engagements.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Uh, well, the expert books upkeep that combines it for people using advanced says continuous automated bookkeeping [00:20:30] combined with expert support, regular accuracy checks, and quarterly review meetings quarterly.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: And if I'm paying monthly versus annually, does that change? Like, is it only when I pay the bill, I get it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's a good question. I mean, I assume that.

Dan DeLong: All of these are included, right? Like there's no there's no charge for these for these services, is there? It's opting into them.

Alicia Katz Pollock: This is this is part of the [00:21:00] price increase. Really, I think that this is this had to have been built into the pricing.

Dan DeLong: And I notice in the pricing increase simple start is was not increased. Right. Like right there.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. Okay. So okay, so there's some there's some valuable information there.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: But we can't opt out of that. Like, so I guess a key thing everybody's going to be wanting to ask right now, what if I don't want this, do I? Can I pay less?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, that's a really good question. [00:21:30] Okay.

Dan DeLong: They're hoping that you don't.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Exactly. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. So the the next part says for every customer connected to an account in QuickBooks, these services are disabled by default. No actions taken without your explicit consent or for client build subscriptions. A conscious choice by your client. If a client attempts to proceed with these services, they will be instructed to consult with you first. Seeing a prompt that states your accountant may already provide similar bookkeeping [00:22:00] services as part of your agreement, double check with them before using Intuit experts.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: You know, the challenge I have with this is I've been around long enough to remember the major push for wholesale billing for all of our clients to where we were, like, we were setting up all the subscriptions, giving them a discount. And I learned the hard way how detrimental that can be. Uh, there's a certain aspect that when you bundle in the software as well, the clients don't recognize the fact [00:22:30] that you're paying for the software versus the service. They think it's all one thing. Uh, and then you're the one paying for it. So it's very easy to get upside down in software costs if things don't get switched around, if a client's disconnected or this or that or here or there. So I stopped doing that and I just took a client that have a great relationship, helped them set everything up, but we moved it over to their billing. It's still connected to an accountant. So theoretically, by [00:23:00] these words, at least the way I'm reading them, they shouldn't offer services to them because an accountant is attached on the file.

Dan DeLong: Right, right. Yeah. And there's, there's so many different ways. And when an accountant is connected, right, like they, they could sign up@quickbooks.com and then, you know, go through the process of trying to fumble through themselves and then reach out to you and then send you an accountant invitation. Does that qualify as these services will be disabled? Because [00:23:30] they didn't start that way connected with an accountant, they added it later. When do those services get disabled by default?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay, so I have a little bit of answer for that one and some suggestions as well. So the so basically there is in your accountant settings a new section that says I want these services. Then you can turn them on. And so that's what [00:24:00] opens up the door for the expert services. If there is an accountant user at all, it's off. If they start up the file themselves, it's on. We're about to actually get into the first of the expert services about onboarding. And that question is part of the onboarding. Do you have an accountant or bookkeeper? And if they say yes, the the [00:24:30] accountant, the Intuit expert will will attach the accountant and turn off the services.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: To, to be fair, this still this follows along the lines of how they usually like word. This. Of new subscriptions as of this date going forward will have x, y, z. Right. So, um, I think this is a situation that we have to kind of take that in mind that once this gets turned on, it's the, from the point [00:25:00] of the turn on, they're going to say, okay, who's got flagged as an accountant connected to it? And that's going to trigger different rules of it. And then everything going forward, any new subscriptions that are set up would have the potential to have, you know, this stuff marketed to them. Um, so that's where I guess our real question comes into play is 90 days down the road, we get a new client, they set up their own stuff and we're now connected to them. It [00:25:30] will still be marketed to them unless somebody goes in and turns it off because they had the right to initially. Right, right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, so we're going to get into the onboarding part in a minute. But to, you know, to address your concern that as they're rolling this out, when they add it to your QuickBooks, if there's an accountant user, it will be off. If there is no accountant user, it will be on.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Got it. Okay.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Um, and then the very, very [00:26:00] first of the expert led services is onboarding. So let's actually that's a perfect segue. Thank you for that. And let's go go into that. Um, so the first of the expert led services is onboarding and they're changing it from 30 day onboarding support to 90 day onboarding support. So here it is. Intelligent onboarding combines AI and Intuit experts to help a new customer get set up successfully on the platform. It includes access to expert level [00:26:30] onboarding for the customer's first 90 days, with support across multiple calls as needed. This is distinct from the ongoing services described elsewhere, including books, check in or smart expert categorizations. This is a third service for which access is determined by account and attached status. Intelligent onboarding is about getting a new client's platform foundation right and is available for every new customer. So that also that is separate. So if you are a bookkeeper, [00:27:00] are is onboarding part of what you do with the client, in which case you need to talk to your client and say, no, don't use that service. I'm going to do it for you. Or maybe having them go through that onboarding and then you just refine it. Maybe that's value added for you, maybe actually going through and having most of it set up on your behalf, that's going to save you several hours. Maybe that works for you.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: You know, that'd be, it'd be great if there's a, we [00:27:30] always want this default template type thing where if we're going to do this, we can do it a certain way because I am so tired of going to set something up and it starts asking me about the business and like, what type of entity, what kind of industry do you want to do this? Do you want to do that? I just want to skip button, please. Thank you. Yeah.

Dan DeLong: Bookmark the home page. Uh, skip over that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. So do know that onboarding services have that, uh, that opportunity for overlap. And so that's up to us as a [00:28:00] service provider to make sure that our client is clear what's in our scope. And yes, our scope includes that onboarding. Yeah. Um, but during that onboarding they will ask, do you have an accountant user? And if you do, that turns off the other services.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: So again current onboarding, it is they somebody sets up the account and they go through kind of a survey on the screen of basic setup stuff. This new onboarding is going to help [00:28:30] clearly define a chart of accounts form. Set it up like do we know what what their onboarding entails?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, I don't have any specifics on that. I know that they, there's some AI involved, there's some industry specific, um, questions involved, but I haven't seen it in action. That's something I don't.

Dan DeLong: Know the, the paragraph that you have showing up on the, on the screen, like, who are the Intuit experts, I think gives us some insight in that [00:29:00] last sentence of that first paragraph. During the onboarding process, Intuit experts make sure the client is set up properly correctly comma with all products like payments, bill pay, and workforce configured and ready to go. Okay, so that that's one thing. And then right before that, it, you know, the two key functions are client onboarding and verifying. Ai driven auto categorization is their, their main [00:29:30] focus. But the fact that they're throwing in those services in there, uh, at the, at the end, it does sound like this is a, you know, a connected services cross-sell opportunity for, uh, for Intuit as well as, you know, if you are not connected with a client, uh, or an accountant, then they can offer these services. My, my imagination, right? My, my guess based off of, you know, prior [00:30:00] history and experiences is that there will likely be some kind of flag on the account. When when the when when the screen pops right to say this person's connected to account, don't offer these services, right? Like so. They will likely get that. Now my question is, is this going to be a solely an inbound option, right, where somebody has to reach out for the expert, uh, the Intuit expert? Or is this [00:30:30] going to be an outbound campaign of emailing.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Zoom and QuickBooks Live?

Dan DeLong: You know, it's like Clippy, you know, Clippy, the Intuit expert, you know, riding his bicycle and he's like, hey, you need some help there?

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, you know, I think there's value in helping the client get set up with QuickBooks payments and bill pay for sure. You know, like the bill pay, I'm still finding most of my clients don't realize that they can use the online bill pay. So I think there's a lot of value right there [00:31:00] with QuickBooks payments. You know, that's kind of a no brainer to get set up. However, I always like doing it myself through complete business group or your favorite qsp because you actually get cheaper rates for them. And so in a way, this is helping Intuit make sure that they're getting the retail, not the wholesale by having it pre set up before they get to us. Yeah. And then the same thing with workforce. They get to have the conversation about about payroll before we give [00:31:30] our preferred payroll solution. So, so a couple of things that I just wanted to throw in there before we move on is that workforce right now is under a huge, huge rollout that they are really making it a one stop shop for HR. Mineral has long been already part of it, like, you know, making your your employee handbooks and payroll laws. And there's a lot of stuff in there that most people don't even look at or use, but [00:32:00] now they are. There's a lot about onboarding, filling in i-9s, getting signatures, storing all of their employment documents. There's a lot of really, really interesting development happening in workforce. And there's been a lot of changes to the things that people have been complaining about with, with QuickBooks payroll. And there's even now certified payroll reports. So a lot of the problems that people had with QBO payroll in the past [00:32:30] are no longer problems with Qbo payroll. And so this is one of those topics where I, you know, you hear me say all the time, just because something didn't work a year ago doesn't mean it hasn't changed now.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I, you know, I've, I'm still a fan of the workforce QuickBooks online payroll. I find that every payroll service provider out there has its own challenges. You just have to know what the challenges are and work within them, but I digress. I know that's a topic for a different.

Dan DeLong: Day.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And [00:33:00] I don't.

Dan DeLong: That's another podcast episode.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. And we'll definitely, definitely once they finish rolling it out, we'll talk extensively about it. But that's not a digression. I think it's really important because I also use workforce and have very few problems with my QBO payroll. The things that I've heard from other people I have not had issues with. So, you know, okay, now we can go on. So the one of the sentences here about about this [00:33:30] that I really like is it's our intention that when you sit down with a client, the foundational work is already done. And you can focus on the higher value conversations only you can have. So they're just trying to get rid of the routine setup steps, and then you can pick it up and do the do the more intricate things.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Why is that under who are the experts though? Because so far you haven't told me anything about what the experts. I guess it says, okay, at the top, we need to talk about that. The Intuit experts are Intuit employee professionals who are knowledgeable, Knowledgeable experts on the [00:34:00] Intuit platform and QuickBooks certified and average ten years of bookkeeping services.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Average, meaning some people have 20 years and some people have one six months. Yeah, okay.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: But the manager has 35 years. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Um, so now the the elephant in the room question. Do intuit experts compete with accounting firms? Okay, Dan, you were hot on this one. Do you want to read it?

Dan DeLong: Sure. Um, so it says moving [00:34:30] forward, Intuit will not market bookkeeping or similar services to businesses that already work with an accountant, whether that client is client build or firm build. We've heard the concerns regarding past commitments, and this new operating model prioritizes you and your clients experiences in all future decisions. This includes suppressing all marketing, including testing in. In. Intended to raise awareness of these new [00:35:00] embedded services such as In-product, prompt email, banner and web ads, dashboard messages, and proactive outbound sales. So that's a lot of marketing that there's needing to suppress.

Alicia Katz Pollock: One of the huge pieces of feedback that I've been seeing over and over again is give us a way to turn off the pop ups, give us a way to turn off the ads. They did. This is it.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Well, okay. I think even the people that are listening to the podcast can hear my eyes rolling [00:35:30] on this part of it. Like.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Um,

Dan DeLong: Like we've heard this before.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Dan DeLong: Like,

Alicia Katz Pollock: And.We have heard this before.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Would it be considered online gambling if I was to suggest we create a poll of when the first date is that they say, oops, I'm sorry.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Uh, was that call she is that the website? Yeah. Yeah.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Let's do a Kelsey on this. Right like.

Dan DeLong: Predictive markets.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, the, I mean, they specifically, I had this conversation with [00:36:00] them in a podcast back in 2023. I had, I did a session with Ted Callahan and Kim M spa, and that was explicitly stated when they started with QuickBooks Live is that there would not market to our clients. And they did. Um, but this time I, this time, not.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Only did they do that, they stole employees, let's call it out. Okay. Like, um.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But now that there's this actual toggle, [00:36:30] I'm inclined to believe them. I mean, I know I'm the queen of wishful thinking, but, but I, I if that toggle turns off ads, then that's a huge win.

Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah. My, my, uh, my thoughts about this is that, uh, there's going to come, it's going to come down to how the, how the accountant got there to begin with, right? You know, if if just the fact that an accountant [00:37:00] user is connected involves that sort of thing, or if there's some kind of grading scale, like, is that accountant certified? Right? Like, because if they invite themselves as an accountant, you know, does that mean that they're suppressing these, these things as well? Um, or if they start with not an accountant and an accountant later, you know, there's, uh, all these things are going to be, are going to come, you know, bubble up in the, in, in the future, as far as, you know, [00:37:30] things that they didn't plan for.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, I mean, if you take on a new client and you're doing your initial file review and onboarding, the first thing that you do on your ESOP is just go to this toggle and turn it off.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Where is the toggle? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding like I'm missing it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's in accounting settings. It's in the settings.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I guess this is going to be easier. Theoretically, if their artificial intelligence is advanced as they claim [00:38:00] it is, it should be able to resolve where this doesn't happen. So if this occurs, maybe they're demonstrating their artificial intelligence is not as strong as it should be.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well that's a good thing for them to program in. It's a good idea. Um, okay. So, um, so basically to sum up that the banner ads, the product awareness announcements, the dashboard messages, the in-product prompts, and the emails will be turned off [00:38:30] with that toggle. So yay. Okay. Um, for businesses that need support and are not yet connected to an accountant, Intuit experts will continue to provide bookkeeping and compliance support. Set to launch in January 2027, the Intuit Pro Partner Accountants Program will offer the opportunity to pair these businesses with participating firms and give you the chance to enlarge your client base. All right, now, here's the question that you both were just asking. What happens if Intuit doesn't yet know whether a client has an accountant? [00:39:00] We take the conservative path into it will hold off for marketing Intuit expert services that could overlap with accountant work until we can confirm that an accountant is attached or that the customer isn't working with one. This is designed to protect the accountant relationship by default when there's uncertainty, rather than risk marketing services to a client who's already being served by a firm. This suppression applies specifically to marketing of overlapping services. Onboarding support, as detailed above, is available to every [00:39:30] new customer from day one, regardless of whether their accountant status is known.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I mean, I don't have a. I don't have a problem with Intuit helping clients that don't have an accountant. I mean, it's all about what's best for businesses to grow everything else. I also like I'm not concerned about the competition of Intuit, unfortunately, because the quality isn't there. What just [00:40:00] gets me riled up is the don't say it and not do it. It's is what it's really, really about. Like if tell me the rules of the game and I'll play, but stick to the rules.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay, well, let's look at some more rules. All right. Next next FAQ. How long does Intuit wait before marketing Intuit Expert services to a client of unknown status? When a new client joins into its first priority is helping them get set up and successful on the platform, which includes Intuit expert led onboarding. [00:40:30] That's true whether they have an accountant or not. For an initial period after a new client signs up, we hold off on offering Intuit expert services that overlap with accounting services until an accountant is confirmed attached, or until we can confirm the client isn't working with one. We'll continue to prioritize getting attached status confirmed as quickly as possible, so standard marketing or continued suppression can follow accordingly. If you have questions about timing for a specific client situation, reach out to your [00:41:00] Intuit contact directly.

Dan DeLong: So I've, uh, I've heard this now in this article at least twice. Uh, we hold off on offering Intuit expert services that overlap with accounting services. But I thought that those services were no more like, like QB live is, is not, uh, a service anymore, right? Like, or is.

Alicia Katz Pollock: The books, the, the books review, what [00:41:30] were the, what were the two titles for these? It was the bum bum bum bum. They're talking about the books check in and the smart categorization.

Dan DeLong: So those are the only two services that could potentially overlap with accounting services.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: And the expert check in part of it. Right? That's the three tiers they have on their their image also.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. That's that's what those were.

Dan DeLong: So the cleanup and the, the other QB live services that they were offering.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: The question.

Dan DeLong: Are no more. [00:42:00] Nor are these the only two services. Three services that could potentially overlap with accounting services.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Qb live is no more. There is no more bookkeeping in the way that we knew it. There's this onboarding service. There's the. The. I have to keep the books check in. Um, and the smart expert categorization and the smart expert categorization I still think is getting in there [00:42:30] and doing their bank feeds. I that that is still what I think that is. I don't think it's just bank feed review, but I don't have an answer yet.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: So to go back to, I think what Dan's question was is because there's a theoretically there's a whole bunch of people that maybe have already started up their QuickBooks online, and it's a mess. It's a cluster, right? So if that happens and they, they're not connected to an account. So they connect in and say, hey, we'd like to look at this with you. Sure. You could do a quick auto categorization, but that's [00:43:00] not going to fix the core issues. Like is, are they going to go into, well, we're going to onboard you again, because we are going to put these different services on and try to get things set up correctly, or they're just not going to touch that work. Are they going to refer people that stuff?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. I mean, with QuickBooks Live, if unless it was a simple service business, they always said that you're not eligible for our services. Okay, go to the find a ProAdvisor. So I'm assuming that from [00:43:30] what we've seen here, that it's still just setting up the chart of accounts, basic recommendations, and reviewing the banking feed and showing them how to make how to, you know, get the AI started in its programing. So, you know, if it's more than that, that's where the pro partner.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Comes into play.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Is going to come into play. Right. Um one more section on that. Does onboarding stop if a client's account status is unknown. No. [00:44:00] Intelligent onboarding is separate from the marketing suppression described above and is not affected by whether we know a client's account status. Every into a customer has expert has access to expert led onboarding from day one, regardless of account and attached status. Intelligent onboarding is designed to make sure a client is configured correctly to optimize their QuickBooks experience, including payments, bill pay, and workforce from the start.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: And so they've been consistent about that, saying it the whole time. So I guess my next question on is intelligent onboarding. [00:44:30] I can't imagine they're having an accountant or even a salesperson contacting every single person, every single time they set up a new QBO file. So is it is is this the pop ups? Is that their intelligent onboarding is providing pop ups at the right time to motivate more services?

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's the that's the part we don't know. But it sounded like there was a scheduled appointment, though at one point this did say that you schedule an appointment and have a have a session with [00:45:00] them.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: So so are you accounts out there. Go set up a new QuickBooks online file so we can learn.

Dan DeLong: After.

Dan DeLong: After July 29th.Right? Yeah. Which as of hearing this, it is after July 20th.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So this, this is already already in. Now one suggestion that I did make as soon as I heard all of this when I was talking to some of my Intuit contacts, is I put in the recommendation that one of the first questions in the onboarding, not the end of the onboarding, the beginning of the onboarding [00:45:30] is, do you have an accountant user? And get that set up and make sure the client knows that they should be having this conversation with the accountant first before doing the onboarding. And so I've put in that feedback and well, good idea. This is the this is the part that's going to be the sticky wicket for sure. Okay. You're in charge. How the controls work, where do the controls live and who can access them? On July 29th, 2026, [00:46:00] for all accountant attached Intuit customers, Intuit Expert Services will be switched off by default. Marketing and In-product prompts for these services will be suppressed throughout QuickBooks. Nothing will be enacted without a deliberate decision from you or client billed accounts from your clients. Okay, now this is important. The controls live in account settings inside each client's QBO file. Who can access them depends on how the client's QuickBooks subscription is built for client billed accounts, where the [00:46:30] client's paying for it. Both you and your client have the ability to enable services from account settings. Your client can also enable these settings independently, but only after receiving a message that explicitly asks you to check. Ask them to check with you first. I have suggested to Intuit that it needs a second set of permissions that they ask us, and we approve it, and that there's an actual approval process, not just it gets a pop up. They don't read it, they click okay. So [00:47:00] that was my suggestion.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Do you want to continue? Yes.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yes, exactly. And we didn't want them to continue.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. So I think there I think there needs to be guardrails on client build accounts. I think it has to be a double approval process. Okay. Um then for firm build accounts, this is cool. Only you can enable services. Your client sees a locked state directing them to contact you. There's no self-serve path available to your clients. If you enable [00:47:30] a service, your client will receive a notification directing them to the Expert Hub to activate it, you will receive an email notification when a client on a client billed account enables books check in smart expert categorization or expert books upkeep. So I think this part's pretty cool that if they if you're paying for their subscription, they can't activate this unless you decide that that actually would be value added service. Maybe you want them to do the, the light work [00:48:00] while you focus on advisory and continue to build them, whatever you build them.

Dan DeLong: Smokey the bear, uh, service only you can, can enable services right?

Alicia Katz Pollock: So I thought that part was cool. All right. Um, it is one control for all three services for the books check in, smart expert categorization and expert books upkeep. Um, so it's not three separate ones.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: That makes sense.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Once the service is activated by my client, can I turn it off? [00:48:30] If a client was already mid-service using an Intuit Expert service. When they engage with your firm, that access carries over. If at any point you and your client want to discontinue a service, your client has the option to opt out or just not schedule their calls with the books check in. What if my client has more than one accountant connected for clients with more than one accountant on file? The billing status determines who can enable the service.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: That's a good that's a good clarification. I was wondering [00:49:00] about that.

Dan DeLong: Mhm.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. For client build, any accountant can enable Intuit Expert Services, which hopefully two accountants are talking to each other on that one. Um for firm build the billing accountant can enable those services. Are there planned changes to this permission model. Um starting July 29th for all accountant attached Intuit customers Intuit Expert Services will be switched off by default. Coming soon. Accountants will have additional formal role [00:49:30] based controls at the firm service and client level, with full transparency over which Intuit services are active within their client relationships.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: That didn't answer the question at all.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I'm not even sure what that means. Will I lose access to my client's books if they activate a service? No. Activating any Intuit Expert service does not affect your access to a client's books in any way. All right. Now, topic switch the expert hub [00:50:00] access point for you and your clients. What is the Expert Hub? The Expert Hub is the designated location within QuickBooks where clients can discover Intuit Expert Services for accountant attached clients. The upsell sections and In-product discovery prompts elsewhere in QBO are suppressed, and when you or your client arrive at a service card, the call to action leads to the settings and control flow rather directly to activation.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I, you know, I'm just the way that they're packaging [00:50:30] it. I just can already hear people commenting on. So you're saying we're not the experts then like you're the experts because it's all of the other stuff is tucked into this one area that has nothing to do with this. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I just know that people are going to go that way right off the bat.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, I hope people aren't threatened by the fact that they're calling experts experts. It doesn't diminish your expertise.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: No, we're experts plus.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right.

Dan DeLong: Advanced.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. [00:51:00] Um, do I have visibility into what's happening in the expert hub for my clients? Yes. Accountants will have read only visibility into the expert hub for their clients. You can see service progress, upcoming call schedules and summaries, but cannot schedule calls or initiate contact on your client's behalf.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I feel like the tax professional that's kind of trying to talk to the bookkeeper for the first time, but now it's going to be like, we're that person. Like, what do you mean you're doing it this way? We don't want it done that [00:51:30] way.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Like it's I mean, that that's always the question. And that's, that's why we need all these fail safes. Yeah. So so this is pointing out that there is going to be an expert hub. There's going to be a place where you can go in to see there's, there's already a resolution center where you can go in to see cases. And so this is, um, and this has actually been there also where hypothetically, you can go in and see call summaries for their support calls.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, yeah. [00:52:00] This is always, I mean, the fact that you can see, you know, in see into, into these, these conversations will at least give you, you know, some kind of.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Context.

Dan DeLong: Ammunition, uh, to, to have that conversation with your client like, hey, what's, how is this going, you know, like, uh, you know, what, what is the, what is your feedback on, on these conversations? Uh, would you like me to attend? You know, that sort of thing.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Maybe I should be there for this.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Good. Well, I'm glad that that [00:52:30] visibility is there. You know, it would suck to, like, have to say yes to my client. Yes, you can use those services, but then not have any idea what is actually happening behind my back.

Dan DeLong: What's this conversation all about? What are they talking about behind me? My ears are ringing.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, exactly.

Alicia Katz Pollock: There we go. Hey, wait. That wasn't like this the last time I logged in. Okay, now, here's an interesting section. What is the status of Intuit's in QuickBooks Live? What happened to QuickBooks Live? Quickbooks Live [00:53:00] as a brand has been discontinued. The bookkeeping services that operated under that name are being restructured with a clearer strategic framework around the role these experts play and the boundaries around where and how they're offered.

Dan DeLong: So that tells me that those services, the full service, the cleanup, that sort of thing are still going to be around. It's just they're being redistributed.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, the the roles that we see here is, um, more focused around [00:53:30] the bank feeds and looking for anomalies. So it sounds like they're not giving them just free reign to go do whatever they think bookkeeping is.

Dan DeLong: I think we'll, I think we'll see a repackaged, um, Intuit expert service based based out of these findings, right? Like this is, this is when ChatGPT was free for everyone, right? Like it's included there. They're going to learn all these things. And because they're, this [00:54:00] is now, hey, we're first in line because we're trying to help you set it up. Right. Um, you know, this is maybe the first conversation that they're having with, uh, with, with Intuit, they're going to, this is a data collection. You know.

Dan DeLong: They're.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Controlling the sandbox basically in a sense. Right? I think I, yeah, I was going to touch base on this a little bit later. I will, but I think you're on the right track with that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. I mean, to me, I think it's an opportunity for Intuit to, to follow up on the AI and see how the AI is [00:54:30] working and for them to have human eyes actually seeing how it's happening in the books.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, yeah.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: They're talking so much right now about how all these eyes have absorbed the entire internet, and now it's all about the private data sets and information. Well, every one of these company files, in a sense, is little private data sets based on industry and, you know, statistics, their KPIs, how things are categorized, so forth. What if, you know, what if they're in a sense, kind of doing us a favor, that they're kind of training [00:55:00] us into this different role now that AI is going to be able to do more and more of this, that there will be kind of less humans involved in that part as it gets better. So our role is going to change, and we need to absorb that side of it. That AI is doing X, Y, z of the work.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, to the extent that having the Intuit experts have eyes in the book and be able to report up and improve the programing. That's. Yeah. Instead of us being the beta testers beta test on them, great.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Dan DeLong: I mean, look at, look [00:55:30] at, uh, the AI bank reconciliation, right? Like there was, uh, you know, a period of time where, you know, we can't read this, send it to a human and the human would inspect it. And, and now that has evolved into I can't read it. Would you like to review it or would you like to send it to, to an intuit human to, to confirm. And now it's, you know, it's giving it's just another evolution of, okay, [00:56:00] here's, here's the promise of what we think we of, of what we think AI will, will allow us to do. Here's the reality. And we're in that reality where, you know, humans and AI need to coexist.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So to so, so that basically makes it a benefit to us that it's going to it's only going to improve the bank feeds.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay.

Dan DeLong: Now, I like this, but.

Dan DeLong: That first sentence there speaks a lot to me. The QuickBooks Live as a brand [00:56:30] has been discontinued. Not as a service, but as a brand.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Well, let's go into the next paragraph, because this one's going to make everybody's antenna twiddle. Um, why is QuickBooks making these changes now? Quickbooks Live created friction between Intuit and accounting firms.

Dan DeLong: And between.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Firms and their.

Dan DeLong: Clients. Yes. Oh.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Bless your heart.

Dan DeLong: Clutch my pearls.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Accountants told us QuickBooks Live created confusion with clients and impacted.

Dan DeLong: Their relationships [00:57:00] over and over.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Every single one of them. Yes. Um, the decision to discontinue the brand and restructure the role experts play with QuickBooks customers are a direct response to that feedback. Intuit experts will continue to exist and play an important role in helping customers get the most out of QuickBooks, but that role is being refined to complement accountants rather than compete with them.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: See, folks, they do listen to your feedback. Be sure to put it in the program.

Dan DeLong: Five years later.

Dan DeLong: But. [00:57:30] Right. But still.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You know, and I still see a little bit of danger zone with the, the onboarding part. I think there's still some friction going to be there with that. I think the onboarding question needs to go to the accountants first before doing the onboarding. And I get that they're trying to upsell, not upsell. They're trying to make sure that.

Dan DeLong: The attach.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Attach, thank you. Attach the external services, the money management services. And I get that that's actually [00:58:00] an important part of their, their service revenue.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yes they.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Do. Exactly. Um, and so to that extent, I see where this is going, but the idea of them refining the chart of accounts, I think that that's the firm's job.

Dan DeLong: So. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I want to know what really changed to make this decision behind the scenes. Like what financial numbers did what? Like, let's I want to know [00:58:30] that what really finally made the ship start to change its direction a bit. What happened?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Well, we know that in the the earnings reports QB live was underperforming. It wasn't the the cash cow that they expected it to be. Plus it was creating bad vibes. But I really do think that that the bad vibes are are aside. I think the fact that it was not did not turn into the revenue stream that they expected [00:59:00] it to.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: So churn, I mean, obviously we're not going to know churn, but was there just heavy, heavy churn? Was there actually more of an exodus of accountants? Um, you know, did any of that happen? I don't know that we can actually get those answers, but that's where my brain is wondering like. Mhm.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, no, I think it's probably a financial and operational impact for sure that, you know, you know, we know that about Intuit. It's $1 billion corporation. All decisions are based on dollars.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But they're recognizing [00:59:30] that the emotional friction is impacting dollars. So whichever way we got here, we got here.

Dan DeLong: Thank God.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Good job.

Dan DeLong: People. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. Um, I think that sums up. Oh, here we go. Um, at the bottom. What to do before July 29th, which of course, it's too late. You're hearing this after July 29th, but it's not too late for you to do these things. What actions should I take? Um, number [01:00:00] one, review your client list. Identify which clients are client build versus firm. Build the controls available to you and them differ by billing arrangement. Your account list in Qbo and Intuit Accounting suite will show the relevant details to decide for each client. Consider whether you're comfortable with QuickBooks handling routine categorization and check ins between your engagements. If yes, you can proactively enable the service. If not, no action is required. The default is off. Step three have [01:00:30] the conversation with active clients. If clients frequently ask about bookkeeping support between your check ins, now's a good moment to let them know these services are available and that you can help advise on the best options, and then for check for multi-account and situations and determine who holds the billing relationship. Coordinate with other accountants and your client.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: So this just invoked a major question to me right off the bat. If people don't listen to this, they don't hear it and they don't do anything at all. Right? Does that mean [01:01:00] that after July 29th on, uh, you know, uh, pro and advance or plus and advanced type situations, you may actually have All of a sudden your bank feeds getting cleared out for you because it's auto categorizing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Remember that the service was.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: By default wouldn't do it. Theoretically, yes.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So that's why that part is so important is that these.

Dan DeLong: Are.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Off by default. Everything's off by default. Your clients on your client list have already been onboarded. Okay. So [01:01:30] it doesn't fit that. This is more like, and I was thinking about this, like I have clients where, well, for me, most of my clients are DIY and we're doing the reviews. I do not do the bank feeds for the majority of my clients, but I have clients that need me that, that are not doing a good enough job themselves. And for whatever reason, they're not on my, in my bookkeeping program. And that's mostly because I do independent, I'm troubleshooting, [01:02:00] I'm, I'm training, you know, I'm not a bookkeeping firm. So I literally have hundreds of clients that I'm attached to who? I have not seen in years, and some of them would be good for this. And so this actually opens up an opportunity for me to touch base with them, maybe even do a file health check with them and say, well, hey, either are you interested in coming on board with me? Or, hey, here's a new service that might be helpful for you.

Dan DeLong: Yeah. So [01:02:30] one of the things.

Dan DeLong: In your, it's included in your subscription cost, you know, that sort of thing. I, I think, I think a number five to this list would be attend, uh, some of these sessions with your, with your clients. If you are concerned that, you know, you would be encroached upon maybe during that call and really, you know, to, to, to make sure that, you know, keeping them honest type of thing where, you know, if you have concerns [01:03:00] about this potentially, uh, interfering with some of your, some of your services, find out, right. Like to be part of that conversation with, uh, with your client.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Uh, I want to make one other call out, which hopefully by now most people know. But if you are a bookkeeper, an accountant, and you're invited into a company file as a user, you're not seen as an accountant. So that means it would still be turned on. We're [01:03:30] talking about connected to Intuit Accountant Suite or a QBO, a QuickBooks online account connection. That way you have to have that kind of a connection, not if you're in as a user.

Dan DeLong: Yeah. Like does that role now of in-house bookkeeper that does not count as.

Dan DeLong: Doesn't count.

Dan DeLong: As an accountant?

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And you know, honestly, as we've evolved through this conversation, especially when I got to this section about reviewing my client list, for me in particular, this actually turns into a huge opportunity to touch base with [01:04:00] my clients and say, well, hey, you know how your plus and your plus subscription just jacked up in price. Here's why. Here's an opportunity for you to make use of that extra money that you're paying and get this article.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I thought towards the end. Also there was, I thought there was another step that I was talking about consolidating all of your different, um, you know, platforms or whatever they called it. So for example, I, I have multiple QuickBooks [01:04:30] online accountant like setups. Um, they're working and they have a process to try to get to where all of your stuff is into one place. So you're not going to have six different accountant connection pieces is something to keep in mind too.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. And there's in one of the other episodes, we talked about the resources. They're working actually really hard to get everybody consolidated that unless you have a specific reason for having multiple, what they call realms. Now they're [01:05:00] calling consoles. But if you have a reason to have multiple consoles, then great, but if you don't, why not consolidate them? All right. And then the article ends with pro partner accountant suite and what's coming next. What are Intuit Pro partner accountants. Uh, the Intuit Pro Partner Accountants Program launching in early 2027 is the reinvention of the Intuit QuickBooks. Proadvisor program includes a stronger focus on firm [01:05:30] growth, matched client leads and tier based benefits spanning product access support, financial incentives, and client acquisition. Your current ProAdvisor preferred pricing rates, and revenue share terms stay in place through the transition. The client acquisition piece is significant. Intuit acquires thousands of new businesses every week that don't yet have an accountant. The Pro Partner program is how Intuit will connect those businesses to firms, turning the platform into a client pipeline for your practice. And then last [01:06:00] in the article is what is Intuit Accountant Suite? Intuit Accountant suite gives you firm wide intelligence layer across QuickBooks and into an enterprise suite. So instead of managing one client at a time, you have a portfolio view that services, risks, highlights opportunities, and lets you monitor custom KPIs. The core plan is free. Accelerate is in beta at no cost until January 20th, 2027, which was pushed out six months, giving you time to explore its capabilities before pricing kicks in. And then there's an opportunity to get [01:06:30] a checklist for how to make the switch.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I'm liking it. You know, I'm actually liking Count Suite. It's easy. It's no different.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, I am too. I definitely am. So this article that we just read and analyzed was written by Amanda Thompson. Amanda, thank you so much for the transparency and the information. I'm glad that we can get this information out there as well. To answer a whole bunch of questions that people didn't know they had.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: And if you do have more questions that we didn't discuss [01:07:00] or bring up, be sure to leave them in the comments, wherever you're listening or watching to this, and we can discuss them in the future.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And we also have we also have an email address, unofficial QuickBooks podcast@gmail.com. And so if you want to participate in the conversation with me, go ahead and write in. All right. Well, thank you all for listening. I know this was a long one, but I think it's probably one of the most important conversations that we have had and are going to have in the whole history [01:07:30] of this podcast. So Spot and Dan, what do you have going on in your world?

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I've got some fun trips going, uh, coming up pretty quick, going out to visit some coworkers in Phoenix, which will be great. It's always, you know, we spend all this time over video, but we don't always get to connect together and actually work through some things. So that's going to be coming up for me pretty soon.

Dan DeLong: Cool.

Dan DeLong: And Dan and I'm working on a few extra cohorts over at School of Bookkeeping. We're doing [01:08:00] one on customizing method CRM as a practice management for accounting firms.

Dan DeLong: Oh.

Dan DeLong: And then and then we're doing one on, um, uh, there's a new, uh, AI, uh, aggregator called nitwit. Um, that is, uh, we're going to be becoming a prompt ologist with, uh, nitwit. So it's, it's how you can, um, save your tokens, uh, by, by doing, doing a, uh, [01:08:30] prompt and customizing that prompt before you send it to the LLM so it's a, it's a very interesting tool and we'll be, um, we'll be doing that with, uh, Joel from timesheets.com who created it?

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. I was about to say that that is Joel's, isn't it? He mentioned it to me at scaling new heights.

Dan DeLong: Yeah, it's a really cool thing. Uh, but I have gone down this, uh, Claude rabbit hole. I was resisting learning Claude because it's another [01:09:00] yet another AI model to to learn. Uh, but I've really been liking what what Claude and co work code. All the all the Claude's.

Dan DeLong: Have.

Dan DeLong: Have been doing and it is, uh, prompted me. No, no pun intended to create, uh, some resources of, you know, what is the Claude connector able to do inside of QuickBooks? What should it be allowed to do? Where, where do you put up your guardrails? Um, and what do you, [01:09:30] what do you do when a client says, hey, why can't I just do this with AI?

Dan DeLong: That's a huge part.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: I think that's going to be big part of us is actually helping educate our clients how to use it. Right? So that sounds like something I need to attend to.

Dan DeLong: I will put it in the show notes.

Dan DeLong: I'm glad you're doing all that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Research for me so that I don't have.

Dan DeLong: To.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Sharing is caring.

Dan DeLong: How about you, Alicia? What's going on in your world? You're never busy.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now [01:10:00] we are starting up a new series. Our next series of classes on 8th April. On August 12th, I'm doing a third party apps exploration. And this is less of a webinar than it is. I'm going to come in with a list of apps in different categories, like three different, um, management apps, three different AR and AP apps, three different project management apps. And everybody who shows up is going to be grouped together by category. [01:10:30] And then I'm going to have everybody go and research an app of your choice and then report back to the group. And I've never done an event like this before, so I'm super looking forward to that. So the link is in the show notes. It's called third Party App Exploration, or you can find it on the Royal Wise calendar. Then on August 19th we have four lane coming in to do a three hour session on Intuit Enterprise Suite so that you can find out what is Enterprise Suite and what makes it different from [01:11:00] advanced. And why do I care? And then I'm on August 26th. I'm actually doing a QBO versus zero head to head session with zero. And then on September 2nd, I'm doing an Agentic AI class. So I'm actually going to go through all of QuickBooks and tease out all of the different AI sources in all of the versions. And then sometime in September, I also have my Intuit [01:11:30] Accountant Suite course. So I'm back up and running. And all of these courses can be taken individually, and you can find them all@royal.com on our calendar. Or if you become a member, you get automatic enrollment and you don't have to pay for any of these courses. You just pay the membership and boom, you are in.

Dan DeLong: You're like, you're like Hulu.

Dan DeLong: Yeah.

Dan DeLong: The Hulu of accounting.

Dan DeLong: I am.

Dan DeLong: Going with the owl.

Dan DeLong: Theme. Oh [01:12:00] the commercials. I get.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It. That's awesome. We were calling ourselves the Netflix of Accounting for a while.

Dan DeLong: But the Hulu.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Was brilliant and you're on it. I I'm totally going to steal that. Thank you.

Dan DeLong: I lost.

Dan DeLong: I lost my chances of marketing.

Dan DeLong: Consultant.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. Well, and again, the reason why my for those of you watching on YouTube, the reason why my t shirt says strange is because we are entering in this strange new world. Um, and thank you for scaling new heights, for giving me this awesome Star Trek [01:12:30] t shirt. And, uh, thank you guys for joining us. Thanks, everybody for hanging on for more than an hour today. And we will see.

Dan DeLong: You on the.

Matthew "Spot" Fulton: Next one.