Intuit Hits 50,000 QuickBooks ProAdvisors, Announces New Doc Mgt and Work Exchange Programs

Intuit Inc. (www.Intuit.com)
the makers of QuickBooks, Lacerte and ProSeries, announced in June that its
QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program now has more than 50,000 members, most of whom
are accountants, CPAs and independent business consultants. The program provides
crucial training, software, technical support, and other resources to help tax
and accounting practitioners grow their practices and support clients using
QuickBooks financial software.

Since the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program’s inception in 1997, there has
been a 48 percent increase in the number of companies that use QuickBooks. More
than 3.7 million small businesses use QuickBooks and as of March 2008, QuickBooks’
share of retail units in the business accounting category reached 94.2 percent,
according to NPD Group.

“These milestones come at a poignant time as both accountants and the
small businesses they serve are looking for ways to thrive and grow amidst the
current economic uncertainties,” said Jill Ward, vice president and general
manager of Intuit’s Accounting Professionals Division. “Our success
is determined by the success of our community and we continue to offer the highest
level of service in order to remain the top resource for accounting professionals
as they serve their clients and build their businesses.” More information
on the ProAdvisor program is at: http://proadvisor.intuit.com.

Solving for Staffing Shortages
According to the 2007 AICPA Top Management of an Accounting Practice Issues
Survey, finding qualified staff is the top concern among accounting firms in
the U.S. Intuit has announced a new program aimed at relieving some of the pains
of this issue. Through the Intuit Accountant Work Exchange, accountants who
have excess tax and accounting work will be able to easily find and qualify
accounting professionals with capacity to take on additional work.

Professionals looking for extra projects can create a profile listing their
experience and qualifications, search for jobs in the marketplace and apply
to the ones they are interested in. Accountants seeking to hire contractors
can easily create new projects and search prospects by geographic locations,
accreditations and with which Intuit products they have experience, including
QuickBooks, Lacerte, ProSeries or Intuit Payroll Solutions.

Document Management for QuickBooks
Another key issue facing the accounting and tax industry is the continuing movement
toward the paperless practice. According to Intuit research, accountants spend
approximately 65 percent of their time working with documents, filing, retrieving
and sharing files. On average, a four-drawer filing cabinet can cost $25,000
to fill and $2,000 a year to maintain – 80 percent of which is cost for
labor. Plus, misfiled documents can cost up to $120 to replace, according to
the research.

With the Intuit Document Management System (DMS) for QuickBooks Accounting,
accounting professionals and small business owners using QuickBooks can store
files electronically and access them instantly from their PCs. By moving to
a “less paper” office, they can help reduce operating costs, improve
service and help protect their firms from risk and drastically increase productivity.

The new Intuit DMS system enables users to automatically import their customer,
vendor and employee lists from QuickBooks to easily create a well organized
filing system. Accounting professionals can quickly scan client documents or
print to PDF files, associate them with specific client records and organize
them on a desktop PC or server. When needed, accountants can easily access requested
files from the DMS system, including customer, vendor and employee information,
without having to open QuickBooks. Documents can also be saved to the system
directly from Microsoft Office programs, password protected and e-mailed using
Outlook.