Technology
Intuit Offers $100k in Grants to Accounting & Tax Firms
" Power to Get More Done" Program Also Provides Savings, Training
Feb. 18, 2009
Accounting professionals
and their clients now have more ways to save money and save time through a new
program by Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU). Through its Power to Get More Done initiative,
Intuit is offering significant savings on several of its productivity products
and services, $100,000 in stimulus grants for accounting and tax firms, and
new training tools to help firms increase productivity and generate growth.
“The accounting and tax profession is not insulated from the economy.
It’s imperative that practitioners operate at peak levels of efficiency
to meet the needs of their clients and to grow their own practices,” said
Jill Ward, senior vice president and general manager of the Intuit Accounting
Professionals Division. “As the leader in providing time-saving tools
to accounting professionals and their clients, we are doing everything possible
to ensure they are able to meet this challenge head on.”
Saving Accounting Professionals Time and Money
To help accounting professionals save time and money as they collaborate with
their clients, Intuit is offering discounts on a bundle of QuickBooks©
Premier Accountant 2009 and QuickBooks Pro 2009 products. With the new Client
Data Review feature in QuickBooks Premier Accountant 2009, accounting professionals
save time by quickly troubleshooting client errors, which saves hours in month-
and year-end closings.
“Thank you for the ‘troubleshoot account balances tool’
in QuickBooks Accountant Edition 2009. You’re my hero for that feature.
I just did a business tax return, and it probably dropped an hour off of the
time to complete,” said Bryce Forney, CPA of Forney Accountancy Corporation,
in Pleasant Hill, Calif.
Accounting professionals can learn the details of the Power to Get More Done
program and discounts at www.accountant.intuit.com/GetMoreDone,
and the site will be updated throughout tax season for the best offers on Intuit’s
products and services.
Stimulus Grants Give Accounting Firms the Power to Do More
For accounting professionals looking to start new firms and grow existing practices,
Intuit is awarding grants of $10,000 – plus up to $10,000 in free products
and services – to 10 deserving firms, giving them a boost to hire and
invest in their businesses and thus get more done.
Accounting professionals can download the entry form at the above website
and prepare a brief, high-level business plan that explains how they will use
the money to stimulate growth. Entries are due by 9:30 p.m. Pacific time on
April 30. Judges include a panel of Intuit and accounting profession executives,
with winners chosen each month from May through July.
New Training to Help Accounting Professionals Increase Productivity
Accounting professionals can save time and money with the latest practice tips
and techniques through Intuit Academy podcasts. This free podcast series, with
new installments available every two weeks, trains accounting professionals
to increase productivity through the use of Intuit offerings and provides a
great way to learn best practices from Intuit experts and their fellow practitioners.
For example, attendees at the Intuit 2008 Lacerte Tax Software Update course
reported that, due to the training, they saved 30 hours on complex business
returns and 54 hours on individual returns during the tax season, based on a
customer study conducted by Intuit in July 2008.
Saving Clients Time and Money
Nearly 70 percent of accountants who recommend QuickBooks recommend it as a
way for small businesses to run their businesses more efficiently, according
to a recent survey by International Communications Research, on behalf of Intuit.
Now, accounting professionals can help clients save time and money by passing
along free software and more than $2,000 in savings on select Intuit financial
and business management products and services to their clients. Special offers
for small business clients include:
- Free small business tools for clients just starting out: Free QuickBooks
Simple Start, free Intuit Websites Starter Package, six months of free Intuit
Online Payroll, free incorporation services, and free QuickBooks Cash Register
Plus download. These offers are also part of Intuit’s “Small Business
United” initiative, which is being announced in conjunction with the
accountant-focused Power to Get More Done. - Discounts up to 60 percent on accounting, payroll, credit card processing
and mid-market offerings for established clients: Substantial discounts on
QuickBooks Pro 2009, QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll, QuickBooks Assisted Payroll,
QuickBooks Merchant Services, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions are offered
throughout tax season.
“For my clients and my firm, it’s critical to cut expenses and
maintain productivity,” said Dawn Brolin of Premier Business Services,
P.C., in East Lyme, Conn. “These discounts and offerings provide the kind
of support we need in a tough economy and will allow me to continue to provide
first-rate help to my clients.”
Brad Smith, president and chief executive officer of Intuit, said, “It
is our time to further help out and make an added difference. For the past two
decades, we have supported small businesses – the backbone of our economy
– and the accounting professionals who are of paramount importance to
the success of businesses. We are in a unique position to help accountants increase
productivity, offer some of our best-selling software solutions for free, and
provide stimulus grants for the accounting profession.”
The Power to Get More Done initiative is just one example of Intuit’s
company-wide focus on helping its customers save and make money. While this
benefit is particularly relevant in today’s environment, it has and always
will be Intuit’s hallmark as it continues to deliver innovative products
and services for its customers.