Intuit Marks First "Accountant Day"

On May 8, Intuit marked the first-ever Global Accountant Day (Twitter: #accountantday), bringing the company's more than 250 accountant-facing employees a challenge to put aside their day-to-day work to reach out and interact with an accountant.

“While that may seem silly, we spend so much time on computers, cell phones and calls that we sometimes lose sight of what really matters: our customers,” said Intuit's Jim McGinnis.

“We’re changing the way we think about our relationship with accountants. We’ve often thought of them as customers – people we could sell to, and sometimes, we’ve thought of them as a channel, getting them to sell for us. However, recently, we are thinking of them as partners with a common mission: to grow their practice and help small business clients succeed by moving to the cloud.”

As a major technology provider to accounting firms, including tax and professional financial solutions, as well as a provider of management tools for their small business clients, Intuit is trying to get closer to accounting professionals.

The event spanned Intuit's global offices from Australia to Mountain View, to India, the United Kingdom, Canada, Plano, Tucson and San Diego.

Global Accountant Day started in Australia with a demonstration of the future of QuickBooks to more than 30 VIP accountants, then continued with meet and greets, call-ins, chats and panels in every location.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with accountants for over three years and I want to share what I love most about them,” McGinnis said. “To be honest, moving from the video game industry to work with accountants didn’t sound like that much fun. However, accountants are anything but dull. They are smart, and smart people think differently and challenge you to think differently. Yet, the trait all Intuit accountant customers have in common is that they are externally focused. They live to serve their clients, they think about others all the time and, in my experience, outward facing people are far more interesting than those who are overly self-involved.