Friday, February 15, 2013

QuickBooks Online For iPad Isn’t A Boring Accounting App – It’s A Simple CRM : Xero's API partner base ahead of Intuit's and now over 115


Sara Perez for TechCrunch writes: Over a decade after porting its QuickBooks desktop software to the web, Intuit is finally addressing the needs of its small business owner user base with the launch of a version of the QuickBooks application for iPad. The app has been designed from the ground-up to take advantage of the tablet’s screen size and feature set. But more notably, it’s helping to refocus the QuickBooks platform from being solely thought of as a tool for back office accounting. With the iPad launch, QuickBooks is becoming a CRM solution for small businesses.
The iPad release follows QuickBooks’ previous debuts on iPhone in 2008, and Android in 2011. Those apps were also updated in fall 2012 in advance of the iPad debut, in order to better match the new QuickBooks look-and-feel. Like its mobile siblings, QuickBooks Online for iPad still works as a companion to the QuickBooks Online experience, but it doesn’t really require a user to ever log into the desktop-optimized website to make use of what the app has to offer.
To get started, business owners who newly discover the app through the Apple App Store, can just sign up for QuickBooks Online while being walked through a quick sign-up flow where they enter in their business’s name and upload a logo. The app even uses GPS to pull in their contact information automatically, to save extra typing. That may seem like a minor detail, but sometimes good apps are the sum of lots of little minor details just like that. Meanwhile, current subscribers can sign in using their login information. New users can try the app for free for a month, and upgrades are available via in-app purchase. (Prices are the same for Online or iPad, starting at $12.99/month).
Customer Relationship Management, Not Just Financial Management 
After setup, you might be surprised to discover that QuickBooks Online for iPad is not exactly what you may expect – that is, it’s more about customer management, and finances are just one part of that.
“Over the last five years, we’ve been transitioning, along with our customers, to more mobile and web applications. QuickBooks Online was launched in 2000 – it’s almost like a vintage or heritage web app,” explains Dan Wernikoff, SVP of Intuit and GM of Financial Management Solutions. “When you think about mobile, [business owners] can be out the field, getting data from QuickBooks – it made us rethink the role of QuickBooks itself,” he says.
Customers told the company that they were using the software as something of a CRM already – even if that meant phoning the office to get the information they needed. The iPad app, Intuit hopes, will tap into that pent-up demand for a better mobile experience. And for starters, it does so by pulling in customer info from Gmail, Contacts, Yahoo, LinkedIn and customer pictures from Facebook.
Feature Highlights
The new app also makes it easy to create and email estimates and invoices, take notes and snap photos related to customer activity, enter expenses on the go (including receipt photos), and view insights about their business with highly visual charts and graphs. Intuit is making good on its Mint acquisition again, as those graphs are actually powered by Mint’s charting engine, which will soon make its way to QuickBooks on the web, too.
There are a number of tools for filtering through customers – an especially handy one is “Near Me,” which can help you figure out which customers you may want to swing by while you’re out and about. (You know, to pick up that money they owe you…or say hello. Whatever.)
Central to the revamped QuickBooks experience is also this concept of a business’s “feed,” a nod to the impact social networking paradigms have had in terms of product design.
Here, every action and customer interaction is recorded in an almost News Feed-like interface. In three to six months, it will be expanded to include data from the wider web (think Yelpreviews, Twitter updates) and those from other Intuit partners, like ProOnGo or Expensify, for example. There are now over 100 developer partners using the QuickBooks API, Wernikoff tells us.
What’s Next? More Data, GoPayment Integration
In the near term, however, the focus will be on bringing more of the data from QuickBooks Online into the iPad. I imagine that serious (older) QuickBooks users will complain that the app doesn’t have “X” like their software does, or “Y” like the online version. But I’d take a breath before releasing those rants. It’s clear that this is version one of something that’s evolving. Some things will come in time. Others won’t. But at the end of the day, I’d rather have an easy-to-use app that does the most important tasks well, instead of some Microsoft Office-like monster creation where every little function is crammed into too many menus.
Intuit will soon be deeply integrating its mobile payments solution called GoPayment into the iPad app. Wernikoff says they would be “stupid not to” integrate the two. ”This year we’ll do over two billion invoices from QuickBooks customers. The ability to make those enabled for payment immediately – you can kind of eliminate the need to even send the invoice,” he says. “It’s a unique position we’re in in relation to our payments competitors, because a lot of them haven’t really thought about invoicing workflows.”
Right now, GoPayment works with the app, but you have to launch it separately on the iPad. For other transactions – like those, perhaps, processed via competitor Square, cash or check – users can just mark invoices as paid in the app, or enter them online which then sync with the app.
QuickBooks today has over 4 million paying users across its product suite, including over 400,000 companies online, across 150+ countries worldwide. On mobile specifically, the company is growing at 300 percent year-over-year, and has 50,000 monthly active users on iPhone or Android. Those aren’t insignificant numbers, but they also speak to the fact that much of Intuit’s customer base uses what we might call “legacy” products. Small business iPad use has been booming for some time, so it’s critical that Intuit attract those first-time SMB CRM subscribers to its mobile solutions. This iPad app is a serious attempt at doing just that.
davidleeti
I hate Quickbooks with a passion.
leehammondphotography
leehammondphotography
@davidleeti I hate QB and Intuit, with a passion too, but there is little alternative for the small business. There are other accounting packages but they don't do payroll. There are other payroll packages that don't do accounting. Intuit may be going rapidly into mobile but they haven't got the Mac version up to feature parity with the PC version of QB yet. WTF?
sutherlandjamie
sutherlandjamie
What the accounting space needed was some real challengers. There are more and more online accounting and accounting related apps being developed all across the globe. Xero's API partner base is now over 115, which appears to be slightly ahead of Intuit's. It's that kind of groundswell of interest that gets larger incumbent players to react and innovate. 
At the end of the day, we're seeing more and more innovation in the accounting space which is good for all small businesses. Small businesses employ over 95% of workers and make up the majority of GDP, so anything we can do to help them is good for US in general.

Forrest Zeisler
Forrest Zeisler
What I hate about QB is how they were promoting the API for Quickbooks Online. We dumped a bunch of time into integrating with it, and then they suddenly announced it was no longer supported. Instead, if we want something without bugs, we need to pay for the $5/user/month model or join their profit sharing program.
A free API is a requirement these days. In particular, promoting it and then suddenly swapping it for a paid version, is a real bate-and-switch.
JakeGasaway
JakeGasaway
Agree with Jamie. At a time when APIs continue to get better and allow for more data flow between applications, small businesses can choose which apps are best to help them run their operation. The days of having a clunky application that does everything, but nothing very well, are behind us. 
Along that same thought, by opening their platform, companies like Xero can continue to be laser focused on creating accounting software and allow for add-ons to assist with functions adjacent to accounting. Focusing on what you do well allows a company to drive a much more effective user experience. We, at Stitch Labs, are about to become a part of the Xero add-on list very soon. 

Posted on 6:13 AM | Categories:

4 Tips for Investors to Ease Growing Tax Bite

MARK JEWELL AP Personal Finance Writer for the York Daily Times writes: This year's tax-filing deadline is a couple months away, and many investors are beginning to review whether they made any rash moves with their portfolios to trigger potentially unnecessary tax bills. It's a good instinct to follow, because it can become a teachable moment on how to become a tax-savvy investor.
But it's perhaps more important now to be mindful of new tax law changes approved in the deal that lawmakers struck in January to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
Those changes could have a big impact on taxes filed in 2014 and beyond, especially for those in the top income bracket. They'll pay higher rates, and will want to invest with a heightened sense of tax implications starting this year.
The rate increases are intended to help the U.S. get its fiscal house in order, but the medicine isn't entirely bitter. Historically low rates remain intact for investors in middle-income brackets, and the worst-case scenario rate hikes that were on the table during congressional negotiations failed to become law.
Another plus: The high uncertainty over taxes in recent years is largely gone. President Obama and congressional leaders continue to discuss raising revenue by capping or limiting some tax exemptions. But the rate levels in the Jan. 1 agreement to avert the fiscal cliff are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future. There's no sunset date on the rates, unlike the Bush-era tax cuts approved in 2003.
"The most important thing is to have a plan, and now you can plan," says Duncan W. Richardson, chief equity investment officer with Eaton Vance, an investment manager whose specialties include tax-efficient investing.
Tax-savvy investors keep in mind the type of account in which they hold their investments. Only withdrawals are taxed from IRAs and 401(k)s, so these tax-advantaged accounts are good places to keep investments that are likely to generate a tax bill. Taxable accounts are the place to hold municipal bonds and mutual funds that invest in munis, because the income they generate is exempt from federal taxes.
Here are 4 other considerations for investing in the new tax landscape:
1. TAXES ARE HIGHER, BUT STILL MODEST HISTORICALLY
In the year ahead, investors should focus on their tax rates for capital gains and dividends.
In the middle-income tax brackets—those with adjusted gross income of $72,501 to $223,050 for married couples filing jointly, and $36,251 to $183,250 for single filers—the rate remains 15 percent on long-term capital gains. Those are the profits from selling such investments as stocks or funds held for at least a year.
The 15 percent on long-term gains is the same rate that applies to income from stock dividends. But the rate for capital gains and dividends has climbed to 18.8 percent for joint filers with more than $250,000 in income and $200,000 for single filers. That factors in a new 3.8 percent investment income surtax to help pay for President Obama's health care overhaul.
The biggest hit will be felt by top-bracket investors—those with adjusted gross income of more than $450,000 for couples, and $400,000 for individuals. They now pay 23.8 percent on long-term gains and dividends, including the health care tax. They will pay nearly 9 cents more in taxes than they did last year on each dollar of dividend income flowing into a taxable account.
Despite that increase, these rates are modest historically. In the 1970s, the top rate on dividend income was 70 percent, for example.
2. SHORT-TERM GAINS, BIG TAX BITE
The distinction between a long-term capital gain and a short-term gain remains important for investors in the top brackets, because tax rates continue to be far higher for the latter.
Short-term gains are triggered by profits earned from a taxable investment held less than a year. They're taxed as ordinary income, like wages, and high earners now face higher income tax rates. Those in the top bracket now pay a steep 43.4 percent including the health care tax, up from 35 percent. That's nearly 20 cents on the dollar greater than what they pay on long-term gains.
3. MUNI BOND ADVANTAGE GROWS
The rate also rises to 43.4 percent for income that top earners receive from taxable bonds, such as corporate bonds. As a result, those investors can realize a greater tax advantage than they could previously from investing in municipal bonds and muni funds, rather than in taxable bonds.
Investors don't have to pay federal taxes on income from munis, which invest in local and state government bonds. Munis are also free of state taxes if they limit investments to the state where you live. So consider whether munis' tax advantages will offset the higher pretax returns you'd normally expect from investing in a taxable bond fund. Look at tax-equivalent yield. It tells how big of a return you'd need from a taxable investment to equal the return of a tax-free bond.
4. BACKLOG OF TAXABLE GAINS BUILDING UP
Stocks have more than doubled since the market hit bottom in early 2009. That huge gain means there's a growing likelihood that investors will be hit with tax bills from capital gains. When fund managers sell investments that appreciated in value, they pass on the taxable gains to investors each year. Managers have been able to limit their investors' tax exposure in recent years by using losses incurred during the stock market meltdown of 2008 to offset gains. But that's no longer so easy, now that stocks have made such a sustained climb.
Tax exposure is typically greater at funds that trade holdings frequently. It's an especially important consideration for wealthy investors, now that they're paying higher rates. One option is to choose funds with moderate to low portfolio turnover. A fund with a turnover ratio higher than 50 percent—meaning more than half the holdings changed hands in a year—could be one to avoid.
If you're investing in an actively managed fund, consider those using strategies to limit capital gains—they often call themselves "tax-managed" funds.
It's not easy to sort out all the options on your own, so it might be worthwhile to seek professional help from a financial adviser.
Posted on 5:51 AM | Categories:
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