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Blake and David are LIVE at QuickBooks Connect in San Jose discussing the new and upcoming QuickBooks features announced at Day 2 of the annual conference (Main Day).
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What is The Accounting Podcast?
The Accounting Podcast (formerly the Cloud Accounting Podcast) is the world's #1 accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast! Join us weekly for a roundup of accounting news, analysis, and interviews. Plus, earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening with the Earmark app. Learn more at https://earmarkcpe.com.
David Leary: This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast is sponsored by Elefant. As a listener of this show, I'm pretty sure you've already embraced technology, and practice efficiencies, but sometimes, it's hard to find training in those areas. Some of you look to your state societies to get CP credit, but those tend to be tax-, or audit-focused, and, quite frankly, from what I've heard, pretty boring.
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Just for you, Elefant has a special offer for Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners. Visit ElefantTraining.com/CAP - that's E-L-E-F-A-N-T training dot com slash CAP - to receive 50 percent off your first webinar. Again, that's ElefantTraining.com/CAP for 50 percent off your first webinar. Elefant, building better practices, one bite at a time.
Blake Oliver: Welcome [00:01:00] to The Cloud Accounting Podcast. I'm Blake Oliver-
David Leary: And I'm David Leary.
Blake Oliver: We are reporting live today at QuickBooks Connect - Day Two, the main day, the main event.
David Leary: I think your voice is in much better shape than mine, at this point.
Blake Oliver: No, no-
David Leary: So much talking.
Blake Oliver: Can you hear me? I'm all raspy. By the way, David, did you eat your sardines this morning?
David Leary: I ate my sardines. You have to bring your own protein, because you get here, and you're talking to so many people, then you miss eating, so you have to bring your own protein to survive.
Blake Oliver: Okay, I understand protein, but why- why sardines, and where did this come from?
David Leary: They travel. They travel. They actually came from [00:01:30] Tim Ferriss.
Blake Oliver: Tim Ferriss?
David Leary: Tim Ferriss. This was his thing start, and you start eating ... They travel well. Put 'em in your backpack; you take 'em with you. I've met four people at the conference that are fully in support of my 'eat sardines when you go to a conference.'
Blake Oliver: The reason I ask is because, before the conference, you put out a post, where you said, "These are the five things that you need to do to survive a conference, " and the one ... I'm not quite on board with the sardines, but I do agree with your tip to drink lots of tea, with honey-
David Leary: And lemon water? Yes.
Blake Oliver: Lemon water-.
David Leary: Because coffee dehydrates [00:02:00] and-.
Blake Oliver: I've been doing that.
David Leary: -you lose your voice. That's good. Yes, Day Two. I think until people come here ... If you're listening, and you've never been here, it's super-exhausting. It's such a big conference, but it's also just amazing to meet ... Even for us, the first night ... We've met so many people that listen to the podcast, and came to QuickBooks Connect, that Blake, and I, neither of us, they knew, so, it's just ... You really get connected with people at QuickBooks Connect.
Blake Oliver: It's great. Everybody is here. There are two exhibit halls. I've never been to a conference with two expo halls. How many exhibitors are there?
David Leary: I think I counted [00:02:30] 107-
Blake Oliver: 107-
David Leary: No, no, no, sorry ... Yeah, it's 107, because I think it's like 97, then, the App Showdown ... The finals for App Showdown is another 10, or something. It's like 107.
Blake Oliver: Attendees, it's thousands, right?
David Leary: Yeah, I think yesterday, for the accountants, it was close to 2,700, or something like that. Then, they filled the rest in with small businesses, and entrepreneurs, today, so, it's just completely packed out on the floor.
Blake Oliver: It's been amazing. Definitely check it out. Come next year, if you haven't been.
David Leary: JLo's here, I heard. I heard somebody say they saw JLo on a golf cart.
Blake Oliver: And A-Rod.
David Leary: Well, yeah, but [inaudible] of A-Rod, if they wanna see JLo?
Blake Oliver: Let's [00:03:00] talk about the takeaways from this morning's keynote address. What's first?
David Leary: Brad Smith came out, and opened, this morning. I think the news, there, is Brad really reflected back on the last four, or five QuickBooks Connects; talked about little moments; talked about moments of connections, and the support, and how we're all packed together. Brad went on to be really genuine ... He almost cried for a second, right?
Blake Oliver: Yeah.
David Leary: Because, this is his last QB Connect, and Brad was a little emotional about it. People [00:03:30] really gave him a standing ovation. People loved having him here. It was a really heartfelt speech. He didn't really cover a lot of technical things. It was really an emotional "Thank you, this was an amazing journey" type of a speech. I thought it was really heartfelt.
Blake Oliver: I was really excited, because I've never met him before, and I got to meet Brad Smith. You, and I have talked about this before, on the podcast, that he really has done something almost unique in the U.S. tech world, in turning [00:04:00] such a large company as Intuit around so quickly from being desktop-centric, QuickBooks-Desktop-heavy, to, really, an online platform.
David Leary: Yeah, I think it's one of those history-book stories. People are gonna look back at business, going "Wow, how did Intuit do it?" Because, if you would have bet a decade ago if Intuit could do it, it was safer money to say, "No way."
Blake Oliver: No, I didn't think so. I have completely come around. It's incredible what has happened in the last few years.
David Leary: It's a testament to Brad-
Blake Oliver: Thank you, Brad Smith. [00:04:30] We'll miss you.
David Leary: Absolutely.
Blake Oliver: But he's not going anywhere. He's gonna still be the chair of the board, right?
David Leary: I think so, yeah [crosstalk] I think he just doesn't have to be here every day.
Blake Oliver: After Brad said his tearful goodbye, Sasan Goodarzi came on stage, and he had a bunch of announcements about the product.
David Leary: Yeah, and Sasan's gonna be the new CEO.
Blake Oliver: Yes.
David Leary: Gonna replace Brad. Sasan really had all the work to do. He talked about all the new features of QuickBooks. I think there was like three big, high-level things. It [00:05:00] was smart money, smart decisions, and smart connections.
Blake Oliver: Tell me about smart money.
David Leary: Smart money ... I think the word ... The word, in general, at QuickBooks Connect, is instant. We've moved from automated data moving into things, to instant. They talked about instant deposits. If your customers owe you money, you can actually get that deposit in your bank account, instantly. Now, I think there was a fee. I saw the little animation, there's a one-percent fee, maybe. I don't know if you remember that?
Blake Oliver: Yeah. You're [00:05:30] talking about the ... Basically. it's invoice factoring, right?
David Leary: Yes-.
Blake Oliver: With the QuickBooks Payments. With the invoice factoring, he showed how you could take $10,000 of invoices and have that money deposited in your account in 30 minutes. Then, Intuit collects on that.
David Leary: Yeah, and I don't know, obviously, maybe Intuit's floating this, or paying the bank in between to eliminate those ACH delays, but it's instantaneous, because that's small business problem. It's all about getting that cash. The same thing has been extended, now ... They're [00:06:00] going to do next-day, and same-day payroll-.
Blake Oliver: That's really cool.
David Leary: -to pay a subcontractor; if you have to pay your employees ... You can pay them the same day, instantly. Then, I was confused, but they said it saves like $9,000 a month saved, on average. What does that mean? I didn't understand that number.
Blake Oliver: With traditional payroll systems, you have at least like a five-day lead. The money is taken out of your account for payroll, say, on Monday; your employees get paid on Friday. Now, you get to keep those funds, that $9,000 dollars, [00:06:30] on average, that people are paying for payroll, all the way until Friday.
David Leary: Because, by the time I pay the payroll, I gotta spin up the next payroll, so it's almost like an escrow account, where I just have $9,000 constantly sitting in there to run payroll.
Blake Oliver: Yeah-.
David Leary: Got it, got it, got it.
Blake Oliver: It's helping you with your cashflow.
David Leary: It's amazing. Then, to continue on that, I think in the same day, they're gonna give out same-day loans.
Blake Oliver: QuickBooks Capital-.
David Leary: With QuickBooks Capital. You could apply for a loan in the morning, and have the cash in your bank account, later that afternoon, which, like I [00:07:00] said, it's instant. It's amazing we move to one day. It's game-changing.
Blake Oliver: You don't have to fill out any special loan paperwork. Intuit has your data in QuickBooks. They can look into your file, determine how creditworthy you are, and give you a loan. The thing that I really found interesting was the stat that Sasan gave out. He said that 60 percent of the folks who are using QuickBooks Capital, now, wouldn't qualify for traditional bank loans.
David Leary: Yeah [inaudible] on the side, but it's really impressive. Then, that's the problem, and I feel like I'm even ... I'm [00:07:30] kind of in Small Business 101 pain, and even just getting a credit card is hard. It's not easy for small businesses to do these things, and the fact that Intuit's coming in, they're really taking Intuit's financial structure, and money, and really supporting small business.
Blake Oliver: That's smart money - payments, same-day payroll, QuickBooks Capital. Moving on, smart decisions was the next category.
David Leary: Yep, smart decisions.
Blake Oliver: That all revolved around QuickBooks Assistant, which [00:08:00] we got a preview of last year.
David Leary: Yes. Sasan had a QuickBooks Assistant. It's like a chat bot built into QuickBooks. You can ask it questions, like What were my ...? How many shoes did I sell? What were my sales last week? He demoed it last year, and it was a little rougher. He had to restart the phone in the middle of the demo. This year, it was a lot tighter. Over this last year, I think the impressive part of that is QuickBooks users have asked the ... It's called Hey QB, or is it Q ...?
Blake Oliver: I don't recall.
David Leary: I don't remember the name of it. It's a QB [00:08:30] assistant. It's built in, and you can use your voice to ask questions. Apparently, over the last year, 1.5 million were asked last year.
Blake Oliver: Wow. That's a lot.
David Leary: The number-one question, which totally made sense: Who owes me money?
Blake Oliver: Yeah, that's what business owners care about. The second one was how much money am I making? Profit-
David Leary: Future profit.
Blake Oliver: Yep, and, actually, Sasan did a live demo of the QuickBooks Assistant, which is gutsy, when you're talking about voice recognition on stage at a conference, and it worked. I thought it was really neat, [00:09:00] when he asked, "How much money am I going to make by the end of the year?" the assistant actually was able to do a profit projection.
David Leary: And it was after taxes, which was even more amazing.
Blake Oliver: Yeah, how does that happen?
David Leary: I don't know. I even made a note to myself, "After-taxes projections. Wow." I thought it was really cool.
Blake Oliver: Pretty cool.
David Leary: I think the theme, there, from that, was, "Everybody keep asking questions, and we're gonna figure out what we have to build. We didn't know we had to build an answer to ..." He said, basically, they didn't know they had to build an answer to who owes him money, [00:09:30] or who owes me money, until enough people asked that question. The more questions that get asked to the QB Assistant, the more answers there'll be.
Blake Oliver: What I found interesting was, this year, looking back on yesterday, and today, was when you actually look at the features that are being developed right now at Intuit, it seems like a lot of them, this year, are focused on the business owners, not so much the accountants.
Yesterday, we had project profitability; that's a big one for the business owners. There [00:10:00] was the statement auto import, email-to-work type features for the accountants, but, hey, we can live without those. This one, in terms of the payments, and the same-day payroll, and the Capital, it all seems to be really focused on cashflow.
David Leary: Small business pains ... I mean, it's their number-one small business pain is that cashflow.
Blake Oliver: Yeah. Well, that's it for the features this year, but there was also one last bit at the keynote, [00:10:30] which was they announced the App Showdown winner.
David Leary: Yes, the App Showdown. Last night-
Blake Oliver: Wait, for those who don't know, what is the App Showdown?
David Leary: The app showdown is ... Intuit Developer Team puts on the App Showdown. There's lots and lots of apps that integrate with QuickBooks. [inaudible].com. Every year more and more integrate. There's thousands that actually just integrate with QuickBooks Online. This is an opportunity for the newest apps, the top newest apps that have only been published in the last 365 days, to give it an [00:11:00] equal foothold in the market right. What we do is we ... It's almost like a Shark Tank type experience.
David Leary: Over the year, they compete; they get public voting phases; they are rated on a couple different things. Then, the top finalists, the Intuit Developer Team bring them to QuickBooks Connect. They all get a booth, which is a victory on its own. Then, last night, they get to pitch in front of a panel of judges for $100,000. These guys were pretty nerve-wracked last night, going into this.
Blake Oliver: It was fun to watch.
David Leary: It's fun to watch, [00:11:30] because it's like the most important three minutes of their life.
Blake Oliver: Who were the judges? It was like Jeannie Whitehouse. They had Clayton Oates-
David Leary: Jeannie Whitehouse, Clayton Oates, and Hugh [Molotsi] ... I cannot pronounce words, right now, at this point. He's a former Intuit person, who was at Intuit for about 22 years, and he has his own start up now. It's an all-star panel of judges. Then, the next day ... These people pitch. They have to wait all night to announce the winner the next day. The winner was G1ve; it's G1ve with a one. G-1-V-E. You can find them on Apps.com. [00:12:00]
Blake Oliver: They won $100,000 dollars, pretty cool.
David Leary : $100,000. I'm gonna read right from the description, just because I won't be able to do it, if I don't read it. "G1ve makes it easy and rewarding to give to charities; you strengthen your brand and reach new customers. Customers want to know, and support businesses who give. G1ve is the charity portfolio manager, and marketing evangelist."
David Leary: It's a play, where you can set up donations, and, as your own business, you can donate money. This [00:12:30] allows your customers to take advantage of market opportunities that you put out there; marketing promotions. Then, parts of those promotions, as kind of getting a customer match on your donations.
Blake Oliver: Basically, let's say I, Blake, make custom widgets. When I'm selling, I can say, "I donate 1 percent of all of my revenue, all of my sales, to charity. When you buy from me, you are giving to charity." That makes customers feel good; lets you, as a business owner, get a nice deduction, and they keep track of it all.
David Leary: The nice thing is, it's all integrated with QuickBooks Online. Donating, [00:13:00] and getting that tracked properly for taxes is a little bit difficult, and it gives peace of mind. Now, the accountant can help a small-business owner donate, and give back, and it's all set up, and tracked properly. The small-business owner doesn't have any work, and the accountant doesn't have any work, which is amazing [crosstalk] It'd be nice to see if accountants do this. Accountants could use G1ve, and, like, "Hey, if you come give me your bookkeeping work ..." [crosstalk].
Blake Oliver: We donate to charity.
David Leary: We donate to charity, exactly.
Blake Oliver: Well, that's all I've got from Day Two of QuickBooks Connect. It's [00:13:30] time to go see the celebrities, right?
David Leary: Who's your favorite celebrity? Who are you looking forward to seeing?
Blake Oliver: I mean, A-Rod, right?
David Leary: A-Rod?
Blake Oliver: Who else is here?
David Leary: Mindy, from The Office.
Blake Oliver: Mindy Kaling, right?
David Leary: Kaling, yeah. Apparently, she's a big deal. She was a producer on there.
Blake Oliver: Yeah, she was a writer [crosstalk]
David Leary: A writer on there. She was a writer on Saturday Night Live, maybe, as well.
Blake Oliver: She had her own show.
David Leary: She's a big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's a power player of this, but I heard that ... I said JLo was here. I forgot the other two people that are here. I guess we'll [00:14:00] find out though. We're gonna head over to the celebrities. Oh, Blake, and David'll be there.
Blake Oliver: Oh, yeah, exactly.
David Leary: Way to go. That's Day Two, and we’ll probably check back in on Day Three, because I think there's another accountant closing talk tomorrow.
Blake Oliver: Oh, hey, cool.
David Leary: We'll check in there. All right, everybody, see you around.
Blake Oliver: Have a good one.
David Leary: All right, bye.