“This team is charged with identifying ways to win these prospects by solving important pre-accounting needs, with lightweight mobile and online solutions,” Smith said. He referred to going after 12 million prospects in this category. The mobile and online products in the works were not described in detail.

The broad plan outlined by Smith came as Intuit reported $858 million in net income for the year ended July 31, up 8.3 percent from $792 million for 2012. Revenue rose to $4.2 billion for the most recently ended year, a 10-percent increase from $3.81 billion the prior year.

Results continued to show the movement from desktop applications online products. The number of QuickBooks desktop products sold dropped to 1.25 million, down 6.1 percent from 1.33 million. At the same time, the number of QuickBooks Online subscribers rose to 487,000 at the end of 2013, a 28.1-percent increase from 380,000 at the end of 2012.

Smith also outlined a significant change to QuickBooks Online which has had its critics. “We are launching a new user experience for QuickBooks Online,” he said. “It has been completely redesigned.”

He said company has also extended design efforts to a broad segment of products which will new user experience across all small business product. The change was termed the most significant in his 10-year career at Intuit. Smith also said product development for professional tax preparers will recognize the shift to the cloud.

Details for many of these changes will be made available at the Intuit Investors Day on September 24.

Smith also said the company will limit its international plans to focus on Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and India, although he left open the possibility Intuit could move to other markets. In particular, the company will move into Australia with the end of its relationship with Reckon, which has been the long-term distributor of QuickBooks in that market.

Intuit is already in Canada and the U.K. and sees Australia as a market to be used as a launching pad for entering Asia  and India as a "test bed" for products for emerging countries.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind