Intuit has decided to avoid regular price increases for its professional tax products. As the software company increasingly links the professional tax and accounting software side of its operations, it has opted to build price increases into the accounting products instead, CEO Brad Smith said this week during the earnings webcast for Intuit's year ended July 31.
"We are strengthening the connection between our accountant community and our small business ecosystem," Smith said. Smith said moves also reflect Intuit's increasing focus on "multi-service" firms that offer both tax and accounting services.
Smith noted the company's decision to give QuickBooks Online Accountant to practitioners for free and executives acknowledged what they called a modest, recent price increase for QuickBooks Online. Overall, Smith said Intuit is "backing off revenue growth short-time" as it builds this part of the business. CFO Neil Williams said Intuit expects professional tax revenue to be flat for fiscal 2017.
Intuit also increased the collaboration built into QuickBooks and its ProConnect tax software products. These are Lacerte, ProSeries and ProConnect Tax Online (formerly Intuit Tax Online).
Meanwhile, Intuit announced that Matt Rhodes, VP of investor relations for six years, is moving to Plano, Texas, where he will be VP of finance for the ProConnect operations. He replaced Bill Chase who recently left the company.
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
