Oh my gosh, did I ever learn a thing or two yesterday... where should I start? Most important things first. Thus far I have found no really good pens at any vendor booth; maybe the vendors decided to focus on junk in lieu of practical pens, perhaps they think nobody ‘writes’ anymore, just chats so their Seri or Alexa to produce the written word. And no I didn’t find any great treats either although one booth did have Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Miniatures, which are better than none.There is a Barista in the exhibit hall but couldn’t make a Cafe Americano so I had to settle for a Tripple Expresso with Hazelnut syrup.
Let's see, I had some great vendor visits with Aider, inFlow, Keeper, Mar Kov, Saasant, Settle, Stratafolio and Where Four. We tried to do podcast recorded interviews but Gary broke the hardware right after we finished Keeper, so we didn’t get any others short.
I also had a very good one-on-one with Intuit Enterprise Suite Demonstration team. It works like a new 'front end' (aka User Interface) to the various QuickBooks Online Data files you had if you were already on a SKU of QBO, and provides all the easy access to multiple file functionality of QBO-Advanced with the extra features of IES. The plug-in products we know and use all the time like payments and time, and payroll all work in a streamlined manner so they seem to be much more integrated into the overall product design. Even Mailchimp works the same way.
The functions we've already had demonstrated in either static or pre-recorded demonstrations are just as simple and streamlined as they appear whether you are switching between company files that are now referred to as Parent or subordinate entities, or you are dimensionalizing your transactions and then reporting on that dimensionality. I must say that the Intercompany (between entities) transactions are far more efficient within IES than they are within QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise; while the intention of the desktop function was much needed, the methodology is complex and cumbersome. The streamlined functionality, whether your working on a specific transaction or journal entry, its just much easier to accomplish the splitting of costs, expenses or revenues. I will have more about IES functionality in a future article. But there were some functions that I didn’t find yet available, so I decided to ask Laurent Sellier about them during my one on one with him.
I thoroughly enjoyed my briefing with Laurent Sellier, SVP, QuickBooks for Mid-Market and Workforce Solutions. He definitely has a firm grasp on where Intuit is headed for the mid-market and also the workforce solutions they intend to expand. So I took the opportunity to ask him about I.E.S. support for multi-entities that are on different fiscal years, or different accounting basis (accrual or cash) and how consolidation will occur. Similarly, my concerns over workflows between multiple entities. All of these are on the road map, but he wasn’t certain exactly how far off from now.
In talking about support for vertical industry types, like construction and professional services, and non-profits, he admits that these are all areas that need significantly more work, but that they are all areas of primary focus for various teams working on this new offering.
Sasan Goodarzi
At the first Main Stage there was a big surprise, Intuit CEO, Sasan Goodarzi, said that “sometimes people in relationships make mistakes”, he then admitted that Intuit recently made a big mistake in their Tax Breakup national advertising campaign. He in effect said that he would take responsibility for the breakup it had created between Intuit and many within the accounting community. Intuit has pulled the campaign and related initiative.
As for today, it's breakfast, then a one-on-one with an Intuit Partner Development manager to discuss new partnership opportunities for the greater accounting community. I will update you on how that after my partner meet-up, I will spend another 90 minutes visiting with additional vendors in the vendor hall and then head up to the Intuit Keynote that will focus on products, practice and partnerships.
Kicking off todays keynote will be Marianna Tessel, the General Manager of the Global Business Solutions Group who will highlight Intuit's vision for a connected platform and its role in driving the success of partners. Marianna will be followed by Dave Talach, SVP of Product for QuickBooks Platform who will share about Intuit's innovations to QuickBooks. I will be having a one-on-one with Mr. Talach later in the day.
Laurent Seller (who I briefly discussed above) and Christine De Martini, Intuit's VP of Marketing Mid-Market, Global Business Solutions Group, will provide additional insights into Intuit Enterprise Suite and provide a tour of this new product for the mid-market. Once the Keynote wraps up it's lunch time.
After lunch, I have a one-on-one with Ted Callahan, the Director of the Accountants Segment of Global Business Solutions Group and also the new head of the ProAdvisor Program, a position he assumed just days ago. Typically this is my opportunity to visit with Ted about the current status of the ProAdvisor Awards and get enough information from him about training and certification direction to be able to tweak the Awards process to fit any significant changes. With the changes that have taken place over the last eight months or so, I'm certain he and I will have plenty to chat about.
I have a short break and then I have another one-on-one, this time with Dave Talach. By having these one-on-ones after many of the topics are discussed in the Keynotes, I have a lot better opportunity to have my questions targeted toward information that either was unclear or unusual.
When I finish my session with Mr. Talach, I will head to the Motivational Keynote that will feature Mark Mathews. Mr. Mathews is a 'big wave surfer' who will speak on "turning fear into excitement." At this point, I wonder what the general pulse of the audience will be relative to the conference thus far... 'fearful' or 'excited.'
Source: Marquee Nightclub Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan Hotel
The only thing I'm fearful is 'another night out on the town' this time for ConnectFest AfterDark being held at the Marquee Nightclub at the Cosmopolitan. They say the theme is "All Treats but no Tricks." And while ConnectFest wraps up at 9:30 PM Vegas-time, there are least three or four 'after parties', or so I've heard.
Nevertheless, you can count on me to be 'on the job' for Wednesday's Day three of Intuit Connect.