Celebrating Women's History Month: Ariege Misherghi - A QuickBooks Leader

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If you have been around QuickBooks very long at all, then you certainly know, or know of, Ariege Misherghi.  The first opportunity I every spent a significant amount of time with Ariege was during QuickBooks Connect in 2017. I was fortunate enough to not only attend several small group briefings in which she presented concepts and functionalities under development, but I also had a couple of one-on-one conversations with her that resulted in specific articles.

Ariege has consistently moved up the Intuit ladder in her roles and responsibilities, and has taken on new tasks on almost an annual basis. It seems that no position has really been too much of a challenge. Today, Ariege is a Vice President and Expert Segment Leader for the Small Business Self-Employed Group at Intuit QuickBooks. In this role, she leads a team focused on helping Intuit’s accountant partners grow their practice and scale their impact for clients through innovative products, services and programs. Her areas of focus include QuickBooks Online Accountant, QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping and the Global QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program.

This is yet another change in roles for Ariege, so recently I had the chance to pose a few questions to her, the first being, "It’s been just a couple of months since your recent change in position to VP of QuickBooks Experts Business.  What goals have you set for yourself and the team as you strive to enhance this sector of the QuickBooks ecosystem?"  Ariege responded:

In my new role as vice president of the QuickBooks Expert Business, my focus is on prioritizing accountants across the entire QuickBooks ecosystem. As our valued partners, we’re focused on powering the prosperity of accountants, helping them to grow their business and scale their impact, enabling them to act as trusted strategic advisers to the small businesses they serve.

One area of particular focus for me is QuickBooks Live, and ensuring that through this offering we’re delivering value for the small businesses who are using it, as well as the bookkeepers on the platform. One of the benefits we are seeing as a result of QuickBooks Live is the increased awareness among small business owners that accounting professionals can truly help them succeed. Through our investment in the ProAdvisor program and our advocacy for small businesses to work with accountants through QuickBooks Live, we’ve increased the number of small businesses working with accountants from 1 out of 5 in the country, to 3 out of 5 in our ecosystem. As we grow QuickBooks Live and bring more accounting professionals onto the platform to help small businesses, we also are creating a deeper understanding of the capabilities we can provide all accounting professionals working with QuickBooks. We are identifying opportunities for training, the standardization of services and processes from which all accountants and bookkeepers can benefit. 

Thinking back on the past year, when all of us were challenged, I ask Ariege, "What were your own challenges of managing a major sector of a huge technology business over the past year during the COVID-19 cycle, in contrast to pre-COVID? When do you see things getting back to ‘near normal’ (pre-Covid) at Intuit, from a day-to-day work standpoint?" to which she responded:

Rather than predicting, I am focused on adapting, adjusting and looking forward from a personal and professional standpoint. Just as California was going into lockdown one year ago, I gave birth to my daughter. Having a baby days after California went into lockdown was intense. My plans evaporated and I had to adapt. One way that I’ve adapted is that I no longer let myself spend time thinking about how things will be different when this is all over… as if there will be a moment in time that delineates the pandemic from post-pandemic. I’ve had to get myself out of that mode because in that mode, it felt like all I was always waiting and talking about a future that was always out of reach. Instead, I realized I need to focus on today.  We need to adapt and adopt new ways of thinking and operating today so we can tackle today’s problems to ensure our long-term success.

 That applies to how we are approaching work at Intuit - and how our accounting partners are as well. Just as accounting professionals have adapted this past year, supporting and advising clients in new ways and implementing new technologies, we also have adapted at Intuit. Just like you, we are supporting a virtual workforce and using more online tools to collaborate and implement processes. We have become experts at conducting online meetings and are focused on creating a sense of community, instilling our values and culture among distributed teams. 

Of course, I had to look out for all of you, my (readers) fellow ProAdvisors, so I took the opportunity to ask Ariege a very pointed question about products and certifications... "Ariege, with the expanding product line being incorporated into the QuickBooks Ecosystem, with products like QuickBooks Commerce, and those from OneSaas, are there any plans to expand the role of QuickBooks ProAdvisors to incorporate certification and support for these offerings?" Ariege's answer didn't surprise me in the least:

We are always looking for opportunities to create new and impactful content for ProAdvisors. We create new courses and training based on feedback from ProAdvisors as well as on industry trends, new technologies and products and services we provide. As we create new content, we will make it available through the ProAdvisor platform as it becomes available. 

Ever since that first conversation we had together in 2017, I've felt that Ariege was looking out for not only QuickBooks as a whole, but the ProAdvisor community as well. We can certainly see that in both her answer to this last question as well as in her 'history' as a QuickBooks Leader. Let me say what a privilege it is to feature Ariege Misherghi during Insightful Accountant's celebration of Women's History Month.

Intuit QuickBooks and the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program are Proud Sponsors of Insightful Accountant's 2021 ProAdvisor of the Year/Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards Program.