The New Intuit Platform

Accountants are creatures of habit – part of this is a survival instinct, and part of it is how strongly we rely on our toolkits. When there’s a change to that toolkit (new software, new buttons, new user interface), the first thing I think we find ourselves asking is: why me? Any material change must bring about material benefits to be justified. A totally fair position. So, to that end – let’s talk about the new Intuit platform. 

The former menu buttons have now been cleanly grouped into Apps – all the same features exist (plus more!) and are available in a slim, slide-out menu. Not only does this allow for more screen space (something always at a premium) but it allows for faster access to the features and bookmarks you use the most. 

But let’s say you’re less interested in aesthetics and more into practicality. Yeah, that’s cute, but where are those material benefits you were touting all over the place? I see you. The business feed is a new AI powered module to let QuickBooks actively work to make your (and your clients) life easier. This is the exciting, world-of-the-future, we’ve-been-talking-about-this-since-the-1800s kind of feature we’ve been waiting for.

AI agents are ubiquitous – and increasingly so, every day. All the work we do (and frankly, most of the interactions we have) will be materially different as those agents improve and further ingratiate themselves into our lives. In lieu of worry, I think now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way we work for the better. 

Let the Intuit Accountant Agent not only handle the work you throw at it, but also provide suggestions of work it can complete for you. Generating bills, invoices, reminding customers to pay, following up on or requesting feedback. All these tasks are crucial – and time-consuming for a human. 

Your clients are busy. It’s great to know that the AI agents in QuickBooks Online will help them work faster and smarter. But, I know – what have you done for me lately? The accountant community is far from excluded from the new toys. Let’s talk about reporting. 

A new module exists in the updated Intuit platform – cash flow planning. Budgets are still there, of course – consider this an updated version of forecasting. Whether they’re keeping cash or accrual books, at the end of the day any accountant or business owner can tell you Cash is King (or Queen, or Monarch if you prefer it to be gender neutral. I leave that up to you.). 

Much of the prior complexity of the forecasting module is now automated with the Accounting Agent – use historical data and AI-driven insights to predict cash growth over time. When a client asks if they can afford to hire a new employee, or buy a new building, or buy their accountant a lavish birthday gift (I mean, it could happen) – they’re asking you to look into the future, weigh all the possibilities, and come back to them with a number. No easy task, to be sure – but having AI amass all that data and provide insights immediately puts you two steps ahead of where you were before. Now you get to directly apply your knowledge of that business, of that market, to the client’s questions and give them the best answer you can. 

Speaking of insights – and being insightful – one of the most important advisory skills any accountant possesses is pattern recognition. Also, one of the skills that takes the longest to develop and is the most time consuming to use is – you guessed it – pattern recognition. 

The Accounting Agent will scan and evaluate financial data faster than any of us can and quickly provide those anomalies and outliers. Sometimes you’ll know the answer immediately – sure, sales were lower but they were closed for two weeks. But often, the very kind of insight you had to search for before will surface – missing rent payments, large utility bill increases, variances that are worthy of your attention.  

And – this is my favorite part – the Accounting Agent doesn’t just point a finger at these insights. It provides the amount of the variance, a graph to show why this data point is so far outside the norm, and (most crucially) the root cause in plain language so you know how and why the Agent came to this conclusion. No professional wants to implicitly trust any AI’s deductions without knowing how they landed there. We are, by nature, a ‘show me the receipts’ kind of people. 

These kinds of insights not only cut down on the amount of time you spend analyzing and mining through data, but it also empowers your less experienced team members to think critically. Complex insights can be exported in detailed reports, letting them understand the issue and, from there, provide solutions. 

It’s a tumultuously exciting time for artificial intelligence in the accounting world (and the rest of the world too, if you’re into that sort of thing). Automation frees up time for clients to work on the parts of their business that matters, and agentic insights let your team focus on helping clients make those crucial decisions. 

The new Intuit platform is a big change – it is a major leap forward into blending existing tools and expertise with powerful agentic AI-powered enhancements. Transformation can feel like a disruption (especially in an industry like accounting), but these new features are designed to maximize impact. The interface is more contemporary and modern, and the behind-the-scenes computation is light years ahead of where it was just a few short months ago. And all of this makes for a transformative time for QuickBooks businesses and accountants – automation will handle the repetitive letting accountants elevate the strategic.