Amazing QuickBooks Endorsements
Amazing QuickBooks Endorsements
1. Brian Livingston, Cnet, Amazing QuickBooks Endorsements
I was on the first QuickBooks Advisory Council when we got a payroll fee increase. Fighting it led to amazing QuickBooks endorsements. Brian Livingston wrote about it in CNET. Intuit products “phone home” more often than you may like. Note the byline below.
This major victory for consumers of Intuit’s financial products was almost certainly caused by a gigantic hue and cry in the Internet discussion group known as “biz.comp.accounting.” Block, the owner of a Florida tax consultancy, BlockTax (no relation to H&R Block), is the moderator of the discussion group and led the battle against the new fees.
Brian Livingston CNET
2. Steve Bennett, Endorsement
My successful fight against the payroll fee increase probably cost Intuit $20 to $40 million. I thought Steve Bennett, Intuit CEO, would drop me from the Advisory Council. He shocked me with the next of my amazing QuickBooks endorsements.
Your feedback and insight are more important than what I think… Keep raising hell when Intuit does something wrong.
Steve Bennett, former Intuit CEO
3. Brad Smith, Amazing Endorsements #1
A new Intuit hire wrote one of my amazing QuickBooks endorsements. Steve Bennett, Intuit CEO, had him to contact me before starting work, which was one amazing QuickBooks Endorsement. Here is part of Brad’s email.
My name is Brad Smith. I recently joined Intuit, working with Rich Walker and other key impact players to strengthen our advocacy and commitment to the accounting profession and its many professionals. I am reaching out to you by way of this email so we can schedule a 30-minute call to make introductions and briefly discuss ideas and key areas of focus. This is your busiest time of year, but I have been told by many Intuit executives such as Rich, Tom Allanson and others that you have been quite open to taking time to assist Intuit, are a tremendous voice of reason and are one of our most impactful and innovative Professional Advisors.
Brad Smith, Intuit CEO
4. Scott Cook, Intuit Founder, Endorsement
New Intuit hire Brad Smith then asked what was the #1 thing that I wanted from Intuit. It was a website for new QuickBooks features. It would let Intuit recognize posters of new features when it used them. Brad soon called back about the next of my amazing endorsements. This time there were three Intuit people on the call. Brad said that Scott Cook, Intuit founder, had already called a top Intuit management meeting about my website idea. Brad told me Scott gave me the next of my amazing QuickBooks endorsements at this meeting:
I want a system that lets us recognize new feature posters, even if it takes years to implement their ideas.
Scott Cook, Intuit founder
5. Scoot Wilder, QuickBooks Group Manager, Ask the Expert Creator, Amazing Endorsement
Scott Wilder added to my amazing QuickBooks endorsements (his punctuation).
Thank you Mike!!!!! Great job, can we clone you??? THANKS so much for being a stellar expert. You were awesome. You are the only expert that answered ALL questions. We took your advice and will add your error page. We will use your other web content later.
Scott Wilder, former QuickBooks Community Group Manager
6. Rich Walker, Amazing Endorsement
Rich Walker, former Intuit Director, Accountant & Advisor Relations, put me on two Customer Advisory Councils. My now outdated QuickBooks add-ons site got 14,000+ add-ons (apps), while Intuit had less than 300. Rich then added to my amazing QuickBooks endorsements with this:
That’s terrific! What a milestone!
Rich Walker, former Intuit Director
7. Brad Smith, Amazing Endorsements #2
Brad Smith added my most used of my amazing QuickBooks endorsements. I once told him he would be the next Intuit CEO (he fulfilled my rare prophecy in around two years). He later wrote.
You’re fantastic Mike! Absolutely fantastic!
Brad Smith, Intuit Executive Chair
8. Sasan Goodarzi, Amazing Endorsement
I met Sasan Goodzari, the great new Intuit CEO, when he ran Intuit’s tax division. He put me on a ProSeries Customer Advisory Council. He then impressed me by actively participating in all Council sessions, with many top Intuit tax leaders. Sasan also indirectly added to my amazing QuickBooks endorsements by helping me get the September 2007 cover of Accounting Technology magazine (Secrets of Outsourcing). Here is part of the story, the cover and a picture of Sasan.
When one of Mike Block’s largest 1040 clients walked through his door on April 8, expecting his personal and corporate returns completed in tax season, the CPA didn’t exactly sleep. He stayed at the office until 2 a.m. scanning documents, some in the wrong direction. Then he messaged his crew in India to piece them together and send a PDF of the return. By 10:30 that morning, the job was complete. “That’s when I realized there was no substituting that it could be done overnight, when I was already dead and could barely scan, [let alone] calculate anything,” Block says. “A chartered accountant prepared my most complex tax return 70 percent faster than expected, with 80 percent fewer errors, while I slept. Having [up] to 10 assistants help my clients and I, day or night, on short notice, is priceless.”
Secrets of OutSourcing, Accounting Technology magazine, Michael Block CPA
Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit CEO
9. Brad Smith, Amazing Endorsement #3
This amazing QuickBooks endorsement relates to how the great Brad Smith treated me, from his arrival at Intuit (3 and 7 above). Brad got a user new request feedback site created for me. He quickly answered many emails, apologizing for travel delays. It let Intuit people or me help many more users, especially unhappy users (some Google found). One wanted one copy of Quicken on his home and office computer, when only QuickBooks and TurboTax allowed it. Brad solved that with free copies.
10. Scott Cook, Amazing QuickBooks Endorsement #2
It first seemed Intuit might be actively hostile to add-ons, to avoid competition with its future extensions. Despite this, one developer created an add-on for state tax reports, before Intuit had them. I pushed Brad and QuickBooks to support add-ons (apps), partly by once taking over a pre-release QuickBooks test forum to ask what users would pay for a QuickBooks developer version. The answer was $500 to $2,000. My add-on posts and popular (now outdated) QuickBooks-add-ons site made me well known to many developers. A FREE Intuit add-on (app) interface soon got 25,000 downloads in one day. That was when Scott Cook announced that such add-ons would be the #1 Intuit priority, to a packed developer conference. I count this as his #2 Amazing QuickBooks Endorsement.
10. Brad Smith, Amazing Endorsement #4
A week before one Christmas, a payroll tax report app developer wrote that a QuickBooks update killed his program, due to embedded blanks. This would kill his business, as such tax programs must work by January 1. The deadline was impossible (it often took two years for Intuit to use great ideas). Software companies also tend to stop most activity during extended holiday seasons. Despite this, I wrote Brad.
There will be a Black Christmas this year in (developer city). It will be a Black Christmas when a QuickBooks change kills a small developer. Intuit may have every reason to kill him and his state payroll report app. However, he helped QuickBooks before it had related state reports. It can now get some more payroll sales dollars, but I do not think Intuit meant to kill him. It is urgent that you help before January 1, as delays will kill the company. Please contact…
The develope had a revised QuickBooks in THREE DAYS! Intuit released a public version in TWO MORE DAYS. Two of these days were actually Saturday and Sunday, the week before Christmas.
The developer said nice things about me. However, This is my favorite amazing QuickBooks endorsements from the amazing Brad Smith. It says the most about our relationship.
Do you need QuickBooks help?
We give you the fastest, easiest and friendliest QuickBooks help, very inexpensively. Despite my repeat QuickBooks Ask the Expert success, no one now knows everything about QuickBooks. But, as my amazing QB endorsements show, I quickly get you the right Intuit person, without charge if we cannot help. I have done so for more than 20 years. I also will beta test QuickBooks and some of its 700+ apps, as I am the only two-time #1 Top Tester for QuickBooks.
Simply first become a free QuickBooks-blog subscriber or a Michael Block CPA connection on LinkedIn. You can then use LinkedIn or email mblock@blocktax.com.
