Between the rush toward more data-driven and user-connected businesses and the growth of the “gig” jobs, such as Uber drivers, small businesses are finding high expectations from their customers right from the start. To survive, finding ways of balancing these expectations with economic realities is essential. And new tech advances in the cloud, mobile and automated software are enabling businesses to not only survive, but thrive.

As the QuickBooks Connect 2016 event drew to a close, John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, analyzed the different sides of the conference and what the ideas on display there indicate for Intuit Inc.’s future.

Action accountants

Both hosts were impressed with the degree of user engagement shown at the convention, as well as the level of clarity employed in making QuickBooks’ utilities attractive to new and potential customers. “You really do get a good sense of QuickBooks and how it’s supporting and nurturing this community,” Walls said.

And the high sense of activity wasn’t simply on the part of the promoters, as virtually all of the consumers Walls and Frick encountered during the event had been similarly enthused. “Everyone has really embraced that mission. … It is really about empowering small businesses,” Frick stated.

A large part of that attraction is no doubt due to the efforts Intuit has put into improving accessibility and versatility in its accounting solutions and their platforms. For his part, Frick was taken with how Intuit was “using those [cloud and mobile] tools … that they’re now deployed on cloud, delivered to mobile, and put into the hands of small business entrepreneurs.”

Fun with finances

“It’s a real refreshing place to be,” Frick added. “It’s fun to see that using these tools, you can put that power in the hands of small business.”

Walls agreed, looking beyond the upbeat atmosphere at the convention to the effect those tools have in the day-to-day operations of the businesses using them. “If you’re a small business, a lot of things you worry about … well, [QuickBooks] makes it simple for you,” he said.

And while Frick highlighted the way that the QuickBooks tools serve to address personal financing, complexity and time constraints, they’re also enabling those small businesses to “use technology to do the low-value tasks … to free people up to provide better service,” he noted.

The attitude that “your accountant should be your partner, not just your tax-filer,” as Frick recalled from some of his interactions at the event, it may be that QuickBooks is also serving to bring standard business runners into a higher degree of interest and engagement with their financing solutions.

As the tools for handling that side of business become more transparent and intuitive, the rest of the tech world may soon see accountants driving customer interests.

Watch the complete video interview, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of QuickBooks Connect.

*Disclosure: Intuit and other companies sponsor some QuickBooks Connect segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Intuit nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE