While the excitement over increasing engagement with mobile apps and international expansion by Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks has much of the attention at the QuickBooks Connect event in San Jose, CA, the gritty side of accounting is well-represented by a number of attendees.

During the event, Dawn Brolin, CEO of Powerful Accounting LLC, met with John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to talk about the role of technology in her company, tough lessons in the course of reinventing it and the insights she’s found at the convention.

Tech and taxes

From the start of the interview, Brolin was delivering deep insights into the ways her company has striven to incorporate technology on a fundamental level, with examples ranging across every part of their actions. “We had policies and procedures we’ve had to create for virtual people, who are on your team even if they’re not in the office,” Brolin described.

She sees technology everywhere. “We [use] FaceTime with our clients. … We take clients who are willing to accept how we work with them. … We teach them how we work. They may not be totally familiar with all the technologies that we use … and most of them get it. … We won’t take any clients with a flip-phone,” she joked.

Sacrifices and strengths

Brolin also shared some information on her past work experiences and how they had contributed to her current perspectives on how to operate an accounting firm. For one thing, she felt that having worked with the IRS to prepare a case against someone had provided her with invaluable understandings as to how they operate.

“When you are more open with [the IRS], and overload them with information, they’re more likely to remove a penalty,” she noted.

But while she seemed appreciative of her experiences, not all of them were happy recollections. “The pain points for me were … running a business, and then how do you get home to [your family]?” she recalled. “When it’s just yourself, you sacrifice a lot. … You have to accept that.”

And the path forward from the original solo version of the company had its own challenges. “When you add on staff is really where the rubber meets the road,” Brolin noted. “Growing a company is not an easy road. … There’s going to be sacrifice.”

Quick and powerful

When the conversation turned to the subject of QuickBooks, Brolin shared the reasoning she’d given whenever questioned about why it was her sole choice. “We don’t use any other accounting software … [because] I’m using the best accounting software there is.”

And that fondness for QuickBooks extended to the other users who had come to experience the Connect event for themselves. “I’m good friends with a lot of the [representatives] here,” Brolin said. “The speakers are amazing here, and we need that refueling. … People are so nice and friendly; it’s a big family reunion here.”

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