Asset Accountant is one of five app companies participating in the Intuit Developer Growth Program, and it gives the pilot program a thumbs up so far. Read on to hear about their experience.
In October 2022, the Developers & Partners group at Intuit launched an exciting pilot of the Developer Growth Program for application developers. Our main objectives for this new program are to connect developers with experts to improve their app quality, boost their marketing efforts, expand their customer base, and increase app profitability. We believe this aligns perfectly with our commitment to providing the best tools and resources that enable developers to create innovative, high-quality solutions for the 4.5 million small businesses that run on the QuickBooks platform.
The nine-month pilot has yet to hit the halfway mark and we’re already receiving enthusiastic feedback from the five app companies that make up our program cohort. We’re eager to share some of that feedback today, starting with Asset Accountant.
Asset Accountant: Taking the pain out of fixed assets and leases
Asset Accountant has been saving corporations, businesses, and accounting firms from the frustration of error-prone spreadsheets since 2019. The company’s fixed asset depreciation and lease accounting application offers deep integration with QuickBooks Online, and provides automated generation of new assets, the running of depreciation and lease calculations for accounts and tax, and the ability to post detailed journals straight to the QuickBooks Online general ledger.
The app serves thousands of global users, including Suzanne Walker, director, Clear Path Accounting.
“We love using Asset Accountant,” says Walker in a case study. “The time savings for every client’s depreciation entries means that not only is profit increased on every job, but our additional team capacity can be directed to more valuable work. There is literally no risk in the investment of Asset Accountant software.”
With an app already favored by many customers, Asset Accountant decided to participate in the pilot program as a way to expand its marketing efforts. According to CEO Colin McEown, the company’s biggest challenge is raising awareness.
“We have a web and social media presence to help potential customers discover us, but the bulk of our queries come through app marketplaces like the QuickBooks App Store,” he says. “We also have a robust partner program where we work with accounting practices and software resellers to help them implement Asset Accountant for their clients. Growing and optimizing these referral channels is our primary focus.”
Asset Accountant: impressed with Developer Growth Program
Though only a few months into the nine-month pilot, McEown is impressed with the organization of—and the resources available in—the program. And the Asset Accountant team appreciates the positivity exhibited by the Developer Growth Program team.
“Having direct access to multiple senior Intuit Solution Architects and User Experience professionals has been a real luxury for us, and we’ve benefitted from the variety of perspectives that each team member has brought to the discussion," says McEown. "Everyone on the Developer Growth Program team is approachable, responsive, and encouraging. We feel really taken care of, and this has given us even more motivation to get the most out of the program.”
One of the stand-out experiences so far has been Asset Accountant’s interaction with Helina Patience, CPA, CMA, of Entreflow Consulting Group. Patience has 15 years of global experience in finance and HR across many industries, including technology and manufacturing. She is a QuickBooks Platinum Level ProAdvisor as well as a mentor for CPABC, Futurpreneur, and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. According to McEown, Patience understands the pain of fixed asset calculations and considers herself an automation enthusiast.
“Helina helped us to refine our language and create some important workflow efficiencies. She came up with some great suggestions for how we could extend AssetAccountant’s functionality to appeal to an even broader range of potential clients.”
McEown compares the Developer Growth Program to a boot camp, noting that it has “a really clear set of goals, a regular program of activities, fantastic trainers, and a great team spirit.” He says the program has helped his company get the most out of its partnership with Intuit and has provided meaningful insights.
“Having insight into customer psychology and behavior is incredibly valuable and helps us to make informed choices about how we present Asset Accountant to the market. The analytics we’ve been given access to are also really helpful. We will be implementing changes based on the feedback we’ve received for months to come and it’s great to be able to track the performance of the app as we implement these changes.”
In fact, the first thing they did with the feedback they received during the program was to completely rewrite their app card. “The User Experience team had given us some really clear, actionable feedback on how we could stand out in the marketplace and how to understand the mindset of QuickBooks Online users when they were in the marketplace. The changes only took a few hours for us to implement, but we saw an almost instantaneous doubling of the number of trial accounts created via our listing on the QuickBooks App Store.”
Asset Accountant: Developer Growth Program success
The Asset Accountant team has logged a long list of valuable benefits during their short time in the Developer Growth Program, including what they consider to be fantastic suggestions on how to improve their customer onboarding experience. “We are hard at work implementing these," says McEown. "Now that the top of the funnel is full, we want to make sure that we convert as many trials into paid subscriptions as possible.”
We’re eagerly looking forward to seeing how Asset Accountant is able to grow their already successful fixed asset depreciation and lease accounting application after completing the program in full. Until then, stay tuned for another Developer Growth Program spotlight coming soon.
To inquire about program details and how to participate, visit our developer forums. We’re always looking for innovative apps that can help the QuickBooks community. Our step-by-step guide makes it easy to list your app on the QuickBooks App Store.
