For the latest on our QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted strategy, see this article.
As COO of Ignite Spot Outsourced Accounting, I have dedicated more than a decade of integrating technology and solid accounting practices to elevate client services. My path has shown me how crucial technology is in clarifying complex processes and making them more accessible.
QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted aims to help “do-it-yourself” small business owners discover the benefits of working with a QuickBooks Live expert. Through this, QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted can create opportunities to help build stronger partnerships with ProAdvisors.
As a ProAdvisor, I was initially skeptical about QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted—how would it overlap with my offerings? Yet, in exploring partnership opportunities, it became clearer that there are moments to support businesses at every stage. In addition, my recent participation in the Executive Advisory Summit with QuickBooks' executives enriched my outlook, allowing me to discuss optimizing accounting technology and how it can enrich the small business experience with Intuit's platform.
QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted's entry-level assistance and an advisory firm, like mine, could provide trusted guidance across an entrepreneur’s full journey—see some of my ideas for future collaborations below!
Optimizing specialization while still guiding each step
Referring simpler accounts to QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted can help firms standardize complex advisory solutions. Segmenting clients makes sense. Through leveraging QuickBooks Live for transactions, advisory leaders still aim to anchor a business' entire trajectory as trusted advisors. I’d like to see defined triggers for strategic guidance, and integrated data flows between QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted and firms, to allow re-engagement at milestones. Rather than disruptions, intentionally designed off-ramps preserve an advisory firm’s leadership by maximizing potential.
Defining fluid transitional moments
Conversely, QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted’s baseline support can onboard early do-it-yourself clients before advanced needs emerge. While providing that access point, QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted partnerships can also facilitate smart account progressions at turning points of increasing complexity. This allows mutual harnessing of each other’s offerings amid growth. Consider these three defined pathway examples:
- As QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted bookkeepers and assistants detect new complexities such as inventory scaling or financing needs, they can warmly introduce growth-aligned advisory firms.
- Advisory leaders can refer stable companies to QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted during simpler periods, while embedding quarterly guidance check-ins to monitor changing trajectories.
- Shared transition criteria and coordinated QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted/Advisor touchpoints maintain continuity through progress debriefs and minimize historical context gaps.
These opportunities can provide relationships where QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted and ProAdvisors support shared customers. Creating transparent scoping at each hand-off enables fluid transitions, while sustaining trusted relationships.
Constructing building blocks for seamless movement
Streamlining transitions between QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted and specialized firms could entail:
Codified triggers and criteria: Predefined triggers and qualification benchmarks can determine when a business can level up from QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted. Quantifiable measures around growth, financials, strategic needs, or emerging complexity provide confidence.
Automated workflows and notifications: Configuring triggers into platform workflows and dashboards enables critical data alerts to notify relevant parties of an appropriate transition milestone, keeping progress on track.
Data integration protocols: Standardized data accessibility between QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted and advisory systems allows fluid onboarding with a contextual understanding of historical activities. API integrations can also enable unified reporting, regardless of past touchpoints.
Consultation touchpoints: Coordinated discussions during transitional periods sustain engagement rhythm, while preventing service gaps. Joint calls enable warm handoffs based on insights from the client’s QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted journey so far.
Unified CRM records: Consolidated client relationship management (CRM) records provide end-to-end visibility into the client’s experience before, during, and after post-transition. As a result, firms can personalize guidance based on how needs matured over time.
Service scope alignment: Clearly delineating QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted’s bookkeeping duties versus a ProAdvisor’s specialized advisory post-transition reduces overlap, while right-sizing resources to complexity.
Exploring grounded partnership alternatives
Welcoming open-minded collaboration, what alternatives could create a win-win grounded in real-world needs?
Embedded associates: Advisory firms provide high-level guidance, while delegating everyday transactions to embedded QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted associates as back-office teams. This leads to respective strengths.
Quarterly advisory check-ins: ProAdvisors conduct recurring quarterly reviews for assisted service referrals to assess strategic readiness, provide recommendations, and identify customization opportunities. This maintains future transition openings.
Parallel services with shared milestones: QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted bookkeepers and ProAdvisors collaborate directly across mutual clients, while avoiding redundant workstreams. Shared quarterly touchpoints enable aligned progress reviews, priority realignments, and determinations around taking customized services up a level.
These options merit exploration when backed by tangible mutual value for expert partners and progressing clients. The integrations would need unified visibility through shared platforms/data with clearly defined lanes of responsibility. But closer alignments could strengthen collective capacity to optimize client growth.
Committed to constructing an integrated ecosystem
QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted sets a solid foundation for meeting entrepreneurs wherever they are, while integrating ProAdvisor guidance to fuel momentum over time. I envision complementary roles as agile integration partners catalyzing brilliant outcomes.
My firm welcomes continued constructive dialogue on pragmatic steps for fluid transitions and unified platforms. Let’s lead with client benefit and earned expertise to reveal pathways that realize the total, integrated potential QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted offers.
The possibilities excite me. Now, it’s time to build bridges!
