History of QuickBooks

by Denise Loter

QuickBooks, one of three flagship products offered by California-based Intuit, was originally patterned after personal accounting package Quicken. Intuit executives wanted to provide a package that would offer small business owners the flexibility of an easy-to-use software package and the structure and compliance required to run a profitable business.

At its launch in 1998, QuickBooks was very popular with business owners with no formal accounting background. Unfortunately, although the package was easy to use and offered significant benefit to its customers, many accounting professionals felt that it lack the security, audit trail and robustness really needed. These concerns were exacerbated because many business owners used QuickBooks, which quickly established an 80% market share, for day-to-day bookkeeping – but relied on professional accountants for month-end and year-end services.

Intuit sought to bridge this gap, and by 2000 the software included several of the missing features including audit trails, double entries and other accounting-industry compliant items. Next, Intuit began developing niche products: including those with basic or advanced features, as well as packages tailored to the needs of specific industries like contracting, retail, manufacturing and even not-for-profit. QuickBooks also leveraged the relationship between small business owners and accountants/bookkeepers by developing the Pro Series, which is specifically designed for accounting professionals who support multiple small business clients.

More recently, enhancements to the QuickBooks line have included payroll processing, remote access options, electronic payment functions, online banking, import and export options from Microsoft Excel. QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, a product aimed at larger organizations that run accounting via  networks was developed and now runs in both Windows and Linux server environments.

Today QuickBooks continues to hold a dominant share of the market. Far from an adversarial relationship with accounting professionals, Intuit now has a network over 50,000 CPAs, bookkeepers, and consultants who serve as QuickBooks ProAdvisors. These professionals offer an array of services including QuickBooks training, technical support, consulting services, full-charge bookkeeping all targeted at the QuickBooks platform.