MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) today unveiled its latest innovation designed to help millions better understand and navigate their finances. QuickBooks Assistant offers a conversational chat experience that solves a common problem for the self-employed and small business owners – quickly and easily staying on top of their finances.

“We know people who work for themselves have a lot on their mind with limited time to manage the day-to-day, let alone unearth information and insights about their business,” explained Alex Chriss, chief product officer, QuickBooks at Intuit. “By adding a virtual assistant side-by-side with business finances, people simply tap to ask questions and find answers – rather than running reports and analyzing data. QuickBooks Assistant represents a turning point in how work gets done today, with an eye toward improving success rates in the future.”

QuickBooks Assistant is an example of Intuit’s continued focus on innovations that help customers make smarter decisions. The new chatbot combines data-driven insights and natural language processing to ease business operations by merely asking questions or stating requests, using a smartphone. The service understands intent and identifies context to uncover numerous financial data points – from tax obligations to expense tracking, cash flow, profitability and more. Benefits include:

• Ease of Use: QuickBooks Assistant understands a wide variety of financial questions. Customers simply ask how much money they made, what they’ll owe in taxes, or which customers are most profitable – and QuickBooks Assistant will share the answer, no need to toggle between screens or set up queries.
• Time Savings: Using chat helps customers instantly access their financial snapshot with a simple question or command, making it easier than ever to review data or information.
• Business Confidence: Customers now access the insights necessary to make financial decisions when it matters most, and feel confident that they are making intelligent, informed decisions about their finances whenever, wherever.
• Mobile Office: Whether newly self-employed or a veteran of the gig economy, people who work for themselves are regularly on the go, focused on their businesses, with limited office time to review key business metrics and finances.
• How to Guide: For people who are unfamiliar with specific features or capabilities of QuickBooks, QuickBooks Assistant now acts as a “how to” guide – answering questions about how to add an account, create an invoice and more – making the product even easier to use than ever before.

QuickBooks Assistant is available today in QuickBooks Self-Employed for iOS and Android, and will be released for QuickBooks Online in 2018 with a beta now available in QuickBooks Labs. Both products are targeted at helping the self-employed and small businesses better manage their finances, with easy to use features and services that make everything from expense and mileage tracking to invoicing and getting paid easier and more seamless.

About Intuit

Intuit Inc. is committed to powering prosperity around the world for consumers, small businesses and the self-employed through its ecosystem of innovative financial management solutions.

Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks® and TurboTax®, which make it easier to manage small businesses and tax preparation and filing. QuickBooks Self-Employed provides freelancers and independent contractors with an easy and affordable way to manage their finances and save money at tax time, while Mint delivers financial tools and insights to help people make smart choices about their money.

Intuit's ProConnect brand portfolio includes ProConnect Tax Online, ProSeries® and Lacerte®, the company's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.

Founded in 1983, Intuit serves 46 million customers in North America, Europe, Australia, Brazil and India, with revenue of $5.2 billion in its fiscal year 2017. The company has approximately 8,200 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Israel, Australia and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

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