Get to know Rich Preece, who leads the Accountant Segment for the Small Business Group at Intuit

As the leader of Intuit's Accountant Segment in the Small Business Group, Preece will focus on championing the initiatives that support accounting professionals worldwide and continuing Intuit's mission to help accountants save time, grow they're If leading the accounting industry is like a game of chess, then Intuit's leadership is definitely making moves. Preece will focus on championing the initiatives that support accounting professionals worldwide and continuing Intuit's mission to help accountants save time Rich Preece was just appointed as the new leader of the Accountant Segment in the Small Business Group by the company that develops financial solutions, which made the announcement lately. Jim McGinnis is moving into the role of vice president of product management in Intuit's ProConnect Group, and Preece, who has worked for Intuit for the past 14 years and most recently held the position of vice president and managing director of Intuit, Europe, will take over for McGinnis. Preece will succeed McGinnis.

As the leader of Intuit's Accountant Segment in the Small Business Group, Preece's primary focus will be to champion the initiatives that provide support for accounting professionals all over the world and to continue Intuit's mission to assist accountants in reducing the amount of time they spend on administrative tasks, expanding their practices, and serving as strategic advisors to their customers.

"Having followed in Jim McGinnis' footsteps as the leader of the Accountant Segment, I have big shoes to fill. However, I'm most excited about continuing Jim's work by expanding the deeply-rooted relationships with accounting professionals in order to solve their pain points in dynamic and innovative ways. "I want our accountants and ProAdvisors to see me as their partner," said Preece. "It's important to me that they do."
Originally hailing from the United Kingdom, Preece began his career at Intuit working on the company's ProSeries professional tax software. In 2013, he moved back to the United Kingdom to take the helm of the QuickBooks UK company. In this role, he was responsible for raising brand recognition and developing locally relevant services for QuickBooks Online in both the United Kingdom and France. QuickBooks Online has had year-over-year growth of more than 200 per cent thanks to his leadership, and the number of employees working for the company in the United Kingdom and France has increased by 100 per cent. This expansion can be attributed, in large measure, to Preece's dedication to forming partnerships with accounting firms in order to assist those businesses in expanding their operations and having a positive impact.

"During the time that I spent in the UK, my team and I put a lot of effort into expanding our client base and developing significant ties with hundreds of accounting companies. We had to prove ourselves worthy of their trust through our actions, and I intend to bring the same profound sense of partnership and genuine commitment to the success of our accounting professionals in the United States so that I can assist them in expanding their businesses, reducing their workloads, and making a positive impact, as Preece stated.

Preece's global experience has provided him with a unique perspective that will assist him in his efforts here in the United States. However, he is aware that there are some subtle differences between the way clients view accountants and the services they provide in the UK and in the United States. This is something that will help Preece in his efforts here in the United States. According to a survey conducted by Intuit not long ago, nearly seventy per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom anticipate that their accountants will act as financial advisors. Furthermore, 62 percent of these businesses require professionals to present new products and services in order to become trusted advisors. On the other hand, just forty per cent of owners of small businesses in the United States interact with an accounting professional in this fashion. The useful guidance that accounting experts can offer to small firms in the United States is either unknown to these companies or they are not taking advantage of it.

"There is obviously a void that needs to be filled in the American market. According to Preece, it is the responsibility of the accountants themselves to educate businesses about the strategic and advisory services that they can provide; nevertheless, it is our job to provide them with the tools that will assist them in successfully providing those services.

Preece is well prepared for the first three months in his new role, having developed a strategy in advance. As the leader of the Accountant Segment, Preece is dedicated to collaborating with accounting professionals to determine both existing solutions that are effective and areas that could use further development. He will place an emphasis on the ins and outs of the daily routines of accounting professionals in order to gain a better understanding of what is required of them to be successful. At this year's QuickBooks Connect in San Jose, accountants will also have the opportunity to connect with him there. Preece will collaborate closely with Intuit's product and technical teams to analyze feedback from QuickBooks Online Accountant users in order to continually improve the software and introduce new capabilities. Training is another important priority for Preece, who intends to roll out newly specialized courses and training resources for accounting professionals and their practices. These courses and resources will concentrate on how to transform a traditional accounting firm into a modern one.

"Even though the roles I've held at Intuit have required me to provide support for accountants and bookkeepers, that doesn't mean I don't have any schoolwork to do. According to Preece, "my plan of action is straightforward: gather info, iterate, and implement." Since Intuit's objective has always been to deliver the greatest products and services to help support accounting professionals, this simple plan of action makes sense. "I am also well aware that 89 per cent of small businesses say they are more successful when working with an accountant. As a result of this, one of my priorities will be to create more connections between small businesses and accounting professionals so that both can achieve long-term profitability and growth."

Cloud adoption will continue to be a critical component in the formation of fruitful connections between CPAs and the small businesses that they serve as clients. The cloud and mobile technology have fundamentally altered the ways in which people connect with one another and work together. Accounting experts are increasingly being seen as business consultants by an increasing number of small firms, and these businesses have grown to anticipate an on-demand service that is available whenever and wherever it is needed. As a result, cloud adoption remains a priority for Intuit as the company recognizes the significant impact it has on how small businesses interact with accountants and the kinds of services they anticipate receiving as a result of this interaction.

"Over the course of the past year, we've seen more customers subscribe to QuickBooks Online than QuickBooks Desktop," said Preece. "As a result, we want to ensure that accounting and bookkeeping professionals are well-positioned to be strategic advisors to their clients and take their firms to the next level." "Whether it's a feature update to QuickBooks Online that automates a manual process or adding more app partners to our arsenal, we'll continue to implement ways to help accountants save time so that they can focus more on their roles as trusted advisors. This could be anything from a feature update to QuickBooks Online that automates a manual process to add more app partners to our arsenal. I am confident in the knowledge, enthusiasm, and drive of our team to continue developing best-in-class services that assist accounting firms on their path to becoming Firms of the Future.

Preece is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for him in the Accountant Segment. And despite the fact that the accounting business has undergone, and will continue to undergo, transformations, he feels that Intuit's objective has remained fundamentally unchanged.

Preece remarked, "I've had the opportunity to work across many different sections of Intuit's business, including the accounting professional, small business, and consumer tax divisions." "I'm delighted to be a part of the long sustained history of achievement at Intuit, which spans over many years. When Scott Cook originally began the company, we were just as imaginative, active, and dedicated to finding solutions to large issues for our customers as we are now.

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