Over a decade after porting its QuickBooks desktop software to the web, Intuit is finally addressing the needs of its small business owner user base with the launch of a version of the QuickBooks application for iPad. The app has been designed from the ground-up to take advantage of the tablet’s screen size and feature set. But more notably, it’s helping to refocus the QuickBooks platform from being solely thought of as a tool for back office accounting. With the iPad launch, QuickBooks is becoming a CRM solution for small businesses.
The iPad release follows QuickBooks’ previous debuts on iPhone in 2008, and Android in 2011. Those apps were also updated in fall 2012 in advance of the iPad debut, in order to better match the new QuickBooks look-and-feel. Like its mobile siblings, QuickBooks Online for iPad still works as a companion to the QuickBooks Online experience, but it doesn’t really require a user to ever log into the desktop-optimized website to make use of what the app has to offer.
To get started, business owners who newly discover the app through the Apple App Store, can just sign up for QuickBooks Online while being walked through a quick sign-up flow where they enter in their business’s name and upload a logo. The app even uses GPS to pull in their contact information automatically, to save extra typing. That may seem like a minor detail, but sometimes good apps are the sum of lots of little minor details just like that. Meanwhile, current subscribers can sign in using their login information. New users can try the app for free for a month, and upgrades are available via in-app purchase. (Prices are the same for Online or iPad, starting at $12.99/month).
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