Competitive pricing for smaller firms

[BrianU]

ProConnect pricing per return is very high for smaller firms with lower volume. Please, Intuit, think about what you are doing in this regard to your new customers which are smaller firms.

1) Competing for clientele who need tax preparation services, a low volume firm is in the $75-$94 per return pricing. Big firms have the volumes to get the $55 and lower pricing per return. This places the smaller firm at a $20-$50 per return disadvantage.

2) When clients consider firm preparation vs doing it themselves, the do-it-yourself option is $40-60 for software. This places a comparison on fairly equal footing for larger firms who get the Intuit volume discounted price. The upcharge for the firm is the expertise / time the client does not have to do it. Conversely, smaller firms are already at a premium because we cannot get the basic software to do what TaxAct and others do and it does not do well for smaller firms to attract clients.

If pricing on a per return is to stay, at least bring down the cost for smaller firms to the sub $60 per return so we can then be at least competitive. As firms grow, this brings more volume through Intuit software (win-win). Those who are new and small may find Intuit is too expensive and then goes elsewhere. I would prefer to stay, so make it reasonable to stay.

[IntuitGabi]

Thanks for the idea. We are changing the status to "Open for voting" since it has been around for over 30 days and no longer considered "New". If you have any questions on the life cycle of an idea, check out our Idea Getting Started Guide for more information.

[hunterchamberlain]

I agree that the pricing should be more competitive. I really think intuit Proconnect Tax Online could have a greater share of the tax prep market, but may need to provide more reasonable pricing to compete. They could also be more transparent with pricing with medium size firms. Proconnect Tax Online is not getting great ratings on review websites, mainly because of their pricing. I would like to see this software gain as much attention as it can so that more preparers will commit to it and so that I can continue to use it in the future. I would like to see Proconnect become as innovative and user friendly as QBO and TurboTax. It needs a greater market share and bigger development team to take the lead in the tax software industry.

[jsbucklewcpa-gma]

I'd like to add to this idea although in some ways it's contrary to the suggestion - since ProConnect is based on Lacerte but seems to be truly built around and optimized for QBO, why not have an option to effectively have a full-blown cloud-based version of Lacerte?  If I am not mistaken, this is what Wolters Kluwer (ProSystem fx and CCH Axcess Tax, one is desktop-based and the other is cloud-based) and Thomson Reuters (Go System Tax and Ultra Tax, same deal) already seem to be doing with their top tax software programs.  Keep the flexibility of the pay-as-you-go pricing for practices that focus on business returns and QBO bookkeeping, and for smaller firms just getting started (and keep it competitive per the original suggestion) but have an option for the extra features and polish of Lacerte - like processing individual returns - options to edit filing instructions/client letters, option to buy an unlimited amount of (maybe just individual returns, since it should be much easier to profit from a business return with the ProConnect pay as you go pricing) returns for a tax year, etc.  I think that would attract tech-savvy, cloud-based accounting firms.  I would truly love for ProConnect to be the only tax preparation software I have to use.  I started my practice this year and started with ProConnect, unfortunately I had to switch to ProSeries in MARCH, because I couldn't trust ProConnect for preparing individual returns.  There was an obvious error on a PA-40 return (that I confirmed with the PA Department of Revenue) that I could not override or correct, even after about 5 hours (over several phone calls) on the phone with different ProConnect support reps - I felt bad because they were really trying hard, but they just didn't have the answer because there was none.  This shocks me since the program is based on Lacerte, which seems to have a great reputation (and I recreated this issue I encountered in demo versions of Lacerte and ProSeries, and it wasn't a problem with either of them).  Basically, I haven't used the software all that much, but I concluded the problem is there isn't much of a budget for ProConnect, which is a shame because I think it has incredible potential.  Intuit's mission is to "Power Prosperity" (I learned this as a part-time Intuit employee) and ProConnect can fit into that mission statement beautifully for practices like mine just getting started - but the pricing has to be competitive and (even more importantly) bugs need to be fixed.  I for one, would absolutely be willing to pay more if I knew I could rely on this program.

In short, I think the pay-as-you-go pricing works for practices who have a lot of good business clients on QBO and can work for smaller practices just getting started, but the software needs to be just as capable as Lacerte, even if some of the processing options are limited.

[gscholten]

I do enjoy ProConnect as well and would love to see market price that cheaper instead of calling sales to bargin one down.  If an unlimited version was available, that would ideal.

I also wouldn't mind seeing an option to buy ProConnect with Link as one price and an option to buy ProConnect without Link.  I get the costs is probably the cost because it includes the Link portal, but I don't use it since it doesn't work in my processes and is quite limited on the organizers.

[samsed]

I'm about to switch to another software like drake or slay in the middle of tax season.. Only because Lacerte doesn't work for my volume of returns, and it's super unfair that loyal customers don't get a discount like new ones do per number of returns. 

They added so many features, which I love. But it's super unfortunate that they can't lower their price per return, so I don't scare my clients with their e-filing fee.