Taxes United helps businesses grow with Intuit ProConnect Tax

Alejandra Matias, EA, founded Taxes United at the age of 18. Over the next 11 years, her firm experienced dramatic growth. Alejandra kept pace with that growth—and kept her clients thriving—bringing a trusted, personal touch to tax preparation thanks to Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax. The cloud solution from Intuit offers automated tax and accounting processes that give Alejandra more time to build client relationships, the ease of sharing data with her team in the cloud, and the freedom to work from anywhere. 

Pairing the power of ProConnect Tax with QuickBooks® Online, Alejandra shows clients how to streamline their bookkeeping—so they can improve and scale their businesses as well. 

Family business

Growing up in Mexico, Alejandra wanted to be a dentist, but accounting was in her blood. Her father was an accountant and would bring her to work to teach her. “Every time we would sit down and have a conversation with a client, I was next to him organizing papers. It seemed like my dad always had—not the solution in a short-term way—but he always had something for his clients that gave some relief or gave them some hope for their future in their personal lives or in their business.”

Cloud-based solutions for a work-life balance

After moving to the United States, Alejandra took accounting classes in high school and started preparing family and friends’ tax returns in college. Little by little, people began to compliment her skills and offer to pay her for her work. Word continued to spread, and soon Alejandra needed a software solution that would allow her to balance work and school. 

“I found ProConnect Tax at that time. It was in the cloud, where I could take it everywhere—a coffee shop, or in the school library, and help my friends with their tax returns.” When she opened her office and hired her first employees a few years later, ProConnect Tax remained the number one tool for the whole team. “They also needed that flexibility, because they were either in school as well, or they were moms and they needed to work from home when they could.”

ProConnect Tax advantages

• Instant access to decision-quality data.
• Optimized workflows, tax calculations, and diagnostics built throughout.
• Drag and drop tax form capabilities that quickly import form data into client tax returns.
• Smooth client communication with the Intuit Link portal.
• Easily shared forms and data with members of your team.

By the time the next tax season came around, Taxes United had 500 clients. The following year, they had 1,000. “And let me tell you, we didn’t hire more people. We didn’t have to.” 

In or out of the office, Alejandra still had access to all the data collected by her team. As an enrolled agent, she had to have eyes on everything. “They couldn’t approve the tax return. I had to review the tax return and the documents. At the end of the day, when I would walk in after going to class — I would walk into the office, and everything was in one place for me. I had all the scanned documents there and I was able to review tax returns.”

The ease of working with ProConnect Tax empowered Alejandra to continue to perform essential roles while expanding her business, even when clients weren’t as technologically savvy as her. “In the beginning, we had a spreadsheet, where we had notes for each client. They would walk in, have the spreadsheet and they knew what to ask clients and what to turn in. Nowadays, we have Intuit Link, where we have all the client documents and ProConnect Tax in one place.”

The Link portal enables clients to share their relevant financial information digitally, saving valuable time on both ends of the interaction. Cloud efficiency makes that data visible to both accountant and client in real time. 

Sharing the wealth of knowledge

A former member of the Tax Council, Alejandra keeps her skills polished and her team working at their full potential by taking advantage of the support, training, and education that Intuit offers:

• Annual webinars for updates on product features and tax codes.
• QuickBooks Online certifications to make her team smarter and more efficient with their time. 
• Live events where QuickBooks accountants connect and share their stories.

As her business grew in those early years, Alejandra realized that the tools that brought efficiency and growth to her team could do the same for the community of small business owners she served. Clients started coming to Taxes United year-round—not just in tax season—to learn QuickBooks Online and manage their businesses more efficiently, with benefits that extend far beyond improved bookkeeping.

“That’s how I’ve grown. Not from getting more clients, but from my own clients that I’ve had in the last 10 years. They’ve grown so much and require so many things, not just at the business level, but at the personal level. We are growing with them.”

Take care of yourself while taking care of your clients

Life isn’t simply better in the office for Alejandra. Automating processes and working efficiently in the cloud gives her the time for the self-care she needs, from cooking healthy meals to getting regular exercise. She’s also able to spend more time with her father, who now runs an ice cream store, but just can’t seem to fully retire from helping family and friends prepare their taxes. 

Lucky for him, Alejandra introduced him to ProConnect Tax. “He doesn’t like technology that much,” so she set him up with Square for POS, integrating the app with QuickBooks Online. He’s now able to enjoy the benefits of the cloud-based technology that enabled Alejandra to expand her business from a handful of friends and family to more than 1,000 clients with unique needs who love to continue collaborating with her. The power of enhanced connectivity, support, and security backed by the most trusted name in online accounting keeps the Matias family ready to continue expanding in the years to come.

With ProConnect Tax and QuickBooks Online together, Alejandra, her team, and her family have the power to keep up with the pace of business—and grow.