Large firm sees ProConnect™ Tax as “table stakes”

Disrupter or innovator?

In 2019 when Max Fritz and Chase Birky dreamed of changing the way CPAs deliver services to their clients, they envisioned a different kind of firm. Instead of traditional clients, the “clients” were, and still are, accountants and practice runners. The two resourced and supported accountants who would better serve their own clients, building a practice with agency and community.

The 100% remote firm Dark Horse CPAs was created, but Max and Chase knew a major step to bringing their dream firm to life was working with best-in-class SaaS that prioritized connected ecosystems and open architecture, while providing delightful and intuitive user experiences. In fact, having a tax tool that was intuitive and accessible anywhere was simply non-negotiable.

The answer? Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax.

“It almost goes without saying that any modern firm that prioritizes remote work must be entirely cloud-based,” said Chase. “What sets Intuit products apart is their user-friendly interfaces for practitioners and clients, supporting  collaboration and making it easy for employees who have grown up using legacy tax software, or those new to the industry, to use the software without an unnecessarily long training cycle. Moving forward, the integration of agentic AI built into the product and can be built externally to work on top of the product will take this experience to the next level.”

Chase and Max built the firm to give accountants the right tools to run their own practices under the Dark Horse banner. With a curated selection of easy-to-use tax tools already available, Dark Horse firms can spend more time on client work and less time on the operational side of the business.

How Dark Horse found ProConnect Tax

ProConnect Tax is a browser-based tool that streamlines and automates tax workflows through many features, including a books-to-tax feature with an integration from QuickBooks Online, a client portal for secure document upload, an e-filing dashboard, tax return reports, and project management tools. With unlimited users included, everyone in a firm can get on board.

The current iteration of Dark Horse sprang to life in 2019, when Fritz and Birky evolved their San Diego-area firm into the industry-bending business it has become today. As a CPA platform, Dark Horse provides the necessary business tools, training, and community for its 38 principals with mature practices, as well as 7 accelerators that are in Dark Horse’s practice incubator prior to becoming a Dark Horse principal. The CPAs at Dark Horse provide tax, accounting, and CFO services to individuals and small businesses.

ProConnect Tax was the right software choice for Dark Horse, but it wasn’t actually their first choice. Max and Chase, both CPAs, were already using an ERP competitor, but the software did not operate in the cloud. Already familiar with QuickBooks Online, they discovered ProConnect Tax, but knew that switching tax software was a “colossal undertaking.”

“We explored ProConnect Tax and quickly realized it was easier to use and designed so that anybody with even limited tax experience can figure it out pretty quickly,” said Max. “Larger firms might look at ProConnect Tax and think it may not be able to handle complex situations, but we have faith that Intuit will continue to trailblaze and solve any issues related to client returns.”

ProConnect saves Dark Horse 667 hours a year

Max and Chase see multiple touchpoints in which ProConnect saves the firm and its CPAs time, including searching and finding the information they need, having a built-in tax organizer, and getting access to readily available electronic signing with e-signature.

“Added together, add-on features such as eSignature save us 5-10 minutes per return. When you extrapolate across 4,000 returns we plan to do for tax year 2023, that’s a huge amount of time savings,” said Chase.

It is a huge amount. Here’s the math:10 minutes x 4,000 tax returns = 40,000 minutes, or 667 hours.

“It’s super easy for us to get our people trained on ProConnect,” said Chase. “We don’t have eight hours of tax software training that we’ve got to roll out like we used to. The Intuit name very well describes the type of software: It’s intuitive.”

Larger firms will have a connected network of tax tools

With the goal of making the business and operational side of running a CPA practice as simple as possible, the Dark Horse leaders chose Intuit’s suite of accounting tools for integration and ease of use.

“We strongly encourage larger firms to be on ProConnect because of the operational efficiencies and integration with other software and workflows,” said Max. “We’re big into trying to get all of our apps to talk to each other.”

Along with ProConnect, eSignature, and QuickBooks Online, the firm is using Intuit Tax Advisor to create client tax plans.

“Having a competent tax planning tool embedded into the software you do tax prep in, and the broader ecosystem you do bookkeeping in, creates obvious synergies, visibility, and the ability to quickly update projections and strategies as our clients’ businesses grow and evolve throughout the year,” said Chase.

At a glance

Firm name: Dark Horse CPAs

Location: Dispersed U.S.-based workforce

Size of firm: 38 principals, each running their own CPA practices, along with 7 accelerators who are incubating practices.

Niche focus: Dark Horse’s CPAs focus on tax, accounting, and CFO services, but the firm itself is unique because it provides a Firm-as-a-Service infrastructure. Accountants can focus on adding value to their clients, building their practice, and leading their teams instead of wearing all the hats of an entrepreneur.”

Intuit software: ProConnect Tax, QuickBooks Online, eSignature, QuickBooks Apps, and Intuit Tax Advisor.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published June 21, 2023, and refreshed with new content on June 30, 2026.