Here is some news that comes somewhat out of left field. On the one hand you have Intuit, creator of QuickBooks the desktop accounting software that powers millions of small businesses globally. A steady, but not overly cutting edge vendor some would say. On the other you have Uber, the company that people either love or hate and that has shined a laser light onto old models being disrupted, the Silicon Valley startup culture and the power and demands of venture capital.
So what brings these two together? Simple pragmatism. Uber (at least until CEO Travis Kalnacik manages to achieve his stated ambition of getting rid of human drivers) needs an army of citizen drivers to take all those millions of fares that are arranged through Uber. In order to keep that army moving, Uber needs every driver to be successful. And when you consider that every Uber driver is an individual business, you can see why this would be of interest to
The two companies are today announcing a partnership that sees every Uber driver being given a free version of QuickBooks for their own use - the idea being that it will be that much easier for those drivers to file taxes and manage their finances. Intuit knows full well that independent contractors face unique challenges at tax time because they do not have income tax withheld throughout the year. On top of that, they are responsible for tracking and reporting their own business expenses. That can make it difficult to separate ‘real income’ from revenue & expenses that should be part of their tax filings. For an Uber partner at tax time, that can mean factoring in a year’s worth of gross fares, mileage, tolls, gas payments and other expenses - a recipe for disaster.
Intuit and Uber are therefor offering drivers a free version of the QuickBooks Online Self-Employed version alongside the ability to send data directly to Intuit TurboTax Online, the company's tax filing solution.
It strikes me as a match made in heaven - Intuit gets a bunch of customers, admittedly they're not paying for the product but Intuit manages to up-sell many of them to additional products and services. Uber gets to ensure its drivers stay in business, and gets to publish some feel-good news, something it desperately needs given its recent run of awful PR stories.
