Running a small or medium sized business can feel like an uphill battle. With too much time spent on admin and manual tasks, SMB leaders are often left with little time and limited visibility of the bigger picture.
In fact, recent research indicates that business owners spend 36% of their working time on administrative tasks. Simultaneously, they are juggling between seven and 25 different digital tools to manage operations – from accounting and payroll to marketing and customer relationships. The lack of integration between these tools, can create further inefficiencies in the shape of costly subscriptions, endless duplicate data entry and an incomplete view of business performance.
Those inefficiencies aren’t just a point of frustration – they become real barriers to growing the business, improving profitability and serving customers effectively.
“We often see 15-plus apps in use, which makes it really hard to get a single view of your business,” says Hamilton Jones, staff product manager, international platform at Intuit. “Owners start their companies to grow and serve customers, but end up spending most of their time on repeat, administrative tasks.”
That mismatch between ambition and reality is precisely what the new generation of financial technology aims to solve – starting with the rollout of Intuit’s new AI-powered unified business platform in the UK
Breaking down barriers
“One of the most common challenges small and medium businesses face is inefficiency,” confirms Nick Williams, international product director at Intuit. “By bringing accounting, payroll, expense and customer management together, QuickBooks offers SMBs a single connected platform where data flows seamlessly and insights are surfaced automatically.”
So instead of switching between systems, business leaders will be able to access a suite of apps powered by shared data and a real-time dashboard to run the business from. Built-in collaboration tools also mean that business users, and the accountants that support them, can work together directly in QuickBooks. AI will play a central role, including flagging unusual spending patterns, surfacing trends in data and helping leaders act quickly before problems snowball.
The result, says Williams, is greater clarity on business performance and a more efficient way to operate, “from getting customers right through to getting paid.”
A new industry standard
The redesign of the UK version of QuickBooks isn’t just about bringing tools into one place. According to Williams, it represents a turning point in how SMBs approach financial management.
“The redesigned QuickBooks on Intuit’s platform sets a new standard by unifying apps for accounting, expenses, sales and payroll into a single user interface. We’ve essentially built a platform where everything is in one place to run and grow your business.”
SMB leaders are often left
with little time and limited
visibility of the bigger picture
This integrated approach unlocks what many SMBs crave: clarity, control and confidence. By embedding automation into routine workflows, QuickBooks takes on repetitive admin, freeing leaders to focus on profitable growth.
And the benefits extend well beyond finance. With customer management, marketing (through Mailchimp integration), project management and payroll feeding into a single system, businesses can track the full lifecycle of their customer relationships.
Jones adds: “There’s something powerful about being able to see and manage everything in a single place. It’s about understanding your customer from lead generation to contracts and ongoing nurture – and then using that insight to encourage growth, build a reputation and drive new work.”
From beta to breakthrough
The redesigned QuickBooks entered early-access beta in August, introducing a refreshed interface, the first wave of new features and a reorganised structure built around what Intuit calls ‘anchor jobs’: accounting and bookkeeping, sales and payments, expense management, payroll and team management.
This beta period is laying the groundwork for even bigger innovation to come. In the coming months, Intuit will roll out agentic AI in a suite of intelligent assistants that Williams calls “digital teammates”.
“Intuit is integrating agentic AI into QuickBooks – intelligent, task-specific assistants designed to take on time-consuming processes across accounting, customer management, tax and project workflows. These agents will work behind the scenes to prepare for and conduct tasks and surface insights.”
Crucially, however, these agents always work under human oversight. Business owners review and approve outputs, ensuring they stay in control while still offloading hours of admin.
Why it matters for growth
For business leaders, the promise of agentic AI goes beyond time saving. By connecting finance, marketing and customer management into one control centre, Intuit offers a level of visibility that was once only accessible to large enterprises.
Instead of reacting to challenges after the fact, owners can anticipate cash-flow dips, identify profitable customer segments and seize opportunities faster.
And the impact isn’t just theoretical. By reducing repetitive tasks and providing actionable insights, the platform puts more money in customers’ pockets.
Adaptability can help SMBs maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital economy
“The platform can do the work for them through a combination of AI and human expertise,” says Williams.
In the context of a rapidly evolving business landscape, embracing such technology becomes critical. Small and medium-sized businesses that leverage integrated platforms such as Intuit’s can better adapt to market fluctuations and customer demands. This adaptability not only has the potential to enhance operational resilience but can also help SMBs maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital economy.
Furthermore, the ability to centralise data provides business leaders with holistic insights that were previously unavailable. This access to real-time analytics can empower smarter decision-making – from budgeting and resource allocation to identifying new growth opportunities – fostering a proactive rather than reactive business approach.
The road ahead
The recent beta launch marks only the beginning. Intuit is positioning QuickBooks as not just a financial tool but a growth platform for the next generation of small and medium-sized businesses.
The future integration of a customer hub to automate and streamline customer-relationship management with core financial management, unlocks the ability to manage the entire customer life cycle in one place. Meanwhile, AI-driven automation can reduce the heavy lifting of admin, giving entrepreneurial leaders back the time and focus they need to scale.
AI-powered tech is a lever SMBs must pull to unlock growth and efficiency. With AI-powered platforms such as Intuit’s, business leaders can finally shift energy away from chasing invoices and reconciling spreadsheets, to what they do best: serving customers, building strong teams and driving success.
For more information please visit quickbooks.intuit.com/uk
This article is for information only. It outlines Intuit QuickBooks general product direction and should not be considered financial management/tax advice or a substitute for obtaining professional advice specific to your business.
This information is intended to outline our general product direction, but represents no obligation and should not be relied on in making any purchase decisions. Additional terms, conditions and fees may apply with certain features and functionality. Eligibility criteria may apply. Product offers, features, and functionality are subject to change without notice.
Running a small or medium sized business can feel like an uphill battle. With too much time spent on admin and manual tasks, SMB leaders are often left with little time and limited visibility of the bigger picture.
In fact, recent research indicates that business owners spend 36% of their working time on administrative tasks. Simultaneously, they are juggling between seven and 25 different digital tools to manage operations – from accounting and payroll to marketing and customer relationships. The lack of integration between these tools, can create further inefficiencies in the shape of costly subscriptions, endless duplicate data entry and an incomplete view of business performance.
Those inefficiencies aren’t just a point of frustration – they become real barriers to growing the business, improving profitability and serving customers effectively.
