The country’s largest team of full-time software developers, tax analysts and product designers has finished a year-long project working with customers to build the most customer-focussed version of QuickTax ever. Today, QuickTax officially launches for its twelfth year, in Standard, Custom and Platinum Editions expecting to once again be the most trusted tax preparation software in Canada.
“It’s been an intense year of studying our customers in preparation for this year’s launch,” says Chris Wilkinson, Senior Manager of Intuit Canada’s Tax Division. “We phoned them looking for feedback. We surveyed them for their input. We involved tax professionals asking for their advice. We even went to customers’ homes and asked if we could watch them using QuickTax, all on a quest to build products that match what our customers want.”
“We’re the largest production of software of any kind in the country. Literally millions of Canadians rely on our reputation every year, so it’s imperative that we exceed their expectations,” he says.
Intuit has always guaranteed the accuracy of QuickTax, including a promise to pay any penalty that results from any QuickTax miscalculation. “No one else backs their product with that assurance,” says Wilkinson. “In our history, QuickTax has confidently guaranteed about 20 million tax returns.”
Wilkinson notes the company’s past instinct was to improve QuickTax by looking for new add-on features, but Intuit’s research shows customers’ real demand is for products that are even easier to use.
“So this year we renewed our focus on the basics.”
- Now QuickTax can be installed on two computers, responding to customers who want to work on different returns on different computers, or do a return in one location and print it in another.
- All Custom Editions are now on one CD. Custom Editions are unique in the industry – no one else has a specialized option for investors, small business owners and those who are retired or planning to retire in the next 15 years. Now customers can learn about and select the version that’s right for them, in the comfort of their own home. Because all Custom Editions are on one CD, retailers can streamline their inventory management and product displays, and every retailer can carry every version, better satisfying their customers’ demands
- The NetFiling process is smoother and easier this year, improving on one of the most popular innovations in the past several years.
Intuit research shows it takes about one-third the time to do a tax return using QuickTax compared to a conventional pen-and-paper approach.
“I used to spend an entire Saturday preparing my family’s four tax returns,” says QuickTax customer Larry Stone. “Now, using QuickTax, I am preparing the family’s tax returns in the time it takes to have a couple of cups of coffee. It actually makes doing your taxes fun.”
QuickTax saves even more time for repeat customers by bringing-forward last year’s tax information, stored privately on their own computer.
“We’re in our second decade of leadership in the tax software business,” Wilkinson says. “We’re committed to responding to our customers, to help us maintain that leadership position.”
