Looking Back At Quickbooks: A Brief History Into The Number One Accounting Software | Web Software Articles

The earliest known accounting methods date back to writing on clay tablets. Those tablets were the only source of keeping account history safe and protected. Kings, merchants, accountants, and ministers used to keep track of their accounts on these clay tablets.

However, as civilization moved into printing paper and ink, keeping a tab on transactions became seamless. However, keeping hold of documents, folders, and files was not the smartest choice as it increased the workload for accountants and took physical space in rooms. Thanks to computing technology, many smart inventors created several accounting platforms and software that eased the pain of manually keeping paper records. The earliest known accounting software dates back to the 1970s.

The first known accounting software made its debut into the market with the name Visicalc. A few years later, other companies tried their hands on accounting software but failed. However, one company did the impossible and carved out its way to excellence in the 1980s. It was none other than Intuit, the company that created and marketed their flagship accounting software, Quickbooks.

Quickbooks is one of the best accounting software that empowers almost every corporation you see today. Founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx, this 2.5 Gigabyte worth of software can easily manage all your accounting worries under a single app. What’s more interesting about Quickbooks is the history behind it and how it managed to expand worldwide in a span of 40 years.

In the early days of its development, Scott Cook and Tom Proulx used the Quicken (the first individual finance management software) codebase and released the DOS version of Quickbooks for the DOS users.

After gaining enough recognition for the DOS version, Intuit, the company behind Quickbooks, launched the Windows & Mac version of the software. In the late 90s, the world shifted into the Graphical user interface (GUI) operating system. MacOS and Windows were pretty popular at that time. So Intuit released the software for both the platform and subsequently gained an astronomical market share of 85 percent, making Quickbooks the number one accounting platform for small business owners.

How Quickbooks market share skyrocketed in the 90s & 2000s?

Quickbooks gained recognition for its easy-to-use features. However, professional accountants were reluctant to consider Quickbooks as the ultimate breakthrough software for accounting. The reason for such dismissal lies within the security factor of Quickbooks. In the 90s and early 2000s, some major drawbacks limited the expansion of Quickbooks in the international markets. Professional accounting firms cited Quickbooks as low-security software with no audit trail and non-conformity with former accounting standards.

To bridge the gap between modern accounting standards, and the former accounting methods, Intuit eventually added the full audit trail features, double-entry function, and increased other essential functions to the max. In 2000, Intuit introduced two versions of Quickbooks, naming them Basic and Pro.

In the next three years, Intuit further enhanced the software by including industry-specific applications that cater to specific industries in various business domains. The new Quickbooks was able to streamline its process and dedicate each software piece to a particular industry type.

In the new Quickbooks, Intuit added new options for retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, contractors, professional firms, and accounting units. The latest version was able to cater to almost every industry in the 2000s. In September 2005, QuickBooks reached the market share of 74% in the US, making it the world’s dominant accounting software.

QuickBooks reached another milestone with a 94.2 percent market share in the business accounting category in the next four years. NPD Group, a market research company in the US, stated that over 50,000 accountants, CPAs, and private business consultants joined the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program. In the same decade, Brad Smith was chosen as the new CEO, and Steve Bennett vamped Intuit into a quadrupled earning organization in just eight years of its operation.

In the mid-2010 decade, or more precisely in 2015, Intuit announced a newer and more productive version of Quickbooks. It comprised all the updates and features demanded by users from the previous versions.

Intuit improved the software to utmost perfection in the later years and included everything accountants needed in that time.  In 2021, Quickbooks stands tall as a pinnacle in the accounting world, and millions if not hundreds of accounting professionals, organizations, and traders use Quickbooks to manage their companies globally.

Final thoughts

Intuit has improved its services since the 80s, and the newer versions are capable of doing much more than traditional accounting programs. Intuit has released different versions of the program that specializes in each country’s accounting standards. Today, Quickbooks offers unique services for Canadian, American, Australian, and British bookkeeping and auditing standards. But these three are not the only cases Quickbooks provides specialized service for. Intuit has also designed an online application for using Quickbooks, which automatically changes your currency, tax policies, and charges according to your country of residence.

Source: Web Software Articles