Intuit Data Flow - Mint --> QuickBooks --> TurboTax

Intuit's various product offerings have allowed them to accumulate a vast amount of data. This gives them a distinct advantage over any other company when used in conjunction with Intuit's core products. A major benefit of housing so many different types of products under the same company umbrella is having direct control over them and the data that flows through them. Now, most of Intuit's customers use multiple Intuit products. If these products were linked together it would ease the burden on the user as well as Intuit. Mint, Quickbooks (QB) and TurboTax (TT) could see a large upswing across the board if the data was able to flow through from one product to the others. Mint has been catching on quickly, especially with the younger population whom has a greater tendency to use their mobile devices to manage their entire lives both personally and regarding business.

Mint has the great ability to link to a vast number of banking companies across the US and is used to manage personal financial information. Since all of this banking data is available via Mint it would be simple to link Mint to QB if a customer uses that product to manage there small or medium sized business. The challenges would be choosing what data should flow through, how it should be coded and where it should land within the QB software. Seems simple enough right? Not an easy task, but a true crowd pleaser and an excellent way to gain market share across product offerings.

From QB, since the data has already been coded before entering, can be easily pushed to TT. With this three pronged approach users can easily manage their finances, accounting and tax information with little to no work done by them. It will increase customer retention, increase user volume across the product base and will most importantly wow the customer.

Intuit's Mint

Great idea and excellent execution for a customer focused user experience that has obviously wowed the public. The only con I have seen so far is the amount of data that is uncategorized. I think for any normal company this may be an acceptable level, but this is Intuit, the wanton consumer data leader. Only a small issue, but an important one, I think can be easily fixed. Data is the future and the key to data is completeness and accuracy. I'm sure the issue here is the way that vendors/banks code there transactions. I know from my experience in the payment/transaction industry there is no way to fix it at the vendor level or even the banking level. The amount of vendors/banks in the US is just too vast and each one codes their transactions based on a local or corporate level IT manager and is therefore deemed irreparable. The only way to fix this is either to build a team that can code all of the uncategorized data as it is entering the system or to do it at the ground level hiring hourly employees regionally to make purchases across the country to gain the data necessary. Given that Intuit already has a vast sea of data I would venture that the first option may be the most cost effective. If the data is lacking certain regional information it may be necessary to market Mint in those areas to get the necessary data into the system. Coding is the key and it can be done with a small data team.

TurboTax Mobile

This service would be a mobile application that would be accessible from any mobile device that is able to access applications. The user would initially log into the mobile application. After logging in they would directly connected to a cloud based system that is used to store their tax information throughout each year.  After entering initial tax information (salary from previous year, dependents, interest, investment income, retirement, social security, rental income, royalties, business income and expenses, etc.) during the initial log in they would then use the application throughout the year as follows:

At any point in time they would log into the system to enter tax information such as, charitable contributions, student loan interest, medical payments, family care expenses, tax on large purchases, medical expenses, education expenses and any other deductible items. When an amount is entered the mobile application would prompt them to select a tax deductible category (eg. donation, etc.). Once the item is categorized the information is sent to your personal cloud based taxable data storage system.

When it comes time to do your taxes at the end of the year all of your data would be accessible by logging into the program from your personal computer. You would then be able to download the data to your choice of IRS tax forms based on how you categorized the data when entered via your mobile device. You would then be given a chance to review the data and change any necessary items before filing your tax return. Once you are satisfied that your tax documents are complete you would be able to either E-file them with the IRS or print and mail them to the IRS via personal computer or directly from your mobile device.