Intuit Finally enter UK SaaS Accounting Market

Back in April I said Intuit were planning to bring QuickBooks Online to the UK. And now it has arrived.

It’s currently “in beta” which is the norm for new products. But oddly, they are charging beta users. Not normally how things are done. Companies don’t usually charge you to do their testing for them – and certainly not for a product that may never be released.

The site says (my bolding):

At the end of the beta, if we decide to roll out the full version of QuickBooks Online, you’ll automatically be moved to the full version of the QuickBooks Online service you selected during the beta, if and until you cancel. (You can cancel by sending an email to [email protected].)

The pricing for the beta version is pretty low. But the proposed pricing post-beta (Which you’ll automatically get charged if you don’t cancel in the beta period!) is pretty steep:

£8 – £13 a month for Simple Start
£20 – £25 a month for Essentials
£28 – £33 a month for Plus

From what I’ve heard, the US version of QB online hasn’t exactly been a smash hit, so it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.

And I’m still being told Sage will have an attempt at a new version of their doomed Sage Live before the end of the year as a project called “Sage One”.

Update: Reviewing the comments on my post back in April reminded me of another reason to be concerned.

Intuit have a history of withdrawing products from the UK market. So you’d be mad to bet the shop/practice on this new product even if it ever does get out of beta.