Crowe and Quickbook collaborate on small business growth initiative for BIPOCs

Crowe and QuickBooks will help advance financial maturity, foster capital-readiness, and better position these small businesses to thrive

CHICAGO, Feb. 26, 2024 -- In conjunction with Black History Month, Crowe LLP, a leading public accounting, consulting, and technology firm, and Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global technology platform that makes Intuit QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp, announced their collaboration on a new Crowe Beacon small business advancement initiative, which will source funding commitments from several key financial institutions and sponsors. The pilot initiative is focused on helping Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), women, and veteran-owned small businesses grow, enhance financial maturity, and become more capital-ready. It will give an initial 1,000 qualifying U.S. small businesses access to the QuickBooks financial technology platform along with much needed accounting and consulting services from Crowe that will better position them to manage and capitalize their businesses to drive sustainable growth.

Nearly 20% of small businesses are minority-owned, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Business Survey, and for Black small business owners, 30% have relied on credit cards to fund investments in their business's future growth, according to the 2024 Intuit QuickBooks Black History Month Survey.

The Crowe Beacon small business advancement initiative is tailored to serve the needs of high-performing businesses that may historically be underserved and under-resourced – with a specific focus on BIPOC businesses with annual revenues below $5 million. Crowe Beacon provides all the traditional accounting and consulting services of Crowe on an affordable managed service platform that can help enterprises develop, mature, and evolve their financial and business planning capabilities in a way that better positions them to leverage financial and capital mechanisms.

QuickBooks will serve as the exclusive small business technology partner for the Crowe Beacon initiative, providing participating small businesses with access to the QuickBooks Online platform, a connected suite of tools that create efficiencies and deliver insights to help businesses at every stage of growth manage their finances end-to-end, and provide transparency to capital and procurement readiness. QuickBooks will also provide onboarding, training, and technical support to help small business owners realize the benefits of using the integrated QuickBooks platform.

Leveraging the QuickBooks platform, Crowe will provide critical accounting guidance and coaching, and access to a portfolio of its leading consulting and advisory services. This includes tax planning and preparation, cash flow planning, forecasting, invoicing and many more - the result will be small businesses with better accounting and financial practices that will enable them to unlock their true potential and help them scale and grow.

"Our mission at Intuit is to power prosperity," said Barry Pennett, Chief Sales Officer, Intuit QuickBooks. "Partnering on the Crowe Beacon initiative enables us to deliver upon our mission by providing participating businesses with access to our powerful, integrated QuickBooks platform so they can make more informed business decisions that help them grow."

"These small businesses serve as the heartbeat of our communities, and we want to empower and enable companies of all shapes and forms to succeed – because absent that equity, there is no real sense of community. We're excited to work with Intuit QuickBooks to support the underserved and underrepresented small businesses that need it most," said Khary Bridgewater, Crowe consulting principal and leader of Crowe Beacon. "Through the Crowe Beacon program, we look forward to offering an extensive portfolio of services and capabilities that support the scaling and long-term success of businesses that traditionally have not had access to this type of support."