Everybody has a digital assistant these days and Intuit has joined the parade with QuickBooks Assistant. Intuit says the tool utilizes chat to help users is available already for QB Self-Employed for iOS and Android.

Xero founder Rod Drury is preparing to sell 3 million shares at $31.50 (New Zealand). At current exchange rates, the deal is worth about $65 million. Xero announced the pending deal on the New Zealand Stock Exchange as a "likely successful purchase by institutional and professional investors".

Intuit has named Burlington, Ont.-based AIS Solutions as the 2017 Global Firm of the Future. The selection was announced at the vendor's QuickBooks Connect conference underway this week.