The story, of course, is the continued movement of Intuit products to the cloud. There were 739,000 QuickBooks Online subscribers, up 43 percent from 516,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2013 and ahead of the company's expectations it would hit about 715,000 in the period just ended. Outside the United States, there were 103,000 subscribers, a 170-percent increase. "Not only is the subscriber base growing faster than we forecast but the attach rates are much healthier than they were six months ago," CEO Brad Smith said in an earnings webcast this week. The attach rate for new users, those who buy QBO plus other products, surged for both payments and payroll, Smith said. For news users, the payment attach rate was 12 percent, up from 6 percent a year earlier; for payroll it was 31 percent, up from 20 percent for the same period. Moreover, 75 percent of new QBO users are new Intuit customers.
INTUIT PAYROLL, QBO REVS SURGE Featured
For its first quarter, Intuit loses money since it is outside of tax season. The question is how much it loses; in this case $84 million for the period ended October 31, compared to $11 million in last year's corresponding period. However, the fact the company is now recognizing all revenue ratably is shoving $400 million into fiscal 2016 and beyond has a role in boosting the red ink. On the top, Intuit reported revenue $672 million, an increase of 8 percent from $622 million a year ago.
