Intuit has spent two years of promoting a practice management system for accountants that hasn't hit the market as a final product. And this week, it was announced that BigTime Software is going to embed its core time, billing and practice management functionality into Intuit's yet-to-be-fulfilled development for in that arena. The Intuit product was supposed to hit the market in May, but instead it moved into a second phase and the product's name went away with Intuit's decision to drop the ProLine brand.
Based in Chicago, BigTime already integrated its products with QuickBooks. The press release announcing the deal said that the collaboration included "a practice management system presently in development." In the prepared statement, product manager Aaron Brady said that "At Intuit, we strive to deliver products that help accounting professionals save time within their workflow so they can spend more time growing their practices . The integration of BigTime's technology into our practice management suite helps us achieve those goals on behalf of our customers."
BigTime's web-based products are designed for professional services users such as architects and engineers, management and IT consultants, architects and advertising pros. The company's website also notes that features for project-based users are under development. BigTime's pricing starts at $100 per month for one to five users and rises through tiers to $190 per month for 21 to 30 users. BigTime also separately addresses the government contracting business.
Although Intuit's website calls its product ProLine Practice Management, a spokesperson earlier noted that the product no longer had name. Intuit has removed the ProLine name from its online tax research product for Lacerte and ProSeries users. The web site says the second test phase of the practice management application is ongoing.
