Intuit pulls QuickBooks from India, uncomfortably quickly

Walks away from enormous but parochial market, while leaving global development teams in place

Accounting software colossus Intuit has decided to pull its QuickBooks product from India.

The decision comes into effect on January 31 2023, after which QuickBooks products and service offerings for accountancy and small business customers will no longer be available in the world's second most populous country.

"After careful consideration, the decision was made that we can no longer continue to deliver and support QuickBooks products that serve the needs of small businesses and accounting professionals across India," reads a notice posted yesterday.

The company has offered no further explanation for the decision, nor the considerations that informed it.

One customer's tweeted response to the news suggests Intuit may just not have "got" India, as the end of service comes in the middle of a financial year.

@QuickBooks Majority of the businesses follow April to March year in India. Please consider making your services till at least May 2023 so that businesses can close their books for FY 2022-23.
Discontinuation of services midway during a year would be painful. pic.twitter.com/IfJp9257C7

— Iqbal Singh Grover (@iqbalsrcc) June 30, 2022

The decision to quit India means Intuit is not signing up new QuickBooks customers as of today, while current customers will be offered free service for the remaining seven months of operations.

The Register has asked Intuit why it chose to stop offering QuickBooks in India – a nation whose economy grew at a rate of nearly nine percent in 2021, is digitising rapidly, and according to the Confederation of Indian Industry is home to over 63 million small businesses. The Register will update this story if Intuit provides a substantive response.

Intuit has offered users this link to a list of alternative accounting software providers – but at the time of writing it produces an error.

India does possess homegrown accounting software vendors, among them Zoho, Tally, Marg, and Busy. The nation is also running a self-sufficiency drive named AatmaNirbhar Bharat that encourages buying from local suppliers.

Intuit may well have struggled in the face of that campaign and the patriotic imperative India's government attaches to it.

Interestingly, while Intuit won't offer its wares in India, the company will continue to operate there to develop its products for use in other nations.

"Intuit's 1,300+ strong team in India continues to deliver bold innovation that benefits more than 100 million customers around the world," the company's shutdown notice states. "The decision to retire QuickBooks products in India won't impact Intuit's ongoing presence and investment in India. Intuit remains committed to the region and committed to our mission of powering prosperity around the world." ®