Intuit ProConnect Tax
#tax #ptg #proconnect #productlead
ProConnect Tax is a web-based tax software automating the process of tax preparation by utilizing AI/ML along with tax content engines. For the last 7 years, I've created various services and experiences inside of the ProConnect. Here I'm trying to capture some examples of data collection and data import.
Data collection
"How might we remove burden for taxpayers when sharing documents securely to their accountants while helping accountants speed up their collecting data process?"
Via Intuit Link
Intuit Link is an online portal that simplifies the process of collecting taxpayer's documents securely.
Accountants need to collect client's (taxpayer's) documents to prepare their tax returns. Currently they showed their biggest frustration in data collection process through Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) research as they spend 36% of time serving their clients on it. In the meantime, taxpayers are having issues uploading their tax documents via Intuit Link as the current system requires them to upload document(s) one section at a time. This causes 68% taxpayer abandonment and 25% inaccurate uploads.
#ML #automation #ecosystem #widget
My role: Lead designer working with a Design Research to identify issues with current system, coming up with long-term vision and short-term solutions while mentoring a Product Designer.
WHO IS THIS FOR
Accoutant
Darcy is a Certified Tax Accountant with 6 years of tax preparation experience.
She works at a small multi-service firm providing tax consulting, bookkeeping, payroll and financial advisory services. Her firm does about 500 tax returns a year.
Since she's the main tax preparaer in her firm, she needs to collect client information faster increasing accuracy of shared client's documents.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM STATEMENT
I am an accountant using ProConnect Tax and Intuit Link
who are trying to collect client's tax documents as fast as possible so that I can start preparing their tax return
But it takes a lot of time for them to complete uploading tax documents
Because the current Intuit Link system allows them to upload document(s) one section at a time
Which makes me feel incompetent and frustrated
Taxpayer
Lauren is Darcy's client tryng to file her individual tax return(1040).
She's all about efficiency as she's busy taking care of her family.
She wants to share her information as quickly as possible and not to feel she's doing accountant's job since she paid for the service.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM STATEMENT
I am a taxpayer
who are trying to file my individual tax return effortlessly through tax accounting service
But it takes a lot of time for me to upload all of my tax documents via Intuit Link which is an online portal that tax accounting firm uses
Because the current Intuit Link system allows me to upload document(s) one section at a time
Which makes me feel tedious and less confident as I'm not 100% sure if I'm uploading document(s) at the right section
Ideal state
In an ideal world, Lauren sends her information quickly without any issues and Darcy has all the information ready to start tax preparation.
Success measures
Confidence
Increase taxpayer task completion*
(32% → 52%)
Increase % of pros using Link with majority of clients
(18% → 36%)
Increase Link adoption
(⅓ → ½)
Increase Docs Applied
(614K → 921K)
Increase taxpayer SUS
(76 → 90+)
Speed
Increase speed of taxpayer task completion (doc uploads)
(4m42s → 2m)
Accuracy
Decrease % of misclassified docs
(25% → 10%)
Increase apply throughput
(7% → 12% for ALL forms)
(14% → 20% for top 10 forms)
Hypothesis
By giving taxpayers an easier way to upload all their documents in bulk at the same time and have the ML-based system, Document Understanding Platform (DUP), classify the documents automatically, we contribute to outcome of decreasing Time in Return by 15%.
Initial approach
I explored several different layouts and narrowed down to two to test usability working with a Design Research. We tested with 14 taxpayers per phase of total 2 using counterbalanced A/B unmoderated usability test conducted on usertesting.com.
User research
We were able to reduce the time of getting research results from 10 days to 3 days from conducting unmoderated usability test.
Prototype A
OBSERATION
Confusion regarding process flow
Frustration with the interface
USER FEEDBACK
"Why can't I drag these into the box?"
"What am I supposed to be doing?"
OBSERATION
Lack of operational clarity
Confused by the interface
USER FEEDBACK
"This is not easy to use..That scanning stuff was confusing!"
"How do I know the system knows what doc
Prototype B
OBSERATION
Users understood the flow of the page
USER FEEDBACK
"Very apprealing to the eye, not too much going on, very easy to use."
"If you can make your software as intuitive as this prototype, I would love to use it."
OBSERATION
Users immediately understood the matching process
USER FEEDBACK
"I would give this an A+"
"Oh wow.. you can easily just add everything with one click, that is a beautiful feature to have, this is very convenient, very easy, just a few clicks of a button."
"I love when apps let you know what they are doing."
The key point of the second prototype is labor illusion. Increasing operational transparency made the users much more confident in using an automated system. In the end, we got the result that version 2 is 33% faster than version 1.
System Usability Scale
System Usability Scale (SUS) for the current Intuit Link experience is barely above average while version 2 scores 91 which is in the 100th percentile.
Outcome
After doing more usability testings for both taxpayers and accountants with several design iterations, we released this in Jan 2021. We tracked the usages of the bulk upload feature, monitored Link adoption and engagement of both taxpayers and accountants, apply throughputs, and any VoC feedback via different channels.
We received a lot of appreciation directly from our customers resulting in time spent in classifying documents as they are automatically organized for the tax preparers. We contriuted to the results in 28% of doc applied throughput as we were at 14% last year and out Year End goal is 20%.
We were also able to contribute to Document Understanding Platform(DUP) with the Classification Service in ProConnect Tax which helps categorize the document type, and automatically organize the clients' data more accurately. This provided more opportunitiy to build customer confidence in automation and funnel more documents downstream to the extraction capabilities and away from manually entering data.
Solving for Intuit ecosystem
While I was working on this project, I also created a tax preparation flow to capture areas where we can provide short-term solutions and areas we have to work with other BU partners to solve holistically across all Intuit products. It helps the team align on the common goal and strategically approach design solutions.
The success of this project contributed to Intuit Virtual Experts Platform (VEP) where the team is building a cohesive widget experience for tax professionals and will be widely adopted by other Intuit products powering taxpayers and tax professionals around the world.
Data collection
"How might we provide the most accurate and secure way of collecting tax data more efficiently?"
Prototype for Intuit ecosystem
Unlike Intuit Link portal, IRS Transcripts needed to be designed for all Intuit products for broader usage. I designed based off one of the existing platform experience which is Intuit Document widget and build upon it so that it can be plugged on any types of UI component.
Outcome
We track data on a Transcripts feature dashboard. As of Mar 27 2024, we had 595 customers connect it and users downloaded transcripts for around 2k clients.
Next phase is importing the tax data we collect via IRS Transcripts request.
While IDX document widget team is working on the backend capability, I created a design proposal of the rest of the import flow. We are looking to deliver this by FY25.
Data import
ProConnect Tax provides a number of time-saving integrations along with robust tax content, complex calculations and best-in-class diagnostics.
Accountants who prepare clients' tax return need to enter data as fast and accurate as possible. As ProConnect Tax offers auto data import capability, we need to figure out how to support all accountants so that they can be confident while using ProConnect Tax.
#ML #automation #ecosystem #widget
"How might we allow accountants to use data import effortlessly?"
My role: Lead designer working with a Design Research to identify business problem, identify opportunities, improve the product experience for accountants and take lead on E2E working with a Product Marketer.
Who is this for
Accountant
Collin is a Certified Tax Accountant with 6 years of tax preparation experience.
He works at a small multi-service firm providing tax consulting, bookkeeping, payroll and financial advisory services. His firm does about 500 tax returns a year.
Since He's the main tax preparaer in his firm, he does a lot of data entry for his clients' tax returns. He wants to reduce the manual data entry as he feels it's tedious. He knows Intuit Link provides the automatic data import, but not all his clients are willing to use that service.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM STATEMENT
I am an accountant using ProConnect Tax
I am trying to take advantage of ProConnect Tax's Automation functionality
But my clients provide me with documents through multiple means
Because they have different preferences of how they communicate
Which makes me feel disappointed because I am not taking full advantage of ProConnect Tax and spending more time manually entering data
Ideal state
In an ideal world, Collin prepares clients' tax returns faster with ProConnect Tax than any other tax software from auto-importing clients' tax data.
Success measures
Header Subtitle
Confidence
Increase Link adoption
Increase Docs Applied
Increase accountants PRS
Speed
Increase speed of doc uploads
Accuracy
Decrease % of misclassified docs
Increase apply throughput
Business problem
Goal of automating tax preparation is to reduce time in return, but accountants could only take advantage of the import and apply automation if their clients were using Intuit Link(Link adoption 30% TY20). Taxpayers sends their tax data via multiple channels, even when using Intuit Link(Link engagement 14% TY20*)
With Link adoption around 30% and Link engagement around 14%, there is a large opportunity to extend these automation benefits to a broader group. Additionally, taxpayers will continue to provide documents through multiple channels to the accountant, meaning the we provide will need to be flexible.
*161k invites sent; 73k clients uploaded a document
Strategic approach
As we focused on Automation of tax preparation, we were digging into different jobs* of tax preparation to make sure we deliver the underserved customers' needs in these areas. The jobs we looked at with this work are Job #10; Draft the tax return and Job #11; Confirm the accuracy of the tax return.
*Jobs are defined from JTBD(Jobs-To-Be-Done) research conducted by broader PCG team to help BU teams define focusing areas and prioritization. We studied 1,000 professional tax preparers and quantified the degree to which each need is under/overserved. Segment A: homogenous clients, Segment B: clients with some complications, Segment C: complex and disorganized clients
Job #10: Draft the tax return
Minimize the time it takes to confirm that all the information has been entered, e.g., no information is missing, etc.
Minimize the time it takes to identify the sources of error in the collected data
Minimize the time it takes to identify errors in the data entry, e.g., data that was incorrectly logged, missing values, etc.
Minimize the time it takes to correct errors in the data entry
Job #11: Confirm the accuracy of the tax return
Minimize the time it takes to determine why a variance exists between the source documents and the return
Minimize the time it takes to confirm that all the forms are considered/included when return calculations are made
Minimize the time it takes to confirm that calculations made inside the return are correct, e.g., like-kind exchange calculations, depreciation calculations, etc.
Minimize the time it takes to confirm that all the forms have been completed, e.g., all of the correct forms have been processed, etc.
Hypothesis
By providing the ability for accountants to upload tax documents directly into ProConnect Tax, we will decrease Time in Return by 10% and increase PRS by 10%.
Initial design approach
I wanted to provide the auto data import capability within the context of data entry. I utilized the drawer component that's in the tax return area where accountants can dynamically use while they are working on clients' returns. While keeping it simple, we created a leaning plan capturing all the questions that we need to get answered first.
User research
We ran user sessions to understand expectations and behaviors around uploading tax documents and importing tax data as well as to test usability of the proposed designs. We tested 8 ProConnect Tax accountants mixed of 4 users who have used apply feature via Link (Link users) and 4 users never used apply feature (Non-Link users).
Where would you go to start uploading tax documents to import data?
OBSERATION
Majority users found "Import data" at the staging area.
Lightning bolt icon wasn't clear for users.
Historically drawer has been used for Link users.
USER FEEDBACK
"I never used this (side panel)."
"This is for Intuit Link."
What documents/ forms/ files do you want to import data?
OBSERATION
All users expect IRS documents the most.
Some users expect excel files, but not everyone creating them.
Some concerns importing excel file regarding any user errors.
OBSERATION
Users love the simple upload
Users appreciate integration to bring documents into ProConnect Tax
USER FEEDBACK
"I love drag and drop. It's easy to use."
"I can import documents from Google drive? Great! I will save me time."
OBSERATION
Users have different views on Data import drawer
USER FEEDBACK
"I just need to see importable documents only."
"I will delete non-importable documents."
"I will leave them as is."
"I have tax organizer(Intuit Link) for this. I need one place."
"I'm looking for somewhere I can store all my documents."
Non-Link users' System Usability Scale (SUS) for the proposed design scores 93 and Link users' SUS scores 86.
While Non-Link users found it easy to use, Link users seemed they needed more clear understanding on viewing documents uploaded via different channels (Link vs Direct upload). Keeping this in mind, I started iterating designs.
After a couple of iteration, we provided an experience that support for both non-Link and Link users with easy switch tabs and numeric indicator for new impoort available documents. We simplified the sorting from Import status to Date of creation and provided timestamp. We show all documents types with a filter to show importable documents only that allows users to quickly view those and import.
We released this in Jul 2021 and monitored usage of this feature's impact on Time in Return and Apply throughput and also started examining additional source of data such as integration with Google Drive, Dropbobx, etc. As of Sep 10th, 2021, We were able to get 51% apply throughput for the top 10 documents with over 900 documents since Aug 1, 2021. A couple of developer partners have been researching the integration and I will be joining the team to collaborate the effort during Global Engineering Days(Nov 15 - Nov 19, 2021).
What's New Email sent out to the users on August 6, 2021
I worked with a Product Marketer to work on the content for Go-To-Market (GTM) email. We used "Direct Data Import" rather than mentioning Link to appraoch users with their benefits. Drag and drop ability strongly resonated with users in both product and marketing website.
Solving for Intuit ecosystem
We implemented IDX team's document upload widget as well as document management widget to build a cohesive one Intuit ecosystem product experience. With that, we were able to contribute to the usage of document uploads which will help broader Intuit products' experiences at scale.
QuickBooks
Data import
#Intuitecosystem #QuickBooks #BookstoTax #Prepfortaxes
"How might we easily bring QuickBooks data to create a seamless tax return experience?"
My role: Created a bridge experience where we can easily bring QuickBooks books data to help tax professionals create their clients tax return
To learn more about this, please contact me.
