Welcome to QuickBooks® Online Community, an online neighborhood of small businesses at QuickBooksGroup.com. Population: 20,000 and growing.

While conventional neighborhoods attract residents with promises of pools, parks or parties, those flocking to this new community are all business. In fact, they're all about small business. QuickBooksGroup.com was developed by Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) to give the approximately 3 million small business owners who use QuickBooks a forum to talk, shop and share advice on using retail's best-selling accounting software. Rather than shouting over the back fence to discuss fixing leaky faucets or controlling crabgrass, QuickBooksGroup.com members go online to help each other on topics ranging from accounts payable to W-2s. Participants include everyone from architects to theater owners to retailers to churches and they're chatting at a rate of 500 posts a day.

"Small businesses have always sought advice from one another, but gaining easy access to peer insight can be challenging," said Ray Boggs, vice president of small and medium business research at IDC. "The QuickBooks Online Community bridges the gap between small businesses and provides the personal connection of word-of-mouth, combined with the convenience of the Internet."

Business-Oriented Amenities
The QuickBooks Community is a series of discussion forums organized by industry and issues, from payroll to inventory. QuickBooks customers use the site to share experiences, solicit and receive advice and to find new products designed specifically for them.

"As a small business owner QuickBooks Community has become my lifeline," said Elaine Middlestetter of Concept Company, Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. "As the sole person responsible for all financial duties of a seven-person advertising and marketing communications firm, I am regularly faced with offbeat accounting or program questions and the QuickBooks Community message board is a perfect venue for me to get quick and relevant advice from my peers."

Easy access to valuable resources helps small businesses connect with local accountants, the United States Small Business Administrations' Small Business Development Centers and find additional content from expert news sources and information sites. Group discussions provide a wealth of knowledge where small businesses can find information that is tailored to their individual need. Discussion boards are organized into several categories to help users find the exact information they need, including:

• Businesses Like Yours, where architects, contractors, churches, eBay e-tailers, florists, insurance agencies, landscapers, law firms, plumbers, property managers, real estate sales agents, restaurants, sole proprietors and theater companies can trade advice unique to their business.
• Products and Services, where users get answers on the full line of QuickBooks products designed to meet specific customer needs, including Contractor Edition, Customer Manager, Enterprise Solutions, Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition, Mac Merchant Services, Nonprofit Edition, Online Edition, Payroll Services, Point of Sale, QuickBooks for Mac, Retail Edition and Simple Start.
• Task Boards, where participants share information about day-to-day chores, including year-end bookkeeping, accounts payable and vendors, accounts receivable and customers, importing and exporting data, installation, back-up, conversions, inventory, invoicing, multi-user, payroll, printing and reports.
• Ask the Expert Forums, where customers can ask specialists anything from how to more effectively manage their finances, use QuickBooks more efficiently or learn which QuickBooks product is right for them, in regularly hosted free forums. Customers can post questions at any time and an expert will respond with a timely and relevant answer.

Friendly, Fast-Growing Neighborhood
Between January and July 2005, QuickBooksGroup.com registration swelled from 7,000 to nearly 20,000. "This is the kind of population explosion we like to see," said Paul Rosenfeld, community leader and general manager of QuickBooks Online Edition. "Each new registrant brings more knowledge to the community and makes the neighborhood that much more attractive. In this community knowledge is free, plentiful and powerful."

Committed to Success
Creating the Community is part of QuickBooks' 15-year commitment to simplify life for small businesses and solve problems. "Running a small business isn't easy. It is always easier when neighbors lend a hand to help each other," added Rosenfeld. "The QuickBooks Community offers a place for businesses to gather and create success. We are excited to cultivate that success and watch as the neighborhood grows to a village, the village to a city and beyond!"