I've already been called one. Twice, actually, for two different reasons.
Partly for attending a Xero conference after more than a decade of drinking the QuickBooks green Kool-Aid. Partly for being a Canadian travelling to the United States at a time when a lot of Canadians are choosing not to.
Both deserve an honest answer.
On the second one first
I'm not going because I'm ignoring what's happening between our countries. I'm going because relationships matter most when they're complicated.
The same is true in business, which is most of what this is about.
I wasn't a customer. I was community.
For more than a decade I wasn't merely a QuickBooks customer. I remember when Akshay walked into my office for our first Follow Me Home. I went to the conferences. I gave feedback. I defended Intuit when other people complained.
I genuinely believed we were building the future of accounting together.
Somewhere along the way the relationship changed.
The accounting community started to feel less like the customer and more like the sales channel. Price increases became routine. Direct-to-consumer services blurred the line between partner and competitor. Products appeared, changed or disappeared, and firms were left explaining the mess to clients.
To be fair
Intuit has recently made moves that suggest it's listening again. Retiring QuickBooks Live matters.
But after years of frustration it feels a bit like getting flowers after your partner forgot several anniversaries. Nice gesture. Still some explaining to do.
So what am I actually looking for
I'm not arriving as a convert. I'm arriving as a curious skeptic, with four questions:
- Does Xero genuinely see accountants and bookkeepers as partners?
- Is the commitment to community built into the business, or into the marketing?
- Can the technology automate the boring work while keeping advisors at the centre?
- Is it ready to compete seriously for Canadian firms and their clients?
Software companies can copy features. They can match prices. They can add AI to almost anything, including, apparently, the office toaster.
What they cannot easily copy is trust.
That's what I'll be looking for. Not another feature announcement. Not another shiny AI demo. Evidence that this community has a real seat at the table.
QuickBooks shaped a big part of my career and I'm not pretending otherwise. Visiting Xerocon doesn't erase that. Visiting the United States doesn't make me less Canadian.
Listening is not betrayal. Curiosity is not disloyalty. And loyalty should never mean refusing to ask whether something better is possible.