QuickBooks New Small Business Index
According to CPA Practice Advisor, Intuit, the software developer famous for products like QuickBooks, TurboTax and Credit Karma, has launched a small business index. The index pulls data from the US, UK and Canada to form a monthly report regarding employment and hiring throughout small businesses. These insights can be used to indicate financial health and current / upcoming trends.
Global economists hope to use the report for policy making and comparing against different government reports. These reports will offer new insights for policy makers, lawmakers and small businesses to make better decisions. Oftentimes, small businesses are underrepresented in government issued economy reports and this will certainly help change that.
How Does QuickBooks Make an Index?
The index uses anonymous data from QuickBooks records in addition to official records from each participating country's labor bureau. It is important to note that the index is not made from Intuit's performance, but instead, a random sample of over 400,000 small businesses. Intuit goes into more detail regarding their sample technique here.
Key Insights
- February 2023 employed .06% fewer people than the previous month
- Largest decreasing sectors were:
- Information
- Manufacturing
- Finance / real estate
- Largest Increasing sectors were:
- Utilities
- Natural resources/ mining
- Hospitality
- Largest drop in US employment by state:
- Delaware
- D.C.
- Maryland
- New Jersey
- New York
- Pennsylvania
Insights are added every month. To subscribe and view the monthly reports visit QuickBooks Blog
Who’s in Charge of This Index?
Global economist, Professor Ufuk Akcigit from the University of Chicago is responsible for extracting and interpreting the small business data from Intuit. Dr. Akcigt, is the head of of the research group: The Economic Gap between East and West Germany & Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
Importance of Small Business Index?
Naturally, the small business index focuses on small businesses. It sheds a much needed light on micro vs macro in the business world. Instead of policies being decided solely on well funded and lobbied multi billion dollar companies, policy makers can also get an equally important snap shot of every day businesses that also represent the economy.
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