Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Get the answers to the most common questions people have about the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index.

What is the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index?

The Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index is a timely new measure of small business employment and hiring in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. updated monthly here on the QuickBooks blog. Employment is a key indicator of the health of the small business economy. The Index has been developed in collaboration with leading economist Professor Ufuk Akcigit and an international team of researchers and academics.

What does the Index show?

In the U.S. and Canada, the Index shows the total number of people employed by small businesses in the previous month, as well as the monthly growth rates. Each month, the Index will reveal if there has been a growth or decline in the number of people who are employed by small businesses in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.K., the Index shows the total number of job vacancies at small businesses in the previous month, and monthly growth rates. Each month, the Index will reveal if there has been a growth or decline in the number of job vacancies at small businesses in the U.K.

Please note: The Index uses purpose-built economic models to normalize anonymized QuickBooks data against official government statistics to reflect the general population of small businesses in each country; it is not a reflection of Intuit’s business. This rigorous methodology expands Intuit’s ability to more clearly delineate between Intuit’s small business customers and the small business community at-large, while also providing a powerful new tool that can inform policy decisions that impact small businesses around the globe, as well as to help small businesses make key decisions.

What is new and important about the Index?

The number of small businesses, the jobs they create, and the innovations they bring make them vitally important to the economy—but ​it’s often challenging to get access to meaningful data on small businesses. This means they risk being under- or misrepresented in most data reporting currently available today, which makes it harder to give them the support they need to succeed. 

The Index methodology is robust and stands out from other reports in the market by being calibrated against official statistics and focusing exclusively on small businesses while also eliminating publication delays. Unlike other small business indexes, it does not rely exclusively on survey data. Instead, anonymized QuickBooks Payroll records are aggregated and normalized against official government statistics before publication using purpose-built economic models created by Professor Akcigit and his international team of independent economists. This means the Index can provide a near real-time reflection of hiring and employment in the small business economy—rather than trends only in the QuickBooks customer base—just a few days after small businesses run payroll.

How does the Index define a “small business”?

The Index publishes the latest employment and hiring data insights for the smallest businesses in the economy. Sometimes these are described as “micro businesses.”

In the U.S. and the U.K., the Index focuses on small businesses with one to nine employees because this is the best match between Intuit QuickBooks data and official statistics. For example, the smallest business categories used by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics are those with 1-4 employees and 5-9 employees. The Index combines these two groups together into a single group of businesses with 1-9 employees. In the U.K., similarly, the smallest business category used by the Office for National Statistics is 1-9 employees.

In Canada, the Index focuses on small businesses with one to 19 employees because, again, this is the best match between Intuit QuickBooks data and official statistics. For example, the smallest business categories used by Statistics Canada are those with 1-4 employees and 5-19 employees. The Index combines these two groups together into a single group of businesses with 1-19 employees.

What are the sample sizes used in the Index?

The Index sample sizes are large—especially in the U.S. and Canada, where QuickBooks is a leading solution for small businesses. Our sample sizes fluctuate each month because they are dependent on businesses using the QuickBooks Payroll platform and require statistical adjustment to ensure the Index truly reflects broad employment and job vacancy changes rather than trends only in the QuickBooks customer base. In total, the Index sample is around 424,000 small businesses across all three countries, comprising roughly:

• 333,000 small businesses in the U.S. with one to nine employees
• 66,000 small businesses in Canada with one to 19 employees
• 25,000 small businesses in the U.K. with one to nine employees

What data sources does the Index use?

The Index uses QuickBooks anonymized data to create aggregated data outputs which are normalized against official statistics to reflect the general population of small businesses in each country, rather than only the QuickBooks customer base. It has been designed to create a richer, more timely economic indicator than those currently available.

What QuickBooks data is used?

The Index uses anonymized payroll data from QuickBooks customer accounts presented in aggregated statistical compilations which have been normalized against official statistics to reflect the wider population of small businesses in each country. This, coupled with rigorous data privacy safeguards means individual businesses are never identified (more info on Intuit’s privacy practices can be found here), and that the Index data reflects the performance of the national small business economy as a whole, not the performance of the QuickBooks customer base. 

By using anonymized data and then aggregating the data, the Index reveals the latest small business employment and hiring trends at the national, sector, and regional levels and protects the privacy of QuickBooks customers. 

How is the QuickBooks data collected? 

The first step begins with QuickBooks customers when they enter their data into their QuickBooks accounts each time they run payroll. Before it’s used in the Index, this data is anonymized, normalized against official statistics, and aggregated to create national, regional, or sector averages. By working with anonymous data and only publishing aggregated insights—which create average or median values across large samples of small businesses—it’s impossible to identify any individuals or individual businesses in the Index.

What official statistics are used?

To normalize the QuickBooks data so the Index reflects the broader population of small businesses rather than the QuickBooks customer base, the following external data sources are used in the Index’s economic models:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics (BED) and monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) 
• Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Surveys
• U.K. Office of National Statistics monthly Vacancy Survey 

A detailed methodology is available here on the QuickBooks blog, showing how these data sources are used and what calculations are made to produce rigorous, reliable results.

Where does the monthly Index data live?

The Index is available here on the QuickBooks blog, featuring:

• Interactive data visualizations, including heat maps and line charts, with data insights available by country, region, and sector. Aggregated data will be available to download for free, without subscription, from our data visualizations.
• Monthly posts, published at the beginning of every month, with latest data for the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Aggregated data will be available to download for free, without subscription, from our data visualizations.
• Methodology summary alongside a detailed white paper written by Professor Akcigit’s team which will be available to download.
• Publication calendar with future release dates alongside Intuit contacts for media enquiries.
• An “About the team” page with biographies and headshots of the economists on Professor Akcigit’s team.
• Plus, video summaries explaining the methodology and data protection processes.

How will the Index data insights be shared?

As described above, the Index data insights and methodology live here on the QuickBooks blog. In addition, it will be shared on Intuit's blog, in press releases, media interviews, events, speeches, emails to policymakers, emails to QuickBooks customers, social media posts, and more to ensure the data insights are shared as widely as possible.

Will the Index be gated or free to access without data collection?

The Index will be free to access for the foreseeable future without any subscription requirements or data collection. It’s intended as a resource for everyone to use.

When will the Monthly Index be published?

The Index will be published as early as possible each month, typically during the first week, with the latest data insights on small business employment and hiring trends in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Get a full list of publication dates here.

What is new and important about this data?

The number of small businesses, the jobs they create, and the innovations they bring make them vitally important to the economy—but ​it’s often challenging to get access to meaningful data on small businesses. With the Index, Intuit QuickBooks aims to provide timely data insights using proprietary data benchmarked against official statistics. Combining anonymized payroll data with official statistics helps to eliminate almost all of the time lags that can come with administrative data. And, unlike other small business indexes, this analysis does not rely exclusively on survey samples but on anonymized payroll records processed just days before the Index is updated every month.

Why did Intuit create the Index?

Intuit QuickBooks wants to help small businesses grow and prosper by giving them the world’s best data insights alongside resources that help them to overcome the challenges they face. A longer-term goal is to further support economic growth and prosperity by positively shaping government policy on small businesses’ behalf and by leading the discussion about small businesses in the media, on social media, and at high-profile events around the world. The Index has the potential to give everyone with an interest in the health of the small business economy—from small business owners to policy makers—the insights they need to make more informed decisions.

What is Intuit’s role in creating the Index?

Intuit QuickBooks provides the critical, unique small business data used to power the Index and commissioned the development of the economic models which normalize this data to make it reflect the national small business economies of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., rather than the QuickBooks customer base. The Index lives here on the QuickBooks blog where new anonymized and aggregated data is added at the beginning of each month.

Who is Professor Ufuk Akcigit?

Ufuk Akcigit is the Arnold C. Harberger Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is an elected Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Center for Economic Policy Research, and the Center for Economic Studies, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Koc University. Read more about Professor Ufuk Akcigit here.

What is Professor Akcigit’s role in creating the Index?

The Index has been developed in collaboration with world-renowned economist, Professor Ufuk Akcigit and his international team of independent economists. Together, they created purpose-built, proprietary economic models which power the Index to make it truly reflective of the current small business economy—with data insights available by country, region, and sector. It does not reflect Intuit’s QuickBooks business.

Why did Intuit decide to collaborate with Professor Akcigit?

As a world-renowned economist, Professor Ufuk Akcigit is a leading specialist in small business innovation, entrepreneurship, macroeconomics, and firm dynamics. He shares Intuit’s passion for small businesses and desire to help them succeed. He has the international expertise and, with the support of his team, the resources required to build an Index in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

How is this Index different to the previous Small Business Index that QuickBooks published until 2015?

Until 2015, Intuit published a previous instance of the Small Business Index which was also updated monthly to show small business employment trends. The major differences between the new Index and the previous version are that it now covers the U.K. and Canada as well as the U.S. and uses an updated methodology which was developed by an international team of economists who were chosen both for their expertise and their familiarity with the economies of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

How is this Index different to the other data insights QuickBooks shares related to customer trends?

The major difference between the Index and the other data insights Intuit QuickBooks shares related to customer trends is that the Index does not reflect the QuickBooks business because it uses purpose-built economic models to normalize the anonymized QuickBooks Payroll customer data against official statistics. This means the Index reflects the small business economy as a whole, not the QuickBooks customer base.

What is the methodology for the Index?

The Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index creates aggregated data outputs from anonymized QuickBooks customer payroll records which are calibrated using statistical methods to better reflect the general population of small businesses in each country, as represented by published official statistics. Statistical adjustment ensures the Index truly reflects employment and job vacancy changes rather than trends in the QuickBooks customer base. Get the full methodology here.

How do the data sources differ between the countries?

All the non-QuickBooks data used to produce the Index comes from official government sources:

• The U.S. employment and regional boundary data comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• The Canadian employment and regional boundary data comes from Statistics Canada. 
• The U.K. job vacancy and sector/industry classification data comes from the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics.
• For both the U.S. and Canada, the Index uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to define the different sectors and industries.

All the anonymized QuickBooks data used to create the Index’s aggregated data insights has been entered by small businesses when they run their payroll to pay employees and related taxes. Derived from this, in combination with official statistics, are the number of employees per country, region, and industry, and monthly changes in employment. In the U.K., unlike in the U.S. and Canada, this data is used to predict job vacancies rather than employment because official employment statistics are not currently available to use as a benchmark, but job vacancy data is available.

Why do the total employment levels and growth rates sometimes differ?

The Index produces a monthly prediction of employment growth rates by country, region and sector. In order to translate these growth rates into the number of jobs/vacancies gained or lost, the growth rates are multiplied by the prior month’s predicted employment levels, except during the months when official statistics are published. During those months, the latest official employment levels that have been reported are used in the calculation instead of the Index’s prior month’s predicted employment levels. Official statistics are published at different frequencies depending on the country.

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