Intuit announced a number of new features and improvements at the annual QuickBooks Connect user conference, including:

• QuickBooks Capital (<— video), which offers credit to businesses by analyzing their QuickBooks Online data
• An easier sign up process for QuickBooks Payments, which will also soon allow for PayPal and Apple Pay
• Direct deposit within 24 hours via QuickBooks Full Service Payroll
• QuickBooks Assistant (<— video), a chatbot that users can query for questions about their QB data. Currently available in QuickBooks Self-Employed, and coming to QBO in the next few months
• Automatic expense coding through machine learning in the QuickBooks Self-Employed edition
• Improvements to search in the the Find-A-ProAdvisor platform, including a category for tax professionals
• Provisioning and management of QuickBooks third-party apps inside of the accountant portal (currently in beta)
• The Lighter Capital Intuit Development Fund, a $15 million dollar fund for developers designing apps for QuickBooks