Intuit launched QuickBooks for small businesses in 1992.
Intuit had already developed Quicken, personal-finance software aimed largely at household users. QuickBooks extended that software experience to entrepreneurs and small firms that needed to track income, expenses, invoices, and other routine business records without using complex corporate accounting systems.
The product became one of the best-known examples of software designed specifically for smaller enterprises. Its growth reflected a broader shift from paper ledgers and desktop bookkeeping practices toward affordable software that business owners could operate themselves.
QuickBooks is sometimes confused with Sage or Xero because all three serve small-business accounting markets. The question refers specifically to the company that created QuickBooks, not to the year the wider Intuit corporation was founded. Intuit itself was established in 1983, while QuickBooks followed nearly a decade later.