Intuit first made the global capabilities available in July but didn't publicize it much until now, preferring to go with a soft launch in case any kinks needed to be worked out, according to Alex Lintner, president of Intuit's Global Business Division.

Early interest has been strong. Users in some 130 countries are now using QuickBooks Online, apparently due to word of mouth and Intuit's brand recognition around the world, according to Lintner.

He declined to say how many total new signups had occurred, however. "We don't want to talk about user numbers yet, but we're positively surprised," he said. There's been particular interest in India, Germany and Saudi Arabia, Lintner said. Intuit is starting to do some search engine optimization in the countries where it saw the highest demand, he added.

Previously, QuickBooks Online was only available in a handful of countries. It was launched about 10 years ago in the U.S. "for that early adopter crowd that wanted to go online 10 years ago," Lintner said. "It's hard to imagine now, but there weren't that many of them then."

While the global version can recognize a user's geographic location and makes some changes accordingly, things like local tax rates must be configured manually by the user.