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There is a lot of money to be made as an independent QuickBooks ProAdvisor. The program offers many benefits and flexibility that can help you make plenty of extra cash on the side, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. If you have decided to become certified in QuickBooks ProAdvisors, here are some tips for making sure your certification lasts long-term
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor is someone who has joined the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program and completed a certification test and is knowledgeable with the QuickBooks product line. QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Premier, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks POS, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions are the four main certifications. All of the training tools, including self-guided modules, webinars, and live course alternatives, are absolutely free to become a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Your ProAdvisor credential indicates a better understanding of the software by enrolling in the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program and passing the test. It may assist you to advance your financial consulting business and gain client confidence as well as access to a network of new clients. It will also boost your efficiency and, as a result, your practice’s success.
To take the certification test, you don’t need any prior experience in accounting or bookkeeping, nor do you require any academic education. To become a certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, you must pass an 81-question test with an 80 percent or higher passing score. To prepare for the test, most individuals should budget at least 12 to 16 hours of study time. If you don’t pass the first time, you may retake the test up to three times.
You may choose to get certified in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or both, depending on your customers’ requirements. While QuickBooks Online is ideal for businesses with several users or who need remote access, QuickBooks Desktop enables you to manage multiple businesses. The QuickBooks Desktop Premier Contractors Edition is also adaptable enough to meet the demands of farmers and ranchers as well as construction enterprises.
The five stages to become a certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor are as follows.
1. Create an account using QuickBooks Online Accountant.
You’ll get a free QuickBooks Online Accountant membership when you sign up, which you may use for your personal accounting as well as accessing your customers’ QuickBooks Online accounts. From inside QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can manage your ProAdvisor account and certification.
Sign in to QuickBooks Online Accountant
To establish a free QuickBooks Online Accountant account, the first step is to supply some basic information. You’ll be prompted to give the following information:
- Contact information through email (user ID)
- First and the last name
- Phone number
You’ll need to use the same password if you’ve previously used your email account for any Intuit product, such as QuickBooks or TurboTax. You’ll be prompted to establish a new password if you’ve never used an Intuit product before. There is no need to provide a credit card number or any other sensitive information.
2. Study for the ProAdvisor Certification Exam in QuickBooks.
You receive free access to all study materials, webinars (live and recorded), and examinations after you establish your QuickBooks Online Accountant account. To pass this test, you must prepare as you would for any other. To begin the training, go to the ProAdvisor link in your QuickBooks Online Accountant screen’s left menu bar and choose the Training option. You can discover courses for all of the QuickBooks products here, which will help you prepare for the certification examinations.
You’ll need a basic comprehension of fundamental accounting concepts as well as familiarity with the QuickBooks Online Accountant system to pass the test. Although the training course prepares you for both, it is not required. If you already know this information, you may go on to the exam and get your certification. You may earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits while studying for the certification test, which is required to keep your certified public accountant (CPA) license current.
You are not required to finish all of the modules in a single sitting. The system remembers where you left off at the conclusion of a session, allowing you to resume where you left off later. These beginner courses aren’t necessary for certification, but they’re very useful if you’ve never used QuickBooks Online before.
Accountants may use QuickBooks Online.
The Introduction to QuickBooks Online Accountant course consists of seven learning modules, which can be completed in about five hours and will earn you four CPE credits. The topics covered in the Accountants may use QuickBooks Online. course are:
- How to Begin Using QuickBooks Online Accountant: Sign up for QuickBooks Online Accountant and learn about the dashboard and navigation toolbar’s essential features.
- Your client’s QuickBooks Online: Learn how to browse your client’s QuickBooks Online and get an introduction to processes.
- Customers and sales: Add customers, make sales receipts, create online invoices, and record collected payments.
- Costs and vendors: Get an overview of the Expense and Vendor processes, as well as the Expenses center, and learn how to record expenses, as well as input and pay invoices.
- Learn how to leverage bank feeds and how to create best-practice bank feed processes.
- Review the Chart of Accounts and Products and Services list, which serves as the foundation for constructing basic reports.
- Adding clients to QuickBooks Online Accountant: Examine the various subscription tiers and techniques to add a client to QuickBooks Online Accountant.
Certification for QuickBooks Online
Certification for QuickBooks Online.
The QuickBooks Online course is made up of eight learning modules that take roughly 12.5 hours to complete and provide 9.5 CPE credits. The QuickBooks Pro Online course covers the following topics:
- Understanding your customers’ requirements to advise them on the best QuickBooks Online subscription option, learning how to set up a QuickBooks Online account, and discussing billing features with clients are all examples of QuickBooks Online solutions for clients.
- Select the appropriate business settings, establish new customers and suppliers, set up bank feeds, construct the chart of accounts, and more during client onboarding.
- Additional client onboarding tasks: Discover how to administer applications on behalf of your client, complete a basic sales tax setup, change payment settings and sales forms, and more.
- Taking care of your customers and your work: Learn how to use QuickBooks Online Accountant’s practice management capabilities, as well as how to set up and monitor projects for both QuickBooks and non-QuickBooks customers.
- Use tools like undeposited money, estimations, purchase orders, vendor credits, and more to help your small company customers.
- Connect bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks, reconcile bank accounts, set up regular transactions, track receipts and invoices, and more.
- Edit, and run reports such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and sales and expenditure reports.
- Prepare a client’s books for the year-end closure by closing the accounting cycle.
Advanced QuickBooks Online Certification
Advanced QuickBooks Online Certification
The QuickBooks Online Advanced course is made up of 10 learning modules that take roughly 13 hours to complete and provide 9.5 CPE credits. The QuickBooks Online Advanced course covers the following topics:
- Learn about class, location, and job tracking; create projects with advanced classification.
- Advanced capabilities include the ability to work with billable expenditures and time, as well as the ability to construct delayed charges, pricing regulations, and more.
- Advanced banking: Learn how to import and export bank rules, as well as identify best practices for troubleshooting frequent difficulties that jeopardize reconciliations.
- Customize reports, schedule reports, and deal with business and management reports using advanced reporting.
- Set up, monitor, and manage inventory, as well as alter inventory and values.
- Learn how QuickBooks Online’s automatic taxing system works, including how it analyzes data to compute state and local responsibilities.
- Learn how to manage failed checks and insufficient money, as well as other advanced applications for recurring transactions.
- Multicurrency: Keep track of your customers’ international business transactions in several currencies and learn how to handle issues.
- End-of-period tasks include reviewing lists, resolving undeposited cash concerns, troubleshooting inventory balances and control accounts, preparing for taxes, and more.
- Complex conversions: Assist customers in migrating their QuickBooks Desktop businesses to QuickBooks Online, including data import and purge.
If you prefer live teaching, you may find a list of all forthcoming QuickBooks courses on the agenda. Make sure to download the study materials to your computer before attending a live session so you can follow along with the teacher. You may earn CPE credits for both the live and recorded webinars, which you can use to renew your CPA, enrolled agent (EA), or certified bookkeeper qualifications.
3. Pass the QuickBooks Certification Examination
You can access the QuickBooks certification exams by clicking on Take exam in the upper-right corner of the Certification for QuickBooks Online list of courses, as shown in the above screenshot. There is no cost to take the exam, which has a total of 81 questions, broken down into six sections. It should take approximately three and a half hours to complete all six sections.
You may examine your answers for a specific area during the test before finalizing the submission. Each section’s exam, on the other hand, must be completed in one sitting. To get your certification, you must properly answer at least 80% of the questions in each area. To pass the test, you have three chances. If you fail the test three times, you will have to wait 60 days to take it again.
This is an open-book test, so make sure your study guide is open to the part you’re taking. QuickBooks should also be open so that you may quickly access it if required.
4. Fill out your ProAdvisor profile completely.
Make a point of finishing your profile as soon as feasible. Your profile contains your qualification badges, an “about me” section, the number of years you’ve been in the company, the services you provide, any sectors you’ve worked in, and your social network connections.
Advantages of Working as a ProAdvisor
There are several advantages to being a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. You’ll be included in the Find-a-ProAdvisor online directory in addition to receiving discounts on goods and services and personalized phone and chat assistance. This gives you the opportunity to engage with new customers, grow your client list, and win their confidence.
As you gain more points, your ProAdvisor Profile rises in the rankings. As you climb the ranks, you’ll be able to expand your company and take advantage of additional program perks, such as discounts, product support, and training opportunities. Here’s a rundown of the other benefits:
- Your ProAdvisor accreditation symbol should be prominently displayed on your website, emails, and business cards.
- Increase your profile ranking and reputation by boosting your credibility.
- With QuickBooks software, you can distinguish yourself as a genuine expert.
- Get unlimited phone help from QuickBooks specialists in the United States.
- Get items and materials for free or at a reduced price.
You may add QuickBooks Desktop to your subscription for $449 per year if you intend to serve customers that use QuickBooks Desktop instead of Online products. You also get the following advantages in addition to the ones we’ve already mentioned:
- QuickBooks Desktop software worth $5,000
- You may pass on a 30% discount on QuickBooks software to your customers.
- Expert chat and phone assistance from the United States
- For QuickBooks desktop products, training resources are available.
- Certification for QuickBooks desktop products is available.
It is incredibly useful to get certified in QuickBooks if you are a bookkeeper or accountant that provides accounting and payroll services. QuickBooks controls more than 80% of the market for accounting software used by small companies, which means that QuickBooks will be used by the vast majority of your customers.
Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How often must I take the Certification Exam?
The frequency of recertification depends on the kind of certification you have:
- To remain a Gold Level member, you must be certified in one of the three most current editions of the QuickBooks Desktop Certification or have been certified in QuickBooks Online within the last year. However, in order to give the greatest level of expertise and assistance to your customers, we suggest that you upgrade your QuickBooks certification status on a yearly basis. In the top area of the QuickBooks Find-a-ProAdvisor website, only members who are certified in the most recent version of QuickBooks are included.
- Certification for QuickBooks Online: Your Certification for QuickBooks Online is valid until July 31 of the following year. We recommend that you take the updated exam each year to stay current. As with QuickBooks Desktop Certification, members who are certified on the latest version of QuickBooks Online are listed in the top section of the QuickBooks Find-a-ProAdvisor website.
- QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certification: You will never need to retake the QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certification exam, and you will remain Advanced Certified as long as you keep your annual QuickBooks Desktop Certification and complete the required nine CPE credits of ACE-approved training every three years.
2. If I pass this exam, will I be a Certified Bookkeeper?
Unfortunately, being a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor does not automatically qualify you as a bookkeeper. It merely shows that you are familiar with QuickBooks products.
3. Is the $449 add-on fee for QuickBooks Desktop ProAdvisor a one-time fee?
It’s a yearly price of $449 to add QuickBooks Desktop to your ProAdvisor membership. You’ll get all of the new desktop software for that year as well as quick access to QuickBooks Online Accountant upgrades in exchange.
4. Is it necessary for me to sign a contract?
There aren’t any agreements to sign. Your subscription may be canceled at any time.
Conclusion
This information should help you go forward with becoming a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. To learn more about this option, go ahead and join up for a free QuickBooks Online account.
