How do I get QuickBooks Certified?

A QuickBooks ProAdvisor is a member of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program who has passed a certification exam and has an extensive understanding of the QuickBooks product line.

The four primary certifications are QuickBooks Pro/Premier, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks POS, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

All of QuickBooks’ study materials and exams and becoming a QuickBooks ProAdvisor are absolutely free.

QuickBooks is, without a doubt, the accounting software of choice for small businesses, as proven by its global customer base of over 2 million users and market share of more than 80%.

With statistics like these, you might be thinking about how to become QuickBooks certified for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps you’re looking for a bookkeeping career, beginning a business, or starting your own bookkeeping or accounting firm.

Alternatively, if you manage money in your own company, you may find that getting QuickBooks certified will provide you a competitive advantage.

Whatever your motivation for going the additional mile to master your accounting software, here’s everything you need to know about becoming QuickBooks certified.

At Bookkept, Australia’s leading bookkeeping and accounting firm, we have researched QuickBooks and are ready to share our findings.

Remember that this How do I become QuickBooks Certified material is meant to be generic in nature and does not constitute personal finance or accounting advice.

Keep in mind that this information is meant to be broad and does not constitute personal financial advice. To guarantee that you are getting the best guidance, you should always speak with an accountant, financial professional, or qualified tax specialist.

Why Do You Want to Become QuickBooks Certified?

Being a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor has several advantages, including useful understanding of the most popular small company accounting software. In addition, you’ll be included in the Find-a-ProAdvisor online directory and receive discounts on products and services and personalized phone and chat assistance.

Any certification requires effort, so why would you want to learn how to obtain QuickBooks certification? There are various reasons why you should get QuickBooks certification:

First, it could help you get a job

Australia’s bookkeeping industry is larger than you would assume. According to research, there are approximately 100,000 bookkeepers working in some capacity in 2021. As independent practitioners, some work full-time, while many work part-time and/or remotely. It’s a terrific job choice for a multitude of reasons, including the flexibility of hours and location, as well as the sheer range of work available. As a result, bookkeepers are a very varied group.

Your prospective employer may demand QuickBooks certification if you’re seeking for an accounting or office management career.

Even if certification isn’t needed, learning how to obtain QuickBooks certified might help you stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs. The abundance of functionality and connections with a wide range of apps and software, including specialized niches like trucking accounting software, demonstrate QuickBooks’ supremacy in the accounting software sector. In addition, having a QuickBooks certification can reassure your potential employer that you are capable of running the program, which will boost their trust in the work you do for them. You could even be able to bargain for a higher starting wage!

You’re starting a new business

Are you launching your own company and planning to bootstrap it for a while? Then, you’ll almost certainly be in charge of keeping your books up to date.

Although QuickBooks is user-friendly, you’ll want to make sure you’re using it correctly in order to keep your bookkeeping on track and provide dependable reports for your business.

When you become a QuickBooks certified end-user, you can be comfortable that you are using the program correctly and getting the most out of it.

You’re starting your bookkeeping or accounting firm

Anyone launching an accounting or bookkeeping company should have a strong foundation in accounting. However, knowing accounting theory isn’t enough—you also need to know how to run your clients’ software efficiently.

Although journal entries might potentially be used to handle a business’s bookkeeping in QuickBooks, journal entries can affect the veracity of several of QuickBooks’ subsidiary reports. Journal entries are also inefficient compared to using QuickBooks’ automation and other capabilities.

All of these capabilities and how they may make your job simpler and boost your value to your clients will be covered when you get QuickBooks certified as an accountant user.

How to Become QuickBooks Certified?

QuickBooks is one of the various types of bookkeeping software that small companies and individuals use. QuickBooks creator Intuit provides a program (named ProAdvisor) through which the firm certifies your proficiency with their software. Other QuickBooks certifications approved by Intuit are also available. While you may use these certificates to convince clients that you are familiar with and capable of utilizing QuickBooks, keep in mind that the procedure is not equivalent to traditional accounting schooling. It does not imply that you are a certified bookkeeper or accountant. You may get QuickBooks certified by understanding what the process entails and what to expect.

After you’ve learned the value of becoming a QuickBooks Certified Professional, you’ll learn how to become a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor in this part. Start your road to becoming a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor by following the simple steps below.

Create an Account with QuickBooks Online Accountant Today!

To create a free QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) account, the first thing that has to be done is some basic information input. You will be expected to give the following:

• Address for email (user ID)
• Given name
• final name
• Contact information

You will also be needed to create a password for this account. There is no need to provide sensitive information such as a credit card or any other kind.

Learn how to pass the Quickbooks ProAdvisor Certification Exam

After you register for QuickBooks Online Accountant, you’ll have free access to all study materials, webinars (live and recorded), and exams. However, to pass the exam successfully, you must prepare like you would for any other exam. The comprehensive training is broken down into seven segments, with a total of 6.5 hours spent on webinars and reviewing study materials.

Downloading the study aids to your computer is a great idea if you want to be able to follow along with the webinar and take notes at the same time. Then, in the event that you are unable to finish a webinar in a single session, the application will save your progress and make it possible for you to pick up from where you left off where you left off.

Simply log in to your QuickBooks Online Accountant account in order to gain access to the training materials and certification tests.

Attend A Training Class

The easiest way to get started on your journey to QuickBooks certification is to take our two-day Mastering QuickBooks session. Everything from setting up QuickBooks to handling money in and out, banking, payroll, and more will be covered in this lesson.

We provide lessons all across the country. In addition, you may attend a webinar from the convenience of your own home or workplace if you can’t find a class near you. Let us now assist you in finding a class that meets your needs.

The following are the primary subjects covered in the ProAdvisor certification course:

• Setting up clients: In this course, you will learn how to select the appropriate settings for the company, create new customers and vendors, construct the chart of accounts, and a variety of other topics.
• Providing assistance to your small company clients: This course will teach you how to manage client payments, bank deposits, journal entries, and more.
• Banking and instruments: You will learn how to integrate bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks in this course. Additionally, you will learn how to reconcile a bank account and set up regular transactions.
• Reports: You will learn how to edit, adapt and execute reports such as profit and loss, balance sheet, sales, and expense reports in this course.
• Managing your work: In this course, you’ll learn how to use QBOA’s practice management capabilities to set up and monitor projects for QuickBooks and non-QuickBooks customers.
• Preparing client’s books: You will learn how to prepare the books of a customer for the year-end closure during the duration of this course. In addition, you will learn how to select the most appropriate QuickBooks subscription for each of your clients with the instruction provided in this course.

We also suggest that you open QuickBooks. 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 can earn continuing professional education credits (CPE) for both live and recorded webinars, which can be used to renew your certified public accountant (CPA), enrolled agent (EA), or certified bookkeeper credentials.

Take the QuickBooks Certification Exam

The QuickBooks certification tests can be found in the same site where the training materials and webinars can be found. There is no cost associated with taking the exam, which has a total of 55 questions and is broken up into seven distinct sections. Depending on how quickly or slowly you move through each step, this could take anywhere from one to three hours. I recommend starting with the portions where you feel most assured. Do not discount the parts of the test that have the fewest questions; they are frequently the most challenging.

In order to successfully complete the certification process and get your credential, you need to provide accurate responses to at least 80 percent of the questions in each category. You have three opportunities to earn a passing grade on the exam. If you fail the examination a total of three times, you are required to wait sixty days before retaking it.

Take the Exam

You’ve nearly arrived! The QuickBooks Certification test is the final stage. You’ll have attended our class, gone over the QuickBooks study guide, and even taken the practice exam by this point. Then, finally, you’ll be prepared to hit the ball out of the park!

Determine whether or not a training course is appropriate for you. You may always attend QuickBooks training classes if you aren’t confident enough in your QuickBooks knowledge to pass your chosen certification exam. You can choose from a variety of in-person and online classes to match your schedule. Some possibilities include:

• The Intuit Academy offers official online or in-person training. However, it’s worth noting that taking the programs via Intuit does not guarantee that you’ll pass the certification exam.
• Through a properly licensed accounting firm.
• By taking a certified bookkeeping course. You may also take QuickBooks fundamentals programs at a number of authorized schools or other educational organizations. You may still develop the essential abilities with the program for your requirements using this way, especially if you’ve decided you don’t want to worry about the certification procedure.

Your ProAdvisor Profile

Being a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor has several advantages. In addition to product and service savings and personalized phone and chat assistance, you will be included in the Find-a-ProAdvisor online directory. Over 700,000 small companies use this service to find a local ProAdvisor. Every year between January and April, I get roughly two leads each week from this site.

You’ll also get a certificate of accomplishment and a certification badge, which you can put on your website, have printed on business cards, and add in your profile on other directories like our own Fit Small Business Bookkeeper Directory.

Make it a priority to complete your profile as quickly as humanly possible. Your profile includes a list of your qualification badges, a “about me” section, the amount of years you’ve been in business, the types of industries you’ve worked in, your services, and links to any social networks you belong to.

You’re undoubtedly already familiar with the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program if you work in accounting.

It’s free to become a ProAdvisor if you just work with QuickBooks Online. However, a minor yearly charge is associated with being a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, which includes access to Desktop software. If you plan to work with any of these applications, this cost offers access to the current year’s QuickBooks Desktop and Enterprise Solutions software.

Intuit offers free certification training in all QuickBooks products to all ProAdvisors, regardless of whether they pick the free or premium version. This training is available on-demand on the internet, but free virtual conferences and live training events are offered throughout the year.

QuickBooks ProAdvisors can earn certification or advanced certification in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. If you decide to pursue advanced certification, give yourself adequate time to study and take the exam. Advanced certified ProAdvisors have exhibited tremendous experience in software use and accounting knowledge, as evidenced by the advanced certification test, which includes advanced technical and troubleshooting concerns.

Training for you. Trust for your clients

We make it simple to get familiar with QuickBooks accounting tools and build abilities at your own speed, no matter where you are in your career. Use videos, webinars, virtual conferences, and in-person events to establish confidence and win your clients’ trust.

Improve your work, from where you work

From the ProAdvisor page of QuickBooks Online Accountant, you may access training resources and certification exams.

• Learn how to migrate your business and clients to the cloud.
• Practice using QuickBooks Online for your clients.
• Find time-saving applications, reports, and other resources.

Why Endeavoring to Become QuickBooks Certified Makes a Difference

There are no legal requirements to learn how to become QuickBooks certified to use the program—or any accounting software for that matter—even if you work in public accounting. Furthermore, if you operate a small business, obtaining QuickBooks certified may appear to be a waste of your already restricted time.

So, what are the advantages of QuickBooks certification?

Although the certification itself has no inherent value, finishing a QuickBooks certification course will give you with some really significant benefits. You obtain the following benefits after completing a QuickBooks certification course:

• Advanced understanding of QuickBooks. You might learn all the complexities and tactics as you go, but completing a QuickBooks certification course may significantly reduce the learning curve. Also, when you have enough free time to repair errors, trial and error is a useful learning strategy. Unfortunately, we don’t everybody have that type of spare time. We do have time for a certification course, though.
• Problem-solving abilities A comprehensive QuickBooks certification course will walk you through everything from bank feed technical difficulties to how to rectify an out-of-balance balance sheet that a journal entry can’t fix.

Self-assurance in teaching people how to use QuickBooks. When you complete a QuickBooks certification course, you’ll better grasp how to teach people to use QuickBooks, whether you’re a business owner employing someone to operate QuickBooks in-house or an accountant or bookkeeper giving training services to your clients. This will make you a better trainer—and a valuable member of the QuickBooks community—leading to greater success with your workers or clients.

How Often Do I Have to Take the Certification Exam?

During my conversation, I addressed this question to her. Her response to this question was:

“One of the improvements made to the certification exam released in March 2018 was a simplified recertification process. In the past, the recertification date was based on your anniversary date as a ProAdvisor. Now, we have made it simple by having everyone recertify by July 31 each year. Besides, the recertification exam only includes information about new features and functionality that has been added within the last year. The new recertification exam takes approximately one hour to complete.”

Am I a Certified Bookkeeper After Passing This Exam?

Unfortunately, becoming a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor does not make you a certified bookkeeper. It simply says that you are knowledgeable in QuickBooks products. However, if you are interested in becoming a certified bookkeeper.

At this point, you ought to be in possession of more than sufficient knowledge to go to the next phase and become a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. If you’re not sure whether or not to join up for a free account with QuickBooks Online, all you need to do is complete the first step. You are not required to obtain a certification in any capacity. On the other hand, if you want to expand your QuickBooks knowledge and capabilities, you need finish the remaining steps to get certified.