As a lifelong learner, I pride myself on being up to date on all the latest and greatest tech, and that includes our accounting software. I figured if I’m going to use this software daily, I should know it inside and out. Which led me down the path to becoming a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor. I grabbed a few friends, set a goal and took it to the next level by becoming an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor.
And honestly, I can’t really say that my clients care about this title, but for me, it was the pride I have in being super knowledgeable on the tool I use. But it was important for me to get certified so I could truly understand how to do my job efficiently and troubleshoot whenever I had issues. I also wanted to be able to advise my clients about the features they needed to take advantage of on the platform that they are paying for. And last, it didn’t hurt that I got a listing in the ProAdvisor directory as an expert to potential new clients.
I’ll be honest here. Renewing my certification was not something I looked forward to because the old site was clunky and I couldn’t do the training from my tablet. Y’all know I love some mobile options and the old site just didn’t deliver. I can’t be the only person who felt that way, right??!!??
Well, I’m happy to announce that ProAdvisor training and certification has gotten a refresh, and it’s now called ProAdvisor Academy. And now I’m actually looking forward to renewing my ProAdvisor certification with the new updates.
I got a behind-the-scenes peek at the new Academy and its programs — and there are a few key updates that I think you should know about.
Clearer QuickBooks Online certification paths – The reimagined QuickBooks Online certification programs haves been broken down into 2 distinct paths – Level 1 and Level 2. If you have been through the program before, then you may know these paths as the regular ProAdvisor certification and the advanced certification. Level 1 is focused on teaching you the why, what, and how of delivering end-to-end accounting workflows in QuickBooks Online while Level 2 dives into the more sophisticated workflows and features you’ll leverage when delivering more complex accounting.
In Level 1 you can expect to dive into the key sections of the QBO platform like Sales and Customers, Expenses and Vendors, Banking and Books Review.
In Level 2 you will dive even deeper in those sections, learn how to troubleshoot and spend some time talking about reporting.
Both certification levels will focus on how you can deliver those advisory moments. And as a bonus, you will gain practical insights on how your virtual colleagues like me are delivering these moments for our clients🙂
Less time – The content of the new certification classes has been streamlined to cut out material that’s not relevant to how we work today. The new and improved content is saving over 18.5 hours across both levels. The goal here was to share content that is actually useful today and not on teachings you may never use in the future.
À la carte experience – Another feature of the new Academy is that you don’t have to take it all at one time. My team has grown this year and I’m excited that I can create a learning path for newer staff that may not involve them taking the full-blown certification immediately. This gives me an opportunity to allow these new team members to master the content with actual life experience before moving on to the next phase of their onboarding training with my firm.
Besides the ProAdvisor certifications, you can also expect to see a new bookkeeper certification offering over 30 hours of robust training on accounting principles. The goal of this certification is to empower those non-traditional accounting professionals to gain the accounting knowledge they need to feel more confident in serving their clients.
But wait there’s more! There is also a payroll certification promising to prepare you to confidently deliver payroll services to your clients by coaching you on payroll fundamentals.
I am excited about this new training portal as it will help widen the talent pool for me. Not only do I plan to put my bookkeepers through this training, I also plan on putting my administrative team through it so they can have a better understanding of what our accounting team does. I’m hoping it will help them support the team a little better and to help them not look so confused when we discuss our client highlights during the weekly team meeting.
The goals of this new academy is to really help you onboard your new hires, keep your team engaged and to help you build and retain a high-performing team. Intuit heard you when you said you needed resources to do these things, and I believe they are listening.
To get started with the new academy, all you need to login to your QuickBooks Online Accountant account head over to the ProAdvisor menu and then Training. You can also visit proadvisoracademy.intuit.com.
Good luck and let me know if you see a familiar face or two after you’ve gone through the training 😉
* This post is a paid partnership with Intuit.
