Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be exploring updates to the ProAdvisor program. Now you can access career spanning training and certification from ProAdvisor Academy to start your career, elevate your expertise, and grow your firm.
Here's what to expect. You'll see the update in action, then hear from ProAdvisors Dan Luthi and Carla Caldwell. Hey, ProAdvisors, I'm Jaclyn, and you're watching In the Know. It's the show designed to keep you in the know on the most exciting updates to QuickBooks Online.
So here's the scoop. We heard that ProAdvisor training and certification was unengaging, hands off, hard to apply to real world scenarios, and that the portal itself was hard to navigate. So here's what we did. We've launched ProAdvisor Academy, your new home for complementary training and certification. In the academy, you can dive into our re-imagined QuickBooks Online certifications, which now offer engaging, hands-on learning that contextualizes how to use the platform in service of your accounting workflows so that you can work efficiently and effectively. You can now explore the newly introduced Intuit bookkeeping certification, a free, 30-hour self-paced program that teaches accounting fundamentals so you can start and grow in your career with confidence. You can take the courses at your own time and at your own pace, all while earning CPE credits and ProAdvisor points.
And now for the Fast Facts:
- ProAdvisor Academy is available to all ProAdvisors as a complementary benefit of the ProAdvisor program.
- You can access the Academy by logging into QuickBooks Online Accountant, then clicking ProAdvisor, then training.
- This update has been live in the US as of October 2024.
If you find this update interesting or helpful, go ahead and like, comment, and subscribe.
All right, let me take you for a spin of the Academy. So to log into the Academy, I'll first log into QuickBooks Online Accountant, then navigate to the ProAdvisor tab, and then training. From the training tab, I'll click Start Learning, and this will take me right into ProAdvisor Academy. Welcome to the Academy. Here, I'm on my hub, my personalized view of the Academy where I can pick up where I've left off, whether that's with certification programs or individual courses. There's also a pretty slick little trophy case that shows off all of the badges that I've already earned.
Let's head over to the certification tab. The certifications are laid out by foundational certifications, which teach end-to-end accounting workflows for practitioners who deliver generalized accounting services. We also have specialty certifications, such as the QuickBooks Online Payroll Certification that are great for accountants who deliver specialized services. Let's head to the foundational certifications. Here we have our QuickBooks Online certification Level One and Level Two, as well as our Intuit Bookkeeping certification.
But let's start from the top. The Quickbooks Online certification Level One is great for new ProAdvisors who are just learning how to deliver end-to-end accounting workflows in QuickBooks Online. The program teaches them that, as well as how to identify light-touch advisory moments throughout. The Level Two certification builds on the Level One curriculum, and dives even deeper into more sophisticated tools in QuickBooks and identifies how to deliver those more robust accounting and advisory services to clients.
We've named these programs Level One and Level Two to signal that there's this continuous learning journey for ProAdvisors to take, from entry level all the way through to seasoned—and it sets the stage for us to deliver more certification programs as the platform, and the means to deliver modern accounting services, evolves. You may be more familiar with Level Two being referred to as “Advanced;” however, we also felt that there was some confusion between the advanced certification and the advanced SKU, given that the advanced certifications goals were much broader than just teaching on that one particular SKU. Level Two clears up some of that confusion.
So let's go ahead and double-click into our Level One certification. Here, you'll see the curriculum follows the flow of data through QuickBooks Online, from sales and customers, to expenses, vendors, banking and period-end. That way, you know what happens upstream and downstream, and you can troubleshoot effectively. You can take the courses laid out in the order they're shown here, or in the order of your choosing. We've also introduced course-level exams. So if you want to assign, say, the banking course to a new hire because you want them to understand how to use bank feeds and then make sure that they test their knowledge, you can do that and have them get certified on their own time.
Let me go ahead and click into sales and customers so you can get a look at what the learning looks like. Here we are in the sales and customers’ course. Let's start with some navigation. The course itself is broken up into different pages, starting with a welcome. And then we get into the setup tasks as it relates to sales and customers, frequent tasks that happen monthly or maybe quarterly, and occasional tasks. Then we wrap with reports and insights, so that you can start delivering value added services and having value-added conversations with your clients. And then finally, we wrap with Next Steps.
Next Steps has an interactive workbook, and links out to other resources and materials. The learning itself features lots of different moments of interaction. So let's look at the setup tasks page. Here you can see that you can start clicking through different flows within the product, interacting with flip cards, clicking on hot spots, and doing knowledge checks to test your knowledge.
So I'll head back now to ProAdvisor Academy. One thing I'm excited to call out is that there are now two different ways to achieve certified status. Way one is by completing all five of the course-level exams. By completing all five, you'll have wrapped the certification program and can say you're a certified ProAdvisor. Way two is by toggling on this test-out option. I've already passed it, but you have three attempts to pass the test-out option before a 30-day cooldown period kicks in. The test out option is great if you already have the knowledge, and want to sit down and pass the exam in one fell swoop.
I'll head back now to the certification tab and scroll down to the Intuit bookkeeping certification. Again, this is a newly introduced program to the ProAdvisor community that teaches new ProAdvisors the fundamental accounting knowledge they need to deliver bookkeeping and accounting services to clients. It's free. It's about 30 hours, and the curriculum starts with bookkeeping basics, then goes into tracking assets and sales; tracking expenses, liabilities and equity; and ends with reconciling accounts and examining financial statements. You'll see the way to get certified on this program is through toggling on that test-out option and taking the test.
I'll head now to the Learn tab. The Learn tab is our learning library where you can take courses, à la carte. This is in its MVP state. Next up, we plan to release a filter, so that way you can drill down by content type, CPE earning opportunity, and more.
On the My History tab, you can see all of the badges that you've earned at the certification level and the course level. You can access your CPE certificates, as well as your badges and certificates and push them to social media. So that is a wrap on your tour of ProAdvisor Academy.
We'll turn now to ProAdvisors Dan Luthi and Carla Caldwell for them to weigh in on how they'll use ProAdvisor Academy to empower their team. Carla, Dan, welcome to this episode of In The Know. I am so excited that you're here to talk about ProAdvisor Academy.
Carla Caldwell: Thanks for having me.
Dan Luthi: Yeah, very much so. Super excited to talk about this topic.
Jaclyn Anku: Let's do it. Okay, Carla, let me start with you. What gets you the most fired up about ProAdvisor Academy, and the reimagined training and certifications?
Carla Caldwell: The thing I'm most excited about is the way that it is interactive, and we're able to, in the e-learning, click through things, really expand on our knowledge, test out questions, and all of those types of things. I love that there are tips and tricks from people who are using the product embedded in it. I just think it has a great look and a feel. It's easy to take in what you need, and leave and come right back and pick up where you left off. So I just think the whole experience is just so elevated and exciting to go through, and the content I really like as well.
Dan Luthi: I definitely agree with you, Carla. I think the content has definitely been elevated, because it's been changed to approach education in a very different format. It's not coming in as, “Hey, let's only learn about what QuickBooks does and what QuickBooks is.” It actually ties the accounting roles and responsibilities, and the education piece to the platform, and shows it in a way that helps you to understand to make sure that you're moving information through the system correctly. I think it just elevates the whole experience overall for people who are going through the certification.
Carla Caldwell: Yeah, I think it goes beyond technical training. It's a different experience than just how to use software. It's about how to do your job, really, and this is the tool you're using to do that.
Dan Luthi: Oh, absolutely. I love the point that you called out that it'll actually shows you how to do your job, and splits it so it's not so much a kind of carte blanche experience for everybody. It's more of a stepping stone for people as they're moving through the organization.
Jaclyn Anku: So Dan, let me build on that point. At Ignite Spot, you have done a wonderful job of creating a culture of continuous learning, as has Carla at her firm [Caldwell Consulting, Coaching & Training]. How do you guide or plan to guide your team through engaging with the different levels of the program? When do you assign it and how do you help them sort of carve out time to really engage with the programs?
Dan Luthi: Yeah, definitely. Carla mentioned this in her comments earlier, but there's an opportunity to do a little bit of testing out of certain sections and things like that, which I think is really cool, because as you're onboarding a new employee, you have conversations with them, learning about their education, how long they've been in the application, or different things like that. And so it [ProAdvisor Academy] allows you to be able to more customize the experience of education in their first couple of weeks with you.
For someone who maybe it's been a year or so since they've been in the platform, or maybe they're really new to starting to learn how to have conversations with clients, I would start at a Level One, because it gives me the opportunity to be able to reference some more things with them. If they're coming in more skilled, or they've been in the space for a long time and they have very similar experiences, I might give them the opportunity to test out of Level One and then move into Level Two to learn more about the advanced features, so it gives you a lot more flexibility, which I think is really great. And that's the part that I think works really well for our team as well, too; our intent is never just to throw people through a whole course curriculum, and hope and pray that they get through it in their first three weeks. We really want to make sure that they're learning valuable tools that are going to help them in their job as they move forward.
Carla Caldwell: In our firm, everybody who touches QuickBooks Online has to be Level One-certified. But then we move on up in skill into Level Two. And what I really like, though, is that there are times when one client or the group of clients we’re working on aren't always in sales and customers as much, but they get through the exam and they've passed it. But then when they get in Level Two and realize, oh, wait, I might want to go back and review that a little bit. It's super easy to identify, set it up, go through the processes and the reporting, because it's all together in one area.
So I really feel like this is good reference material for later, whether it's just as you get started into Level Two, or just, hey, I need a refresher on this, or I want to go back and understand that a little bit better. It’s not a passive experience anymore. It is a really interactive, thought-provoking learning, which is really where people are these days.
Dan Luthi: What really stood out to me as I was going through the course material myself is the fact that there are links out to other content, and information that's outside of the training and the certification program. I think the great part about that is the intent of it is to give you a nice overview, and an understanding of the connection between the platform and what you do, but then also to show that there are other places where you can constantly go get resources and information from to just elevate who you are. It's nice to be able to link them if you [for example] are going to become an AR clerk to know where to look back to and where to reference as you're going through things.
Jaclyn Anku: So Dan, one of the points that you brought up earlier on was about how you customize onboarding for your new hires. And we know that more and more folks are onboarding non-traditional talent that's coming into the accounting profession, maybe for the first time or from a different career path, which is why we've introduced the Intuit Bookkeeping certification program. I'd love to hear more about how you and Carla plan to put this program to work for your team.
Dan Luthi: The part that I'm really excited about with the Bookkeeping certification is just the fact that it's really a nice core start for those people you're just bringing in that are like, as you mentioned, not very familiar with accounting, but have the relationship or communication skillsets or different things like that. You just feel they are going to be able to be a really good fit for your organization long term, but you need to teach them on how to do some of the core functions. This gives you a way to be able to start them with a really solid knowledge base that gives them a kind of a crash course into accounting, and an understanding of how it's going to work in their daily life or in the things they're doing.
Carla Caldwell: I really like the Bookkeeping certification as well, because one of the things that we did was bring on some stay-at-home moms, and start teaching them the basics. They were really good and picked all of that up, but I would start talking about things, and they would just kind of look at me politely and be like, what does that mean? And I would be happy to explain it to them. That's what I like to do, but having this that they can go to, dig in deeply, and then be able to have something at the end that's like, I did this, is good.
Jaclyn Anku: I'm overjoyed to hear that these programs give your team confidence and the skillset they need to deliver the services that really help your clients succeed in their businesses. [I’m also glad that] it saves you time, because you're not having to teach your team or create a curriculum, but you can count on the ProAdvisor program to show up for you in this way. Dan and Carla, thank you so much for everything you've done on this episode, and support for ProAdvisors in the community. We're so grateful.
Carla Caldwell: Thank you, Jaclyn, well done.
Jaclyn Anku: Thank you for watching this episode. I'm Jaclyn, host of In the Know and leader of ProAdvisor training and certification. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe so that you don't miss a single episode, we'll catch you next time you.
Meet the ProAdvisors
ProAdvisor Carla Caldwell: Founder, Caldwell Consulting
ProAdvisor Dan Luthi: Partner, Ignite Spot
