QuickBooks Connect and the NEW QuickBooks Online Certification Exam!

QuickBooks Connect 2015 is coming up next month in San Jose, and with that comes the opportunity for diverse training in the accounting community. This is the only QuickBooks centric event that combines the accounting and ProAdvisor community with both 3^rd party app developers AND small business owners! Aside from the educational opportunity, the networking possibilities are endless. Complete with courses to suit all 3 tracks (accountant, developer, and small business owner), QuickBooks Connect adds on a top-notch slate of keynote speakers and a sweet after-party!

Over the next few weeks I’ll share the things that I am most excited about, but I want to start with the new QuickBooks Online certification training that I will be presenting on Monday, November 2^nd, at QuickBooks Connect.

New Training Modules

The QuickBooks Online training & exam has been updated and overhauled this year. With the changes to the ProAdvisor program and the increase in ProAdvisors who only support online clients, Intuit recognized the need to beef up and streamline the training. The current training was geared toward the ProAdvisor community that existed when the certification was debuted, which consisted of ProAdvisors who were traditionally desktop users making the move to the cloud. Our new material approaches QuickBooks Online from the perspective of a new ProAdvisor while still incorporating relevant desktop concepts like product comparisons and conversions.

A New Exam

The module topics and content have changed, therefore the exam changed along with it! Like the 2015 exam, the new exam is still 5 sections, though the topics and order of the content have changed. There are now 15 questions in each section, leaving the exam with 20 fewer questions in total. You still must receive an 80% in each section to pass, which means you can miss 3 questions in each section. By popular request, there are now FIVE possible answers on this new multiple choice exam, making it shorter, but more rigorous for the testers. Many of the questions have been beefed up to test ProAdvisors knowledge of what to do in a certain scenario’s in addition to the navigational type questions.

What about your existing certification?

The current QuickBooks Online certification training and exam will be sunset on October 25^th to my knowledge (a disclaimer just in case something changes J). The QuickBooks Online certification is good for 365 days and must be renewed to maintain an active status. This means that if you’re QuickBooks Online certified and your certification is due to expire before QuickBooks Connect, you should probably just re-take the existing exam.

Why should I take the certification training at QuickBooks Connect?

Because I’m teaching it, duh! But seriously, what better place could you think of to take training besides QuickBooks Connect where you will be surrounded by over a thousand of your peers and more Intuit staff than any other event? Live training events are the BEST way to learn, no matter your learning style. The ability to ask questions of those around you, your instructors and Intuit employees all in one place is an experience unmatched my any other event.  

Plus, I just might do a hula hoop trick for you...

Do you think you already know all there is to know about QuickBooks Online? 

Check out the QuickBooks Online Advanced certification courses being taught by Laura Redmond!

More info from Intuit about the New QBO Cert HERE

Some fun pictures from QuickBooks Connect 2014:

See you there!

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Does this App Belong in my Ecosystem?

Yes? 

No?

Maybe?

All of the above.

But how do we know? We encounter too many scenarios with our clients where they are looking for a cut and dry response that we cannot provide for them. Just like nearly every other question when it comes to apps, accounting and taxation - it depends.

What does the app do?

We all know the phrase - there's an app for that! But what, exactly, is that? Is your app a time tracker, a payroll add-on with time tracking, a POS, a POS with time tracking, an inventory manager, an inventory manger with POS, an inventory manager with POS and time tracking, blah blah blah? There are a million different things that your app could be capable of, and the first thing that you need to know is exactly what the capabilities and limitations are. Once you know what your app can and cannot do, you can decide on the next question.

What is the app's role in the Ecosystem?

Many of us have taken the term 'Appify' and ran with it. Some of us ran the course, and some have gone off-roading... The biggest problem I see are app stacks instead of app systems (no relation to AppStack mobile site builder). Piling one app on top of another on top of another and so one just creates a huge mess. Many times an app will be integrated and later you find out that it is missing a feature, so you get another add on to fill that need and you end up with a million apps that no one can keep track of. There are plenty of awesome ecosystems that involve a strand of apps working together, and knowing each role and result in depth will help you decide which ones qualify as a system and which ones just make a crap pile. 

Stack vs. System
When we are designing an ecosystem for a client, we look at multiple options for each process that requires a solution. A good saying here would be 'if you fail to plan you are planning to fail'. Let's compare two examples of a landscaping company:

A: Implements When I Work with GPS for time, Zen Payroll for processing, and SalesForce for appointments while using QBO for back-end accounting. 

When I Work > Zen Payroll > QB Online < Sales Force

B: Implements Jobber for time/appointments/field management and QBO with payroll for back-end accounting.

Jobber > < QBO/QBOP

(If you are not sure which of these is a stack and which is a system, please send me a private email for a consulting session...)

The moral of the story is that both of these examples fill the need, but they are not created equally. You need to know your end goal and choose the apps that work together effectively to make the most streamlined system.

How much control do you need/want over the data?
I have overheard waaaay to much whining that all app data needs to 'sync seamlessly into QuickBooks' to be perfect. I say NO WAY!!! One of the BIGGEST benefits I see to appification is that you can choose an app based on its ability to feed information into your back-end accounting system. We all have 'that client' that no matter how much we train them, they will always mess up their books. I love that I have platform options so that I can put 'that guy' on the POS that allows me to look at their beautiful reports and post them as journal entries (rather than automatically sending every erroneous transaction into QB for me to clean out). I believe that the best apps are those that give you options on how you retrieve your data.

What does your data look like once it is in the back-end system?
My answer to this: who cares? As long as it is accurate and not redundant, I prefer ONE posting from the app to summarize the information. Most people ask my why I would not want every transaction to come through... Well, if I wanted every transaction spelled out in QuickBooks then why the heck did I buy the app??? Of course the expectations for import will vary depending the goal you are trying to achieve, and if you have completed the proper ecosystem engineering process then you should be able to assess the part quite simply. Just remember that you are looking for a streamlined system, not a redundant stack.

Would you be interested in a course on this subject? 

Tell us on Twitter @PetersonBizSvcs

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The Pro-Apptive Approach to Working with Developers.

I have been hearing a lot of talk and questions from my peers about apps. What they love and what they hate, but mostly what they wonder... There is always a question of why... Why don't you have this, why does this do that, why does this import, why doesn't that export... In my opinion, many of these whys aren't really whys at all, they are When's. What we really want to know is when will it do this, when will that fixed, when can I use this app the way I want too? Basically, we suck at explaining ourselves to developers. I was given some great opportunities to speak with developers at multiple companies this week. Aside from being able to communicate my ideas to them, I was able to learn how they need to receive information I order for it to have any value to their teams.

They don't know what you're saying because it doesn't make sense.

Draw a picture, compare a competitor, remind them that you don't speak their language. I am constantly reminding developers that I have no idea what they have to do on the back end to make my dream come true, and encourage them to re-direct my thoughts according to technical feasibility. Most of the time when we are trying to explain something we are looking at it from a 1-client view or an 'I want' perspective. The most effective way to validate your suggestion is to prove that your 'want' adds value not just to you, but to the platform as a whole. Paint them a picture not just of the what, but also of the why. The how is up to them.

We give input without implementation experience.

Many times we turn away from a product due to the 'feature lack' that we see in a demo. We may not implement that product because of one little thing that is missing, therefore our only experience is the demo. Once we have made the decision NOT to try a product, we need to accept that since we have absolutely no working experience with the program, we have no place discrediting it's application. For example I wanted to integrate Lettuce for a client but I needed a more robust sales tax module, so I only demoed it. I know of some other industries it would be great in and I would apply it in a heart beat. The fact that I implemented Vend instead of Lettuce does not make Vend a better app, it makes it a better app for that client. We need to quit pretending like every industry should have a shoe box solution and work on becoming educated ecosystem engineers.

When you divorce a vendor, forget the no contact order.

I'm sure ALL of us have had bad experiences with apps... Spending hours fixing things that we can't bill for because it was our dumb@$$ that suggested the implementation. I have divorced many an app (I even took a year off from QBO once), but we need to remember to be civil. You are much better off leaving amicably so that you can keep yourself educated on any new things that may put that app ahead. We need to forgive developers of their past mistakes so that we can take advantage of their future triumphs.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

When I demo a product I usually go in super excited about where I want to use it and the clients that I'll put on it. By the end of the demo I generally have a huge paradigm shift and realize that it is not what I thought it was at all. If they fool you once with their sales rep, email, or misleading advertisement, then shame on them for not being clear. I always look at this thankfully with a 'crisis-averted' attitude and throw the app in my toolbox for future use. Now if you choose to implement the product anyway because it's pretty or cheap or whatever, and it turns out not be the right fit, that is YOUR OWN fault. If you have demoed a product thoroughly and asked  all of the right questions then there should be nothing that they told you that you did not verify before implementation. Test Test Test!! It is up to you to be the expert.

What's your opinion? Feel free to post, tweet or email your thoughts on the matter.

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Using Batch Entry for Quicker Client Setup

There are many things to love and to hate about the batch entry feature that came out in QuickBooks Accountant 2013. Many of us have probably experiences the frustration of posting transactions to the wrong account or wanting to reclassify transactions that were entered on a batch. I have found batch entry, in it's current state, to be the most helpful in new client setup.

Transferring data into QuickBooks for an existing company can flat out SUCK. If you are like me, you have much more desirable things to do with your time besides enter data from a spreadsheet. Something that I discovered this week was how EASY setting up new companies can be when you utilize batch entry to trick QuickBooks.

Here is my real-life example:

Client:
New corporation. Current accounting was through Freshbooks and Outright, information had been recorded in both systems. Converting to QuickBooks Online.

Solution:
Compile information from both systems into QBA 2013, iron out issues, export to QBO.

Process:

• Export expense reports and income reports from Freshbooks and Outright. The spreadsheets that these system generate are PERFECT for batch entry into QuickBooks.
• Create shareholder equity accounts as 'BANK' type accounts. The batch entry feature will only allow you to post to bank and credit card account types. But don't worry, we will work around that ;-)
• Record the expenses incurred/deposited to mish mash accounts prior to business account being opened/during the development of the business. If income generated has been received by the owners, be sure to record it as 'deposits' to the account that you are posting to.
• Batch enter to the 'equity' bank accounts (make sure you have the right account name selected!)
• Once you have the transactions recorded, go to the chart of accounts and change the equity account type from 'bank' to 'equity' (or 'liability' if you are setting up as a shareholder loan)

Are you confused yet? I sure am! Writing this out is a whole lot crazier than clicking around and making it happen...

Moral of the story is that you can really beat the batch entry into submission to get a high volume of opening transactions on to the books. These are good tools to have up your sleeve as year-end approached and people start rolling in with their 'records'....

Good Luck!