How you choose to learn will depend a lot on your own personal educational preferences.
One of the reasons QuickBooks is so popular is because it was designed for the average small business owner who didn’t have an accounting degree. Excellent usability and accessibility – along with a slate of features that accommodate GAAP-compliant, double-entry bookkeeping – have made it the most popular small business accounting product on the market. Millions of businesses use it.
But there’s still a learning curve. Further, it helps your understanding of the software if you have some knowledge of the accounting process itself (after all, just because you have a word processor doesn’t mean you know how to write well).
There are numerous ways to learn about QuickBooks and the financial processes it supports. Here are some:
- QuickBooks itself. QuickBooks comes with good in-program documentation, but it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of depth. And it doesn’t teach you about accounting. Still, you can get help using some of the program’s functions from its step-by-step directions. Online support is available, too.
The Intuit Community. This online gathering place consists of users who have questions as well as experts and other users who have answers. You can search the topics that have already been discussed or enter your own query.- QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Intuit maintains an online database of its ProAdvisors, accounting professionals who have undergone extensive training and passed Intuit’s rigorous QuickBooks tests. There is undoubtedly at least one in your geographical area.
- Third-party books. There are many hundreds of these. The Sleeter Group is a highly-respected accounting consulting firm that has numerous resources available for QuickBooks learners. You can also do a search on Amazon for titles.
- How-to videos. YouTube has really become the go-to place for learning about all kinds of things. QuickBooks videos are well-represented there, with tens of thousands of videos available. There are also accounting professionals who create and provide access to entire libraries of instructional videos, which would give you some consistency in your learning path.
QuickBooks training courses. Here, too, you have a lot of choice. Every city of any size has one or more individuals, accounting firms or technology specialists that offer QuickBooks classes. Some are live, curriculum-based courses. QuickBooks courses are some of your best options for a step-by-step, comprehensive QuickBooks education provided by an expert.
There’s really no learning style that isn’t represented here, so you can take your pick or mix and match. Even if you’re already using QuickBooks, you can benefit from these in-service educational opportunities.
