QuickBooks has an 85 to 90% market share in the small business accounting software industry. That’s why QuickBooks training can be such a valuable skill to learn: it’s a skill that you can apply across multiple businesses. Good QuickBooks skills are prized at small businesses around the world.
Today, we’re going to tell you about the best ways to find QuickBooks training near you (including both free and paid methods). We’re also going to teach you some of the best QuickBooks tips and tricks you can start using today to become better at QuickBooks.
QuickBooks Video Tutorials on YouTube
YouTube is more than just a place to watch music videos and stupid videos of cats. You can find hundreds of high-quality QuickBooks video tutorials on YouTube. In many cases, you can find the exact solution to your QuickBooks problem on YouTube and then watch someone walk you through the step-by-step way to solve that problem right in front of your eyes.
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David A. Cox: QuickBooks Tutorials
Popular YouTuber David A. Cox (over 200,000 subscribers) has a lineup of QuickBooks tutorials on YouTube, starting with this one, QuickBooks 2014 Tutorial: Part 1.
Over the course of that half hour tutorial, David teaches you how to easily setup QuickBooks for the first time.
If you’re the type of visual learner who appreciates seeing someone do something right before your eyes, then these tutorials can be exceptionally helpful. There are four parts to that tutorial in total and you’ll learn how to do virtually everything you ever need to do on QuickBooks.
Village Park Source: QuickBooks Tips
If you’d rather not watch a half hour video explaining how to setup everything in QuickBooks, then you might appreciate the shorter QuickBooks videos created by Village Park Source.
Village Park Source is a channel that specializes in tech tips, and his QuickBooks videos are particularly popular. There are a total of 30 (!) QuickBooks tutorial videos that walk you through all sorts of different QuickBooks problems – including all of the following:
- How to connect and disconnect bank accounts
- How to add clients and customers
- How to collect money via direct bank transfer and credit cards
- How to setup sales tax rates
- And much more
You can start watching the Village Park Source QuickBooks tutorial playlist here.
Michelle Long CPA: Professional QuickBooks Online Tutorials
Michelle Long is a CPA who also offers professional QuickBooks tutorials online for free. These videos are featured on her YouTube channel. Popular videos include:
- Intro to New QuickBooks Online & Basic Navigation
- QuickBooks Tip: How to Fix a Common Mistake with Undeposited Funds
- Common Mistakes in QuickBooks Online
- QuickBooks Tip: How to Record Fees from Credit Cards, PayPal, Merchant Services etc.
You can view Michelle’s full channel of videos here. There are dozens of videos ranging from tips that will help you solve specific problems to general help articles that help you solve multiple problems.
Why YouTube For Learning QuickBooks?
Ultimately, if you’re short on time and short on cash, then YouTube video tutorials may be your best option. They provide instant solutions to common QuickBooks problems and they’re totally free to watch.
There are dozens of other valuable QuickBooks channels and videos I haven’t mentioned. All it takes is a quick search on YouTube to find them. In many cases, you can type in whatever unique QuickBooks problem you’re trying to solve and YouTube will have a video that solves that problem.
If you need more intense QuickBooks solutions, then you may want to keep reading.
Other QuickBooks Training Videos
You can still find free QuickBooks tutorial videos outside of YouTube. One of the best sources of this is Fourlane, which is an award-winning consulting firm that calls itself “QuickBooks experts” who have “helped over 10,000 companies across several industries with QuickBooks accounting software.”
You can watch the firm’s entire database of videos here for free: http://www.fourlane.com/training-videos/
That database includes over 200 QuickBooks training videos with over 20 hours of content. Specific topics covered include:
- QuickBooks Beginner Training: Paying bills, creating invoices, basic setup, chart of accounts, etc.
- QuickBooks Intermediate Training: Inventory, taxes, custom reports, A/R/, A/P, and more.
- QuickBooks Advanced Training: Data manipulation, accounting concepts, advanced inventory, and more.
- QuickBooks Enterprise Training: Learn everything you need to know about the more complex Enterprise QuickBooks software.
- QuickBooks POS: Learn the basics of QuickBooks POS, including navigation, making sales, company setup, employee setup, and security privileges.
- Intuit Field Service: Setup, connecting to QuickBooks, creating work orders, and more.
All of this information is available for free online and it can quickly take you from a QuickBooks newbie to a QuickBooks pro. FourLane offers all of this information for free because they also sell QuickBooks ProAdvisor services – so if you have more complex problems that need to be solved, you can pay them to do it.
The Official QuickBooks Website
You can also find QuickBooks video tutorials at Intuit’s official website. These video tutorials are quick and easy. Each video covers how to solve a single problem.
You can start by browsing through the tutorials here: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/tutorials/
A full directory of the dozens of how-to videos can be viewed here.
All of these videos are well-designed and high-budget. The videos feature clear, step-by-step instructions that cover everything from the most basic steps of setting up your account to more complex topics – like how to categorize and match bank transactions and how undeposited funds work.
The QuickBooks Learning Center is also categorized into different sections for Mac users, PC users, Enterprise users, self-employed users, and whatever other unique version of QuickBooks you own.
Intuit’s QuickBooks Community Forums and Support Center
If you’re encountering a problem that you can’t solve using Intuit’s official video library, then the next best free solution is to turn to Intuit’s other official sources of information: the community forum and the support center.
Intuit’s official community forums, which can be found here, let you browse through questions by topic. You can see all questions or browse through just the questions that were answered and unanswered.
Questions can also be categorized based on your location – like the USA, Canada, and Europe. Or, browse through topics like Payroll & Employees, Vendors & Paying Others, and QuickBooks en Español.
When you ask a question in that community, you’ll usually get a prompt response from an expert.
If you don’t get a satisfactory answer in the community forums, then your next best option is to turn to Intuit’s QuickBooks support center.
That support center lets you browse through topics like Top Mistakes to Avoid and Tips for a Smooth Start.
Unfortunately, QuickBooks doesn’t maintain a tech support hotline or email help service you can contact if you’re facing a really tough problem. That’s why you might want to consider some of the other QuickBooks training methods listed below.
QuickBooks Training Manuals and Books
QuickBooks is the world’s most popular small business accounting software. That’s why it’s no surprise that entire books have been written about QuickBooks.
One quick trip to your local library and you’ll find plenty of good books involving QuickBooks.
With the new version of QuickBooks Online, the UI is being updated constantly. That’s why it’s important to buy the newest possible version of the book.
One of the most popular QuickBooks tutorials is QuickBooks 2015: The Missing Manual: The Official Intuit Guide to QuickBooks 2015. As the name suggests, this is Intuit’s official tutorial and troubleshooting guide. It’s available for around $20 to $30. Inside that book, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to use QuickBooks to solve specific problems along with a wide range of general tips and tricks.
Not all QuickBooks tutorial books cost money. Two of the most popular free books include the Official QuickBooks Quick Start Guide 2015 and the QuickBooks User Guide 2015. These books are must-reads and are very handy to have nearby when you’re setting up QuickBooks for the first time. Download them both for free here.
The “For Dummies” series also has a popular QuickBooks tutorial book that is updated every year. That book is priced at around $22 USD and is titled QuickBooks 2015 All-in-One For Dummies.
Live Online QuickBooks Training from Instructors and Intuit
Intuit schedules regular webinars where you can learn more about QuickBooks from real QuickBooks experts. These webinars feature topics like:
- Introduction to QuickBooks Online
- Upgrading to QuickBooks Online
- Payroll and Apps Overview
View upcoming webinar types at the official Intuit website here.
If the official Intuit webinars are a bit too basic for you, then consider working with professional QuickBooks training companies. These training companies often save money by launching webinars. So instead of going to someone’s house individually, you can enjoy hours of online QuickBooks training at a discount price.
One company called Real World Training offers the most popular QuickBooks webinars. That company has the only Intuit-endorsed QuickBooks training program on the market. Training isn’t cheap: you pay $479 for about 14 hours of online training. Depending on your location, you may also be able to find in-person classroom training (just enter your ZIP code into that site).
Pay an Expert for One-on-One QuickBooks Training
And now we come to the most expensive QuickBooks training method: you can pay certified QuickBooks expert for one-on-one training.
You’ll pay a hefty fee (many of these people are CPAs) but you’ll also learn more about QuickBooks than you would with any other training method.
Some of the advantages of expert one-on-one training include:
- These experts will visit you in your home or office
- They can book training sessions into gaps in your busy schedule without you needing to take the entire day off work
- You can ask the questions that are important to you instead of reviewing topics that you already know about
- Avoid the distractions of a workshop or webinar and just get answers to the questions you need answered most
Expect to pay about $100 per hour for QuickBooks training from an expert. Fees vary widely depending on your location, and some experts require a minimum training time of 2 to 4 hours.
One of the cool parts about Intuit is that they’ve created a database of certified QuickBooks experts. You don’t have to hop on your local Craigslist trying to find someone who claims to be an expert: instead, you can find that expert in seconds by visiting this site.
Just type in your ZIP code or postal code and the site will find a certified ProAdvisor in your local area. The network consists of over 20,000 certified ProAdvisors who often specialize in different aspects of QuickBooks. These experts, as mentioned above, are typically CPAs, but they can also be bookkeepers, accountants, and small business advisors.
In any case, all of the experts in the Find A ProAdvisor network have been tested by Intuit on a range of QuickBooks products – so you’re working with some of the best QuickBooks experts in the world.
Other Online QuickBooks Training Options
QuickBooks training is a big business. A quick Google search will reveal dozens of local experts, training programs, and even college courses in your area you can take to learn more about QuickBooks.
Ideally, these training programs or experts will be certified by Intuit in some way or another. They’ll either have their ProAdvisor certification or their training program has been approved by Intuit.
If you’re signing up for a QuickBooks course at a college, expert to pay anywhere from $100 to $1000 for a short course. This Introduction to QuickBooks course at Houston Community College, for example, costs $109. The course includes 24 hours of instructor-led content taking place over 6 weeks.
Meanwhile, this QuickBooks Introduction course (ACCT 901) offered by Canada’s Humber College is priced at $249. That course promises to teach you how to setup a chart of accounts, reconcile your checking account, create and print invoices, receipts, and statements, track your payables, inventory, and receivables, and create estimates and generate reports. Basically, it teaches you everything you ever need to know about QuickBooks.
There are a wide range of free and paid ways to learn more about QuickBooks training. It’s the world’s most popular accounting software – so fast tutorials and tech support are easy to find online.
Editor’s Note: Looking for information on payroll services? Use the questionnaire below and our vendor partners will contact you to provide you with the information you need:
