Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll explore the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification, which is now offered through ProAdvisor Academy.
First, I'll show you how to access the program, then you'll hear from Andy Junikiewicz, the leading accounting and tax professor who crafted the curriculum.
Hey, ProAdvisors, it's Jaclyn and you're watching In the Know, where you can get exclusive access to demos of Intuit product enhancements by the leaders who built them.
Let's jump right into ProAdvisor Academy to see how to access the Bookkeeping Certification. So, you see here that I'm logged into QuickBooks Online Accountant, where I can navigate to the ProAdvisor tab in my left-hand nav. Here, I'll click on training and then I'll click on Start Learning. This took me right into ProAdvisor Academy. I'm on the My Hub page, but I'll need to navigate to certifications, where I can find the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification. I've already enrolled in the program, so I'll click continue learning, but if you are enrolled, just click Enroll. This then takes me into the program itself, where I'd see four courses and then a survey at the end, so you can get feedback on your program. The course itself is robust. It comprises about 30 hours of self-paced training.
Let's say you already feel competent on the content. You can click test out at any time. By clicking the test out button, I'm able to start the exam. I'd recommend setting aside about an hour for the exam, and being somewhere quiet where you can focus and concentrate.
Back to the actual learning you see for these courses:
- Bookkeeping Basics
- Tracking Assets and Sales
- Tracking Expenses, Liabilities and Equity
- Reconciling Accounts and Examining Financial Statements
So these four courses comprise the Bookkeeping Certification. They prepare you to go take the exam. But again, you can take the exam at any point in which you feel ready to do so.
So hopefully, with that, you feel confident about where and how to access the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification. Upon completing we'll unlock this beautiful badge that you could put on your LinkedIn profile or wherever you'd like.
Now that we've had our tour of how to access the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification, let me go ahead and welcome our guest, Andy Junikiewicz, who again, is the professor that crafted the curriculum.
Well, hey, Andy, thanks and welcome. Thank you for being on In the Know.
Andrew Junikiewicz: Jaclyn, thanks so much for inviting us over here.
Jaclyn Anku: I'm really excited to dive deep into the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification with you. So let's start with some of the basics. Who was this program designed for?
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah, that's a great question. It's actually designed for anybody who's going to start a career in accounting. It could be students that are, you know, getting rolling in college or maybe Community College. It could also be folks that have been out there in the world and just decided they wanted another profession. I personally think that accounting is the language of business, so I believe everybody should have an accounting background, because everything really does revolve around business.
Jaclyn Anku: Is there any baseline knowledge a learner needs to bring to the program, or can anyone take it even if they haven't had any exposure to accounting?
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah, I think this program is excellent. It's really like an accounting 101 class, all bundled up, so anybody can take it. You don't have to have any prior experience. Obviously, if you have some business experience, it certainly does help. But just to get rolling in accounting, it's a great bookkeeping course.
Jaclyn Anku: Okay, so you said that this is a sort of 101 foundational course for accounting. Tell me more about what the learner learns. What are the learning objectives?
Andrew Junikiewicz: Oh, there's so much in here.
One is really the bookkeeping ethics and some of the ethical considerations, and that's really important in today's environment. Here they also go through the general accounting equation, which include assets, things that we own, liabilities, things that you owe, and the shareholders equity. It talks about inventory and sales transactions, and goes through how to analyze financial statements so you can make better business decisions. It touches a little bit on payroll, which is really important. And then basically, there is a final exam to assess your knowledge.
And then the nice thing is, once you pass that final exam, Jaclyn, you get a badge. I think the badge is really cool. In our classrooms, we actually have our students take this exam and get the badges. They're putting it on LinkedIn or on their resume, truly providing a lot of opportunities out there for that.
Jaclyn Anku: So that's the perfect segue into my next question. How does completing this course help folks grow in their career? It sounds like a badge is a great way to signal expertise. Are there other outcomes that folks can expect?
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah. I mean, first off, you could interview for a bookkeeping position with Intuit. My daughter is also a CPA. She just started her career in accounting. There's not a lot of accountants or bookkeepers out there. The population is getting older and retiring, so there's so much opportunity right now; it's a great opportunity to get that understanding. I know a lot of accounting firms actually have some of their folks take our Intuit Academy training classes that don't have accounting degrees or backgrounds, but they're working for the firm.
Jaclyn Anku: That's exactly right. We've seen many ProAdvisor firms adopt this program, and as they're looking to onboard nontraditional hires, they assign this as part of their onboarding, which has been really exciting to see that adoption.
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah. And I think as business grows in the US, it's obvious the need for accountants is going to grow as well. So I think it's a great opportunity for people young and, you know, in their more mature career, to make a great career change again, so, it's not going anywhere. I think the beautiful thing about, you know, what we do as accountants, is that we're always going to need them, right? And there's no age limit. You know, you could do this part-time as a 75-year-old person who just wants some extra cash, and also the stimulation of just really kind of going through the different financial statements, keeping sharp on things, and helping business owners out so they can make good decisions on their business.
Jaclyn Anku: Andy, I'd love to get your thoughts on how this course prepares folks to be better users of the Intuit platform, and specifically QuickBooks.
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah, so in the course, it does go through a lot of mechanical and baseline accounting. It also gets into journal entries, and that's really important as well, and that kind of goes into the bookkeeping and the Intuit products. Obviously you need to know some of the journal entries and financial transactions a business goes through. And basically, off that, you plug that into the software, press a button, and the software kind of compiles income statements and balance sheets; the financial statements that owners need to see.
Jaclyn Anku: Fantastic. Well. Andy, any parting thoughts or words of advice for the ProAdvisor community?
Andrew Junikiewicz: Yeah, I would say I think this is a great program, whether you've had, you know, an accounting 101 class years ago or just to brush up. I think there's a lot of great things in here, even if it's just the ethical considerations. I know, as a CPA myself, I just got the notice every two years that I have to go through continuing education—and part of that is ethical considerations. So, these are part of our course.
I think it's just a great, great course and to learn more about the software. It's the most highly used software in the accounting field for business owners.
Jaclyn Anku: Well, Andy, thank you so much for all of the time, effort, and talent you've poured into the program. And thank you for spending time with us on the show.
Thank you for watching. If you find this update interesting or helpful, go ahead and like, comment, and hit subscribe.
That's all we have for now. For more product updates and demos, check out our In the Know hub. We'll catch you next time.
