Quick Books Pro Training

Posted on July 27th, 2007, by Meggin McIntosh

Question:

What is your opinion on getting some Quickbooks training? Quickbooks Pro is new to me and I’m a little lost. I don’t want to start off making mistakes and I want to learn the right way. I was quoted $275 for a personalized 3 hour course in which the instructor will come to my house and work with me. This is a lot of money for someone who is just getting started. However, if I decide to learn the program on my own, there is no telling how long it will take me. It might be wiser to use that time researching, writing, and organizing content. Opinions or advice??

Posted by Billy Simms | 07/27/07

Answer:

This is a tough question. My CPA was the one who “forced” me to switch to QuickBooks Pro (and she did–she said if I wouldn’t switch from my paper & pencil use of a DOME book, then she wouldn’t take me for a client). She came over to my house/office and helped me set it up and showed me the basics–and I do mean basics. She made sure I understood that I would learn by doing.

At the beginning, all I really needed was to be able to write checks, create invoices, and charge credit card purchases to the right account–and I didn’t have millions of any of these–so it was good to start learning when I only had a little bit each week.

QuickBooks has a pretty good tutorial as part of the package–and I still use it. There are times that I think, ‘There must be some way to do this’ and I’ll type in a question and sure enough, there is a way. I follow the steps and *usually* I can figure it out. QuickBooks also lets you call their help line–and I don’t think I’ve ever paid for that–so it must be part of the program.

All that said, I have hired someone (Marie Gibson, who is a QuickBooks Pro Advisor) and who was in the Make a Difference class, to come to my office and help me. I have been using QuickBooks for 5 years and have gotten to a point where I felt like I needed one-on-one tutorial help–so it was worth it.

$275 for 3 hours of direct help is not a bad price at all–although at the beginning of a business, it is a lot of money and I understand that. Find out if there is any way to split that up some–just because 3 hours is a lot of info to learn and retain. I’d rather have 2 90-minute sessions, so see if the person is open to that.

And you’re right, you want to get set up properly from the beginning, rather than cleaning up a mess later.

Sorry this isn’t a black/white yes/no answer, but I hope it helps!

Meggin