Intuit believes that ProAdvisors want more ways to show their expertise, their ‘niches,’ so to speak. Certifications validate a ProAdvisors’ credibility in subject matters to position them to act as an advisor to their clients. It also provides a competitive edge in attracting new clients.
As a part of the re-imagined ProAdvisor Program impacting all US ProAdvisors, two new Knowledge (skill) Badges have been launched within the ProAdvisor Training Portal. These new Skill Badges are linked to specific learning pathways within the Training home tab.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
The two new Knowledge (Skill) Badges presently available are for ‘Banking’ and ‘Reporting.’
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
To begin your journey for one of these new badges, you must:
- Log in to QuickBooks Online Accountant;
- Select ProAdvisor from the left-hand Navigation Bar;
- Choose the Training tab;
- Select Training Home;
- Where it says, “Get your knowledge badge!” select Get started;
- The navigation tool begins by displaying an option to ‘Choose your knowledge badge path;’
- You will select either Banking or use the arrow to move to Reporting;
- When you have decided which badge training path you want to take, select ‘Pick badge.’
Banking
The Banking Knowledge training path is geared toward bolstering your knowledge of QuickBooks Online banking features, including managing bank feeds, categorizing transactions, and reconciling bank accounts. You must take the training and then pass the assessment to earn both the available badge and CPE credits.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
After you select “Pick badge,” you will be asked to confirm that you wish to ‘update your training pathway’ with new content and want to proceed.
You will then be taken to your new Personalized Path for the Banking Knowledge (Skill) Badge. Two assessment levels must be completed for this new badge: a Beginner and an Intermediate skill level.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
The Beginner Assessment comprises two short training sessions: a 14-minute session on ‘Setting up banking’ within QuickBooks Online and a 10-minute session on using the Banking Center to “match and add transactions from Bank Feeds.” You must go through these training lessons to be eligible for the CPE Assessment.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
Upon satisfactory completion of the assessment, you can earn a ½-CPE credit.
The Intermediate Assessment is significantly more complex. It consists of 147 training minutes (2 hours: 27 minutes) encompassing 11 lessons. Once again, you must go through each training lesson to ‘turn on’ the Assessment test.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
Satisfactory completion of this assessment will earn you 2.0 CPE credits. Satisfactory completion of both the Basic and Intermediate assessments will earn you the Banking Badge, which you can download for display or use as you would ProAdvisor certification badges.
Returning to the Training Pathways, let’s look at the other new knowledge badge.
Reporting
The Reporting knowledge badge reflects your expertise in reporting, including customizing, running, and analyzing reports. As with the Banking knowledge badge, two skill levels, Beginner and Intermediate, are institutionalized.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
The Beginner skill level contains a single 22-minute lesson covering ‘Navigating the Reports Center.’
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
Once you have completed the Beginner skill level lesson, you can take the assessment for that level.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
Successfully completing this assessment will earn you ½-CPE credit and qualify you to move on to the Intermediate skill level.
The Intermediate skill level consists of 77 minutes (1 hour: 17 minutes) of instruction divided into six (6) lessons.
Source: Image captured from QBO-Accountant ProAdvisor Training Tab
Once you have completed the Intermediate skill level lessons, you can take the assessment. Satisfactory completion of this assessment will earn you 1.0 CPE credits. Satisfactory completion of both the Basic and Intermediate assessments will earn you the Reporting Badge, which you can download for display or use as you would ProAdvisor certification badges.
Unfortunately, earning either of these two new Badges does not earn you any training points that will apply to your ProAdvisor tier rankings. Another unfortunate aspect is that these ‘Badges’ are not set to be displayed on your Find-A-ProAdvisor Profile. But both of these issues may be resolved in future ProAdvisor Program updates later this year.
Valuable Points toward 2024 ProAdvisor Awards
Even though these new Badges won't earn you 'tier credits', they will earn you additional training/certification points in the 2024 ProAdvisor Awards process. They were recently added to the 'Supplemental Domestic ProAdvisor Certification' page in the Formal Application form, so if you are still working on that form using the 'Save and Continue' feature, and you complete one of these new Badges prior to February 20, 2024, you can add that credential to your application for valuable points.
So if you haven't already nominated yourself, and you just earned one of these unique new Badges, you probably should head over to the official 2024 ProAdvisor Award nomination information page.