Our title sounds more like the recipe to a witches’ brew than a recipe for retaining their Advanced ProAdvisor Certification status, but apparently some ProAdvisors are not only confused, but alarmed by what they believe the recipe actually is.
Contrary to what you may have heard, or read in various ProAdvisor forms, or maybe even been told by ProAdvisor support personnel, individuals who are currently certified as Advanced (Desktop) ProAdvisors ARE NOT being, and WILL NOT, be required to take the New Advanced Certification Examination to retain their certification.
Recently some ProAdvisors reported being given what they believed was improper information when calling into ProAdvisor support. In e-mail exchanges with Intuit, I was able to clarify the actual policy earlier this week. Intuit responded with these specific (official policy) FAQs:
Once I am QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certified or QuickBooks Online Advanced Certified, should I have to retake/recertify again?
“No, you do not have to retake the QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certification or QuickBooks Online Advanced Certification once you have passed these exams. Once you have passed this Advanced Certification Exam, you need to maintain Advanced Continuing Education (ACE) course work and annual QuickBooks certification to maintain your Advanced (Diamond level) status.”
Since I do not see any updated Advanced Continuing Education (ACE) course work, will my Advanced Certification Status Expire?
“No, your Advanced Certification status will not expire at this time. We are currently working on an updated Advanced Continuing Education strategy for PA’s. Once we have all the details, you will be notified about it and you can plan on the next steps. Until then, your advanced status will remain as it is.”
I have already passed the previous version of the QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certified and now when I log into my ProAdvisor Center, I see that there is a New version of this exam with the “Take Exam” button? Does that mean that, I have to retake the exam?
“No, you do not have to retake the New QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Certification. If you are already certified in the previous version of QuickBooks Desktop Advanced Exam, you do not need to complete this updated exam (it is optional). If you want to download your badge/certificate for the previous version that you have passed, you can do that from the 'View Certification History' page.”
These three questions and answers (emphasis added) should set the matter straight, regardless of what you may hear, read or even perhaps be told by technical support. Let’s face it folks, we are all humans, and miscommunication is a two-way street. Sometimes people, even people in responsible positions can make simple mistakes, or can say things in a way that we misunderstand them. At other times we may not actually hear what we think we hear, we interpret a message as meaning something other than what it means. Hopefully this make Intuit’s policy regarding ProAdvisor Advanced Certifications and re-certifications clear to everyone.
Special thanks go out to Dan Lowell and Raj Bhavani of Intuit for their assistance in clarification of these matters.