At the end of October, Insightful Accountant announced that we had changed the scoring criteria for our QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online categorical awards (you can find that information in our article). At this point, we are announcing a couple of other ‘categorical award’ changes in part due to the realignment of the QBO and QBD categories.
The first of these changes involves ‘splitting’ the Integrations Specialist award into two separate award categories. Starting this year, we will recognize both a 'QuickBooks Desktop Integrations Specialist Award,' and a 'QuickBooks Online Appologist Award.' As with the realignment of the QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online categorical awards to eliminate cross-over certification consideration, these two awards will follow the same underlying principles.
The purpose of this change is to recognize QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors whose practice is centered around working with in-depth and complex integrations (including one or more ‘App stacks’) in areas that had traditionally been served by 3rd-party software packages integrated with QuickBooks Desktop. At the same time, we will continue to recognize those QuickBooks Desktop ProAdvisors who have developed specializations in complex and in-depth 3rd-party software packages.
The second category that will be changing for 2019 is our ‘International ProAdvisor Award’ which has always recognized ProAdvisors from outside the United States and will continue to do so. This year we are also splitting this into two categorical awards. Going forward, Insightful Accountant will recognize an International ProAdvisor from ‘the Americas’ (excluding the United States), and an International ProAdvisor from the remaining portions of the Globe. While we have formalized the concept and mechanisms involved for these two categorical awards, we have not adopted the formal titles for these awards.
Here again, Insightful Accountant is making every attempt to recognize what is actually going on in the maturing ProAdvisor community. The reality is that more and more accountants, bookkeepers and business consultants are joining the ProAdvisor community from around the world, and many are getting certified where certification is being made available to them.
Some people may ask about the way we have chosen to ‘divide’ the International award saying things like ‘why didn’t you use Northern/Southern Hemispheres,’ or ‘use Eastern/Western Hemispheres?' Our rationale at this point is simple, the complexity of geolocation related to the awards… there are more than 40 countries in the world in which the country is located in more than one hemisphere. So, at this point, if you are a ProAdvisor in Canada, Mexico, Central or South America and the Caribbean islands, you can potentially be recognized for our ‘Americas’ award. If you live anywhere outside 'the Americas' and United States, then you can potentially be recognized for our international award covering the remaining portions of the Globe.
As Intuit continues to expand QuickBooks into other countries, and offer ProAdvisor status in more and more places, Insightful Accountant may modify the structural design of these two International Awards, but for this year, we will be moving forward with this award structure.
Perhaps the best way to think about these two changes is just like I do… “Why have only one award to represent a category, when you can have two awards, and make twice as many people happy they won?” I hope you agree.
Later this week, I will be issuing some tips on how to make certain you are prepared to participate in this year’s awards. We plan on starting the nomination process earlier than ever this year, so please remain on the lookout within Insightful Accountant for important announcements.