This article is one in a series of 'help guides' for 2025 ProAdvisor Award applicants. It deals exclusively with the QuickBooks "App-ology" Category and Award.
You can apply for the 2025 U.S. ProAdvisor Awards HERE or nominate a U.S. ProAdvisor HERE.
When you have been using and supporting QuickBooks Online for a while, one of the natural progressions is deciding whether you want to try out an App for yourself or one of your clients. You'll probably spend time reviewing the App using the Intuit QBO App Store and the Developer's website. You might even ask for a Demo of the App and then possibly take an App test run for 10 to 30 days. Most importantly, you might read an App Aware article or First Look feature about your App within Insightful Accountant.
You might wait until you find the right App at a conference, like Woodard's Scaling New Heights or Intuit's QuickBooks Connect, and see an on-site demo, ask a ton of questions at the App kiosk, and then bounce your interest off of a few of your fellow ProAdvisors present at the event. After all, one of the best input sources is another ProAdvisor who loves or hates the App you're interested in and can tell you why.
Finally, you make up your mind, and love blossoms... "you integrate your first App"... something you will remember forever. It's kind of like when you kissed your 4-year-old sweetheart in kindergarten for the first time, right? Actually, your relationship with this first App may turn out better than that childhood sweetheart.
Assuming all goes well with "your first App," you will likely start trying it out until you decide one of three things:
- The App isn't all you thought it was or should be, and you decide to drop it or
- You are so excited about the App you join the Developer's Partner program and get Certified and
- You start telling your clients how great the App is, what it does, how it can help their business and they should try it.
You then set up the App for your first client, get them up and running, and resolve their issues. You then move to your next client to get them using the App. You have just created the first App within your 'App stack.' The longer you use the App, the more you learn about it, the more you install it, the more you support it, and the greater your expertise. It isn't long before you think you could be recognized as a QBO App-ologist.
Many years ago, my good friend Joe Woodard suggested that every ProAdvisor find at least one third-party application or software in which they could specialize. QuickBooks Desktop was still the dominant platform at the time, and third-party integrated apps/software were less friendly. They didn't always 'play well with QuickBooks' and took much longer to learn and become an 'expert in.'
Today, you might spend an entire day working with an App and know just about as much as the entire technical support staff working for the App developer. You could end up knowing more than them if you spend time understanding how the QuickBooks API works, how apps communicate with QuickBooks using OAuth, how data is tabelized in both QuickBooks and the App, and syncs between them. Now, you are becoming an App expert.
But I am just going to tell you, in today's world of 'rapid App fire' in which, one app after another of the same or similar variety appears on the market faster than you can eat your bowl of oatmeal. A singular App expertise won't earn you a spot in the ProAdvisor App-ologist Category, and certainly not the categorical award. You should build an App stack representing your expertise that resembles the "All you can eat pancake stack" at your local IHOP.
Recently, Caleb Jenkins, Insightful Accountant's 2024 ProAdvisor of the Year, told the webinar audience at our annual Top ProAdvisor Round-up edition of QB Talks that "you need to pick an app, work with it, take the training the developer offers, get certified in it if they offer certification, and implement it as many times as you can... before you do the same thing with another app. You keep repeating this process for every app you 'think' your clients might want to use."
Caleb doesn't just know a few apps, not even a dozen apps, but dozens of dozens of apps. He spends hours and hours researching, trying, testing, learning, getting certified in, and installing and integrating for his clients. All those points he scored from his app activity bolstered him to the top of the App category and, from that categorical standing, into ProAdvisor of the Year.
The reality is that the 'QuickBooks Ecosystem' Section of the ProAdvisor Awards Application form has the single highest scoring potential of any section of the application. And since most ecosystem partners in the section develop apps for QuickBooks Online rather than QuickBooks Desktop, a QuickBooks Online 'App-ologist' like yourself has the best chance of scoring some 'major points' in the awards process.
With all of this 'long introduction' said, let's look at how you can ensure that you are in the running for the QuickBooks App-ology category and award.
ProAdvisor Practice Categorization
As discussed in every article in this series, the key to positioning yourself for your best standing based on your practice is understanding how your own ProAdvisor practice fits into the award categories. This starts when we ask every U.S. ProAdvisor to 'categorize' themselves according to the same categories and sub-categories we use for the ProAdvisor Awards.
Question 44, at the bottom of Page 7, is "QuickBooks ProAdvisor Practice Categorization" (shown below). You may select two or more of the categories listed. For each category, you need to rank your practice emphasis. Any or all categories you consider 'fundamental' or 'primary' to your practice should be ranked using "Primarily my ProAdvisor Practice." Any categories you consider of 'secondary importance' to your practice you should rank using "A secondary priority of my ProAdvisor Practice."
If you are a 'shaker and mover' in the world of QBO Apps for your clients, then you need to make certain you mark QBO Appologist for 3rd-Party (online) Apps as being "Primary for my (your) ProAdvisor Practice" as indicated by the Red Arrow pointing to the red box (in the illustration below).
But even if 'App-ology' is your primary practice focus, you will be working with QuickBooks Online clients with whom you are marketing, integrating, training, and supporting those Apps. Suppose most of your QBO Clients are using some version of QBO other than QBO-Advanced. In that case, you also want to make sure to select General Practitioner - QuickBooks Online as being "Primary for my (your) ProAdvisor Practice," as indicated by the Solid Green Arrow in the green box (below). If a lesser percentage of your QBO Clients were using QBO-Advanced, then you would check the Mid-market Specialist-QuickBooks Online Advanced as your "Secondary priority of my (your) ProAdvisor Practice" as indicated by the Dotted-Yellow Arrow (below).
Let's assume, though, that most of your QuickBooks Online Clients are using QBO-Advanced, although you still have some clients on QBO versions other than Advanced. In that case, you would select Mid-market Specialist-QuickBooks Online Advanced as your "Primary for my (your) ProAdvisor Practice," as indicated by the Solid Yellow Arrow in the yellow box (above). You would also mark General Practitioner - QuickBooks Online as your "Secondary priority of my (your) ProAdvisor Practice," as indicated by the Dotted-Green Arrow (above).
Just remember, in all of these scenarios, you should also have QBO Appologist for 3rd-Party (online) Apps as your "Primary for my (your) ProAdvisor Practice" categorization.
Beyond Classification - Keys to App-ology Point Scoring
There are a couple of other questions, outside those in the Ecosystem section of the formal application, that are critical to scoring points for the App-ology Category. The first is on Page 8 - Practice Dynamics of the Application form, Question 48 - What Type of Work Do You Perform? This question asks you to use sliders to specify the percentage that various work types represent of your total work so that the sum of your selections equals 100%. Notice that one of the work types listed is 'App/Software Integrations' (highlighted with the red box in the illustration below). This represents a critical scoring element of your App-ology score, so ensure you do NOT overlook answering this question.
A similar but more specific question is found on the application's Page 12 - QBO ProAdvisors. Question 65 - Types of QBO Work You Perform is another slider question asking you to specify again the percentages of work performed as a ProAdvisor (shown below). There are two sliders in this question of importance to 'App-ologist candidates.' The first is QBO Apps (Identify and Set-up), and the second is QBO Apps (Deep App Integration).
You use the 'Identify and Set-up' slider to represent the percentage of your overall work related to QBO Apps you locate for a client and set up on their behalf. "Set-up" includes signing up the client (regardless of billing method), connecting the App to the client's QBO, and performing the steps to ensure the initial sync is successful, including account mapping. This typically represents a short, routine process.
Use the 'Deep App Integration' slider to represent the percentage of your overall work related to QBP Apps that require an extensive amount of time to implement due to complicated mappings or rules for data transfer, extensive set-up configuration, including multiple detailed settings, testing, tweaking, and changing settings and mappings or rules, etc.
Once again, these two scoring opportunities represent a significant component in the overall measures for the 'App-ology' category.
QuickBooks Ecosystem
We are now down to the most significant "point earner" for scoring big in the 'App-ology' category. I'm talking about Question 115 - App Interaction Evaluation, located on Page 23 - QuickBooks Ecosystem. Each year we review the prior year's list of Apps, review the QBO App Store, examine Apps exhibiting at major ProAdvisor events, and then ask you tell us how you 'interact' with these Apps.
How you use these Apps
In the illustration (below), the first column asks how you used the App during 2024. You have three choices to select from. Just tell us if you or your firm use the app.
Do you refer or resell these apps?
The second column (shown below) requests information concerning whether you refer these apps to your clients or if you resell the apps to your clients.
App Certification
Column three concerns App 'Certification': are you certified (shown below)? and if so, when? Certified or Re-certified this year (2024) or before this year.
2024 App Implementations
How busy were you with this one App during 2024 (as shown below)? Did you implement it fewer than 20 times, more than 20 times, or not at all during the year?
In Summary
Question 115 offers more points than any other singular question in the application form; however, that is due to its complexity and the number of available apps with scoring potential.
The points you earn for each App you report in Question 115 are relative to the percentages of your overall ProAdvisor work and the QBO-ProAdvisor work you reported in Questions 48 and 65. Scoring is but an algorithm based on the information you provided. Still, your odds of doing well improve with having a better understanding of how target questions relate directly to the Award Categories. And now you know!
If a substantial amount of your work is devoted to Apps, the 'App-ology' is at least a "Secondary Priority" of your practice, if not a 'Primary aspect of your ProAdvisor practice' and you should apply for the U.S. Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards and report all your App interactions.
On the other hand, if you know another ProAdvisor who does even more work with Apps than yourself, then you should go ahead and nominate them for the U.S. Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards.
At this point, we need to gratefully acknowledge our 2025 Award Sponsors, without whom these awards would not be possible.
