This article is one in a series of 'help guides' for 2025 ProAdvisor Award applicants. It deals exclusively with requirements related to the U.S. ProAdvisor Awards.
You can apply for the 2025 U.S. ProAdvisor Awards HERE or nominate a U.S. ProAdvisor HERE.
Each year I attempt to provide valuable tips for ProAdvisors wishing to apply for the ProAdvisor Awards. Many ProAdvisors who have previously applied for the awards wonder what it takes to make the Top 100, still others wonder what it takes to earn one of the coveted Categorical Awards, and still others wonder what it takes to become ProAdvisor of the Year.
I have one simple answer... "Points."
This series is intended to provide you with tips on how to earn the maximum number of legitimate points possible for your ProAdvisor practice. But the key to earning those points is understanding how the ProAdvisor Awards work, how you should categorize yourself as a ProAdvisor in terms of the Award categories, and how both of those factors are measured in the formal application.
My series is designed for just that purpose. Previously, we have looked at several of the ProAdvisor Award categories for 2025, including Niche, Educator, Social Media, and App Specialization. Now, I want to address the QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Solutions-Large Business Specialist category.
As with the other categories we've addressed, your success in 'making the score' and being ranked in this category begins with you categorizing yourself on page 7 of the Formal Application in Question 44 (shown below).
In that question, we ask you to identify your ProAdvisor Practice based on our categories and sub-categories (as shown below).
If you are a ProAdvisor with a Desktop practice that focuses primarily on larger clients using QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Solutions, then you probably should be marking Question 44 as depicted above. If more of your clients are Desktop Pro/Premier clients and fewer Enterprise, you would likely want to reflect QuickBooks Desktop (General Practice) as your Primary and Enterprise-Large Businesses as your Secondary.
You are not precluded from reporting other categories as primary or secondary aspects of your ProAdvisor practice. Remember, for each category you select as 'primary' or 'secondary,' you may turn on new pages or additional questions within the Formal Application form.
When you answer questions regarding QuickBooks Desktop, you will provide information about your practice by product type, including, but not limited to,
- QuickBooks Desktop
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
- QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
- QuickBooks Desktop Payments
- QuickBooks Desktop Bill Pay
You will also provide information about the number of clients you have using each of the same products.
When you answer questions regarding QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, you will be asked about the clients you support using each Enterprise platform edition.
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise – Silver edition
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise – Gold edition
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise – Platinum edition
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise – Diamond edition
You need to be able to select an answer from the slider options available, choosing from 0 to 100. You must document 20 (twenty) or more clients on a cumulative basis (from any of, or all of, the 4 editions).
Another QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise category-specific question, # 75, found on page 15, asks you to report the percentage of your clients using the various QBD Enterprise advanced features (as shown below).
You need to be ready to provide these details related to your large business clients using Enterprise Solutions when completing your formal application form. There are plenty of points to be legitimately earned if you simply know what advanced features your QuickBooks Enterprise clients are using.
A ProAdvisor might provide both desktop and online support, but in both cases, they focus on the upper markets; in that case, they may choose to select both QuickBooks Enterprise Large business specialist and QuickBooks Online-Advanced Mid-market specialist as their 'primary' practice categories and QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online as their 'secondary' practice categories (as shown in the example below.)
In such a case, the ProAdvisor will maximize their scoring potential by ensuring they turn on the pages and questions for not only QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop but also QuickBooks Online-Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise.
Next Tuesday, I will have 'scoring tips' for ProAdvisors specializing in Mid-market clients using QuickBooks Online-Advanced.
Having a clear understanding of this award's definitions and how they fit into what you do as a ProAdvisor, as well as keeping an accurate record of your 'educator' hours and pages of work, can go a long way toward propelling you into the Top 100, of the categorical awards, or even... ProAdvisor of the Year.
You can apply for the 2025 U.S. ProAdvisor Awards HERE or nominate a U.S. ProAdvisor HERE.
Thanks to our 2025 Award Sponsors without whom these awards would not be possible.
