QuickBooks ProAdvisor Training Changes

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For this week's QuickBooks Monday Minute we thought we would talk about the new 'ProAdvisor Academy.'

It seems that Intuit has again 'reimagined' their 'reimagined' QuickBooks ProAdvisor Training of almost one year ago, along with a major change that returns ProAdvisor Training to a directly accessible website rather than as a QuickBooks Online Accountant access-only feature. 

Most ProAdvisors have been aware of the various training opportunities Intuit posted to it's Accountant University (and related URLs) in the past. You could find training courses, webinars, virtual events and more at Accountant University but you couldn't actually access your ProAdvisor Certifications, or Certification testing. 

ProAdvisors were also aware that formal QuickBooks Certification Training and their QuickBooks ProAdvisor Certifications were incorporated into the ProAdvisor menu item of their QuickBooks Online-Accountant. In fact, the old website where ProAdvisor training and certification were posted (for years) was removed from active URLs when the change to the QBO-Accountant sole-access was established a few years back.

Now, Intuit has decided to return to a stand-alone, although curtained, website to host the ProAdvisor training and certifications and that website can be accessed via QuickBooks Accountant University.The new website is located at https://proadvisoracademy.intuit.com/home.

As I mentioned, this new training and certification locale requires use of your QuickBooks Online (Intuit) credentials associated with your active ProAdvisor membership. After entering your account login you will have the option of either entering your password, or having a text message sent to you at your registered telephone.

Upon opening, your webpage should look somewhat similar to that shown below. Take note that this is referred to as the My Hub page.

Your newly designed badges appear on the left side of the webpage. If you previously had earned the QuickBooks Desktop Advanced badge, it simply no longer exists. There is also a link to your QBO-Accountant subscription (the one associated with the same login you used.)

Three-fourths of the page (on the right) is occupied by a new 'Certification enrollments' widget, and a new 'Course enrollments' widget.

Clicking the green 'View certification programs' on the Certification enrollments widget takes you to a Certifications Programs webpage that looks somewhat similar to the one below. Take notice that this is the 'Foundation' tab of Certifications.

Be advised, Insightful Accountant has added the bold "green text in blocks" (Core, Advanced, Bookkeeper) in an attempt to relate the new certification designations to old designations.

Didn't they teach us in 'Accounting 101' that preservation of nomenclature was critical to proper accounting standards? Apparently that doesn't apply here!

The new badge 'QuickBooks Level 1' seems to correspond to what was basic or 'core' QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor Certification, but please note that the word 'ProAdvisor' no longer appears on the badge anywhere.

The new 'QuickBooks Level 2' badge seems to correspond to what was 'Advanced' QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor Certification. Again the term 'ProAdvisor' in no longer associated with the badge.

There is a new Intuit 'Bookkeeping' Certification. Intuit has provided 'bookkeeping' (fundamentals of accounting) training for eons, and while individuals taking that certification could earn a certificate of completion, they were never issued a 'Badge' by the ProAdvisor program in the nearly 27 years of its existence (unless my memory fails me).

If I click on the "More Details" button for the Advanced Certification option, I get taken to another page that provides information, include the associated trainings for the certification (shown below). In this case there are 6 training courses comprising approximately 6-1/2 hours of self-paced time, and earning 7.5 CPE credits. There is an option to enroll so you can then 'start' each of the 6 courses. 

The instructions (for this course) advise that you can take each course, and pass each course's exam, or you can skip the courses and 'test out' via a single comprehensive exam.  It isn't clear, but it almost seems that there is a comprehensive exam only if you elect to skip the individual courses; that if you take the six courses and pass the six course exams you no longer have an overall exam. 

If you notice, each of the courses shown here have 'Level 2' appearing in their title.  This is important as we will see below when we look at the various 'learning opportunities' on the new website.

Returning to the "Certifications Programs" page, I decide to click on the 'Specialty' tab of the Certifications page. Another new page lists three other certifications (as shown below).  Once again, Insightful Accountant has added some 'bold text' (in various colors) to indicate the status of these certifications.

QuickBooks Payroll Certification is apparently undergoing another change and is 'coming soon'.

Both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise certifications are 'Still Available' (for at least the time being). I'm glad to see this, because I had noticed that they had been removed several weeks ago from the training available under the ProAdvisor tab of QuickBooks Online -Accountant.

But still, none of these new badges reflect 'ProAdvisor' despite this being the "ProAdvisor Academy."

Returning to the 'My Hub' page, if you click on the Green 'View other learning options' within the Course enrollments widget, the 'Courses' webpage (of which a portion is shown below) opens.

This is an alphabetical listing of every course making up the current certifications already listed. We haven't attempted to show all of the 30+ courses available, just the first dozen. Just know that there are even more courses (on the actual website) listed below those shown here,

If you click on the 'more' button of any of these courses, you are provided with additional course description information, estimated length of time, and other information regarding the course. 

How these changes potentially impact the 2025 ProAdvisor Awards

We know some of you might be wondering how all of these changes might impact your 'training' and 'certification' credits in the ongoing 2025 ProAdvisor Awards process, you will be able to list any or all of these courses, that you complete, along with any new certifications you earn, (even if they don't say 'ProAdvisor') in the 2025 ProAdvisor Awards process as long as you complete them prior to the process deadlines.

This year, the 2025 ProAdvisor Awards process gives you the opportunity to write-in courses with new and different names, provide the number of hours or CPEs you earned, and also the date of completion in your formal application. You will earn credit for each of these courses, and your ProAdvisor certifications (even without ProAdvisor appearing on the badge) just as you have in past years. The credits are based on either hours completed, or CPEs, with a multiplier for 'degree of difficulty' (I bet you can figure out how Insightful Accountant will be using Intuit's level 1 and 2 for that one.) just as in years past.