A full 80% of American businesses using accounting software employ QuickBooks, so Intuit, the software’s maker since its initial release in 1998, must be doing something right. That makes for some very good reasons for learning to use the software, whether you’re a small business owner, a professional bookkeeper, or even an accountant.
Small business owners need to keep track of their company’s finances as much as CEOs of Fortune 500 entities do. Even if you only have only a few people on payroll or only have a small inventory to sell, you still have payroll and sales tax to deal with, and you need some way of keeping track of them. Your balance sheet may not run to ten figures, but you still need to keep your eye on it, and QuickBooks can have one ready for you at the click of a mouse.
QuickBooks may not be the only solution out there for handling your day-to-day accounting needs, but it’s definitely one that any small business owner should consider learning to use.
If you’re a professional bookkeeper, the odds are that you’re going to encounter QuickBooks sooner rather than later in your career. Although you can probably function as an accounting clerk in a large company without knowing how to use QuickBooks, you can’t if you’re a bookkeeper employed by a small company, if you’re a freelancer with small business clients, or you work for a bookkeeping firm with the same. You’re thus going to have to know how to operate the software. Or perhaps you’re interested in breaking into the bookkeeping game (there’s currently a commercial making the rounds on YouTube that promises enormous rewards for starting a bookkeeping business), in which case QuickBooks will be your fastest ticket to work in the field.
Professional accountants and CPAs don’t really need QuickBooks in that they can do most of what the software does (and do it with a human’s ability to spot errors). On the other hand, those who are in private practice may very likely have clients who use QuickBooks to keep their books, and, therefore, are going to need to know how to operate the software when their turn comes to check on their clients’ bookkeeping efforts.
You should be aware that there are two very different products marketed under the name of QuickBooks. QuickBooks Pro/Premier/Enterprise is software you operate on your computer, and that keeps all your financial data on your computer. As a result, you can only take your company’s financial temperature when working on that computer. QuickBooks Online is, on the other hand, cloud-based, meaning both the software and your data are stored somewhere in the aether, and, therefore, can be accessed from anywhere, even from a mobile device. QuickBooks Online is also less difficult to learn than the desktop version. On the other hand, the desktop version can do more than the cloud version: if you want a greater range of reports and graphs, for example, you will need the desktop version. But, then, if you want a feature like international invoicing, you’re going to need the online one. It’s decidedly confusing for Intuit, so if you own your own business, you should investigate both versions of the software with your company’s needs in mind before committing to one or the other.
Note also that Intuit offers neither version of the software for sale. Both are available only by one of a number of subscription packages, none of which can be described as a bargain.
#1: QuickBooks Training—VIP Membership
QuickBooks Training is the only QuickBooks school that carries the Intuit imprimatur. Run by Real World Training, the school has been teaching QuickBooks classes since 1998. Two different learning schemes are offered by the company: a 14-hour live class and a VIP program that offers extensive on-demand classes along with a number of opportunities for human interaction.
The VIP program incorporates access to no fewer than 200 hours of on-demand lessons, including Mastering QuickBooks Level 1 and Mastering QuickBooks Level 2, which cover the expected basics and more advanced topics, from setting up a company to creating reports and graphs. Particularly helpful is the fact that the two introductory courses exist in four versions: one for QuickBooks Online, one for QuickBooks Pro/Premier (the desktop versions for smaller companies), one for QuickBooks Enterprise (the desktop version for medium-sized companies), and one for the Accountant Edition of the desktop version. Thus, while the classes are pre-recorded, they’re more customized than any other similar products on the market. Other classes included with the package include a Crash Course in Bookkeeping (which explains all the fundamental accounting principles that underlie QuickBooks, from learning the accounting equation to accounting for bad debt), Mastering QuickBooks Payroll, and courses targeting the special editions available (construction, manufacturing, nonprofit, etc.). of the desktop software.
Unusually for what is essentially a self-paced class, the VIP program offers access to live webinars and a weekly question-and-answer session via Zoom. That may well constitute a welcome alternative to attempting to contact Intuit’s customer support team.
Key Information
The list price for the VIP program is a one-time upfront payment of $999, but substantial discounts in excess of 25% are frequently available. In addition, if you wish to continue with live support (such as the Zoom Q&A sessions) following your first 30 days, the monthly charge is $29.95, which may be canceled at any time.
QuickBooks Training estimates that somewhere between eight and nine hours are required for the Mastering QuickBooks Level 1 class, and a further nine to ten hours for the Level 2 class. The Crash Course in Bookkeeping takes approximately five and a half hours to complete.
There are no prerequisites for either the Level 1 class or the Crash Course in Bookkeeping. Obviously, the more advanced classes call for knowledge such as can be gleaned from the introductory ones.
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The one-time payment for the VIP course library includes access in perpetuity to all the on-demand courses. New courses are added regularly to the library.
Also available to those who have invested in the VIP program are classes to prepare for all three Intuit certification exams (Certified QuickBooks User for the online and desktop versions and Certified Bookkeeping Professional). You’ll also receive access to an instructor to whom you can address questions and a number of practice tests. Finally, you will also receive five Intuit exam vouchers enabling you to sit for the exams without having to pay the $125 exam provider Certiport usually levies.
Reviews by people who have taken advantage of the VIP training attest to the fact that it is worth the investment. One student also complimented the teacher for not moving his mouse around the screen all the time, while another called the introductory training “straightforward, easy to follow” with a “great” flow from one subject to another.
#2: LinkedIn Learning—QuickBooks Online Essential Training
LinkedIn Learning’s self-paced QuickBooks introductory course, QuickBooks Online Essential Training, begins by showing students how to set up a QuickBooks Online account and then how to input vendors, customers, and contractors. Students then learn to enter income and expenses, work with banks and credits, and manage receivables and payables. Finally, students will learn to create and interpret reports to assess the condition of their businesses.
This course is only available for QuickBooks Online.
LinkedIn Learning incorporates this class into what it terms a “learning path”: the Top Ten Things Finance Professionals Have Right Now. This is a series of self-paced courses, including not only the QuickBooks training but also tutorials in such topics as Lean Accounting Foundations, Corporate Financial Statement Analysis, Finance Strategies for Business Leaders, and so on. The goal of the learning path is to help keep students up-to-date in the skills they need to advance their careers.
Key Information
The QuickBooks Online Essential Training class is available for purchase for $44.99.
It is also accessible, along with the entire LinkedIn Learning library of classes, via a monthly subscription scheme. For $19.99 per month, billed annually, you receive access to over 21,000 different courses taught by real-world professionals. Another means of accessing LinkedIn learning is by purchasing a LinkedIn Premium subscription for $39.99 a month: along with all the features that go with that, LinkedIn throws in unlimited use of its on-demand content. A 30-day free trial of either plan is available.
The Essential Training class takes 4 hours and 20 minutes to view. The full Top Ten Things Financial Professionals Have Right Now series of ten classes takes 17 hours to watch.
There are no prerequisites for the Essential Training class. It was designed for beginners, although basic digital literacy is assumed.
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The LinkedIn Learning classes can be viewed on any device, computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
Five chapter quizzes are included in the course, enabling students to check their progress and make sure they’ve absorbed the information they’ve studied.
A certificate of completion is awarded upon the conclusion of the course. It is suitable for display on a LinkedIn profile.
Student reviews on LinkedIn praised the fact that the course was easily accessible for people with no background in using QuickBooks. There was a dissenting voice that the class was too basic, however. Another student observed that the course made a good refresher for someone who hasn’t used the software in a while.
#3: Udemy—QuickBooks Desktop Fundamentals
One of a large number of QuickBooks classes available through the Udemy learning platform (not all of them of most recent date), QuickBooks Desktop Fundamentals (last revised May 2025) is one in a series of bookkeeping video tutorials that also includes an introduction to bookkeeping and one to the mechanics of proper bookkeeping. The QuickBooks course is broken up into the following sections: working with QuickBooks, banking, sales, expenses, reconciling, reports, and an entire module devoted to such hard-to-classify topics as adding other users, backing up files, and starting a new company. The individual “lectures” making up each module are kept intentionally brief (they rarely run to ten minutes in length).
The above course covers only the desktop version of QuickBooks. Those who wish to learn the online version are referred to QuickBooks Online/Certification Prep from the same instructor.
Key Information
The list price for the class is $119.99, but very large discounts are frequently available, bringing the cost down to as low as $24.99. The bookkeeping fundamentals class from the same teacher lists for $129.99, and the bookkeeping mechanics class lists for $124.99. Similar discounts can apply. Udemy also has a subscription scheme that allows access to over,000 of its classes for $16.58 per month when billed annually (that’s $198.96 in total). A seven-day trial is available for those interested in testing the waters.
The QuickBooks class comprises five hours of video tutorials. The program also includes a number of homework exercises that are not included in the preceding figure.
The course does suppose knowledge of some rudimentary accounting concepts such as the difference between a customer and a vendor. Taking a bookkeeping class before attacking the QuickBooks courses may prove beneficial to some students.
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Each module of the class concludes with a quiz to ensure that you’ve achieved all the objectives of the unit. A final exam is included as well.
Six supplementary articles are included with the course as well, along with a very generous amount of downloadable resources, including note sheets that function as a combination textbook and notebook.
Classes are closed-captioned for people who are hard of hearing, and are accessible from computers, mobile devices, and even televisions.
The price of the course includes free access to QuickBooks software.
The course is accredited by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and awards NASBA CPE credits for those interested. A fuller explanation of NASBA CPE credits is included as part of the online resources included with the class.
Participants are rewarded with a certificate upon completing the course.
Student reviews of the class called it both a “great overview” and yet “very detailed.” Another student expressed pleasure with the pace of the class, while another commented that the homework activities were a great help.
#4: GoSkills—QuickBooks Online
The QuickBooks Online class from GoSkills is designed to get participants comfortable with the software and able to put it to practical use. The course begins by giving students a thorough walk-through of the software’s navigation. From there, it proceeds to the all-important chart of accounts, and thence to products and services, expenses, income, banking (the one-way sync with your bank that enables QuickBooks to know where your money went), and reports (above and beyond balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements). The course concludes by devoting five of its 40 lessons to frequently-encountered QuickBooks mistakes, be they in the bank register, among receivables or payables, or in commonly run reports like the balance sheet or the profit-and-loss statement. For those who require a firmer grounding in basic financial concepts, GoSkills also offers a Finance for Non-Financial Professionals that meshes well with the QuickBooks class.
This class is only for QuickBooks online users.
Key Information
GoSkills’ business classes are available only through a subscription plan. For $29 a month, or for $17 a month if you pay yearly, you get unlimited access to all 110 courses in the GoSkills class library. GoSkills also offers a seven-day free trial; an efficient person could get through the whole QuickBooks class in that time and thus have to pay nothing for the experience.
The class incorporates three hours and 40 minutes of video time (divided into 40 “bite-sized” lessons). The provider estimates that some 18 hours of study time are necessary to complete the course with all its assignments and activities.
The class has no prerequisites save for the ability to use a computer.
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The GoSkills subscription also includes the ability to use QuickBooks Online, so you needn’t bother with the free trial for the program to learn how to use it.
The GoSkills platform is accessible via mobile device, enabling you to learn on the go (as it were). Content is also regularly updated, keeping the course in sync with Intuit’s latest refinements of the software.
Two different certificates are available to students at the course’s end: a Certificate of Training (which is rather like a certificate of attendance) and a Certificate of Achievement, which testifies that you took the course and received a passing grade on the final examination.
A student who completed the course called it “a wonderful experience.” Another wrote that she “learned a ton” and singled out the teacher’s ability to explain the material. A third commented positively on the pace of the class and found it both “excellent” and “informative.”
#5: Broward College—Introduction to QuickBooks Online
Broward College is an online-only school that is ranked in the top ten percent of community colleges (based on student success indicators). The school teaches a very wide range of subject matter, from Start Your Own Small Business to Healthy and Happy Pregnancy. Alumni of the former class are likely to need to know how to keep their new business’ books, to which end the school offers a pair of self-paced classes in QuickBooks Online. The Introduction to QuickBooks Online begins with a module on accounting basics (which makes the class suitable for absolute beginners) before showing students the ropes of the all-important chart of accounts. The various Centers built into QuickBooks Online and the lists at the core of the software are up next, followed by expenses, bills, income, and invoices. The class finishes with a module on sales tax and generating reports. The follow-up class, Intermediate QuickBooks Online, is available as either an instructor-led class or as a self-paced one. They follow the same syllabus and go into more advanced topics, including gift cards, foreign currencies, and payroll.
These classes are only in QuickBooks Online. Broward College doesn’t offer classes in the more recent versions of QuickBooks Pro.
Key Information
The price for the online beginner class is $135. Both versions of the intermediate class (live online and self-paced) also go for $135. The beginner course may be bundled with either of those for considerable savings at $199. Financing (approximately $34 every two weeks) is available through third-party lender Affirm.
Both the beginner and intermediate classes come out to 24-course hours each; your one-time tuition payment gives you three months to complete the course.
There are no prerequisites for the beginner class.
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Instructional materials for the class are made available to students online. Students will also get to use a free QuickBooks Online practice site.
All classes may be taken on either a PC or a Mac.
A former student of a QuickBooks class at Broward found that the class was a career boost and would recommend it to others. Another used the word “amazing” twice and commented upon the convenience of the class and the clarity of the information provided.
#6: ONLC Training Centers—QuickBooks Desktop on Demand & QuickBooks Online on Demand
ONLC has been providing in-person, live online, and on-demand computer training since 1983. It offers self-paced courses in both versions of QuickBooks that combine the material taught in four separate in-person classes, whence the sobriquet “comprehensive” in QuickBooks Desktop On Demand: Comprehensive and QuickBooks Online On Demand: Comprehensive. The classes comprise lectures, demonstrations, and exercises that allow students to apply what they’ve learned. Like pretty much all QuickBooks courses, the desktop version of the class begins with fundamentals like starting the software, setting up a company, and those two pillars of the QuickBooks universe, the chart of accounts and the lists that keep tabs on your vendors, customers, inventory and employees. Inventory, sales, service items, payments, bank accounts, and paying bills follow in due measure. The class then proceeds to cover more advanced topics such as memorizing (automating) transactions, customizing forms, and generating reports and graphs. Payroll, online banking, and time tracking follow in due measure, with, for dessert, a glance at the Letter and Envelopes Wizard.
The class in the online version of the software begins with many of the same fundamentals, tailored to the differing capabilities of QuickBooks Online. There’s still a chart of accounts, but there are also multiple “centers” around which accounting tasks are grouped: there’s a Sales Center, an Expenses Center, and a Banking Center, which make it possible to keep track of money in, money out, and where your money is spending its time in the interim. Purchase orders, sales tax, and payroll are among the more advanced topics that are covered in turn, along with a long look at the accounting cycle and how to close the books when it comes time.
Key Information
The price for the desktop version of the class is $595; it comprises just over 15 hours of video material. The online class, being briefer at 11 and a half hours of video, is priced at $495. Were these traditional live classes, the desktop version would take four days, and the online version only two. A discount scheme for purchases of $2500 in ONLC classes in one year is available; this will probably appeal more to companies than to individuals.
As far as prerequisites are concerned, students in either QuickBooks class need to know how to operate within the Windows operating system. They should also have some fundamental understanding of accounting concepts. Should they lack that, ONLC suggests taking a preliminary self-paced class, Accounting On Demand: Business Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Payroll. The course consists of over 21 hours of instruction and costs $495.
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For all the on-demand classes described above, ONLC gives you 180 days (from the date of purchase) to complete the course.
Both QuickBooks on-demand classes prepare students for the QuickBooks Certified User Desktop or QuickBooks Certified User Online examination. Students are left to arrange their own exams through test provider Certiport. No exam vouchers are included with the tuition for either class.
A printed learning manual is provided to all students.
Reviews of ONLC Training Centers on Indeed are largely positive, with the school picking up 4.3 stars out of a possible 5. 92% of the respondents said that they would recommend the school to a friend. One student praised the balance between teaching how to use the software and explaining basic accounting principles, as well as the way the class showed how to troubleshoot problems with the software.
#7: UniversalClass—QuickBooks 101 & QuickBooks Online
UniversalClass has been offering continuing education training online since 1999 and, in that time, has instructed, by their own reporting, over a million students. It is a self-paced learning platform with approximately 600 available courses on topics including Aromatherapy 101, Chakras 101, Greek mythology, Bartending and Mixology 101, and, yes, QuickBooks 101, along with a hundred other classes in business and office technology.
The QuickBooks 101 class covers the desktop version of the software, and begins by showing you how to set up your company. It goes on to introduce you to the chart of accounts, then shows how to set up customers, jobs, vendors, and service items, and continues along to bills, deposits, credits, and invoices. Also covered are such topics as managing loans, setting up and running payroll, collecting and paying sales tax, and closing the books at the end of a fiscal year. Budgeting, reports, and online banking wrap up the course.
That curriculum is for QuickBooks Pro or Premier. For those who wish to use the cloud-based version of QuickBooks, there is QuickBooks Online, which also begins by showing the student how to set up a business using the software. The curriculum then covers the chart of accounts, expenses and bills, deposits and credits, and invoices and sales. Other topics covered include closing the books at the end of the year, tracking inventory, and managing payroll. Estimating, time-tracking and job costing, customizing forms, and budgeting are among the more advanced topics included in the course.
Key Information
The price for either class is $95, which includes a digital CEU certificate (each class is good for 1.4 CEUs for those whose professional certifications or employers require evidence of continuing education courses). If you don’t require a certificate, either class may be had for $70. UniversalClass offers a Platinum Program which makes all its courses available to you for $189 a year, $299 for two years, or, if you wish to pay monthly, $79 for the first month and $29 for each month thereafter, which comes to $398 for a year. The Platinum Plan includes a CEU certificate for every class you complete.
Both classes consist of some 14 hours of video instruction, broken up into 25 (desktop) or 26 (online) lessons. Each lesson is accompanied by an assignment and a quiz (desktop) or an exam (online). Both classes conclude with a final examination (a grade of 70% is required for the issuance of the CPU certificate). If you are paying for just a single course, you have six months to complete the class. Those on the Platinum Plan may take however long they desire to complete the class.
Although there are no graven-in-stone prerequisites, those with no background whatsoever in accounting might do well to avail themselves of the Accounting and Bookkeeping 101 For Everyone course. The class is estimated to take 32 hours to complete and confers 3.2 CEUs. As with the QuickBooks classes, the price is $95 with the certificate or $70 without it.
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UniversalClass is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), whence the school’s authority to issue CEU certificates.
Printable class materials are included with the course.
The course may be taken on a Mac as well as on a Windows computer. The class is also mobile–device friendly.
One QuickBooks-using student took the course as a refresher and was highly satisfied with what he was able to learn. He wrote that he felt “much more confident” in using the software after he’d finished the course. Another student termed the course “fantastic” and noted how well-paced it was: lessons were brief enough “that you did not get overwhelmed.” A third student also employed the word “fantastic” and recounted how this was her third QuickBooks class. Her previous two were live, and both of them had been exceedingly boring. The self-paced class, on the other hand, got her to learn QuickBooks so that it was “as easy as using MS Word for me.”
#8: @Home Prep Education—Introduction to QuickBooks Online
@Home Prep Education is a Tennessee-based school that specializes in preparing contractors for licensing exams in all 50 states. It also teaches a wide range of business classes, including its Introduction to QuickBooks Online, a self-paced course in the most practical applications of Intuit’s flagship product. Most everything necessary for managing a small business is covered, including invoices, receipts, statements, payables, and receivables. Students also learn to generate reports that make all that painstakingly inputted information make sense. For those whose businesses are more complex, there is an additional course, Intermediate QuickBooks Online that covers more advanced topics, including managing inventory and service items and customizing sales forms.
This class is in QuickBooks Online only. Those seeking a class in QuickBooks’ desktop version are recommended to look elsewhere.
Key Information
The beginner and the intermediate classes are priced at $127.99 apiece. That is good for 90 days of access to the course materials. A 10% discount may be available. Financing is available through Sezzle that breaks the course down to four payments of $32, made over the course of eight weeks.
Both the beginner and the intermediate courses consist of 24 hours of video lessons.
There are no prerequisites for the beginner course. That course, or equivalent experience, is necessary if you plan to take the intermediate class.
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Learning materials for the class are made available to students online.
A certificate is awarded upon completion of either class.
The learning platform is mobile-compatible. The class is also suitable for those working with Macs rather than Windows computers.
Students at @Home Prep Education write that the company was caring, and that technical support was first-rate. One student wrote that his class was a “positive experience” and that they gave him all the tools he required to complete his course. Another described the class as “very thorough and user-friendly.”
#9: Simon Sez IT—Learn QuickBooks Online
There actually is a Simon (albeit it’s his nickname) behind Simon Sez IT, a school that offers training in business software from Adobe to Microsoft to web development and all the way along to QuickBooks. Its Learn QuickBooks Online course is briefer than many of the others on the market: the 58 lessons that make up the course are kept intentionally short, meaning that you get to concentrate on the one thing you’re learning at that given moment. The course shows you how to set up your company file using QuickBooks and how to customize it to suit your exact needs. After a look at the master chart of accounts, the class delves into customers, sales transactions, products and services, vendors and expenses, and banking. A further 57 short videos comprise QuickBooks Online Advanced, which covers (among other advanced topics) customizing forms, reports, sales tax, and payroll.
Note that the school also has available a series of video tutorials on QuickBooks Canada, a topic not otherwise covered in this survey.
Key Information
Simon Sez IT’s classes are accessible by a subscription that offers unlimited access to its over 160 courses. The subscription is priced at $25 per month (billed monthly) or $197 billed annually (for a savings of $9 per month). The Learn QuickBooks Online class comes in at 4 hours and 44 minutes of video, while the advanced class is an hour shorter than even that. Exercise files are included with both courses.
There are no prerequisites for the beginner class, which covers all the basics of operating the software. You do, on the other hand, need the first class (or some experience using QuickBooks) if you’re to make sense of the second.
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Students are awarded a.pdf certificate at the end of both classes.
The class may be viewed on both PC and Mac devices.
“Everything was explained well with the detail needed, ” wrote one alumna of a Simon Sez IT QuickBooks class. Another student wrote amusingly that the teacher’s voice didn’t make him fall asleep, while a third found the instructor “articulate and knowledgeable.”
#10: Fit Small Business—Learn QuickBooks Fast
Fit Small Business is a website devoted, as the name suggests, to small businesses and the many things that go into running them. Financed by commissions from partners whose products are mentioned on the site, the site makes available for free a series of videos that teach the basics and beyond of QuickBooks Online. The course begins by showing the viewer how to set up a company using QuickBooks, and then proceeds to demonstrate how to input everything from customers to credit card transactions. It then proceeds to managing sales and income, then to the flip side of that, managing expenses and bills. Banking and reconciliation follow, before ending up with payroll and reports. The course is broken down into 46 “bite-sized” tutorials grouped into eight lessons.
The tutorials are only available for QuickBooks Online.
Key Information
The class is available to be viewed for free. It runs to just short of six and a half hours, which is longer than some of the paid self-paced classes. The program is beginner-friendly, although some acquaintance with accounting terminology will come in handy as you navigate the tutorials.
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As might be expected from a free class, there aren’t a whole lot of bells and whistles included. On the other hand, there’s no arguing with the price point. The course is also of relatively recent date (November 2022) and appears to get updated every now and then.
Although it can hardly be expected to be unbiased, Fit Small Business does vote its own free tutorials as the best of the free QuickBooks tutorials from which there are to choose. They do acknowledge the inconveniences, given the format, that no interaction with the teacher is possible, and that you’re going to need your own QuickBooks Online account to follow the tutorials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an On-demand QuickBooks Class Worth It?
Depending on how you learn, yes, it very frequently is. To succeed at a self-paced course (in other words, to get to the end of it and retain what you learned), you do need a greater degree of self-discipline than you need for a class with a live teacher who can nudge, cajole and otherwise encourage you to keep up with the classwork and assignments. You can be a more passive participant in a live class: if the learning experience consists of just you and your computer, you’re going to have to have the sticktoitiveness to stick to it, come back the next day for the next lesson, and have the honesty and patience to admit when you didn’t grasp something and back up the video to learn it over again.
On the other hand, you’re also left to learn in peace at whatever time of day suits you. That can be extremely attractive to some people, although not everyone thrives in such circumstances. If you’ve never taught yourself to do anything, perhaps QuickBooks isn’t the place to start, although the flip side of that is that there’s a first time for everything, and, especially if there are no live classes that fit your schedule, you may want to experiment with an on-demand course. You can always try a free course, either the one from Fit Small Business mentioned above or one of the ones available on YouTube, although the real challenge in sticking to an on-demand class comes well after the first lesson.
What Will I Need for an On-demand QuickBooks Class?
Most importantly, you’re going to need a computer armed with the software required by your class’s provider. Always double-check those requirements before signing up for a class (that applies double if you work on a Mac). You’re also going to need a stable high-speed internet connection (a good litmus test here is that if you can stream Netflix’s most recent venture into anime, you can stream a QuickBooks class too).
Although there are a very few exceptions, you’re also going to need your own access to QuickBooks software. If your class is in QuickBooks’ desktop version, that means downloading the software. If your class is in QuickBooks Online, all you’ll need to do is sign up for a subscription, and that will grant you access to the software; as QuickBooks Online dwells on a fluffy cloud somewhere, you don’t need to download anything.
Intuit offers a 30-day free trial of either version of QuickBooks. A pleasant surprise is that it doesn’t require a credit card until the trial has concluded. The trial starts the minute you sign up for it, so don’t do that until you’re ready to begin your studies. You can access your desktop QuickBooks free trial or your QuickBooks Online free trial by clicking on one of the foregoing links. Note that the 30-day free trial isn’t actually the best deal Intuit offers: you can also obtain 50% off the first three months of a QuickBooks subscription, which means that, if you’re sure that you’re going to need a QuickBooks subscription, you come out ahead if you elect the 50% introductory rate rather than the free trial. Be forewarned that QuickBooks won’t refund the unused portion of an annual subscription, so don’t commit to a year’s service unless you’re thoroughly sure you’re going to use it.
Can I Learn QuickBooks On-demand for Free?
You can. Whether you can do it well is another matter altogether. Free doesn’t necessarily mean worthless, and there are some helpful free resources out there (including the Fit Small Business course described above) which will undoubtedly convey at least some of the basic functionality of QuickBooks. If you need more advanced functionality from the software, you’re probably going to need a paid class that can go into those functions in greater depth (or go into them at all, as even “complete” free classes aren’t exhaustive in the way some of the more thorough on-demand courses are).
There’s a fluke of human nature that you should bear in mind as well. We all tend to approach free things with a degree of contempt. You may not be correct in assuming that the paid article is more valuable than the free one, but that’s how we’ve been trained to think. Therefore, you may have more trouble seeing a free class through to the end, as opposed to making good on your investment in a paid class.
And don’t forget two important factors when you’re dabbling in a free class: if you’ve selected the 30-day free trial of the software, you only have a month to learn QuickBooks before it becomes an expensive proposition. The other is to be sure that you’re learning from an up-to-date tutorial: you might well be surprised to discover how many classes there are out there for versions of QuickBooks that have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Is It Better to Learn QuickBooks in a Live or Self-paced Class?
This depends on a number of personal factors, the first of which may answer the question before you need to consider any others: the contents of your bank account. Although the prices of classes (live and self-paced) can vary enormously, as a general rule, classes with a live teacher with whom you can interact are more costly than those that leave you up to your own devices. If your budget doesn’t allow for a class with a live instructor, you’ll have to take a self-paced one. Just go into that without the erroneous belief that self-paced classes are sloppy seconds to the live online ones.
Money isn’t the only factor, however. There’s also scheduling: live online classes require that you and the teacher exist in the same exact moment on the universal timeline, and live courses in QuickBooks mostly take place during the day, with a few taking place on weekday evenings. If you have commitments during those times, or if your brain works best when everyone around you is asleep, you’re going to have trouble finding a class that will suit you (of course, if you’re in California and want to study at 1:00 a.m., you can always look for a day-long class out of Cape Town, although you might get into compatibility problems between the South African version of QuickBooks and the United States version). Therefore, if you need temporal flexibility and haven’t figured out how to bend spacetime, an on-demand class is probably going to be your only bet.
Finally, all realities being equal, there is the question of which learning style fits you better. Learning from a teacher is what you’ve been doing since kindergarten, and many adults still respond best to that manner of going to school. Some, however, don’t necessarily work best with teachers and prefer to be left to their own learning devices. For these people, the on-demand class is again the best option.
Just a reminder that, while a certificate from an online class that just attests to the fact that you played all the videos in order may seem flimsy, most of the on-demand courses do prepare you for the QuickBooks Certified User examination. You can arrange to take that through Certiport if you want a more substantial credential to show for your efforts in learning the world’s leading accounting software.