QuickBooks ProAdvisor Web Site Changes are Coming
If you are a QuickBooks ProAdvisor you have already received advance notice of the significant changes to the ProAdvisor Program that will be put into place this Fall. Part of the change will be a total rework of the Intuit ProAdvisor web site, and I have a sneak preview of what this should look like.
First, in case you aren’t familiar with the new changes, take a look at this blog post by Michelle Long which reviews the key new features. Also, if you are a member of The Sleeter Group Consultants Network you were able to see a detailed presentation by Intuit on the new program in the August “monthly conference call” (members, if you missed it, you can find a recording of that presentation in your membership pages).
I do want to point out a couple of items that several ProAdvisors have asked about after they viewed the presentations:
- The “Gold”, “Silver” and “Diamond” levels of membership are just for internal use in the ProAdvisor program. Users searching for a ProAdvisor won’t see this kind of designation, according to Ian Vacin (Intuit Leader of the ProAdvisor Program) “users are looking for proficiency”, so they will still see the certification levels of the ProAdvisor, not the membership levels.
- There are no plans for changing the ProAdvisor logos again, the “shield” logos will remain the same. They are an important part of the Intuit branding and they want to reinforce it.
So let’s look at the new ProAdvisor web site.
Existing ProAdvisor Web Site
I’m not particular a fan of the old (current) ProAdvisor web site. I found it a bit difficult to work with.
The main page isn’t too bad, but when you get away from the main page it can be confusing and hard to find the information that you want. It isn’t always clear what my status is in the program at this time, and what I might have to do to advance. Personally, I generally stay away from this web site unless I need to work on a Certification issue.
New ProAdvisor Web Site for Fall 2011
It is important to note that the screen shots I’m showing here are all taken from a development copy of the web site. Some features are not fully implemented, and anything you see here COULD change by the time it is fully released this Fall. This is a work in progress at this point. However, the general concepts should be the same.
Here is the starting page. Very similar to before. However, see the Notifications button in the right side – click it and a panel opens (as shown here) that has current important notifications. If you come to the web site often, this is an important new feature that will help alert you to important, current issues. I like this, IF you are someone who comes here often.
Scrolling down the page you will see a summary of your current status. I like having the status summary right there on the first page, although I’d like more of this higher on the page.
Scrolling even further down you see links to key areas that a ProAdvisor would be interested in.
One key thing to understand is that it is very apparent that Intuit wants to help ProAdvisors advance through the different certification levels. They want ProAdvisors to become more proficient in the product, so they are going to push you further along that path at every opportunity. The new membership level structure shows that – the further along you go the better support and products you get. The “Membership Goals” concept matches that. This portion of the page encourages you to pass certifications, and talks about the certifications that you can achieve. It provides links for product training and other resources.
My initial thought here is that I like having these kinds of links and resources laid out clearly and in one place, rather than scattered about.
If you dive into the training areas, the options available to you are laid out clearly. The following is just one of the pages that are available:
Software that is available to you for your use, as well as software that you can purchase for your clients, is located easily. Your discount status is show in the upper corner.
Your ProAdvisor support options are all listed clearly on one page. Note that this page will vary depending on your status in the ProAdvisor program – you will be shown the options that apply to your account specifically. This is one of the important areas that all ProAdvisors are going to have to examine closely in the new program.
In the “Community” section you will find links to the forums, recent blog posts and recent newsletters.
It is hard for me to evaluate this redesign without having my hands on it to play with. As I was being led through this in a demo, everything made sense, but the real proof is when I have to go in on my own to find something.
In the past few weeks there were several occasions when I needed to go into the current ProAdvisor site to find something, such as information relating to certification. Since I don’t spend a lot of time there, I found it difficult to locate the specific information I needed.
From what I’ve seen in this demo I think that the new site will be much easier to use to find the specific items I’m looking for. However, Intuit is looking to provide more than that. They are looking to encourage (push?) ProAdvisors further up the ladder, to get you to learn more about the product and become better representatives of Intuit products. This makes sense, of course, from their standpoint. And if you are truly interested in delving deep into the mysteries of QuickBooks and the ProAdvisor program, they seem to be giving you a lot of tools to grow.
In my discussion with Ian Vacin about this web site and the new ProAdvisor program I made the point that many ProAdvisors have felt, over the last year or so, that Intuit didn’t truly value us. Communications have dropped off, information has been harder to obtain. Ian assured me that his division DOES place a high value on working with and developing a good relationship with ProAdvisors, and he believes that the new ProAdvisor program and web site are proof of that interest.
Category: For Consultants/Accountants
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He's been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70's, and remembers releasing his first commercial accounting software product when you had a one-floppy disk drive system, loading the program from one floppy and then replacing that with the other floppy to hold the data. He has a special interest in inventory and manufacturing software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor with additional certifications for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise. He also is a Xero Certified Partner. Visit his CCRSoftware web site for information about his QuickBooks add-on products. Charlie can be reached at charlie.russell@sleeter.com He is also the author of the California Wildflower Hikes blog and a regular blog contributor to the Intuit Inner Circle. Connect with Charlie at GoogleSubscribe
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Hi Charlie:
I do go to that website often. The current website is not as user friendly. It is often hard to find the links until you get used to where they are. The new changes do look like it will be easier to navigate.
I actually just composed a post on the upcoming changes to the program (which will post on this Friday). I think the ProAdvisor program is a great value for just the software you receive.
Thanks for updating us on the changes.
I have been on a committe working with Intuit on the recently announced changes, as well as changes to the web site that you have covered above.
I’m excited for the changes that are being made! I’ve sensed a real committement from the Intuit personnel with whom I’ve been working to better support the ProAdvisors, and to reward those who are the most active and acheive the Advanced Certification (Diamond Level). In my opinion, anyone who is serious in supporting QuickBooks should obtain the Advanced Certification.
One of my biggest complaints as a ProAdvisor is I’ve had to find out new information from blogs from Charlie, Michelle Long, and the Scaling New Heights group, instead of directly from Intuit. I think we will all be pleased with the new Notification feature that you’ve described. It is the intent of the Intuit development team that each of us will use the revised website as a dashboard – preferably daily or at least weekly.
Also, the additional software that is now standard with the ProAdvisor program is a bonus that helps all of us that are involved in supporting QuickBooks users and also in our use of the software in our practices.
Thanks, Hal, and there will be more neat things regarding ProAdvisors (actually, any accounting professional) and notifications that will come out after September 7th when they can be talked about.
But, hey, let’s not put me ENTIRELY out of business!!!
Tools, tools, tools. A passive website (referral data-base), after we’ve done all the work (certification), certainly doesn’t promote us. It allows us to be found should someone be looking.
A fancier website is great, but promotion of ProAdvisors by Intuit is non-existent. Just the opposite. Their literature for Enterprise (read the full-service plan brochure), and the Enterprise team have specific marketing efforts to undercut the ProAdvisor. They even solicit our existing clients after they’ve been specifically requested not to. We won’t even talk about the Staples deal…..whole ‘nother bone of contention.
Have you ever seen a commercial by Intuit that acknowledges our existence? If they want ProAdvisor’s to represent and promote Intuit maybe they should lead by example.
If they want us to become more proficient in the product they should fix the issues with the Advanced Certification to also focus on proficiency, not product knowledge. I’m not in the business to “market” Intuit’s products.
Oh, I know, I’m rambling – Every time I read something like this I can’t even focus due to the hyprocisy of it all…….It’s downright annoying at times…..
Hey, Michele, I hear you. In this article I’m just talking about the changes in the web site and things cycling around that. I have not addressed the new ProAdvisor program itself, any of the marketing things you refer to, the Staples deal, any of that kind of thing. In many cases I agree with you.
We’ll see what kinds of changes come up in THOSE areas – but I do tend to have a more pessimistic view.
And as I understand it (and my understanding may be poor) but I think that the folks responsible for Enterprise may actually be a separate group from the folks who are in charge of the ProAdvisor program, which is were this web site and ProAdvisor program is coming from. You’ll see different initiatives from those groups and sometimes it looks to be a conflict.
As far as the competition for product sales (you didn’t touch on the issue of pricing and special deals through mass market retailers), in my own practice I’ll have to say that I haven’t sold a regular copy of any version of QuickBooks for several years, other than through people clicking on affiliate links in my web site. Now, I’ll admit that my business plan is different from most accounting professionals – but my view is that the QuickBooks product itself is a commodity that people can buy from anywhere. I promote my expertise and qualifications, and charge for my services. In fact, I like it better NOT selling product for several reasons. One being – if someone buys the product from me, they expect me to install it and possibly support it for no charge, at least for awhile. I don’t do that – and if they buy it from someone else there isn’t any pressure from them. But, hey, now I’M rambling…
Hi Charlie,
Hmmm. Any idea on where to click to find the ACE classes/tests? I went out to work on my last 2 sections of the ACE and couldn’t find how to access them anywhere on the new site…
I must be missing something, because I spent half an hour or so clicking everywhere that I could find to click, and still couldn’t find a way to take those last 2 classes…
Diane Gilson
Click “Certification” in the top menu bar. Scroll down the page, find the “QuickBooks Advanced Certification” logo, then click the “view certificate of completion” link to get the old course locker.
That is NOT obvious. It also took me too many clicks to find out how to get a chat with them (support), and I’ve been waiting for someone to answer for at least 15 minutes.
They have good intentions, but so far the implementation isn’t working out that well…
Thanks Charlie!
I checked your blog this morning, and since I didn’t see an answer yet, I put in a call to tech support. The recording said it would be a 20-minute wait, so while I was waiting, I tried “Chat”. It told me that no one was in line ahead of me, and that the wait time was “0 minutes”. It took 5-8 minutes and then someone arrived in the Chat window. She told me that the problem “would be fixed tomorrow” – about then was when the “live support” arrived on the phone, so I signed off with Chat in favor of a real person that I could talk with.
My tech support person seemed pretty surprised that the site was up as of yesterday and it took her 20-30 minutes to get an answer re: course locker location. She was extremely nice and apologetic, and because of the difficulty in finding the link, she said she was providing feedback to the web design people.
Since that’s one of the primary reasons that we go to the site, making that course locker more visible (and yes, it’s TOTALLY buried!) will be critical. Otherwise I can see them getting flooded with phone calls from irate PA’s…
Yes, I agree with your assessment. Hopefully they’ll get these kinds of issues ironed out pretty quickly!
Diane Gilson
Diane, I also spent a long time on “hold” with “Chat”, because they had the renewal date wrong on my Advanced Certification. Hopefully that will be worked out.
I believe that they are in transition. When I looked, it took you to the old certification site (eventually), as you mentioned. From my discussions with the product manager earlier I know that this isn’t what they want – I think that they just haven’t gotten that database back end stuff all completed and integrated into the new site. It should improve, I’m just sorry that they felt a timing pressure to get it updated before it was completely ready.