Intuit certifications can be a good thing, and it can be a sham.

Want to start your own business? Get a QuickBooks certification. You too can “help” small businesses and get paid for it.

There are plenty of good QB advisers out there, and there are plenty of pretenders. They all have the same on-line certifications.

The only way you can know a good one from one who follows the help file, is if you know what is right and wrong.

Let’s define what a good one is. A good QB adviser not only knows how to push the buttons in QB, but understands and can explain the accounting behind the button. QB is an accounting program. So to know whether or not you are thinking of hiring a good one, you have to have some basis of knowledge. That accounting program is what feeds your tax filing, and believe me if you get audited, that “certified professional” is not going to be there with you.

This conversation cropped up when a question was asked and I answered, the italics are the other person. But it highlights the problems with on-line certifications.

… question is on the certification quiz.. I wasn’t sure what it meant either, it isn’t in the course material that I can find and also couldn’t get a definitive answer on the internet. …. You’re taking a QB certification test? … been an accountant for x years, have been using QuickBooks for 2 months, but am not completely proficient.

Sigh.

Admits to being not completely proficient, and yet is getting a QB certification.

Maybe I should start my own business.

here is a really good one -

I just loaded the Enterprise Solutions CD. Is this where I would work on a company that I am doing payroll for or do I do it in the regular QB 2010 version? Doing someone else’s payroll and has no clue! !

ROFL and another priceless one:

I’m new to QB. How do I enter income to QB when it has not been deposited to the one checking account my client has. It was cashed through another account prior to establishing new account & business. I want it to reflect in the financial rprts. New and has a client, and doesn’t realize that anything you do reflects in the financial reports – sheeez.

Edit: (June 14, 2010) This is going to piss off some of my friends on the QB forums, but…

I am getting a little tired of the lack of professionalism and concern by Intuit and/or other professionals who hold certifications. I repeatedly see “answers” to questions that are either plain wrong or tell the new user how to just make it look right with no regard to what that look right procedure does to your accounting.

And the really disgusting part of all this is that it is both Advanced Certified ProAdvisors and Certified ProAdvisors, and in some cases Intuit employees too, all of which (the ProAdvisors) are in the business of keeping your books for a fee. Don’t get me wrong it is NOT all of them, there are very knowledgeable ProAdvisors on the forums side by side with the incompetent ones.

I am a confrontational kind of person, and in order to keep the peace on the QB help forum, I am not going to even look at a question that has been replied to when I get on the forum. So if there is something you want me to look at, use e-mail if someone else has already replied.

I hate doing this cause I really enjoy helping and in my own way paying back for the help I received when I was struggling to understand how QB works. But it is what it is.

8/29/10 Well as usual I can’t keep my nose out of some posts, the title is what drags me in most times, but for the most part I am just reading them and shaking my head a lot.