QuickBooks Online Certification (ProAdvisor), Level 1

Inside the accountant's edition of the software

Unlike most credentials on this site, this one is not reached through a public exam portal. You sign up to Intuit's ProAdvisor programme, which gives you QuickBooks Online Accountant, and the training modules and exam live under its Training tab. Intuit's global certification page describes the whole thing as free, and the US programme page offers the sign-up at no cost along with a free subscription for your own firm's books. Intuit's US certification page does not itself state a price, which is why the record's note cites both pages.

What a practice gets from it

For an individual, the badge is marketing: it goes on a website, a directory listing or a social profile, and it tells a prospective client that you know the software they already pay for. For a firm, it is also currency inside the programme. ProAdvisor tiers are built from points, and a current Level 1 certification counts toward them, next to the QuickBooks subscriptions your clients hold. Higher tiers unlock more of the programme's discounts and support.

• Self-paced training in ProAdvisor Academy, which you can revisit after passing.
• Webinars, virtual conferences and in-person events taught by certified ProAdvisors, for those who prefer a class.
• A direct route to the exam for experienced users who sign in and skip the training.
• Yearly recertification, with a what's-new course and a shorter exam than the first one.

Intuit keeps the question count, time limit and pass mark off the pages consulted here, and this record leaves them blank instead of borrowing numbers from community threads. The same applies to supervision: nothing on Intuit's pages describes a proctor, so read the badge as proof of product knowledge rather than of identity. That is a fair trade for a free credential whose purpose is to reassure a client, not to license a profession.

Renewal is where the credential earns its value. Because QuickBooks Online changes continuously, Intuit asks every certified ProAdvisor to pass a shorter recertification exam each year, and it provides a what's-new course and recertification-only training to prepare. A badge that is current therefore tells a client something specific: this person has been tested on the product as it stands this year. A lapsed one tells them nothing, and it also drops out of the points that decide the practice's tier. Firms with several staff should track expiry dates centrally rather than leave renewal to each individual.