Intuit’s Cloud Accounting Road Show is Floating Your Way Soon

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In past years Intuit had a traveling ‘dog and pony’ show featuring top instructors covering “What’s new in QuickBooks“ and their professional tax software (as well as tax  code changes for the upcoming year).  These city-by-city sessions featured ‘Name’ instructors to both promote as well as educate on these Intuit products.  A few years ago Intuit abandoned this concept in favor of alternative marketing strategies, including a greater presence at Scaling New Heights and Sleeter Group conventions, as well as hosting a V-con (Virtual Conference).

Intuit has now returned to the concept of a city-by-city promotional tour, but this time for their ‘accounting cloud’ featuring QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant, as well as other Intuit App center products.  Intuit’s marketing materials says, “This training will walk you through what exactly is the "cloud" and how it can give you freedom to focus your time on your practice and less time managing technology.1”

Who Should Attend?  While this FREE 7-hour course is considered ‘basic level’ training, with no prerequisites, it really is designed for accounting professionals who want to learn about the cloud and either currently use, or would like to learn about using, Intuit’s QuickBooks Online and/or QuickBooks Online Accountant offerings.  Intuit will issue 6.0 hours of CPE credit for those attending the full course. 

Course Description1: This course will take an in-depth look at understanding the cloud and what it means to work in the cloud. You will gain an understanding of how it applies to accounting professionals and what managing a practice that includes online clients looks like. We will offer a unique opportunity to experience working in the cloud and within the software. We will introduce you to QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA), including how to use, get started, set up a client and the ease of working remotely with clients. We will show you practical examples of how to transition both your files and client files from the desktop to the cloud. We will also be showing you how to create an online ecosystem that encompasses other third party add-ons.

Every session, regardless of city location is based upon the same content and structure including1:

Part 1: 8:30am – 11:30am (local time)

  • What is 'The Cloud'
  • Why manage clients in the cloud?

Part 2: 12:30pm – 4:30pm (local time)

  • Dive into QuickBooks Online
  • Supporting clients on QuickBooks

After attending this course, you will be able to fulfill the following course learning objectives1:

  • Define what the cloud is and understand how it applies to accounting professionals
  • Summarize why you would want to transition to the cloud and the benefits it will provide
  • Demonstrate how to go from the desktop to the cloud and what this means for you and your clients
  • Identify Intuit's online offerings and which ones will be right for you and your clients
  • Engage in activities designed to help you experience how to sign–up and add a client to your QuickBooks Online Accountant Client List
  • Set up a new company in QuickBooks Online and progress through each subscription level
  • Understand the features and functionality within QuickBooks Online
  • Utilize tools available in QuickBooks Online Accountant
  • Explore the QuickBooks Online Ecosystem to determine how additional offerings could facilitate collaboration with remote clients

The following dates and locations are presently available for users to sign-up at Intuit's Accountant Training Website:

Rapid City, SD - 8/13/13

Billings, MT - 8/14/13

Boston, MA  - 8/20/13

Hartford, CT  - 8/20/13

Columbus, OH  - 8/21/13

Covington, KY - 8/21/13

Secaucus, NJ  - 8/22/13

Chicago Area, IL  - 8/29/13

San Francisco, CA  - 9/4/13

Oakland, CA  - 9/4/13

San Jose, CA - 9/5/13

Grand Junction, CO - 9/11/13

Denver, CO - 9/12/13

Boise, ID  - 9/12/13

Detroit, MI - 9/16/13

Green Bay, WI  - 9/17/13

Minneapolis, MN - 9/17/13

Grand Rapids, MI  - 9/26/13

Intuit has also set tentative locations and dates which can be obtained from the website; however at this time they are not taking sign-ups for those locations For more information see the "Don't See Your Location" section of their site.

The cloud is the future of accounting, and Intuit is launching a balloon into that cloud at a city near you; don’t pass this opportunity by for free training (and CPEs).  "Wouldn't you like to ride in their beautiful balloon?"

Murph

1-Source: Intuit Academy Training is coming to your area...Find Your Freedom in the cloud...Your Way.  Intuit, 2013.