Like many aspiring Accountants, Bookkeepers, or Financial Managers, you might want to learn QuickBooks but worry that it will take too much time. QuickBooks is not too difficult to learn and some basic use of the software can be learned in a matter of hours. However, most agree that it will take beginning QuickBooks learners about two to four weeks to become proficient in using QuickBooks. Of course, this depends on several factors. Keep reading to learn about how you can learn QuickBooks and some resources to help speed the process along.
What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is a widely used accounting and bookkeeping software package from Intuit. Primarily used by small and medium businesses, QuickBooks helps businesses to track and manage everything to do with their finances. Using QuickBooks, businesses can monitor their cash flow and profits and losses by tracking sales, expenses, customers, and payments. QuickBooks is also often used to create and send invoices, manage the business’s inventory, and manage employee payroll. It also has budgeting, time tracking, and daily task features to keep businesses running efficiently.
QuickBooks helps businesses ensure the accuracy of their records by directly connecting sales channels to QuickBooks and reconciling bank transactions with the information one inputs. The software also has features to help with tax preparation and can be used as a way to collaborate and share documents with an accountant. QuickBooks is a subscription-based service with varied payment tiers that provide access to different features. The different versions of QuickBooks cater to different storage and employment needs as Intuit offers basic to premium plans of its cloud-based QuickBooks Online, a computer-installed QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise version for larger companies, and a version for freelancers and independent contractors called QuickBooks Solopreneur.
Read more about what QuickBooks is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with QuickBooks?
QuickBooks software has many different applications and uses across a wide variety of industries. Many small and medium-sized businesses use QuickBooks for its record-keeping features as it was originally designed for businesses without a dedicated accounting department. QuickBooks allows someone to track and categorize many things such as expenses, sales, transactions, and customer, vendor, and inventory lists. This makes QuickBooks a great option for those needing to keep all of their business records in one place.
Additionally, many people use QuickBooks to create and send invoices, manage employee payroll, help prepare their taxes, maintain a budget, and automate tasks. QuickBooks includes features to automate accounts payable and receivable. Many use QuickBooks to automate sending customer invoices or payment reminders or even keeping employees updated on crucial tasks and sending deadline reminders. These features of QuickBooks allow you to increase productivity and maintain efficient workflows so that you do not constantly need to task employees with work that can be done by the QuickBooks software itself.
Not only do businesses use QuickBooks, but QuickBooks is often used by self-employed people like freelancers and independent contractors. QuickBooks offers a specific version of the software called QuickBooks Solopreneur (formerly QuickBooks Self-Employed or SE). Many people find that once they link their accounts, it is easy to import their transactions and the QuickBooks software will automatically work to tag one’s income. Self-employed users will likely need to do a bit of extra work to categorize their transactions more effectively for their own needs, but QuickBooks can do much of the bookkeeping work automatically and make tracking finances easier for individuals.
Average Time it Takes to Learn QuickBooks
While it can take a few hours just to get comfortable with the QuickBooks software interface, most beginning QuickBooks learners can become proficient in using the software to track and manage their finances in under a month. The average time it takes QuickBooks users to become comfortable using the software is two to four weeks. How long it will take depends upon one’s educational background as well as how much time and effort one devotes to learning QuickBooks. It will take longer to master the more advanced or customizable aspects of QuickBooks.
Beginning QuickBooks learners can take a few weeks to become proficient in using some of the basic features of QuickBooks like creating and sending invoices, recording expenses, paying bills, receiving payments, and performing bank reconciliations. It takes time to set up one’s account and with 10-20 hours of training and practice, one should have a good handle on the fundamental aspects of using QuickBooks. For those with no accounting or bookkeeping experience, it can take additional time to understand how to use QuickBooks for financial record-keeping and management.
The more intermediate or advanced features of QuickBooks can take additional weeks or even months to learn and master. This will include learning how to do payroll and inventory management as well as using the financial reporting features of QuickBooks. One should expect that a beginning QuickBooks learner should take an additional few months to become proficient in these features, though it will depend upon how much experience users have with these processes outside of QuickBooks. If a user wants to customize QuickBooks for their business or the industry they operate in, it can take additional months of training and practice to be able to do this both efficiently and effectively.
Ultimately, how long it takes to learn QuickBooks depends upon other factors of one’s educational background and the rate at which one learns new concepts. One can speed up the process of learning QuickBooks by enrolling in a bootcamp, as this is a type of accelerated class designed to get you using QuickBooks quickly. Overall, the more time one devotes to learning QuickBooks initially, the faster QuickBooks skills can be mastered.
Other Factors
How long it takes to learn QuickBooks depends on a variety of factors, including the skills and knowledge you already have as well as the rate at which you learn new skills. These factors can determine not only how long it will take you to learn QuickBooks, but they can also let you know whether QuickBooks will be easy or difficult for you to learn.
Computer Literacy
The main prerequisite to learning QuickBooks is basic computer skills. In other words, someone needs to be familiar with how to download and install software and how to navigate an interactive interface. QuickBooks’s interface itself should not be difficult to learn how to use as the main complexities lie in the number of features and options one finds in QuickBooks. As long as someone can open QuickBooks, click around the dashboard, and input information and data, they should be able to use QuickBooks for basic financial tracking and management.
Knowledge of Accounting
Most people agree that it is much easier to use QuickBooks when you already know some accounting terms and principles. For anyone wanting to learn QuickBooks, it is useful to know terms like income, expenses, cash flow, assets, and liability. Additionally, it is generally expected that someone has knowledge about accounts payable and accounts receivable and knows what the difference is between cash and accrual accounting. Common accounting knowledge can also include how to read and understand statements and reports like income statements and balance sheets.
What you need to know to learn how to use QuickBooks is also essential knowledge for a small business owner. It will be harder to operate a functioning business with no financial literacy. However, if one does not know these terms and accounting principles, one can still get started learning QuickBooks though one should expect it to take longer. For those interested in learning more about accounting, Noble Desktop’s comprehensive guide to accounting is a useful resource that can help point you in the right direction to learn enough about accounting to use QuickBooks easily.
Experience with Data Entry, Organization, & Visualization
Having the ability to enter data and understand how it is organized and visualized will make using QuickBooks easier. One will need to be able to enter one’s business data to set up QuickBooks and keep it running efficiently. QuickBooks software will organize and visualize one’s financial data in a variety of ways, from simplistic cash flow charts to balance sheet reports that show your company’s assets, liabilities, and equity. Without the ability to read and understand how financial data is organized and visualized, one will need to spend longer acquiring this ability along with learning QuickBooks.
Your Own Speed of Learning
One of the most important factors in how long it will take someone to learn QuickBooks is their own learning speed. Faster is not always better and it will sometimes naturally take someone longer to learn how QuickBooks works and put that knowledge into practice. This can be a function of one’s personal learning style, as some people want to see many examples of something before trying it themselves while others play around with QuickBooks software while watching their very first video tutorial. Speed of learning can also refer to how long one spends with QuickBooks training material, as those who can devote a lot of time to their training might end up learning quicker than those who can only devote one or two hours a week to learning QuickBooks, for instance.
Additionally, finances and accounting are not easy-to-learn topics for all people. While Intuit would like to think their QuickBooks software is intuitive, the reality is that this kind of record keeping does not come naturally to everyone and some aspects will be trickier to learn and require repeated practice and studying multiple examples before they make sense. By contrast, there are some people who will pick up on how to use the software quickly and with little formal QuickBooks training. If you are feeling frustrated about learning QuickBooks too slowly, consider taking an in-person or live online class as these options will allow you to receive guidance from an expert instructor and get individual feedback to help you improve your skills.
Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost
QuickBooks is not considered too challenging to learn, though beginners can run into difficulties mastering the variety of features that the software provides. QuickBooks is comprehensive accounting software and many features have both basic and advanced, customizable uses. For instance, while beginning learners can quickly figure out basic bank reconciliation, it can be harder to reconcile accounts when one is dealing with complex transactions and multiple bank accounts. Using QuickBooks also requires some financial literacy and those without knowledge of common accounting terms and principles can find using QuickBooks difficult. Most QuickBooks learners can become proficient in QuickBooks in two to four weeks, though it will take longer to master the more complex or industry-specific features of QuickBooks.
There are no formal prerequisites to learning QuickBooks. To use the software, one will need basic computer skills like knowing how to install software, navigate an interactive application interface, and input data. Knowing common accounting terms and principles is also recommended, which includes understanding terms such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash versus accrual accounting, income, assets, liabilities, and deductibles. It will also be useful to know how to interpret financial data and reports to make full use of QuickBooks. Before using QuickBooks, one should also know which version to use and which features will be necessary for their business.
Small businesses will most likely use a version of QuickBooks Online, which has tiered pricing for different features and ranges in cost from $30-200 a month. The lowest-cost option for QuickBooks Online is Simple Start which includes one user, one linked sales channel, and most features except for things like bill pay, inventory tracking, employee management, and support services. QuickBooks Online Plus is the next tier up and includes up to five users, all sales channels, and adds things like multi-currency transactions, bill pay, and inventory tracking that the Simple Start excludes. QuickBooks Online Advanced is the most expensive plan and has all features, including payroll, employee management services, support services, and more customization and automation options. Accounting professionals can use QuickBooks Online Accountant for free and this version also provides access to free training materials.
Read about how difficult it is to learn QuickBooks.
Free QuickBooks Online Resources
For those not yet ready to take a full course on QuickBooks, one can start learning QuickBooks and related skills for free online. Noble Desktop’s comprehensive guide to accounting is one such free resource that covers introductory information about accounting and how to learn the skills necessary to become an Accountant. It is common for those interested in QuickBooks or accounting, either for use with their own business or for other clients, to start by learning about the software and familiarizing themselves with what it can do and what skills will allow them to optimize their use of it. Using free resources can help someone not only receive a basic overview of QuickBooks but also figure out what skills to learn, what courses to take, and what knowledge they still need to acquire before getting started with QuickBooks.
One can also find free introductory courses from different education providers online. Most of these courses will be on-demand, self-paced courses that will provide learners with access to video lectures or tutorials and allow for limited practice and skills testing. These courses range from providing beginners with tips and tricks for getting started with QuickBooks to more focused classes with modules on how to create invoices, use payroll, set up different kinds of accounts, or even customize the QuickBooks interface. LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) has many such offerings and can often be accessed for free through one’s local library.
Read more about free QuickBooks videos and online tutorials.
Learn QuickBooks with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop offers expert in-person and live online training for those interested in learning QuickBooks. Noble Desktop’s classes all include expert, hands-on guidance, small class sizes, and free retake options and many classes offer both part-time and full-time options so that one can find the QuickBooks or finance class that works best for their schedule. For fast and comprehensive training in QuickBooks, consider enrolling in Noble Deskop’s QuickBooks Bootcamp which teaches students everything they need to know about how to use QuickBooks to track and manage a business’s finances. This bootcamp uses hands-on training to teach students the basics of QuickBooks like configuring a company profile, working with customer, vendor, and inventory lists, and invoicing and processing payments as well as the more advanced management and customization features. Noble Desktop offers this bootcamp live online from any location and it can be taken in person at Noble Desktop’s training facility in New York City.
Noble Desktop also has accounting classes and bootcamps which are a great option for anyone interested in developing their skills or learning more about finance and accounting. The Intro to Financial Accounting & Financial Statements class uses hands-on exercises to teach students the fundamentals of analyzing financial statements and reports. After completing this introductory class, students can progress to the Intermediate Financial Accounting class which teaches more complex topics like earnings per share and deferred taxes. For those who want a comprehensive, accelerated class that tackles both beginner and intermediate topics of accounting, consider the Financial Accounting Bootcamp which teaches everything students need to know in two class sessions.
Noble’s finance and accounting classes are great for those who want to grow their financial literacy beyond learning about QuickBooks. These classes are also useful for those interested in turning their knowledge of QuickBooks into the first step to becoming a Bookkeeper or Accountant. If this is something that interests you, you can learn more about the career path of an Accountant by reading Noble Desktop’s comprehensive guide to accounting, a free resource that covers essential information about accounting and how to learn the skills necessary to make this one’s career. For those who want to work in finance in some capacity but are not entirely sure which direction they want to go in yet, Noble Desktop’s guide to finance is a useful way to read about different career options.