QuickBooks is accounting software widely used across various industries to track and manage their finances. It allows small and medium-sized businesses to send invoices, receive payments, handle inventory, manage payroll, and prepare taxes. An important aspect of receiving professional QuickBooks training to set yourself up for a career change is learning what kinds of fields and industries that training will help you find work in. Each industry will have different requirements and expectations for prospective employees, and you should consider these expectations when you start your training. This is true for students who have an idea of what kind of work they want to do and for students who aren’t yet sure what path they want to take after learning QuickBooks skills.
What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is a widely used accounting and bookkeeping software 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 a business’s inventory, and handle 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 software with tiered pricing that comes in different versions depending on the user’s storage and business needs. Intuit offers QuickBooks with basic to premium plans of its cloud-based QuickBooks Online, a computer-installed QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise version for larger or more complex companies, and a version for freelancers and independent contractors called QuickBooks Solopreneur.
What Can You Do with QuickBooks Skills?
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 to keep employees updated on crucial tasks and send 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.
Common Industries That Use QuickBooks
QuickBooks is used in many different industries and professions. As accounting software, it is most used by small and medium-sized businesses or self-employed individuals and those with QuickBooks training can find themselves working in industries as varied as retail, construction, manufacturing, nonprofit, legal services, and restaurant services. Those looking for in-demand careers should consider professions in financial management, analysis, or advising, as they all have higher-than-average expected job growth rates.
Bookkeeping and Accounting
The most common professions that use QuickBooks are bookkeeping and accounting. Bookkeepers are often tasked with keeping detailed, accurate financial records, using financial records to prepare reports, managing payroll, creating invoices, making payments, and preparing taxes. In the US, those seeking a Certified Public Bookkeeper license will need training in QuickBooks. Accountants may be tasked with some of the same duties as Bookkeepers, though they also need to analyze and audit a business’s financial records and advise a business on their financial plans, projects, strategies, and decisions. Bookkeepers and accountants are commonly employed in most industries and can work for larger firms, as in-house accountants, or be self-employed.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is currently projecting negative job growth for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks due in part to the use of accounting software like QuickBooks. While the use of this software does make some of the rote record-keeping aspects of these jobs more obsolete, the BLS also expects the role these professionals play to survive by becoming more analytical and advisory. If one can work with technological change and learn complementary skills to aid the more traditional record-keeping tasks, this will help ensure that one can continue to find work in these professions. Useful complementary skills for bookkeeping and accounting include additional training in financial analysis and modeling.
Financial Analyst
Financial analysts are responsible for helping businesses make decisions by analyzing their financial data. Their duties can include analyzing a company’s financial reports, evaluating its investment portfolio, and writing reports to communicate their findings and make recommendations. Financial Analysts need a background not only in finance but also business management and they should have a strong sense of economic trends so they can provide companies and clients with useful insights into their business’s strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities.
While Financial Analysts might have additional tools to do their own data collection and analysis, QuickBooks can prove to be a useful way to collect and track financial data. These professionals can use QuickBooks software to access a business’s historical financial data and they can look over financial reports that QuickBooks generates. Financial Analysts should consider gaining familiarity with QuickBooks if they want to work with small businesses, as it is especially common for businesses without accounting departments or in-house accountants to use QuickBooks.
Financial Analysts enjoy a stronger-than-average employment outlook, with an 8 percent growth rate, according to the BLS. This job growth rate is related to a number of factors, including the need for financial analysis as established businesses desire expansion or new businesses are created. Additionally, new technologies and tools are being developed, including Business Intelligence programs and the rise of artificial intelligence applications, that allow for high-quality and detailed analysis of financial data.
Financial Manager
Someone working in financial management will be responsible for making sure that a business runs well and remains profitable. Financial Managers are often tasked with duties such as preparing financial reports, creating and reviewing budgets and investments, and offering advice about how to increase profits. Financial Managers generally look to maximize profits, reduce costs, and make sure that a business runs efficiently. They will also need to stay on top of business trends as part of their role within a company.
Like Financial Analysts, Financial Managers can draw on QuickBooks for the wealth of financial data it offers as well as its ability to generate useful reports. These professionals too may use additional tools or software programs for planning, budgeting, and analysis, but QuickBooks and other accounting software will be common tools for a Financial Manager. This is especially true for those working with small businesses, as large organizations might have their own proprietary accounting software that an in-house Financial Manager will rely on.
The job outlook for Financial Managers looks very strong, according to the BLS. This profession is expected to grow at a rate of 16 perfect and the BLS suggests that certain specialties will experience particularly strong job prospects, like risk management. Banks, especially, are looking for Financial Managers with this specialty as they seek to prioritize stability and longevity over risky investments.
Personal Financial Advisor
Personal Financial Advisors work one-on-one with individuals to help them manage their financial interests. These professionals help individuals meet their financial goals, including saving or preparing for retirement, education, marriage, having children, or even starting a business. Personal Financial Advisors need to research investment opportunities for clients and have strong communication skills to explain financial advice to their clients.
QuickBooks can be one tool among many that will help a Person Financial Advisor understand a client’s finances and financial or investment portfolio. They will likely want to use the data and reports in a client’s QuickBooks account and should become familiar with the software so they know how to navigate it. Unlike Financial Analysts or Managers, Personal Financial Advisors are often self-employed and work with their own list of individual clients. This is a great profession for those who enjoy helping people, rather than businesses or organizations, manage their money and prepare for retirement.
Currently, employment for Personal Financial Advisors is expected to grow at a rate of 13 percent, according to the BLS. The BLS points to some of this growth being related to the aging population of baby boomers, so it might be the case that this growth may level off in the coming decades. However, it is also likely that job growth will continue into the future as more companies replace traditional pension plans with individual retirement accounts meaning that Personal Financial Advisors will continue to be sought after for their expertise.
Learn QuickBooks Skills with Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop offers expert in-person and live online training for those interested in learning QuickBooks. Every Noble Desktop class comes with 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 interactive 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 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. Learning principles of accounting or receiving QuickBooks training can be the first step on the path to becoming a Financial Manager or Financial Analyst. For those who want to work in finance, Noble Desktop’s guide to finance is a useful way to read about different career options and how to receive training for careers in finance.