If you’re an accounting firm that uses QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) to manage small business clients who use QuickBooks Online, you’re aware of the power of QuickBooks - from streamlining everyday operations to boosting the efficiency of your business - and it’s likely a pivotal part of your process. 

However, ensuring your clients understand how to use the features of their QuickBooks Online account and its benefits requires an enhanced training program. Educating your clients on QuickBooks Online will empower them to understand their finances and improve their communication and collaboration with you as their accountant. 

Let’s take a look at how you can build a comprehensive training program for your accounting clients:

• Why Are QuickBooks Online Training Programs Important?
• How to Develop a Training Plan for Clients
• 1. Relationship Building and Change Management
• 2. Phasing Out Old Systems
• 3. Training Program Overview
• 4. Utilizing QuickBooks Resources
• 5. Training Best Practices
• 6. Ongoing Support

Why Are QuickBooks Online Training Programs Important?

Developing QuickBooks Online training programs for your small business clients is important to ensure effective communication and collaboration. Training clients in QuickBooks Online is essential to ensure they learn how to use QBO features in order to effectively manage their financial data. Training programs are also an important part of change management, particularly for new clients or existing clients who are migrating from a traditional accounting method or other accounting software to QuickBooks Online accounting software.

How to Develop a QuickBooks Online Training Plan for Clients 

Follow our steps to develop a QuickBooks Online training plan for your new accounting clients or those that have migrated from traditional accounting software, excel or other providers to QuickBooks Online.

1. Relationship Building and Change Management

When onboarding or migrating clients to a new accounting software like QuickBooks Online, it’s critical that you begin to build a strong relationship with your client. Effective client communication will help you to understand your client's unique business needs, pain points, and financial objectives before you dive into training. By getting to know your client’s business closely, you can begin to customize your training efforts to suit the aspects of QuickBooks Online that they are likely to use the most. Think about their industry and financial processes and update your training program accordingly to enhance the effectiveness of your training program.

2. Phasing Out Old Systems

Phasing out old systems can be challenging, especially when your client is stuck in their ways. Let’s take a look at how you can help clients phase out old systems: 

Assess and Understand Their Current Systems

Before suggesting the move to QBO, you need to assess and understand your clients' existing systems, including both the software they use and the processes they have in place. This will help you understand why they’re still using the old system and how you can change your approach. 

Introduce Clients to QuickBooks Online 

With an understanding of the client’s current accounting system, you can showcase how QuickBooks online can help them address existing pain points and overcome the shortcomings of their current setup. Discuss the key features and benefits of QuickBooks Online for small business accounting such as cloud-based access on any device, anytime and access to real-time data and collaboration.

Watch our free webinar to learn more tips on how to talk to your clients about QuickBooks Online where we cover the following topics:

• Open the conversation with your clients
• Why QuickBooks Online
• An Easy way to demo QuickBooks
• Handling Objections

Be sure to provide an overview of the business tools and apps your client uses that QBO can integrate with. Learn more about becoming a value added app advisor and helping your clients select apps for their QuickBooks Online account.

Provide a Smooth Transition Plan

Completely changing software or processes can feel overwhelming for clients. Offer your clients a transition plan that will ease clients into QBO. Take a gradual approach by allowing your client to run both systems together during the beginning of migration. Our client onboarding checklist can further help you and your clients navigate the transition to QuickBooks Online and foster a positive learning environment.

3. Training Program Overview

Developing training courses for clients requires an in-depth understanding of the client's needs and objectives. Learn more about how to train clients on QuickBooks features and data entry during onboarding. Before you personalize your clients’ training, you can address queries with the following components:

High-Level Webinars

Introduce clients to QuickBooks Online's interface and core features with high-level webinars. These sessions provide a broad overview of the features and functionalities of QuickBooks and generate interest in phasing out old systems. 

Deep Dive Sessions

Deep dive sessions focus on specific modules and features. Clients can explore areas relevant to their business needs and get to grips with specific features of QuickBooks software. 

One-on-One Training

Personalized one-on-one training sessions work to address individual questions and concerns. This personalized approach ensures clients get the support they need on specific aspects of QuickBooks Online like generating reports, accessing cloud-based data, and logging transactions.

4. Utilizing QuickBooks Resources

As an accounting firm, you don’t have to create your own training materials from scratch. Instead, you can leverage QuickBooks training resources available for free online. 

QuickBooks Online Webinars

Direct clients to our free QuickBooks Online Webinars for small business owners suitable for various skill levels and cover topics including:

• Intro to QuickBooks Online
• How to save time with Invoicing
• Banking, bills and expenses

QuickBooks YouTube Tutorials

Our website contains useful QuickBooks Online video tutorials for small business owners that can guide your clients in navigating the key features of the platform. Share our QuickBooks Online International Tutorial Series with your clients to ensure they have access to visual demos and instructions.

QuickBooks Resource Center (QRC)

The QRC provides articles and guides on business topics, tutorials, and troubleshooting resources that you can integrate into your QuickBooks training course for clients. 

QuickBooks Support

Direct clients to QuickBooks Support for technical assistance and troubleshooting.

5. Training Best Practices

When training clients, be aware of best practices in order to give your clients the best possible chance of understanding QuickBooks Online. While you can train your clients in person, online training has become the norm in the digital age as it is convenient and cost effective. Follow our best practices for training clients:

• Simple agendas: Use a straightforward, structured agenda to keep training sessions organized, short, and on track.
• Quick sessions: Limit training sessions to an hour to maintain engagement and prevent information overload.
• Positive learning environments: Foster a positive and empowering learning environment where clients feel comfortable asking questions. 
• Recording and Transcribing Online Meetings: Record and transcribe online training sessions to provide clients with materials they can use in the future.
• Invitations to Training Sessions: When sending invitations for training sessions, provide clear agendas and reminders to avoid rescheduling. 
• Effective Training Presentations: Ensure training presentations are visually engaging by using high-quality sound and camera equipment. Interact with clients during the training if it is live by answering any queries.

6. Ongoing Support

As your clients' needs evolve and QuickBooks brings out new functions and app integrations, you should continue to offer support to answer client queries quickly and efficiently. You can do this by either hosting training sessions, or referring clients to the abundance of QuickBooks resources available online. 

Be sure to stay on top of QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant features yourself. Accountants also have access to useful resources for accountants and QuickBooks webinars and trainings specific for accountants. Our webinars may also contribute to your continued professional development hours.

Sign-up For QuickBooks Online Today

QuickBooks Online gives your accounting firm access to powerful software to improve your efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility when serving clients. Sign-up for QuickBooks Online Accountant for free and see why thousands of accountants worldwide choose QuickBooks as their accounting solution.