Experts' advice: How to "Cash in with QuickBooks" Training, and more

In "Working with QuickBooks", published in the May 2010 issue of "Accounting Today", experts who've made the most of the dominant accounting program give their practical advice on how to build a business and strengthen client relationships with QuickBooks consulting services.

"Be small but play big. That's the big opportunity."

1. Target an Industry: Intuit says there are 4.5 million people using QuickBooks. How do you pick an industry? Says Shelly Robbins, one of the few national speakers for Intuit’s Trainer Writer Network and the founder of the online QuickBooks "help wanted", “The best niches are the ones you enjoy being in the most. If you like coffee shops, hit retail and good luck to you. If you grew up in construction and something about dirt and concrete makes you happy, there is plenty of room for QuickBooks construction experts. The same goes with architecture, art or any other type of business that works on QuickBooks. If you're too ADD to focus on an industry, shoot for your favorite geographical area (seriously)," says Shelly Robbins.
2. Offer QuickBooks Training: Doug Sleeter, a pioneer in developing the first QuickBooks seminars in the country, says “there is a great need for training [and as a result] a lot of CPAs find themselves in the business of cleaning up the QuickBooks data files from their clients."
3. Take Advantage of Remote Access Tools: Driving is old school. Once you’ve established a relationship with your client, take advantage of remote access tools, such, QuickBooks Remote Access, which can be as little as $4/month, or use a QuickBooks hosting company to host the client's data in the "cloud." Taking advantage of remote access tools and logging into a client's desktop enables accounting professionals to review train clients, or resolve issues, without wasting time, money, and resources driving to and from a client's office.
4. Get with Add-ons and Integration: "What's happened is the idea of being a full-time QuickBooks consultant doesn't exist. Now it is more QuickBooks consulting plus something," said Gregory of Bottom Line Accounting Solutions. "A lot of consultants are getting into the add-on market. Stricker of BIK & Co. agreed, and said that his latest role as a QuickBooks Pro Advisor is to recommend and implement third party add-on programs. One of his favorites is SmartVault, which is an online document management system. Then there is Virtual Software, an add-on for a Web-based time-and-expense reporting platform that seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks and has 40,000 people logging into the system every day. "The CPA helps elevate the user from a system that worked pretty good to all of the sudden running a very, very efficient organization that has all of the advantages from a cost and productivity and employee morale [standpoint] that your larger enterprises have," said Farrell, a representative of Virtual Software. "Be small but play big. That's the big opportunity."
Doug Sleeter and Shelly Robbins are teaming up in June 2010 in Seattle, WA for this year's Advanced QuickBooks Training in Seattle, WA. Last year's event attracted nearly 100 CPA's, bookkeepers, software experts, and all levels of QuickBooks professionals who make QuickBooks their business.