As the first quarter of 2003 comes to an end, you may find that you need help with your accounting duties, such as running quarterly reports, setting up budgets, updating customers lists, or preparing tax forms. To do those tasks, you may need to tune up your QuickBooks skills. If you have recently upgraded to a new edition of QuickBooks or if your business plan or business model has changed significantly in 2003, QuickBooks training is certainly in order.

Whether you are a relative newcomer to business financial management or even an experienced QuickBooks veteran, a training course can provide many benefits to your business. Training can help you:

Your QuickBooks training options are numerous. They include: instructor-led seminars; publications and books; online or Web-based training; and CD-ROM training guides. With all these choices, just finding the right type of training format can be difficult. For instance, a single search for "QuickBooks" on Amazon yielded more than 120 choices, including training guides, books, and other reference materials.

To help you decide which type of training might be most beneficial to your business, Real World Training and Intuit have teamed to offer an assessment that compares various Real World Training solutions. To use its assessment, go to the assessment page on the Real World website and answer a few short questions about your business. The appraisal will recommend which training options you should consider, based on how you answer the questions.


Mastering QuickBooks Software: Seminar-in-a-Box™

For this review, we'll take a close look at Real World Training's Seminar-in-a-Box, a CD-ROM-based training program. The set includes three CDs and two classroom manuals, "Mastering QuickBooks Software," Day 1 and Day 2. We tested v.2002 of Seminar-in-a-Box, which focuses on how to utilize the features and capabilities of QuickBooks Pro 2002 and QuickBooks Premier 2002.

The training uses QuickBooks Premier 2002 in its example screens. The training software we used requires a PC with 32 MB RAM and 2X-speed CD-ROM player.

This course contains the same curriculum as the in-person two-day seminar that Real World has taught to more than 100,000 students in various cities across the U.S. The CD version offers various advantages over the classroom-based instruction, however. With computer-based training, you can learn at your own pace, right from your desktop. You can go through each module when it's convenient for your schedule. And most importantly, you can take a training session and jump directly to your version of QuickBooks and immediately apply what you've learned. And finally, having the CDs and the manual can come in handy later, as you can look up information or get a quick refresher on any given section on an as-needed basis.


Installation

The Seminar-in-a-Box software is very easy to install, and we discovered no glitches or surprises during the entire installation process. It operates smoothly once the installation is complete. The only action required by the user is to put the proper CD-ROM in the drive for each chapter. The software prompts you with that information, making it easy to jump around between chapters and topics.


Processes

The software is highly interactive and allows you to easily follow along with the chapters as outlined in the course manuals. You can use the printed guide side-by-side with the CD-based training, as the computer trainer prompts you when to turn the page or move to another chapter.

The course begins with an introduction video from David O'Brien, founder of Real World Training. O'Brien describes what QuickBooks does, and he also describes what QuickBooks doesn't do. This section includes a very useful chart that contains specific list limits for QuickBooks 2002. While you may know you have a 10,000 limit to your Chart of Accounts, you may not know that you have limits of 14,500 to your memorized reports. Having all those limits in one easy reference chart is useful if your business is expanding rapidly. The introduction also includes tips on how to use help and support in QuickBooks, as well as an overview of its core features.

Following the introduction, the training begins by going over the processes involved in creating a new company file in QuickBooks. The trainer creates a fictitious company in the construction business and uses examples and screen grabs from QuickBooks to demonstrate each function. He talks through each task, and then demonstrates each function on a video player. The video player — which the user can start and stop at any time — also displays a handy timer, so you know how long each section will be as you proceed.


Day 1 Overview

In addition to creating a new company, the Day 1 agenda covers all the basics of accounting and the main functions of QuickBooks. Topics include: working with lists, financial statements, items, customers and sales, sales tax, and vendors and expenses. Day 1 ends with an overview of miscellaneous topics and services, such as budgets, retail sales, credit cards, and QuickBooks for the Web, to name a few.


Day 2 Overview

The Day 2 agenda delves deeper and addresses other, more specialized functions of QuickBooks. Topics include: setting up payroll, time tracking, running payroll, security, working with reports and advanced reporting, utilities, closing the books, customizing QuickBooks, special transactions, and finding and fixing. In the appendix, miscellaneous topics include retainage, using an outside payroll service, and accountant's review.


Seminar Options

Pricing for Seminar-in-a-Box starts at $249. It comes with a money-back guarantee, so if you're not completely satisfied, you can return the training product within 30 days of the shipping date for a refund.

Real World Training also offers Power User Seminar-in-a-Box™, which teaches you how to use the advanced features of QuickBooks, including sales, purchases, reporting, payroll and accounting. It contains two CD-ROMs and a detailed workbook. Pricing for that product starts at $199.95.

Real World also offers industry-specific CD-based training guides, including QuickBooks for Construction and QuickBooks for Not-for-Profits.


Summary

The Mastering QuickBooks Software Seminar-in-a-Box CD-based training is an efficient way for a relatively new user of QuickBooks to learn how to maximize the features of QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier. If you've been using QuickBooks for a few years, you can skip sections and move on to others that describe features or topics that you may not be as familiar with. Plus, you can stop and start the training at your leisure and easily try out what you just learned on your own version of QuickBooks.

If you're more attuned to learning in a classroom with a live instructor who can answer your questions on the spot, then this CD training isn't for you. But if you want additional, unbiased training outside of what is already available in Help and Support in QuickBooks, then this seminar could be just what you need. Buy it online now.