How to upset a proadvisor & is that what they really want? Re: Adv QB Cert

I am a CPA and have been a ProAdvisor since 2006. Pay my annual dues every year, no problem. Certified in 2006, 2007. This year decided to certify in 2010 and 2011. Then I decided to do the Advanced QB certification. Oops, need to be certified in 2009. No problem, I'll read the text and take the test. Not quite, there is no 2009 test. Called ProAdvisor support line, got through immediately, talked to a very helpful agent, who told me that 2009 had been sunset. I said: "You've got to be kidding! How do I get the Advanced QB certification?" "You cannot," he replied. So I took the next step: you are a nice guy but let me speak to your supervisor. Supervisor was also a very nice guy, but said exactly the same thing. "But, but... (I sputtered) I've been paying my PA dues every year! I make my clients buy QB every 2 years!" He was very sympathetic, apologized several times. So I asked the supervisor what I could do next. He came up with a good suggestion. He said: Intuit needs to keep the ProAdvisors happy because we bring them a lot of business, write the president of Intuit a letter and tell him what the problem is. I am doing exactly that. I would like to hear from others who have the same problem. By the way, Intuit cannot fix problems if they do not hear from us. The address is: Office of the President, Intuit Inc, PO Box 27027, Tucson AZ 85726-7027.

The good news is that I can watch football this Thanksgiving weekend instead of studying for the Adv QB Certification test.

"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" [The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Humphrey Bogart, et. al.]

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5 Replies

Michelle Long CPA

Allstar, Accountant Community AllStar

11/24/10 11:56am PST

I can understand your frustration, but those are the rules of the ProAdvisor Program and the Advanced Certification. That is one reason I tell people to earn the certification every year. It also helps your rankings on the Find a ProAdvisor website.

Author of the books 'Successful QuickBooks Consulting' http://amzn.to/lJqmb8 and
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wkdap

New Member

11/24/10 1:44pm PST

I guess they really want you to stay active every year on time. Things change all the time. I hope the President will see your concern and make this situation a good one for you.

Debi Paulen

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alisonball

Employee

11/29/10 2:37pm PST

Hi everyone,

I would like to weigh in here... it costs alot of money to keep the Certifications active in the Course Locker. The biggest problem is that they are web-based, and created when older browsers were the newest ones. So for 2009 Certification, it was Internet Explorer 5.0 and 6.0. Most people are on 7.0 now, and some have even upgraded to 8.0. If you try and access a course that was created for IE 5.0 using IE8. you get all kinds of browser errors. And to go back and re-code the exams and courses each year, to update for the new browsers is just not feasible. there are over a million lines of code in each course!

What we do instead, is to keep each Cert live for approximately two years. that way, you can do the two that are in your Course Locker, and when next year rolls around, you can do the newest one.

I hope this helps everyone understand that there was never any intent to upset anyone!!

Alison Ball