As the most popular accounting software in the world, there are millions of businesses using QuickBooks and so many user groups and specialized interest groups available to help users share experiences, tips, and other information. But finding these groups can be difficult if you don’t know where to look.
QuickBooks ProAdvisors
Some of the larger QuickBooks ProAdvisors have formal user groups which meet in person or virtually online on a periodic basis. You should contact your current QuickBooks ProAdvisor or find one using the online ProAdvisor directory and make sure to ask if they have a user group or what options are available to meet other users in the area.
Meetup
The group site Meetup if used for so many different things – finding people who share your passion for craft beers or joining a group for a bicycle ride or a hike. But it’s also a great way to find people who are using QuickBooks in your area. The QuickBooks User Group category on Meetup (as of the writing of this post) had over 3,723 members and 73 unique Meetups listed. The largest had nearly 400 members but the average size is likely more in the range of about 20-30 members.
QuickbooksUsers.com
This site is not affiliated with Intuit. It provides a free support and articles and the company behind the site offers fee-based services as well. Founded in 1986, they claim to have “served tens of thousands of users and repaired, converted, or enhanced accounting databases with a simple guarantee: your satisfaction, or no charge.” They certainly are worth consideration especially for their free advice.
Intuit Community
Intuit has multiple communities they host for QuickBooks Desktop Users and QuickBooks Online Users. These sites offer a lot of free advice open to the general business community as well as more specific advice inside your secured online account.
Specialized Groups
You can also find groups of QuickBooks users that are focused on a edition of the software (such as QuickBooks Enterprise or QuickBooks Retail) and there are even groups of users organized around industry segment but they tend to be more difficult to find. One way to find them is to ask one of the many third-party vendors that specialize in products for the industry. For example, Fishbowl Inventory is the number one selling software for distributors and manufacturers to extend QuickBooks. They have their own user community which is probably a very good place for you to get advice from peers on how to best utilize the software. If you’re not a user of Fishbowl Inventory (or other products) – you may be able to ask if you can participate in the community anyway. After all, many vendors want to get more users into their groups so they can expose you to their products and services.
LinkedIn and Facebook
You will also find some groups by searching social media outlets like Facebook and especially on LinkedIn. In fact, if you search for the term QuickBooks in the Groups section of LinkedIn you’ll run across groups as large as 190,000 members to smaller groups like QuickBooks Training in Ohio with just 20 members.
Wondering if you’ve outgrown QuickBooks or need help finding the right QuickBooks partner? Contact us today at 440.352.4700 or send us an email and we’ll give you some advice. We know a lot of great QuickBooks resources and can help you when you’re ready to move up to a more sophisticated accounting or ERP system like Sage Intacct, Sage 100cloud, or Epicor ERP.
