We are soooo lucky to have a built in, pre-populated Sample Company that allows us to get hands on experience using QuickBooks Online. Although it certainly has its quirks, it is just so helpful as we are learning to use or learning new features of this amazing software.
So when Intuit announced a certification program for QBO Payroll, I instantly thought–“Great! How do we access the Sample Payroll Company?”
I was told by multiple people at Intuit–including the woman who designed and wrote the Payroll certification course and exam–that it didn’t exist. But I just couldn’t believe it. I mean, how do they expect you to become a ProAdvisor with no practice? So I kept digging.
Lo and behold, I eventually found someone who revealed how to get to it. Hurrah! It was secret and difficult to get to, but it was there. And I built my entire QBO Payroll certification prep course around it–giving my students actual, hands-on practice using it.
Then one day, the QBO Payroll Sample Company started glitching. At first, just one piece stopped working. OK, we can work around that. I figured they were just making some updates, and it would eventually work itself out. We hobbled along for awhile, and then one day, the QBO Payroll Sample Company disappeared altogether.
After MUCH discussion with Intuit, we have learned this–rather than fixing the QBO Payroll Sample Company, they decided to get rid of it altogether. Their reasoning is simple: If you want to play with QBO Payroll, just sign up for a free 30 day trial.
But here’s the rub: It’s not already populated!! You would have to do all the work to build a robust temporary setup in order fully utilize it and run reports. And it doesn’t connect with the Sample Company!
Maybe, in a future version of our Fast & Easy QBO Payroll certification prep course, we will create some scenarios and instructions for to you to get hands on practice setting up and running payroll in a trial account, but it’s very complicated and involved. It seems like it would be MUCH easier for them to just restore the Sample Company for us. I mean, they already have a Sample Company for QBO–why can’t they do the same for Payroll?
So, here’s the scoop. We would like to get as many voices as possible asking for Intuit to bring this back. We are told that the only way to do this is to use the Feedback form inside your account, which will send a message directly to the engineers. If you purchased our Fast & Easy QBO Payroll Certification course AFTER November 1, 2022 and have not yet received your certification, we will refund 25% of your purchase price for registering a complaint. If you paid the full retail price of $549, we’ll refund you $137.25!!
Here’s what you need to do to collect your refund:
STEP 1: Login to your QBOA account, then click the Gear icon and select Feedback.
NOTE: It’s very important that you do this from inside your QBOA account, and NOT from within the Sample Company.
STEP 2: In your own words, ask them to bring back the QBO Payroll Sample company. Key points to address are: 1) You can’t truly be a QBO Payroll ProAdvisor if you can’t work on it hands-on to play around with the features; 2) The free trial won’t work, because without sample data, you have to create everything from scratch, you can’t run historical reports, and it doesn’t connect with the Sample Company; and 3) We used to be able to access it, but now we can’t. Once you have written your feedback, click Next.
STEP 3: You will receive a brief message on screen that your submission has been successful, then you will receive an email (at the address you use to login to QBOA) thanking you for your feedback and including the text that you wrote. Forward this email to support@fastandeasyqbo.com, and we will apply the refund.
And that’s it! Hopefully they will listen to us and bring back the functionality. After all, how can we truly be ProAdvisors without it? It’s in Intuit’s best interest to help us.
I look forward to your success story!
