Resources
Questions, answered.
The things people ask us most, and where to read more about each one. If your question is not here, a person answers the contact form.
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- Chapter 4
- Support
- Answered by a person
Getting started
What this is, and where to begin.
The short version of what you are looking at, and what it costs to look.
What is QuickBooks® Online Step-by-Step?
One textbook and one practice course, taught in QuickBooks® Online itself. You read a chapter, then do the same work in a real QBO company file: sales, expenses, banking, reconciliation, payroll and reporting. It is written by Alicia Katz Pollock and published under the Sleeter Group imprint.See the textbookAbout usMeet the author
Can I read some of it before I pay?
Yes. Chapter 4 is free to everyone, with no account and no card. It is a full chapter from the middle of the book, not a sample of the introduction, so you see the real teaching before you decide.Read chapter 4 freeCompare the editions
Do I need an account?
Not to read the free chapter. You need a free account for anything the site has to remember: your place in the book, your quiz scores, your progress, and joining a class. Creating one takes an email address and a six-digit code. There is no password to invent.Create a free accountStart with chapter 4
Do I need accounting experience?
No. The book starts at the accounting equation and builds from there, so a first-time bookkeeping student and a small-business owner doing their own books can both start at chapter 1.The self-paced path
QuickBooks® Online
Which QuickBooks® company you work in, and where it comes from.
Lite needs no QuickBooks® account. Standard needs one, and every way to get it is free.
Do I need to pay for QuickBooks® Online?
No. Lite happens entirely in Craig’s Landscaping, Intuit’s free QBO Test Drive company, which anyone can open without an account. Standard has you build companies of your own, its end-of-chapter DIY exercises and the YinYang Graphic Design case study and capstone, so it needs a QuickBooks® Online account. There are three free ways to get one, and which is yours depends on whether you are in a class.
- Intuit Education Student Trial, In a class
- Your instructor requests it and Intuit emails you the invitation. A full QuickBooks® Online Plus company, free for 12 months, for practice only.In the book’s Preface
- Intuit Accountant Suite profile, On your own
- Free to create, and it includes a QuickBooks® Online Advanced company with payroll. Where the book says All Apps, this company says Firm Books.In the book’s PrefaceIntuit Accountant Suite
- 30-day QuickBooks® Online Plus trial, On your own
- Free for 30 days. You need two, one for Imagine Photography and one for YinYang Graphic Design. Keeping one longer means giving Intuit a card, so cancel the billing when you finish. The book’s Preface explains how to set them up.In the book’s Preface
I am in a class. Where does my QuickBooks® company come from?
From your instructor, through Intuit Education. Your instructor requests free Student Trial companies for you, one for the Imagine Photography homework and one for the YinYang Graphic Design case study, and Intuit emails you an invitation to each. That email comes from Intuit, not from us, and it is separate from the class code or invitation that gives you the book: you need both. If yours has not arrived, ask your teacher to resend it.
- Intuit Education Student Trial, In a class
- Your instructor requests it and Intuit emails you the invitation. A full QuickBooks® Online Plus company, free for 12 months, for practice only.In the book’s Preface
I am learning on my own. Which QuickBooks® Online account should I use?
Intuit Education Student Trials come through an instructor, so choose one of the two free routes below. The book recommends the Accountant Suite profile, because it avoids any subscription fees, and its Preface walks you through both.
- Intuit Accountant Suite profile, On your own
- Free to create, and it includes a QuickBooks® Online Advanced company with payroll. Where the book says All Apps, this company says Firm Books.In the book’s PrefaceIntuit Accountant Suite
- 30-day QuickBooks® Online Plus trial, On your own
- Free for 30 days. You need two, one for Imagine Photography and one for YinYang Graphic Design. Keeping one longer means giving Intuit a card, so cancel the billing when you finish. The book’s Preface explains how to set them up.In the book’s Preface
I teach. How do my students get QuickBooks® Online?
Through Intuit Education. You register in Intuit’s Instructor Portal, create a class there, and send each student an invitation to a free Student Trial company: a full QuickBooks® Online Plus subscription that lasts 12 months. Approved instructors get the author’s step-by-step setup in the Instructor’s Manual, with every option labeled. A Lite class needs none of this, because all of its work happens in the free Test Drive.Intuit EducationHow instructor approval worksWhat Lite and Standard open
Access and pricing
What each tier includes, and what it costs.
Two tiers, two ways to pay, and how long access lasts once you have it.
What is the difference between Lite and Standard?
Whose company file the work happens in. Lite is chapters 1–8 plus two bonus chapters, all of it in Craig’s Landscaping, the free QBO Test Drive, so it needs no QuickBooks® account. Standard is chapters 1–16, and adds chapters 9 and 11–16 (the YinYang Graphic Design case study, job costing, inventory, year-end, payroll and the capstone) and every end-of-chapter DIY exercise, the work you do in companies you build yourself.Side-by-side comparisonPrices for both tiers
What does it cost?
Lite is $34.95 a month, or $114.95 as a one-time payment for 12 months. Standard is $59.95 a month, or $179.95 as a one-time payment for 12 months. The E-Learning Companion, a printed copy of the book, adds $60 to either; it is not sold on its own. Yearly access does not renew automatically; monthly access renews until you cancel it.Prices and termsPricing for a class or a team
How long does my access last?
Yearly access runs for 12 months from the day you start reading, and then stops. It does not quietly renew. Monthly access continues until you cancel, and you keep it to the end of the period you have already paid for. Either way your progress, scores and notes stay on your account.Pricing and terms
How do I cancel a monthly plan?
Go to My Account › Subscription, press Cancel subscription, then confirm. It will not renew, your card is not charged again, and you keep access to the end of the month you have paid for. We email you a confirmation. Every billing email also has a cancel link that takes you straight there. Yearly access never renews, so there is nothing to cancel.My Account › Subscription
I have Lite. Can I move up to Standard?
Yes. Your progress, quiz scores and reading position carry across, so you are not restarting the book, you are unlocking the rest of it. If you pay yearly you pay only the difference; if you pay monthly, switch plans from My Account and the new price starts with your next month.See both tiersAsk us
Can I buy access for a class or a team?
Yes. Seats are bought in bulk and handed out: either you assign them from your dashboard, or students claim one with a class code. Volume pricing starts at 15 seats, and a seat’s clock starts when it is assigned to a person, not when you buy it.Seat pricingHow seats workFor firms and teams
Is there a refund policy?
Yes. An eBook is refundable within 14 days if you have read no more than 30% of it. The printed book has a 30-day money-back guarantee: ask us for a return number before you send it back. Start a refund or a return from the contact page.Refund and return termsContact us
Instructors and groups
Adopting the book, and running a class on it.
Evaluation copies, setting a class up, grading, and the LMS.
Can I get an evaluation copy before adopting the book?
Yes. Verified instructors get the whole textbook and the instructor materials to evaluate, normally within one business day of asking. You do not have to commit to anything to look.Request instructor accessHow instructor approval works
I have never taught QuickBooks® Online, only Desktop. How different is it?
Different enough to plan for, and less frightening than it looks. The accounting is the same; the navigation, the bank feeds and the reporting are not. Two articles cover the switch honestly, including what confuses students first.How teaching QBO differs from QBDTHow will I learn QBO to teach this class?Intuit is discontinuing the Desktop education program
How do I set up a class and get my students in?
You create the class in a short wizard, then invite students with a class code, a link, or an emailed invitation. If some of your students cannot use email, you can create their accounts yourself.Create a classInvite studentsStudents who cannot use emailTry the demo class first
How is student work graded?
Chapter quizzes are marked automatically. Exercise files students upload are checked by the smart grader against a rubric, and you can override any check, adjust a score, or hold grades back until you have reviewed them. Written answers are yours to read and mark. The machine does not guess at those.How the smart grader worksHow chapter quizzes are gradedAdjust a gradeHold and release grades
Can I choose which chapters my class sees?
Yes. You decide which chapters are open, whether quizzes show answers, whether the smart grader runs, and what students can see of their own progress. The defaults are sensible for a first class, and every one of them is a switch.Choose which chapters your class seesEvery class control, explained
Does it connect to Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle?
We set it up and test it with your LMS administrator, and help with your security and accessibility review. The connection uses LTI 1.3, the standard these systems support, so students open the book from your LMS and scores post back to your gradebook.Connect your LMS
Is there an instructor manual?
Yes: answer keys, a guide for every chapter and the author’s teaching notes, on one page of your Instructor Dashboard that opens from Instructor’s Manual under the book’s settings cog. No separate download to keep track of.The Instructor's ManualEverything for teachers
Reading the book
The reader, your progress, and QuickBooks® moving under you.
How you actually read it, what it remembers, and what to do when a page looks wrong.
Do I read this in a browser, or download a PDF?
Both are there. The Modern reader is the main way to read: it reflows to your screen, remembers where you were, carries the in-software step guides, and holds your quizzes and progress. The Classic view is the printed page as a PDF, for when you want exactly what is on paper.Modern and Classic readerOpen the free chapter
Will it remember where I stopped?
Yes, once you have a free account. Your position, your quiz scores and your progress follow you between devices, and the Modern and Classic views stay in step with each other.Create a free account
My QuickBooks® screen does not match the screenshot in the book. Why?
QuickBooks® Online changes continuously, and Intuit rolls changes out to different accounts at different times, so a button occasionally moves between an edition being printed and you reading it. The workflow underneath is almost always the same. There is an article on handling it without losing class time, and you can report a page that looks wrong from inside the reader.Why your QBO file may not match the bookTell us about a page
Is the book current with the 2026 QuickBooks® Online interface?
Yes. The 2026 edition is written against the current interface, and it is corrected in place as Intuit ships changes. An online textbook can be fixed in a week, which is the main reason to read this one rather than a printed edition from two years ago.See the current editionsWhat's new in the 2024 editions
Is there help while I am reading?
Yes. Chapters carry step-by-step guides for the work you are doing in QuickBooks®, so you can check each step as you go.Open the free chapter
I bought a printed copy. Where are the exercise files?
On the downloads page, listed by book title, the same place the printed book points you to.Downloads
Can I use a screen reader, or read this with the keyboard?
The reader is built to be used with a keyboard and a screen reader. If something is in your way, tell us. Accessibility problems get fixed rather than logged.Accessibility statementReport a problem
Certification
What the book prepares you for, and what it does not issue.
The QuickBooks® Certified User exam, and who actually awards it.
Does this prepare me for the QuickBooks® Certified User exam?
Yes. Certiport lists the book as in line with the QuickBooks® Certified User exam. A free practice quiz shows you where you stand.QBCU Certification Prep
Do you issue the certification?
No, and be wary of anyone who says they do. The QuickBooks® Certified User credential is issued by Intuit through Certiport; we are an independent publisher whose book is in line with the exam. You sit the exam with Certiport and buy the voucher from them.
Orders and support
Getting a person, and what happens to your data.
When something has gone wrong, and what we keep about you.
Something is wrong with my order or my access. Who do I talk to?
Write to us and a person answers: order problems, access that has not arrived, a class you cannot join, or a page in the book that looks wrong. Include the email address on the order if you have one.Contact usInvitations not arriving
What do you do with my data?
We keep what running your account and your course needs, and we do not sell it. Students’ work is visible to their own instructor, and to nobody else’s.Privacy policyTerms
Read more
Where to go next.
Every answer above links to the page that goes deeper. Here they are together.
For instructors
The instructor documentation, written as plain how-to.
- How instructor approval works
- Try the demo group
- Create a class
- Invite students
- How the smart grader works
- Reading your group dashboard
From the blog
Longer reads on the switch to QBO, and what changed in each edition.
- Desktop vs Online: the differences
- How teaching QBO differs from QBDT
- How will I learn QBO to teach this class?
- Why doesn’t my QBO file match the book?
- Intuit is discontinuing the Desktop education program
- Meet the author
The book and the offer
What is in each tier, what it costs, and what you get on paper.
- Pricing
- Pricing for a class or team
- Compare the editions
- QBCU Certification Prep
- Exercise file downloads
Still deciding
Read a chapter before you answer any of this.
Chapter 4 is open to everyone. No account, no card. A full chapter from the middle of the book, so you can judge the teaching rather than the introduction.
Still stuck? Ask us directly. A person answers.