Question 1

What is QuickBooks Online Step-by-Step?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 2

Can I read some of it before I pay?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 3

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

Do I need accounting experience?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 5

Do I need to pay for QuickBooks Online?

Accepted Answer

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 teacher requests it and Intuit emails you the invitation. A full QuickBooks Online Plus company, free for 12 months, for practice only. 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. 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.

Question 6

I am in a class. Where does my QuickBooks company come from?

Accepted Answer

From your teacher, through Intuit Education. Your teacher 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 teacher requests it and Intuit emails you the invitation. A full QuickBooks Online Plus company, free for 12 months, for practice only.

Question 7

I am learning on my own. Which QuickBooks Online account should I use?

Accepted Answer

Intuit Education Student Trials come through a teacher, 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. 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.

Question 8

I teach. How do my students get QuickBooks Online?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 9

What is the difference between Lite and Standard?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 10

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 11

How long does my access last?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 12

I have Lite. Can I move up to Standard?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 13

Can I buy access for a class or a team?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 14

Is there a refund policy?

Accepted Answer

Yes. An eBook is refundable within 14 days if you have read no more than 30% of it. Printed books follow the publisher’s return policy. Start a refund from the contact page.

Question 15

Can I get an evaluation copy before adopting the book?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 16

I have never taught QuickBooks Online, only Desktop. How different is it?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 17

How do I set up a class and get my students in?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 18

How is student work graded?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 19

Can I choose which chapters my class sees?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 20

Does it connect to Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle?

Accepted Answer

Yes, over LTI 1.3, the standard these systems support. Students launch the book from your LMS and scores post back to your gradebook. We set it up and test it with your LMS administrator, and help with your security and accessibility review.

Question 21

Is there an instructor manual?

Accepted Answer

Yes: answer keys, a guide for every chapter and the author’s teaching notes, on one page of your teacher dashboard that opens from Instructor’s Manual under the book’s settings cog. No separate download to keep track of.

Question 22

Do I read this in a browser, or download a PDF?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 23

Will it remember where I stopped?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 24

My QuickBooks screen does not match the screenshot in the book. Why?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 25

Is the book current with the 2026 QuickBooks Online interface?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 26

Is there help while I am reading?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Chapters carry step-by-step guides for the work you are doing in QuickBooks, so you can check each step as you go.

Question 27

I bought a printed copy. Where are the exercise files?

Accepted Answer

On the downloads page, listed by book title, the same place the printed book points you to.

Question 28

Can I use a screen reader, or read this with the keyboard?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 29

Does this prepare me for the QuickBooks Certified User exam?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Certiport lists the book as in line with the QuickBooks Certified User exam. A free practice quiz shows you where you stand.

Question 30

Do you issue the certification?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 31

Something is wrong with my order or my access. Who do I talk to?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 32

What do you do with my data?

Accepted Answer

We keep what running your account and your course needs, and we do not sell it. Students’ work is visible to their own teacher, and to nobody else’s.

Questions, answered.

What this is, and where to begin.

Which QuickBooks company you work in, and where it comes from.

What each tier includes, and what it costs.

Adopting the book, and running a class on it.

The reader, your progress, and QuickBooks moving under you.

What the book prepares you for, and what it does not issue.

Getting a person, and what happens to your data.

Where to go next.

For teachers

From the blog

The book and the offer

Read a chapter before you answer any of this.