How the Teacher Dashboard works
Short answers for instructors teaching QuickBooks Online Step-by-Step.
- Articles
- 28
- Last updated
- October 5, 2026
What the Teacher Dashboard does
It's where you run a class that uses QuickBooks Online Step-by-Step. Your students read the book and do the exercises online. You see how far each one has got, what they scored, and what is waiting on you.
Quizzes and exams grade themselves. The smart grader checks the QuickBooks reports students upload. Anything that needs a person, like a written answer or a held grade, lands in one list called Needs you.
Getting started
What the dashboard does, getting approved, and trying a demo class.
What the Teacher Dashboard is and does
A two-minute tour: what the Teacher Dashboard is for, what is on each screen, and where to start.
Read the guide2 minHow-toHow instructor approval works
Free, and reviewed by a person, usually within one business day. It opens the Instructor's Manual and teaching files. You don't need it to run a class.
Read the guide2 minOverviewTry the demo classroom
A practice class with 18 sample students and weeks of work already in it. It starts in the book, then walks you through the dashboard.
Read the guide2 minHow-toTurn your demo into a real class
Use this for real starts a new, empty real class with its own join code. Your demo stays as it is.
Read the guide2 minYour classroom
Create a class and get your students in.
Create a class
A book and a name, and your class is ready with its own join code. Everything else you set afterward.
Read the guide2 minHow-toInvite students
Share your join code, email invitations, or paste your whole class list. Students who already have an account join straight away.
Read the guide2 minHow-toTeach a class with a colleague
Invite another teacher to your class. They get the same class page, can message your students, and hear from them too.
Read the guide2 minHow-toCreate accounts for students who cannot use email
Make an account for each student and hand out a one-time password. Passwords are shown once, so print or download them.
Read the guide2 minTroubleshootingA student didn't get their invitation
Check the badge next to their name, then work down this short list. The join code always works in the meantime.
Read the guide1 minOverviewHow seats work
A seat gives one student the full book for 12 months. How students get one, buying more, and what happens when the 12 months are up.
Read the guide2 minHow-toGet your grades into Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle
Download a grade file and import it, with no setup. Or have your school's LMS admin connect it so scores post on their own.
Read the guide2 minGrading
What grades itself, what needs you, and how to change a grade.
How the smart grader works
It checks the QuickBooks report a student uploads against an answer key, one line at a time, and shows you every check so you can change any of them.
Read the guide3 minHow-toChange a student's exam grade
Set a chapter exam score yourself, even for an exam they never took, count it as a pass or not, and undo it later.
Read the guide2 minOverviewHow chapter quizzes are graded
One class setting decides whether students can retake each chapter's practice quiz, which try counts, and when they see the answers.
Read the guide2 minHow-toHold grades and release them
Turn smart grading off for a class, and QuickBooks work waits for you to check it before students see a score.
Read the guide2 minHow-toLet a student retake a chapter exam
A chapter exam closes after one sitting. Reopen it for one student or the whole class, or give back a mark for a bad question.
Read the guide2 minHow-toRelease a chapter exam's answers
Students see their exam score and what they missed. When you are ready, release the answers for a chapter and they can review every question, the right answer and why.
Read the guide2 minTroubleshootingA student says their score is missing
It's almost always waiting for you to release it. How to check, how to release it, and what else to look at.
Read the guide2 minHow-toFix a smart grader score
Change one check the grader got wrong, re-read an upload, upload for a student, or give a pass outright.
Read the guide2 minHow-toReview written answers
Choose how many written answers come to you, then read them, leave a note, and mark them. None of it changes a score.
Read the guide2 minTracking progress
What each number means, and what to check when one looks wrong.
What every number on your class page means
The tiles, the roster columns and the trends charts, one line each, plus what to check when a number looks wrong.
Read the guide3 minTroubleshootingWhy completion shows 0% when students are working
Completion only moves when a whole chapter is finished. Here is what to check, in order, when it stays at zero.
Read the guide2 minOverviewA student's record: what's on it and what you can do
One student's grade, activity and work chapter by chapter, and the buttons for messaging them or changing a grade.
Read the guide2 minSetting up the course
Class settings, Assignments, and what each plan opens.
Class settings: what each one does
Smart grading, the reader, progress tracking, quizzes, exams, answers and which book the class teaches: what each setting does and where it starts.
Read the guide3 minHow-toChoose which chapters your class works on
Leave chapters out for one class on the Assignments page. It changes what the class is shown, not what a student's plan opens.
Read the guide2 minOverviewWhat Lite and Standard open for your students
Which chapters each plan opens, what a locked chapter takes with it, and how to teach a class where students hold different plans.
Read the guide2 minThe book and reader
The two reading modes, and the Instructor's Manual.
Modern and Classic: the two ways students read the book
Modern is the book as an interactive web page. Classic is the printed page. What each gives a student, and how to pin a class to Classic.
Read the guide2 minOverviewThe Instructor's Manual
One manual page in your Teacher Dashboard, opened from the sidebar or from the reader's settings cog: how the course runs, the author's front matter, a guide for every chapter, and her full manual with the answer keys. Teacher-only, per title.
Read the guide5 minAsk us directly.
A real person on our team reads every message and replies within one to two business days. If something in your classroom is not behaving the way this guide describes, tell us. That is a bug, and we want it.