 QuickBooks Online 2024. How to access the software. Get ready and some coffee because we're diving into it with Intuit's QuickBooks Online. Whenever learning a new software or practicing with a particular software, one of the first questions that will come up will be, well, how can I get access to the software possibly for free if possible so I can use the software for practice. Different softwares actually have different obstacles with regards to this question of how can I get access to the software for the purpose of practice. For example, let's take a look at Microsoft Excel because most people are familiar with how it works. If you were to buy Microsoft Excel, you'll typically then download it onto your computer, which means we would call it say a desktop type of software. And once you have the software, it would be fairly easy to take a course in Microsoft Excel because you can create multiple sheets, multiple workbooks within Microsoft Excel. You're not having to use one particular workbook that you might already be using for business to follow along with a particular course. When you move on to online software, web based software, such as a QuickBooks Online, the outline is usually a bit different because you're not going to buy the software and then create multiple, like, worksheets in the comparison of Microsoft Excel workbooks, worksheets. Instead, you purchase it on a company by company basis. So you might have access to QuickBooks Online already, for example, but you're using it for your business. So if you want to practice using the software, you'd like to have some kind of sandbox for the purpose of practice. So that's the obstacle that we have. The scenario that you might be in is one, you don't have any accounting software or you don't have QuickBooks Online, and you're thinking of moving to it, for example, or two, you already have QuickBooks Online, but you still have the problem of, I'd like to practice somewhere, I'd like to follow along with the course in a step-by-step basis without using the data that's in my current business file. And learning things in a step-by-step basis with a practice problem is really the best way to learn. And ideally, what we would like to have is the same thing on our screen, as is on your screen, so that we can work through our practice problems step by step. So we're going to look at the different tools that QuickBooks provides us and see how well we can utilize these to meet that goal, to try to use it purely for practice, to try to make it as hands-on and interactive as possible, to try to have every step on our screen matching what's on your screen to the extent that we can. So what resources do we have? So QuickBooks Online often offers a free 30-day trial, so we'll get into these in more detail, I'll just list them right now. They often also have a free student version, so you can look into that if you qualify for the student version, that would be great for practice. They have a free test drive, and then you can look into, of course, discounts if you were to purchase. Let's go into each of these in more detail, and I'll talk more specifically how they might fit into utilizing in our course, how we might utilize them in the course. First, the QuickBooks Online 30-day free trial, so we're at a screenshot of the Intuit owner of QuickBooks Online webpage where we see the toggle on for the free 30-day trial. This webpage is actually a little bit difficult to find, so we'll show you later how to get here from the Intuit owner of QuickBooks webpage. You can also get here usually by just typing into your favorite browser, say a Google search for QuickBooks Online free 30-day trial, and look at the results that way as well. When you toggle this on, it's actually a little bit scary because the prices basically go up. So the idea from Intuit side, QuickBooks side of things would be it would be cheaper if you don't take the 30-day trial, and then if you take the 30-day trial, you get a free 30-day trial, but then they increase the price after that point in time. I would think the idea from Intuit or QuickBooks side of things, what they would like to be happening would be that you completely commit to putting your actual numbers into the 30-day trial so that after 30 days after you're using it, you're basically locked in at that point in time, and you have to go forward with it unless you want to go through the pain of changing the software again, which is a pain to do. So I would suggest that if you're practicing, if you're testing out the software, what you would like to do is at least run a parallel between the stuff you're putting into the new software here for 30 days and your prior accounting system, run it the same numbers on each system for a while so that you can commit to it to see if it's what you would like to do. And generally, ideally, if you're testing it out, you'd like to test it out for the 30 days without being forced to then purchase it after that point in time. So you'd like to be able to practice with it and then possibly see if you can purchase at a later point in time, possibly looking into discounts, talking to your accountant to get the best price at that point in time. From a course perspective, what we would like to do is get the software, the sandbox with a free, with just a nothing in it type of situation for a new company file. That type of scenario is perfect when we're trying to practice the setup process, which is all