Our Xero courses may be online. However, many of our students still find it difficult to stay alert during the entire 4.5 hours of our course. As it is an online course, our training programmes are easier to follow along. Instead of taking notes for example, you can take screenshots.

However, it is still important to prepare for lessons beforehand to give yourself as much leeway as possible during the lesson itself. You should spend most of the lesson listening to our Xero trainers instead of hurrying to write notes and keep up. Therefore here are 3 things to do before attending one of our Xero online courses.

Learn to use Zoom

This may sound obvious, but many don’t know how to use Zoom. During our lessons, you may be asked to set up a new Xero account and add a couple of income and expense transactions. Many of our students often encounter problems while applying what they’ve just learnt but can’t share their screen with our trainers because they’re unfamiliar with Zoom.

Zoom is an extremely popular and easy software to use. But you must get familiar with the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. It’s free to create a Zoom account and you can chat with your friends before the lesson to get an idea of how Zoom works.

Learn accounting by tracking your personal finances using an accounting software

This may sound a bit odd but the best way to accounting is to practice. After all, practice makes perfect. Start tracking your own expenses and income. For most people, their income is their salary from the job. Expenses would include food, housing, transportation and entertainment.

Wave is an accounting software that has a “Personal Finance” option. In short, it is a simplified version of a business accounting software that can be used by an individual to track his own personal finances. This will help you get familiarised with a simplified accounting system that will help you to learn Xero during our advanced Xero online courses.

Read about finance

As with all things in life, you have to build a true passion around something. Taking a course isn’t enough to master Xero and accounting. Getting an accounting degree or certification isn’t enough either. The most successful accountants often leave and breathe finance.

Start reading about finance. Pick up Benjamin Graham’s book “The Intelligent Investor”. Join a personal finance Reddit community and start talking to your friends about finance. This will help you get exposed to financial terminology, some core personal finance concepts such as the 4% rule and more. Even reading articles about how to use Xero will help.

For more information about our online Xero accounting software training, contact our trainers today!