Award Advisory - Specifics You May Not Know

Please Meet the Sponsors Powering the ProAdvisor Awards

Get connected and learn more about our Sponsors! Discover exclusive insights and resources!

****************************

My goal is to always keep you 'in the loop' concerning what is going on with the ProAdvisor Awards. 

Even though we have not yet announced the ProAdvisor of the Year, the ProAdvisor Categorical Awards, the Up-n-comer Award for 2025, or the International ProAdvisor of the Year, we are working hard preparing for the 2026 awards, which will open on or before the end of July.

For 2026, Insightful Accountant will administer awards for four distinct "groups" of  Advisors₁: 

• The Top 100 U.S. ProAdvisor Awards, including the ProAdvisor Categorical Awards and ProAdvisor of the Year.
• The Top 25 Up-n-Coming ProAdvisor Awards, including the Up-n-Coming ProAdvisor of the Year.
• The Top 50 International ProAdvisor Awards, including the International ProAdvisor of the Year, and
• The ('new' for 2026) Top 25 Tax Advisor Awards, including the Tax Advisor of the Year.

Each year, after we announce the various Categorical Awards and ProAdvisor of the Year, there are always individuals who want to know why they didn't qualify for one of the top awards. They can't figure out what possibly could have kept them from earning a 'top spot.' 

While I've written about this previously, I'm trying to answer the question as best I can in this article, rather than being asked 90 or so times while at Scaling New Heights.

The answer almost always boils down to just one or two things:

• They didn't score as high on their formal application as they might have because they failed to provide key information, or they missed opportunities that could have elevated their standing within one or more award categories by choosing not to participate in key elements of the application form (like choosing not to provide 'app information'). For example, "a few years ago, someone who thought they should have received the 'Educator Award' forgot to list the number of hours they trained ProAdvisors."
• Or, they were blocked (by rule) from receiving one of the major awards, despite their scoring within that category. For example, "a ProAdvisor received the QuickBooks Online Award one year, and just knew they should have been recognized for QuickBooks Online Advanced the following year, since they had migrated 100% of their clients from QBO Plus to QBO Advanced." Award rules prevent a Categorical Award recipient from receiving another Categorical Award the following year₁. When they hear they were blocked (by rule), they typically say things like "I didn't know such a rule existed?"  Yet I can go back and show them when the specific rule provision(s) were implemented.

These are a few of the rules under which the ProAdvisor Awards operate₁:

1) No individual may be awarded the highest ranking and overall Group Award (ProAdvisor of the Year, International ProAdvisor of the Year, Up-n-coming ProAdvisor of the Year, Tax Advisor of the Year) more than once; such awards are considered lifetime awards. Thereafter, all said individuals are honorarily conferred 'emeritus' award status for such Award(s).

2) No ProAdvisor within the U.S. can be awarded any single Top 100 ProAdvisor Categorical Award more than once. ProAdvisors can not repeat as the categorical award winner of any single category.

3) No Up-n-Coming ProAdvisor of the Year Award recipient may be awarded the Up-n-Coming ProAdvisor of the Year Award in any subsequent year. However, they are not barred from being ranked within the Top 25 Up-n-coming ProAdvisors for any subsequent year, nor the Top 100 ProAdvisor Award group, if they so qualify during said year. 

4) No International ProAdvisor of the Year Award recipient may be awarded the International ProAdvisor of the Year Award in any subsequent year. Thereafter, all said individuals are honorarily conferred 'emeritus' award status for such Award(s). These provisions do not preclude any International ProAdvisor who received the International ProAdvisor Categorical Award, when such awards were part of the Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards, from being considered for, or receiving, the formal International ProAdvisor of the Year Award. 

5) No Tax Advisor of the Year Award recipient may be awarded the Tax Advisor of the Year Award in any subsequent year. However, said recipient is not barred from being ranked within the Top 25 Tax Advisors for any subsequent year, provided they qualify during that year. Such status shall not bar said individual from participation in and award consideration within the Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards, if they so qualify during any subsequent year.

6) No ProAdvisor within the U.S. can be awarded a Top 100 ProAdvisor Categorical Award within two (2) years of having received any other Top 100 ProAdvisor Categorical Award. 

7) No ProAdvisor within the U.S. can be awarded a total of more than three (3) Top 100 ProAdvisor Categorical Awards. Any such ProAdvisor having received three (3) Top 100 ProAdvisor Categorical Awards shall not be eligible for any other earned award under the Program. 

8) No individual receiving the highest ranking and overall Award for any one of the following Groups (ProAdvisor of the Year, Up-n-coming ProAdvisor of the Year, International ProAdvisor of the Year, or Tax Advisor of the Year) can be awarded the highest ranking and overall Award for any other Group (as provided herein) within three (3) years of having received the previous Group Award. 

Hopefully, this will answer a few questions some people may have in their minds and prevent me from spending my SNH 'free time' focusing on the awards' aftermath. 

Disclosures and footnotes:

₁ - Some rules, as elaborated above, were established or modified for the 2026 Award Year cycle as a result of changes made in the Award structure for 2026; for example, the creation of the Tax Advisor Award(s). Some rules were established or modified in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to preclude successive award recognitions by a single individual in multiple categories, or to restrict categories to specific limitations by preventing cross-category scoring impact(s).