Streamlined 2027 Top Advisor Process for 2026 Participants

Murph explains the 2027 Streamlined Application for 2026 Top Advisors, shorten your application time by hours...

Insightful Accountant has been working the past few years to streamline the application process, especially for participants from the previous year. For U.S. Applicants*, we have developed a process that allows for the ‘carry-over’ of much of the scoring information within the application form from the prior year. Applicants then need only update areas of their practice with significant changes.

Let’s look at how you can make use of this option to significantly reduce the information and time 2026 Top Advisor participants will need to provide to the 2027 application process.

The streamline process begins on Page 2 of the application form when you are asked if you this “Is your ‘first time’ participating in the Awards?”. Make certain if you participated in 2026 that you select the “No, I applied for the U.S. Awards in 2026!”

Responding in that manner triggers the streamlined application process by turning on a page titled, 2026 U.S. Top Advisor Applicants Content Update Option (as shown below) after you have provided your client practice verification and current certification verification.

This page gives you the ability to ‘update’ only the information you choose, it also gives us your consent to use your 2026 application information for your 2027 application as the basis upon which your new data either adds to or replaces 2026 data. If you wish to use this streamlined process, be certain to select the “I choose to only update the information I specific below and other required application questions.”

Once you make that selection you turn on a series of questions on that page, the first is Award Categorical Eligibility in which you will select those Award categories that most closely align with your QuickBooks Practice. You know better than anyone the categories for which you are most qualified. Please note that the 2027 categories have NOT changed from the 2026 award categories.

The next question is at the heart of the streamline process… Changes From Your 2026 Formal Application (shown below). A series of areas asks you what areas of the application need to be updated from your 2026 application. For example, “Has your Higher Education changed?”, or “The number of team members in your firm increased or decreased by 5 or more?” Other questions in this group include area related to ‘new or expanded practice areas’.

Some responses will turn on supplemental questions further down this page; some responses will turn on pages later in the application, and some questions actually turn off pages later in the application.

Below are a few examples of some of the supplemental questions that responses might activate.

These are only some of the supplemental questions that your responses to the list turn on, they are intended to be representative of our streamlining efforts since questions like this directly supplemental your answers from the 2026 application you submitted and earn you extra scoring points above the totals you received in the related areas for 2026.

Unfortunately, some responses require more than a simple answer and as I mentioned earlier may turn on supplemental pages if you began a new aspect of practice. We also can’t effectively measure your ecosystem participation in this way, and while many Advisors stick with he same ecosystem apps from one year to the next, our years of application data indicate that most Advisors change, and in some cases change substantially, the apps they use, recommend, implement and are certified in from one year to the next. So, you will still have that area of the 2027 application to undertake before you can finalize your submission.

Nevertheless, we believe that this streamlined process can save you as many as 200 questions and 18 or more pages of the formal application, and that is a substantial time savings if you choose this path.

The 2027 Top Advisor Awards Portal to Nominate or Apply for the 2027 Top Advisor Awards is now open and can be found HERE or by using the QR Code below:

 About Insightful Accountant’s Top Advisor Awards

Since its inception, Insightful Accountant has been the awarding entity and administrator for the ProAdvisor Awards Program, which recognizes the best QuickBooks ProAdvisors worldwide.

In 2026, the program was renamed theTop Advisor Awards when Insightful Accountant launched the Top U.S. Tax Advisors (who are not required to be ProAdvisors) into the overall awards program.

Applicants for these prestigious programs are ranked based on their performance across various criteria, measuring everything from QuickBooks knowledge to utilizing the best tools & partner apps within the QuickBooks ecosystem that contribute to solid practice growth. Tax Advisors will be held to similar standards based upon Intuit’s Tax-offering ecosystem.

Intuit, QuickBooks, and the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program have participated in a sponsoring advisor capacity every year since the inception of the awards. (Insightful Accountant actively monitors the nomination and application process to determine candidate qualification and equivalency and coordinates with Intuit officials and the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program should questions arise.)

Footnotes and Disclosures:

 * - currently, this streamlined process only applies to U.S. Applicants, it is not available for International applicants during the 2027 application process. Our hope is to make a similar streamlined process available to International applicants during the 2028 awards process.