Around the middle of last month Intuit formally announced their 'next step' in the evolution of the ProAdvisor Program which is nearly 30 years old. That next step is being called the Intuit ProPartner Program. I wrote an article about it which came out about 15 minutes after Intuit released their Firm of the Future 'ProPartner' blog announcement.
Since then, we've had numerous ProAdvisors reach out asking how or if the changes Intuit is implementing will impact the Advisor Awards that Insightful Accountant hosts each year.
While we don't have all the details of the new Intuit ProPartner Program, we do have sufficient information for me to say, "Intuit's new ProPartner Program won't really have an impact on the awards as we know them."
In a couple of months Insightful Accountant will launch the 2027 Awards process, well before Intuit's ProPartner Program goes into effect, and our Awards process will recognize essentially the same award groups and categories we recognized in 2026*. There will still be a Top 100 ProAdvisor list, a Top US Up-n-coming ProAdvisor list, a Top Tax Advisor list and a Top International ProAdvisor list, along with the Categorical award recipients and ProAdvisors of the Year.
The new Intuit ProPartner initiative is collectively more than Intuit's past 'ProAdvisor Certifications' that measured 'educational accomplishments' like QuickBooks Level 1 (what for years we called 'Basic') and QuickBooks Level 2 (what for years was 'Advanced') and other certifications based on specific products, like their newest certification on Intuit Enterprise Suite. Rather ProPartner appears to be firm centered and is largely recognized on a 'tier basis' in much the same way as the existing ProAdvisor tiers, driven in part by client and product numbers as well as educationalnal achievements.
But Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards measure 'individual achievement' not collective firm accomplishments. As such, the two programs, Intuit's ProPartner program and Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards program don't conflict in any manner, that I can envision.
Let's take training and certification as an example. I don't envision Intuit scrapping the core of their certification training. Rather I see them expanding their training opportunities. As an example, I point you to both the Intuit Accountant Suite and Intuit Enterprise Suite training that they have released within the last few months. Intuit also offers outstanding 'Tax Training' which I suspect to ultimately be incorporated into their ProPartner point tiers.
Insightful Accountant's categorical award standards will continue to require completion of Intuit educational offerings and will reward applicants for as many training opportunities related to the profession they complete (for CPE, CE or hours) whether offered by Intuit or other leading training organizations.
While Intuit ProPartner may directly measure client and product numbers to achieve tiers, that isn't something new for Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards. We've asked, from year one, "how many clients DO YOU support" and "how many clients DO YOU support (in which ways) for each specific Intuit product (QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Payments, etc.)", and even more specifically "what percent of YOUR CLIENT PRACTICE do each of those product compose." The big difference is in how we use those numbers as part of our scoring. Our scoring uses zip code census-based population density to factor the value of client and product numbers creating an inherent system of fairness for advisors in smaller communities with those in larger ones.
Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards measure your personal achievements in all of the categorical areas of practice you tell us you participate in, and we will continue to do so. For example, I don't believe that the new Intuit ProPartner initiative will be evaluating the 'number of hours you teach' (as an Educator), 'hours and followers you reach' (as a Social Media Mogul), 'payroll checks you processed' (as a Payroll specialist), 'number of (non-Intuit) Apps you integrated with QBO' (as a QBO App-ologist), or '1040 tax returns you prepared' (as a Tax Advisor), etc.
That's just another reason why Insightful Accountant will continue to recognize our Award Program participants based on their personal accomplishments using measures associated with both the Intuit 'Pro' ecosystem, as well as individual practice dynamics and professional development.
So, I continue to see a 'synergy' between Intuit's 'Pro' program (whether they are calling it ProAdvisor or ProPartner) and Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards (even if some of those awards use the term ProAdvisor, and some do not, depending on the group or category). I believe the two programs complement each other; they in no way detract or conflict that I can see, and we at Insightful Accountant hope to maintain our close working relationship with the Intuit ProAdvisor/ProPartner Program and the QuickBooks community as a whole, to promote harmony between the two programs in the years to come.
Disclosures:
This feature contains some references to Intuit registered trademarks or copywritten materials (including, but not limited to, QuickBooks). Such references are used only for educational and informational purposes. Intuit is a publicly traded company headquartered in Mountain View, CA.
* - Insightful Accountant reserves the right to modify, in any manner any award titles, categories or groups at any time in the future including during the 2027 awards process.