As Administrator for Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards, I have the delight to launch our "Top Advisor Tuesday" article series for Awards Year 2027. We are only weeks away from announcing the opening of the application/nomination period.
Many of our ‘ProAdvisors’ are asking the question, “How does Intuit’s new ProPartner Program impact the Top Advisor (aka: ProAdvisor) Awards?”
While it is true that Intuit will sunset the ‘ProAdvisor’ Program by the end of January 2027, that event alone will have no impact on either Insightful Accountant’s 2027 Top Advisor Awards, including the Top 100 ProAdvisors, or future years awards. We view the new ProPartner Program as a firm-wide focus, in much we did the ProAdvisor tier designations.
Intuit's Tier Designations
When Intuit implemented the ProAdvisor tiers (as well as some of the related forms on a ‘global basis’) we quickly recognized that those tiers were cumulative of all the ProAdvisors in a specific firm. If ten different ProAdvisors each earned 50 points, they all received the ProAdvisor tier appropriate to 500 points.
The new ProPartner Program tiers work in exactly the same way, the accumulation of points of all ‘linked’ team members under an Intuit Accountant Suite account result in the designated ProPartner tier level. Let’s say that a ten-member firm earns 300 points over their ‘point year’ based on the formula of ‘up to’ 20 points from 4 or more individual eligible certifications (firm-wide) at 5 points per certification, and 280 points from revenue under management (at the rate of 1 point per $100 of revenue which equals $28,000), then all ten members of that firm are associated with the new ‘Premium Partner’ tier level of the ProPartner Program.
The Top Advisor Awards are not firm based; they are individual awards. We ask you questions related to your own accomplishments. At the same time, we do recognize that you are firm-based, even if it is a firm of one, and we take ‘firm accomplishments’ into account… but we ‘individualize them’ for purposes of scoring.
So, in the past, when the Application Form asked you for your ProAdvisor Tier, we also asked you, “What is the size of your firm?”. Our scoring algorithm divided the allocated Tier points by the number of firm members, to achieve the ‘individualized Tier value’ toward that Top Advisor's ranking.
With the implementation of Intuit’s new ProPartner Program, that methodology won’t really change. For 2027, whether you enter your ProAdvisor Tier or your ProPartner Tier (by name from the drop-down) the relative point values will continue to be divided by the number of firm members you report to us, and we will continue to take you at ‘your word’ that the number you report was accurate as of the date you complete your application for the period of January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2026.
Now you may find yourself wondering about those point values I mentioned which the scoring algorithm uses to compute the various tiers. While we normally don’t ‘reveal’ point values associated with individual application questions used in the Top Advisor Award computation, in this case I felt it appropriate to announce the point structure due to the changes associated with ProAdvisor vs. ProPartner tiers.
For the 2027 Award years, the following tier values will be used in our computations:
ProAdvisor Silver Tier = 350 points
ProAdvisor Gold Tier = 1125 points
ProAdvisor Platinum Tier = 3150 points
ProAdvisor Elite Tier = 5050 points
New ProPartner Partner Tier = 425 points
New ProPartner Preferred Partner Tier = 1195 points
New ProPartner Premium Partner Tier = 3225 points
New ProPartner Elite Partner Tier = 5195 points
So, whether you report the current ProAdvisor Tiers, or the new ProPartner Tiers, we will be computing the appropriate point structure regardless of designations.
The above ‘ProAdvisor‘ tier values are those used for the 2026 Awards. The ’New ProPartner‘ tier values are those that will be used not only for the upcoming 2027 Awards Year (based on the tiers as Intuit has presently outlined them) but going forward into the 2028 Awards Year, and beyond, unless Intuit realigns their tier structure (in which case Insightful Accountant will realign points values for their tier allocations).
About Certifications
Let me also address a couple of new training/certifications Intuit has adopted. Intuit has already added a new ‘Intuit Enterprise Suite’ Certification and will soon be rolling out a new ‘Intuit Workforce (Payroll)’ Certification to replace the current QuickBooks Online Payroll Certification. The current QBO Payroll certification will continue to be recognized and earn points if it was earned at any time during the 2027 Awards Year period of January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2026.
Both the new ‘Intuit Enterprise Suite’ Certification and the new ‘Intuit Workforce (Payroll)’ Certification will also be eligible to earn points for the 2027 Awards as long as they were earned prior to December 31, 2026. And indeed, if you have earned or held the QBO Payroll Certification and earned the new Intuit Workforce (Payroll) Certification before December 31, 2026, you will be eligible for credit for both of those certifications even though they represent the same 'payroll' focused recognition.
Minimum Certifications for 2027 Awards (U.S. Applicants)
For Awards Year 2027, the minimum qualifications with regard to ‘certifications’ for U.S. Applicants for the Top Advisor Awards (excluding the Tax Advisor Award) will continue to be ‘Intuit QuickBooks Level 1’, ‘Intuit QuickBooks Level 2’ or ‘QuickBooks Desktop’ certifications as long as they were ‘active’ or earned at any time during the 2027 Awards year of January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2026.
Be on the watch for the launch of the 2026 Top Advisor Awards within the next few weeks.