QuickBooks Accountant: What Firms Get in 2026
QuickBooks Online Accountant is free, and every firm has to leave it. Intuit is moving every firm onto Intuit Accountant Suite, whose Core tier is also free, and all firms must be switched by December 31, 2026. The ProAdvisor program rides along at no cost. What decides your ProAdvisor tier is not a fee. It is points.
QuickBooks Online Accountant becomes Intuit Accountant Suite
Intuit calls it an evolution. In practice your firm console gets a new name and a new interface, and the price stays at nothing. Intuit’s help article is blunt about the Core tier: “There’s no cost for Intuit Accountant Suite Core.” Your clients, data and access stay the same.
The dates are the part to diary. Intuit began moving firms over in cohorts in June 2026 and continues through the end of the year, and every firm must complete the switch by December 31, 2026. Do nothing and you are moved automatically. You can switch back to the classic QuickBooks Online Accountant view through November 2026, but if you have consolidated multiple consoles you cannot separate them again on the way back.
Above Core sits Accelerate, in beta, priced at $0 a month today and listed at $149 a month starting January 20, 2027. Client Insights is not the difference: Core already has it with standard KPIs. What Accelerate adds is depth inside it, plus client groups, user groups, customizable dashboards and AI-powered anomaly detection. Portfolio-level insights are marked beta, and Intuit’s own help article still lists client portfolio comparisons as coming soon. One console holds up to 1,000 users and 10,000 clients.
ProAdvisor is free, and points set your tier
Signing up costs nothing. Intuit’s line is that becoming a ProAdvisor “is as simple as signing up for Intuit Accountant Suite and racking up points.” Four tiers, and the benefits widen as you climb.
| Tier | Points needed |
|---|---|
| Silver | 0 to 499 |
| Gold | 500 to 2,399 |
| Platinum | 2,400 to 6,999 |
| Elite | 7,000+ |
Points come from three places: client subscriptions you run, exams you pass, and one desktop purchase. An active QuickBooks Online client subscription is 50 points. QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Workforce Elite and QuickBooks Payments are 75 each. Contractor Payments with 1099 filing and Bill Pay Basic are 25, Bill Pay Premium is 50. Certification pays best: a current QuickBooks Online Level 1 certification is 100 points, and Level 2 is 200. Buying the ProAdvisor Premier or Enterprise desktop bundle is also 100, once per year.
Do the arithmetic and Gold is roughly ten QuickBooks Online clients, or a Level 2 certification plus six. The perks are real software, not vouchers. A free QuickBooks Online Accountant subscription for your own books, free QuickBooks Workforce Elite for your payroll, free Bill Pay Elite with 15% off transaction fees, and a free QuickBooks Time subscription for your timesheets.
Certifications, and annual recertification
Certifications exist for QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Desktop, Desktop Enterprise and QuickBooks Workforce. Training and exams live in the ProAdvisor Academy, self-paced, plus webinars and in-person events. There is also a Client Advisory Services pathway that carries the Intuit Bookkeeping Certification and QuickBooks Online Level 1 along with courses on AI for accounting and reading financial reports.
Certification is not permanent. Intuit runs annual recertification, with a shorter exam than the original and a course covering what changed in QuickBooks Online. Let it lapse and you lose the points that came with it, which can drop your tier.
One rule worth reading twice. Intuit states that public discussion of ProAdvisor certification exam questions and answers is grounds for immediate termination of your certification. Do not post the questions in a Facebook group.
ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing, three ways
This is the only ongoing discount Intuit offers on QuickBooks Online. You choose per client, on the Add client screen, and the choice decides who gets the bill.
| Option | Who Intuit bills | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| ProAdvisor | Your firm | 30% off, ongoing |
| Direct | Your client | 30% off for 12 months |
| Revenue Share | Your client | 50% off the first 3 months |
Firm-billed clients arrive as one consolidated monthly bill. The discount runs deeper than the base subscription: QuickBooks Workforce is 30% off the base plus 15% off employee and contractor fees, QuickBooks Time is 30% off the base plus 15% off employee fees, and QuickBooks Bill Pay is 30% off the base with 15% off transaction fees. Simple Start at $38 lands at $26.60 a month on the ProAdvisor discount.
One caution before you quote a discounted figure to a client. Intuit’s accountant-facing pricing page publishes its own list prices for the same QuickBooks Online plans, and they do not line up with the prices on the main pricing page, so read the number off your own console rather than running the percentage yourself.
Your firm gets its own list. Mailchimp Standard at 75% off for a year, ProConnect Tax returns at 30%, 35% or 40% off depending on tier, and 30% off checks, tax forms and supplies. Desktop is the outlier, still sold as a bundle: the ProAdvisor Premier Software Bundle is $1,499 a year per user and Enterprise is $2,399 a year per user.
You do not eat a client’s user licence
A question that comes up on every onboarding call. Accountant access sits outside the user cap, so adding you does not push a client up a tier.
| Plan | Monthly | Users | Accountant seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 | None |
| Simple Start | $38 | 1 | 2 |
| Essentials | $75 | 3 | 2 |
| Plus | $115 | 5 | 2 |
| Advanced | $275 | 25 | 3 |
The exception is the Free plan, which has no accountant access at all. If a prospect is sitting on it and wants you in the file, Simple Start at $38 is the floor, or $26.60 with your ProAdvisor discount applied.
The review your monthly invoice never asks for
Intuit’s own directory tells business owners to check a ProAdvisor’s credentials and reviews before they make contact. Reviews. Yet the client you have invoiced every month for six years may never have been asked for one. Trophy Jar sits on QuickBooks and asks when the invoice is paid, which for a bookkeeping practice is a moment that arrives every single month. It starts at $9 a month for your first two months, then settles at $29, and that includes 100 texts from your own dedicated local number. The $19 plan, $49 after the first two months, gives you 1,000. We handle 10DLC registration end to end for US businesses. Put it on your own books first. Then put it on the books of every trades client you close for, because the plumber you just moved to Plus has the same problem and will thank you for it.