The QuickBooks ProAdvisor program is becoming the Intuit ProPartner Accountants program in early 2027. Visit the ProPartner Hub for the latest program updates.
Arti Patel Martinez, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be discussing the tiers in the Intuit ProPartner Accountants program.
Hey ProAdvisors, it's Arti, and you're watching In the Know, where you get exclusive access to demos of Intuit product enhancements by the leaders who built them.
Let's jump right in with Arleene Tong, who will show us all about the new tiered benefits.
Arleene, welcome to the stage!
Arleene Tong: Thanks, Arti. Hi, everybody. I'm Arleene. I've been with Intuit for about eight years now. I've always been in the accountant segment, responsible for go-to-market activities, so rooting for accountants all the way. Today we have some updates about the Intuit ProPartner Accountants program. I know Jaclyn Anku has shared this with you before a couple of months ago, but we have some exciting news for you.
So, as you all know, for over 30 years, the ProAdvisor program has been by your side, providing the tools and the training that you've needed to get the most out of QuickBooks for your firm and for your clients. We've heard from you that technology is critical to navigating these challenges, but it isn't the entire solution.
And that's exactly why we reimagined the ProAdvisor program to Intuit ProPartner Accountants, and we took your feedback and took that into consideration as we reimagined and redesigned the program. What you know and love about the ProAdvisor program isn't going away, so you will still have those that ProAdvisor preferred pricing. You'll be able to still share the discount that you can offer your clients. You still maintain access to QuickBooks Online Advanced and so on, and of course, training and certifications will always remain free and available to all of you. Let's talk a little bit about the new features, the new things that we've pulled together, and things that you have to look forward to.
Starting with updated benefits, we know that customer support is near and dear to many of your hearts. We are excited to introduce the Resolution Center that will live in IAS [Intuit Accountant Suite], which enables you to open and track tickets across your firm and clients at a glance, and hopefully giving you time back to focus on what matters most to you. You'll also be working with a dedicated accountant support team that is certified and understands accounting workflows. And as you move up tier, support moves with you, and you get access to experts with deeper specializations matched to your work. And then investing in our partners means more than just saving you time. It also means sharing in the upside of the growth that you create. And to prove that commitment, we are changing our revenue share model from 12 months to three years for QuickBooks Online and for Workforce Solutions. And as your firm grows and advances through our program tiers, your revenue share grows with you from 10% up to 25%.
And then something new that we wanted to share with you today was all about client referrals because we know that growing your client base has always been one of the hardest parts of running a firm. And ProPartner accountants want to come alongside you and actively match certified firms with qualified businesses based on your specific focus and expertise, so that means you're not chasing down cold leads. You're getting warm, high intent introductions from businesses who already understand the value that you bring.
And then, last but not least, Intuit Accounting Suite. That's free for all for all members, but to help deliver advisory services at scale, we're providing our upper tier partners with free access to IAS Accelerate, which has more advanced features like client insights and benchmarking.
Next, let's talk a little bit about education. For years, we've led the industry in product certifications, but we know that to thrive in today's accounting marketplace, your team needs the soft skills, the critical thinking, the AI acumen to deliver those advisory services. So we have Arti, who has worked alongside Jaclyn to make our training program more robust and include CAS skills training and also courses on AI for accountants to help you navigate industry changes and to manage all of this training within your firms, especially for those who are managing larger teams. We've built the training manager, which is a tool that is directly available in IAS. Whereas firm leaders, you can now assign specific learning pathways. You can track your team's progress in real time. You can send reminders, and it's all at a glance view within the training manager dashboard within IAS.
Community is the third and the newest pillar in the ProPartner Accountants program. We intentionally included this pillar in the. New program because we know that innovation doesn't happen in a silo. It happens when you come together with your peers to exchange ideas, and that's why we are seriously investing in fostering a more connected community. So we kicked off the summer with Better Together. I don't know how many of you were even there with us, we launched Better Together in four cities across the nation this summer, and that featured peer-led workshops on how to build your ideal firm. We got you guys to network with one another and with us, and the chance to get hands-on with the Intuit product demos. Arti mentioned in the opening about the accounting futures program. That's part of the pillar under the community pillar under ProPartner Accountants, and we're really really excited to be investing the next generation of accounting talent, and linking students with ProPartner community like yourselves to become mentors, and you can read all about it in our blog post that's linked here. And finally, we'll also celebrate ProPartners who are innovating with an awards program, and that's more to come in the coming months. So those were the benefits of the new ProPartner Accountants program.
We now want to talk a little bit about the structure of the program, the tiers, and how it works. So just like the ProAdvisor program, the ProPartner Accountants program will feature tiers. If your firm has already signed up for Intuit Accountant Suite, you are at the member tier. We built the member tier as the entry point for any firm. But to become a true partner, and a firm needs to show real commitment to the program to move to the partner tier and above, and and that would mean that you will be unlocking better and more meaningful benefits as well depends on two requirements, and that includes having one active client on the platform and at least one active certified team member. Putting this criteria in place helps ensure we are rewarding firms for their partnership and setting a clear standard about what it means to be a pro partner. To move up the tiers, you need to earn points for your firm through revenue under management and certifications. You can earn one point every $100 of revenue under management, and this is the combined spend of your firm and all your clients attached to your firm in IAS across these qualifying products. You can also earn five points per certification completed by anyone on your staff up to 20 points per year firm wide. If you have IAS, you can actually see your projected tier today. We encourage you to do this because you can see where your firm is, where we have projected your firm to land at launch in early 2027. This slide here shows all the different benefits that are included in every tier, so I won't go through all of them. I will. You can take your time and leisurely go through it and familiarize yourself with it.
Here's what you can do now to get ready for the ProPartner Launch. If you haven't already, you can start by transitioning from QuickBooks Online accountant to into an accountant suite. Remember, IAS Core is free. The next thing to do is to ensure whether your team certifications are up to date. If you don't have one, visit ProAdvisor Academy and Arti is going to talk a little bit about that in the next slide. Just a reminder that you need at least one team member actively certified, so your firm can access the partner tier and above benefits, and then, if applicable, you should consolidate. We encourage that you consolidate the multiple consoles as points accrued by consoles. If your firm has multiple consoles, your points are split across them, thereby potentially keeping you at a lower tier than what you would be if all your clients and revenue would combine, and then as I mentioned, check your projected tier so you just know where there are no surprises for you when launch comes around in early 2027. So Archie, I would love for you to speak a little bit about certifications that qualify for them to move from the member tier to the pilot tier.
Arti Patel Martinez: Yes. Okay, I’m very excited. There are four certifications that anyone in your firm can take to qualify to move you out of the member tier, and that would be the QuickBooks Level 1 Certification, QuickBooks Level 2, the Intuit Enterprise Suite Certification, which is relatively new. We launched it last fall, and then the Payroll Certification. I will say we have a brand new Workforce Payroll Certification coming out in September, at the end of September, and so that's a qualifying one.
A couple things we wanted to share with you is there might be some things that maybe folks that have been part of this program for years don't know. When we launched ProAdvisor Academy, like 18 months ago, two years ago, we did a whole refresh and revamp on all of the content. In the past, it was a little dry, a little boring, and it was taking you hours to complete. And I think people just, you know, they just weren't that into it. So we've completely changed all of the training to make it more engaging. A lot of videos, very interactive, lots of different things that you can do to kind of practice what you're doing within the content.
So, I highly recommend that if you haven't tested or tried out some of this content, go back, check it out, and see if you like it. But if you are really fluent in QuickBooks, you can just test out. You do not have to take the four courses, seven hours of QuickBooks Level 1 training. You can just do the test out. So, when you log into ProAdvisor Academy and you enroll in QuickBooks Level 1. You'll scroll down and you'll see a little toggle, and it'll say Test Out. So you click that, and then it'll open the test for you. If for some reason you don't pass the test on the first try, not a big deal. You can go back into any of the courses and refresh your memory on those particular topics, and go back and test out again. And you have up to three chances to do that before you go into a cool off period, so it is a lot easier to certify now than I think people think. If they, especially if they haven't done it in the past few years, and then lastly, this is important: if you certify in QuickBooks Level 1 after November, you do not have to take the recertification in calendar year 2027. So it'll kind of buy you like a little bit more than a year. So if you haven't been certified in QB Level 1 and you don't want to have to do the recertification, you can take it in November and then you'll be good. Anything I'm missing, Arleene?
Arleene Tong: For Level 1 and Level 2, they need to keep that updated annually. But if they are certified in Workforce or IES, that doesn't expire, right?
Arti Patel Martinez: Correct. Thank you. Yes. Thanks for that reminder. Workforce and IES do not expire. So once you're certified, your firm is certified. So that's great and easy.
Arleene Tong: Amazing. Thank you, Arti. We wanted to just highlight this to you guys because there is that criteria to certify now to move up tier, and certification comes with a whole bunch of benefits for your firm as well, but really quickly to to recap, all ProAdvisors will transition to the ProPartner accountants program in early 2027, and you do that just by having an IAS account.
Hopefully, most of you have migrated over, and to move up to the Partner tier from member to Partner and beyond, you must have at least one client on IAS on your IAS account, and also one one team member certified within your firm. And this is applicable in the US. And I will be happy to let you know also, like in Canada and the rest of the world, because I know this question comes up a lot. They are pacing towards our timing, so a launch of early 2027 as well. Here is a handy dandy slide for you that gives you resources all on Pr Partner Accountants. We have a cool explainer video. We have a quick start guide. We have a detailed program guide, and then the web page is on the first link up there. So this is a good slide to keep in mind, if you need to go back and spend a little bit of time getting familiar with the program. Okay, I think that's about it. Let's pause here. I hope I was within time, Artie, and let's see whether we have any questions.
Arti Patel Martinez: Perfect. Yes. Okay. So, oh, this is a good one. When will the Pro Partner Accountants program be available to the rest of the world?
Arleene Tong: So, we are pacing to make the program available to the rest of the world at the same timing as the US. So, early 2027.
Arti Patel Martinez: Perfect. And just another refresher: Who can join the Pro Partner Accountants program?
Arleene Tong: Oh, this is a good one. I didn't go into detail. Any accounting, bookkeeping, or tax firm of any size that uses Intuit products to serve clients can join.
Arti Patel Martinez: Perfect. And then, is there a fee to join the program?
Arleene Tong: There is no cost to join the program, all you need to do is sign up for Intuit Accountant Suite, and then you will be entered into the member tier of the program. To move up from member, you need to add just one client to your IES account and certify one team member, and then you can keep earning points to move up the tiers from partner and above.
Arti Patel Martinez: Awesome! Thank you so much, Arleene. Such great information. And with that, if you find this update interesting or helpful, go ahead and like, comment and subscribe. That's all we have for now.
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