By Marie Greene, CAS Partner at Sorren
The QuickBooks ProAdvisor program has been a longstanding part of our accounting environment. We used it mostly to get our team members certified. While it was available for years, it wasn’t widely promoted or well-known among accountants, which may have limited its impact and reach.
But the program has changed.
Today, running an accounting firm is not just about knowing the software. It is about building a team, creating scalable processes, training the next generation, delivering advisory services, navigating rapid technology changes, and staying connected to a community that understands the unique challenges of this work.
That is why Intuit’s move from the legacy ProAdvisor model to the new Intuit ProPartner Accountants program feels bigger than a rebrand. It signals a shift from rewarding individual software proficiency to supporting firm-wide growth, team development, and long-term practice success. The new program is expected to launch in early 2027, with foundational steps accountants can take now to prepare for their projected tier reveal.
And honestly? That is the part that caught my attention.
Because the hardest part of building an accounting firm is not learning one more feature inside QuickBooks Online. It is building a firm that can grow without everything depending on one person.
The lightbulb moment: this is about the whole firm
When I first read about the new ProPartner Accountants program, my “lightbulb moment” was this: Intuit is recognizing that accounting firms do not grow one certification at a time. They grow when the entire team gets stronger.
That matters.
In the old model, there was a lot of focus on individual achievement. Certification was important, and it still is. But in a modern firm, one person being highly proficient is not enough. If the owner is the only one who understands the tech stack, the client workflows, the advisory model, or the “why” behind the service delivery, the firm becomes fragile.
Real growth happens when junior team members are trained into stronger roles. It happens when managers are equipped to lead. It happens when the firm has better systems, better support, and better access to resources that help the whole team move forward together.
That is why I am especially interested in the parts of the new program that appear to support team development, including tools like Training Manager and CAS skills training.
For firms of all sizes, that is where the opportunity is.
Training the next generation of advisors
One of the biggest challenges in our profession is the talent pipeline. We all talk about how hard it is to find great people, but we also have to be honest: great people do not arrive fully trained.
They need structure. They need context. They need exposure. They need someone to show them how compliance work connects to advisory work, and how accurate bookkeeping connects to meaningful business decisions.
That is why I am encouraged by the idea of using program benefits to move junior staff into more advisory-capable roles. If we want our teams to grow, we have to give them more than a checklist. We have to give them a path.
A team member who starts in transaction coding or reconciliations can eventually learn to spot trends, ask better questions, understand margins, support budgeting conversations, and help clients make stronger decisions. But that growth does not happen by accident.
It requires intentional training.
So when I think about how I would use ProPartner benefits in my own firm, this is at the top of the list: supporting the development of the team, not just the owner.
Better support matters when you are scaling
Another piece that stands out is the promise of more support from Care experts who understand accounting workflows and are ProAdvisor Certified.
That may sound like a small operational detail, but anyone who has run a firm knows it is not small.
When your team is supporting multiple clients, across multiple entities, with apps, payroll, permissions, banking feeds, reporting questions, and deadline pressure, the quality of support matters. You do not just need someone who can read a script. You need someone who understands the context of how accounting firms actually work.
Because when support is better, the team loses less time. Clients get better answers. Managers are not pulled into every issue. The owner is not the escalation point for every frustrating tech problem.
That is part of scalability, too.
The power of getting back in the room
I am also genuinely excited about the return of more high-touch, in-person community-building events, including opportunities like the Better Together Tour.
Accounting firm ownership can be lonely in a very specific way.
You are surrounded by clients, team members, deadlines, decisions, and questions. But you can still feel like you are solving everything in a vacuum. How should we price this? How are other firms handling advisory? What are people doing about capacity? How are they training new staff? What tech is actually working? What mistakes are they making that we can learn from?
Those conversations are hard to replicate in a webinar.
There is something powerful about being in a room with people who understand the business model, the pressure, and the opportunities. Peer connection helps us stop reinventing everything alone. It gives us perspective. It reminds us that many of the challenges we think are personal failures are actually common growing pains.
For me, community is not a “nice to have.” It is part of how as a firm owner I stay resilient and make better decisions.
Investing in the future of the profession
I also love seeing attention on the Career Pipeline initiative to upskill one million students in accounting over the next five years.
We need more people entering this profession with excitement, confidence, and practical skills. We need students to see that accounting is not just tax returns, debits, credits, and deadlines. It is business strategy. It is technology. It is advisory. It is helping business owners understand their numbers and make better decisions.
If Intuit can help create more visibility and opportunity for students, that benefits all of us.
The same goes for recognizing firms and professionals through a ProPartner Accountants Awards program. Our profession needs more stories of innovation, generosity, leadership, and modern practice-building. The more we celebrate people who are moving the profession forward, the more we give others a model to learn from.
What accountants should do now
Even though the full ProPartner Accountants program launches in early 2027, there are steps firms can take now to prepare.
The three foundational steps are straightforward:
- Activate your Intuit Accountant Suite account.
- Verify that at least one team member is certified.
- Consolidate your consoles, or realms, so your full book of business is recognized.
These may seem administrative, but they matter. If the program is going to recognize firm-wide activity and growth, then your firm needs to make sure Intuit has an accurate picture of your practice.
My advice? Do not wait until the last minute. Treat this as a chance to clean up your systems, review who on your team is certified, and think strategically about how you want to use the program to support your firm’s next stage of growth.
My take
The shift from ProAdvisor to ProPartner feels aligned with where the profession is going.
We still need technical knowledge. We still need certification. We still need strong QuickBooks Online skills.
But modern accounting firms need more than that.
We need training paths. We need community. We need better support. We need recognition for firm-wide growth, not just individual expertise. We need tools that help us build teams capable of serving clients at a higher level.
That is why I see this change as an opportunity.
Not just to earn a new tier or access a new benefit, but to ask a bigger question:
How can we use this next chapter to build stronger, more connected, more scalable accounting firms?
For me, that is the real promise of ProPartner.
