The ProPartner Paradox

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Alicia Katz Pollock: Hey everybody, welcome to this week's edition of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast. I'm your host, Alicia Katz of roy.com. And I've got with me Margie Remmers Davis from Acadian Accounting Education. It's been so long since you've been here. How are you doing? It's been forever.

Margie Remmers-Davis: I'm so delighted to be back. I've missed you.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Likewise. Likewise. How's [00:00:30] things over at Acadian?

Margie Remmers-Davis: Things are hopping. They are so exciting. We have so many amazing initiatives happening. And, uh, yeah, it's all it's all good stuff. So many changes in our industry just means more work for us. I know you're experiencing the same thing. Like they're my team. I just keep saying job security, baby. Like there will always be more things to learn and [00:01:00] which means there will be more things for us to teach. And, uh, yeah, it's an exciting time.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Exciting times. Yeah. Um, and yeah, so thank you very much for taking time out of your schedule to be here with me. Um, the topic for today is what I'm calling the ProAdvisor paradox. Or actually, I think, you know what, I think we actually need to call it the pro partner paradox. Yeah. And so, you know, you and I [00:01:30] actually kind of go back a little bit on this topic because when we were at Intuit Connect in 2025, we heard the announcement where he stood on stage actually, why don't you go ahead and.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah, well, I heard the announcement and you didn't.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I was not in the room.

Margie Remmers-Davis: You you had stepped out of the room. So um, so yeah. And I wish I should have looked it up to remember who it was. Some vice president at Intuit was giving a talk [00:02:00] from the main stage about, you know, all of the coming changes and all of that stuff. And at the very end, he said, the ProAdvisor program is going away at the end of 2026. And that was like the end of his talk. And all of we all looked at the whole it's like the whole room. We all looked at each other and said, wait, what?

Alicia Katz Pollock: What?

Margie Remmers-Davis: And we just like every like everybody. As [00:02:30] we walked out of the room, you could just like, feel the energy and we're all like looking at each other. And I went straight from that session to, uh, one of the breakout sessions and, um, and you were there at the, at that same breakout session. And, and, and I was like, Alicia, oh my gosh, you hadn't heard it. And you were like, so, so we were like, what, what, what? And so, um, and then [00:03:00] I went immediately from that breakout session. I went into the vendor hall and they have the, um, you know, the, all the Intuit booths there that you can go to. And one of them had up at the top, like labeled ProAdvisor. So I went up to her and I said, well, I guess this booth is going is going away. And she said, um, she said that as soon as he said that from the stage. Jacqueline [00:03:30] Ankou who we all know is, you know, the leader of all of the ProAdvisor Academy and training and all of that stuff at Intuit. Um, she as soon as she heard him say that from the stage, she texted her whole team and said, ProAdvisor is not going away. It's not going away. He misspoke. So, uh, so yeah, so we all breathed a big sigh of relief. But the issue is it's it's not going it's transforming into what [00:04:00] is now going to be the Pro partner program, which launches in January 2027.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. And it's really.

Margie Remmers-Davis: My students are freaking out about this and probably your students too. And the listening audience is like, what? So we're Alicia and I are going to try and break it down as to what our understanding of what this new thing is. There's going to be more supposedly there's more announcements coming in November. So we'll see.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I mean, it's kind of related to the [00:04:30] fact that Qbo, a QuickBooks online accountant, has become Intuit Accountants suite. And so when they originally made that announcement, that's what you and I decided that they meant was that Qbo A is going away, but it's not gone. It's just becoming the same interface that's consistent with the other interfaces. And now we're getting this announcement that ProAdvisor program's going away to be replaced with the Pro Partner [00:05:00] program. Yes. Now, we did just talk about the Pro Partner program last week in the In the know episode that I did with Dan. So, um, right now, Intuit is like really trying to get the message out about this. So the fact that we're repeating some content a little bit, you know, but we'll definitely have some new stuff to throw in the mix on this. I actually want to start before we talk about what's in the program. I have kind of mixed feelings about [00:05:30] the name.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Okay, let's do it as the kids say.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So ProAdvisor to pro partner. They've just spent the last, literally the last ten years elevating bookkeeping from compliance, backwards looking data entry and then telling us that in order to be [00:06:00] effective at what we at what we do, the better way of approaching it would be to be forward looking and learn how to do advising and learn what the data means and how to interpret it in order to help our clients. And so, you know, in QuickBooks connect, when it was QuickBooks connect ten, 15 years ago, it was certification training. Like the first time that I went, you went into the room and you were taught what was on the certification test and you took the certification test at connect. [00:06:30] So that's like the, the origins of connect. And it was product training for many, many years. And then all of a sudden it became about advisory. And so then it became about interpreting the numbers and helping the clients. And in the last 2 or 3 years, when it became Intuit Connect, it, it really was focusing on firm growth and, what to do about the simultaneous, um, um, hiring problems that we're having plus the, [00:07:00] uh, plus AI, which is now beginning to help us understand the numbers.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so we're at this paradox time right now, but the industry is moving towards advisory. Mhm. Proadvisor we finally grown into the name that they gave us 30 years ago. And so we are now becoming pro advisors. But here they are switching the name to partner. And [00:07:30] I, I think I understand what their goal was, is that, um, thinking of us as partners, thinking of the accountants and bookkeepers and the cast practices as partners means, I think is what they think it means is that they're renewing this partnership with us that people honestly have been frustrated. If you read the socials, the the negative to positive is very, very out outlined. [00:08:00] We just went through this whole year of lost productivity while we moved to a new interface, had to rebuild our expertise, had to rebuild our muscle memory, had to learn new workflows. And so everybody's just been heads down just trying to get the work done because it's happening slower. And in the meantime, the interface also has tons and tons of new features and [00:08:30] new workflows and new innovations. But ain't nobody got time for that. Yeah, right. Like as the, as an example, um, and sorry, I'm going to soapbox for a little, a little girl.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, I am at scaling new heights. I had the honor of being invited by zero for their power breakfast, and so the Power Breakfast at scaling new Heights are all vendor sessions. And so zero wanted to do a head [00:09:00] to head comparison of zero versus QBO. And so they invited me to be Amanda Aguilar's foil. And of Amanda and I decided not to make it a competition. The goal was not to come out with a clear winner. We decided that our goal was to focus on the evolution and the innovations happening in each of the software packages and the, you know, zero had a lot of cool things that QuickBooks [00:09:30] doesn't have. And I got to highlight a lot of the new things that are happening inside QuickBooks that nobody in the room had even heard of. And the slide came up for the head to head comparison of pricing. Guess what email showed up in her inbox as literally that morning before I went on stage. So they changed the prices. Yeah. That morning. And so when the price slide came up, first of all, [00:10:00] it was out of date. But then the room went into an uproar because.

Margie Remmers-Davis: I was there. I can vouch for the uproar of zeros.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Top tier price for their most advanced platform is $90. And Intuit had just announced a price range in advance from 275, which was on the slide. 275 versus 90 up to $340. Now that $340 includes $90 worth of bill pay, that [00:10:30] bill pay is now free, and it includes enhancements to workforce and a whole bunch of other stuff. So I realized, wait a minute, that how do I frame this on my feet right now. Um and, and I thought to myself, well, wait a minute. That thing that I, that's what I have just saying about the fact that we've all been heads down just getting the work done. I'm like, okay, I just talked about contracts that you [00:11:00] can now upload a contract into QuickBooks in the customer hub and set it for signatures. Like here's where I want them to initial, here's where I want them to sign, here's where I want them to date it. And you can send them this contract that they can now sign and it lives in their customer details area. Yeah. And I've used it. It's awesome. I don't need DocuSign anymore. And I said, well, how many people have heard of it?

Margie Remmers-Davis: I did.

Alicia Katz Pollock: No hands.

Margie Remmers-Davis: I had [00:11:30] not heard of it till you said it on stage. Yep.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. And there's a lot of stuff in QBO now that people have not had any time at all to explore. We've been so busy getting the work done that we haven't had any time to go clicking around and checking things out and trying things out and exploring. And so there's a lot of things happening inside QBO that honestly justify the price increases. I mean, even just the $20 that we're [00:12:00] all spending for Claude or, or OpenAI is getting built into the fees because now we're using it inside QBO. But there's a lot to love inside, inside it. But I feel like Intuit put the cart before the horse that they they put all the new pricing before they had educated anybody into that. These features were even available, much less what do they do, much less give us time to discover them, implement them, and [00:12:30] love them. So I really, honestly think their price increase was premature. I think that they should have waited six months or a year and just sucked it up. You know, you can afford the extra AI cost for us for a little while because what they what they're doing with the price increases is, you know, people are just sticker shocked. Mhm. They're not thinking, oh, wow, for that money, there must be all sorts of stuff like that. They're thinking.

Margie Remmers-Davis: You're right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: 20% more. You just pissed me off for the [00:13:00] last year. I don't want to pay 20% more. Yeah. And and so I think that Intuit has a communication issue and misstepped a little bit with the price announcement, but the value is there. So what I'm going to do in the next six months is I'm going to call attention to all of the features, the new AI features, the new AI abilities, the things you can do in the customer hub, the things that you can [00:13:30] do in payments and, and actually like dig into the software and really do some deep dives into the features because there's a lot going on. In fact, you know, like I keep talking about the 600 page book that I wrote. It used to be a complete book. I could write a whole second book. Now, with all the stuff that I don't have time to address, that book is now a fundamentals book.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Compared to what it, um, to where it's going. So anyway, to make [00:14:00] a long story short, when I asked the room, um, now I'm going to keep the story long. Um, but I asked the room, um, I said okay, so there's what, how many people were in the room? About 100 people.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, and I said, okay, how many of you have taken the time to explore the AI and all the new features, like sending out a contract? How many hands went up, Margie? Do you remember?

Margie Remmers-Davis: Not very many.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Like 2 or 3. Mine [00:14:30] was one of them.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And and, uh, like, so 2% of the room even knew about the new features that were wrapped into this price increase.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So that's kind of the state of things from my perspective as a trainer, is that there's a lot of training to be done.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Job security. That's what I'm saying.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Exactly. Yeah. You and me both. So we've got this job security. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about [00:15:00] and part of the job right now for you and I is helping Intuit message the justification for the price increases.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Now I want to wrap it around. So all of that being said, so the first part of the conversation was really about the, the ProAdvisor, the word advisor. And now I want to take what I just said and frame it into the word partner. When we think of the word partner as an [00:15:30] industry term, what do you think of.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh, like a partnership, like an actual monetary. We get a piece of the pie. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Okay. Exactly. So the part partners are always referred to in our vendor world as the the people who are our affiliates, right. Where we, you get a residual for making the referrals. Yeah. Right. And so the, on the one hand, [00:16:00] partner is appropriate as, as a new name, because one of the things that they're emphasizing is three years of residuals and, you know, 30% on Intuit accountant suite and trying to monetize the US promoting their products. So it makes sense from that part of it. And I also think it makes sense from Intuit's renewed epiphany that [00:16:30] they've been aggravating the, the, the, the bookkeeping level of their users. Their users are basically three different groups of people. We've got the small businesses where they're direct to consumer. We've got the mid-market companies and the SaaS firms where they've definitely been paying attention for enterprise suite and advanced and mid-level firms that are, you know, 25, 100, 200, 400 people, staff strong. [00:17:00] And the middle level, the the bookkeeping base, the solo practices, the small practices with 2 or 3 practitioners, like the kind of the 1 to 5 level, we're the lifeblood of the company. We they built the empire on us. Yeah. And, you know, and their idea from the beginning was, well, if we train the bookkeepers and we give the bookkeepers benefits, then they will onboard their clients.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so literally, the fact that [00:17:30] that QuickBooks has this monopoly is because they have elevated us as ProAdvisor. Right, right. And but they're putting in a lot of stuff that we haven't necessarily asked for. It is where the industry is going. But we've seen several things go by that have alienated us in different ways. And I'm not going to go into all of the the details, but people [00:18:00] are frustrated. Right? And so its net promoter score is in the single digits. Yeah. And that's why you and I have job security, right? Because that's what we do is help people go, oh, wait, there's a lot to love. Um, and the, um, so, so when so I think part of the name partner was also them saying, we, we hear you, we know that we've frustrated you over [00:18:30] this last year. We want to make up for it. We want to give you some of the benefits that you've been needing. We want to fix the things that have been broken. We want to, um, they said in the Intuit connect on thing that they just had that they are looking at us as a customer.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh, right. Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. Which I think also has a double meaning. Yeah. It that the benefit of being looked at as [00:19:00] a customer is that customer service. They're listening to their customer and they're building and the things that we're asking for. Mhm. On the other hand, that also means somebody who pays them money.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Uh, yes. Well, and that's that I had a conversation with, um, somebody, there was a session that I went to where we had that conversation where the fact that, you know, some, some accountants, not all some accountants are upset that the fact that [00:19:30] Intuit Accounting Suite now has paid levels. Okay, so they now have the accelerate level and they have these a la carte, um, offerings that you can add to the, to the free level. And, um, and some, I mean, some people like you have been saying we should have been paying for it all along. Um, and others are like, I don't, I've been, it's been free for me all this time. I don't want to have to pay for it now, but [00:20:00] what Intuit the, the folks on the stage said, and then I talked to a couple of them afterwards. Is that because we are now paying into it, we'll pay attention to us.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Bingo.

Margie Remmers-Davis: We will get we will get more stuff. We will get more insight, we will get more help than. They will listen to our feedback because we are paying for them. So being a customer is, you know, not that not that bad.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. [00:20:30] Um, and I think what you said is hugely important is that, you know, if they're thinking about us as a customer and thinking of us as a partner in this, in this trip that we're on together and, and these goals that we have to into its mission is to power prosperity around the world and all of us as, as cast practitioners and bookkeepers. That's what we're passionate about is helping businesses succeed. And so I think that if this truly is a renewed, [00:21:00] um, renewed intention to not just to, to reinvigorate this mid level, this mid tier of their client base, I am absolutely all for that. And so I think when they named it, renamed it pro partner, they're trying to say, hey, we are partners with you. We are partners together on this journey. We are here to support you. I think that was their intention. Yeah, for me, it still smacks a little bit, though, of that financial arrangement that we have with affiliate programs [00:21:30] as a partner. So but that's just as valid. So that's where the name pro partner works. But I think it's like almost like it should have been switched. Like we were partners all along. And now because now it's all about advisory. The whole industry is moving into advisory now that we're going to be able to automate a lot of the the daily transactions.

Margie Remmers-Davis: So yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah, I'm going to miss the name ProAdvisor.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Well, here's okay, [00:22:00] now here's, I need to get on my soapbox now, please.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You're great.

Margie Remmers-Davis: So why have a podcast if you can't have a soapbox? No, this isn't so much of a, a soapbox as it is clarification. Um, what I understand is the way that I understand it. I don't work for Intuit. I could be totally wrong. Okay, so I don't know, but the way that I understand it is the badges are still ProAdvisor. So you still [00:22:30] are a ProAdvisor. Level one you're still a Pro certified ProAdvisor. Level two that you're still learning. The Learning Center is still ProAdvisor Academy. That is all still ProAdvisor and I think that makes sense. Especially like you said, the whole focus of the industry is now on advisory. They're building out into it's building out more advisory courses in their ProAdvisor Academy. So [00:23:00] that. So advisor is still in the ecosystem in the way, uh, in that learning part, the pro partner program is the, is the, the reward for becoming a ProAdvisor and having clients that are using QuickBooks online right now. The term ProAdvisor is covers both things. So you have your ProAdvisor are levels [00:23:30] and benefits. You know, you have to be gold as a 500 points. And then you move up to, you know, elite and platinum. And each one has, you know, different benefits that ProAdvisor whole platform, that whole thing, that whole benefit system. That's the part that's changing to pro partner. That's the part that the benefits are changing. The names are changing. The those badges you get, like those new fancy badges that they're, that they're showing [00:24:00] up and, but that's different than the ProAdvisor, uh, the ProAdvisor learning and, uh, the certifications and, and, um, and the academy.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So you don't think that they're changing the name of ProAdvisor?

Margie Remmers-Davis: I do not think so. Oh, I don't work for Intuit. I could be totally wrong, but I think that I, I, that's the way I understand that's the way I understand it. Okay. [00:24:30] So if I go to their, uh, their website. Okay. That, that where they outline the, where they outline the, the, um, the program and you go down to the bottom that says what will happen to my ProAdvisor status and badge in early 2027. The ProAdvisor name and tier designations will sunset and will be replaced by the name Pro partner and its corresponding tiers. [00:25:00] So here are the corresponding tiers. Member. Partner. Preferred. Preferred partner. Premier partner and elite partner. Those tiers. Are. Are. What's replacing the gold. The elite. The platinum that we have right now. It's not the same as the as the badges that we talk about in ProAdvisor Academy and, you know, getting certified in the software. [00:25:30] That's the way I understand it. Somebody from Intuit is listening to the podcast and you know that they do. And they could, you know, shed some light and make that more clear. But I know like, that's, this is a huge thing for my students because my students value that ProAdvisor, um, that badge that they, you know, can promote everywhere and having that listing in the ProAdvisor [00:26:00] directory, which speaking of the ProAdvisor directory, maybe now is a good time to talk about that because that's another thing that, you know, my students are, are very focused on lately. They want to be in that directory. They want the leads. They want to have, you know, right now it requires 500 points to be able to be listed in there.

Margie Remmers-Davis: That was a big change a couple of years ago. Um, whereas before all you had to do was have your level one badge. Well, now you have to have 500 [00:26:30] points, which is your level one badge. Plus either clients that you have that are on QBO, which they earn you points, or if you get the level two and the payroll certifications, then those are 500 points total. That gets you gold status. And that lands used to be would land you on the ProAdvisor directory. Now they did make some significant changes to the ProAdvisor directory. How [00:27:00] long has it been? Nine months ago maybe where they took away the lead capture form. So this was a key thing a lot of people were getting leads through and it was promoted as like, this is a great way to get leads. And when customer service people were talking to clients and they needed a A bookkeeper or an accountant in their local area, they would point them directly to go to the ProAdvisor directory [00:27:30] and find this, you know, find a person. Um, and there was a lead capture form on there where people could fill it out and you would get notified and then you could, you know, have a consultation, sign up a client. And I know tons of people who got tons of leads and clients from, you know, from this. But what happened was unfortunately, like so many things, it became got abused and scammers and spammers came and flooded [00:28:00] us all with, you know, promises of $1 million if we would just sign up for their thing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And I like the ones where it was the casting director who had casting who needed to learn QuickBooks. Yes. Yeah. Like that's a thing. Yeah. Or the father who had three daughters all starting their own businesses. It was always three. I never got that one. Oh, and they always told you that they wanted you for 15 hours. They told you like, what you were going to teach them and. Yeah, yeah [00:28:30] yeah, yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: And it was the casting director that was a sweet gig because it was like $5,000 for one day of training. So, um, so yeah, so we got all these spammer and it just became overwhelming. And so they shut it down. So the ProAdvisor directory is still there. You can still be listed. Um, and I still occasionally get leads, you know, from it, but, but the, the process a little is a little, they have to jump through [00:29:00] more hoops. The, the, the business owner has to really want to talk to you. Like they have to go to your website or you have to have your phone number published or, you know. So there isn't that lead capture form. And I know that a lot of people have really missed that. So on the again, in the FAQs on Intuit's document, Um, it says, what are the questions? What will happen to the Find a Pro directory when Intuit Pro Partner Accountants launches and it [00:29:30] says the Find Pro directory will still be available under the new program. In the future, we plan to improve the directory to make it even easier for good fit clients to find you. For example, by allowing firm level listings rather than individual practitioners, and enabling prospective clients to search for firms based on practice areas and skills.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Stay tuned for more updates. The question, of course, then, is like, what do you have to do to be listed? [00:30:00] That's like, that's what my students are like. So, you know, freaked out about like, because it used to be you just had to have that level one badge or that corps basic badge. Um, and then they added this extra layer and then everyone's like, okay, I'll do this extra layer. And now like with the whole, the whole thing about the pro Partner program is the way that you move up through the tiers is having more clients. The more clients you have, the more valuable you are to intuit, [00:30:30] the more benefits they're going to give you. The more they pay. You know, they pay attention to you. So what do you have? What what's going to be that first level to like, just get listed in the directory? Because I know like, I have a lot of students who that's why they get certified is because they want to be listed in the directory. Is that enough? Like, do you have to have clients first? Some, you know, other softwares, you have to have a client in order to be listed in the directory. So [00:31:00] is that how is that the direction Intuit's going. I don't know. I don't know.

Alicia Katz Pollock: We'll see with the five tiers. What we do know is that members are just people who created an account. Right? Right. So maybe they're just using it for themselves or they needed to undo a reconciliation. Something like that. Yeah. And then the partners are the people who have passed their level one certification and have one client attached. So they have an. Oh, okay. Okay. So I'm expecting [00:31:30] that partner would get you into the find a ProAdvisor locator because you've shown that you are actually actively doing something in the, in the business. Yeah. Personally, I wouldn't I'm curious to know. I mean, we don't know how many points you need to get to these, but preferred partner in a way, I'd like to see the ProAdvisor find a ProAdvisor be that middle tier that not just beginners, that it's [00:32:00] people who have experience that if you're keeping the name pro partner having value.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Mhm.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Having newbies who are just getting their feet wet, go in and not be able to do the work properly or accurately. I worry that that gives that that dilutes the value of the the name. So on the one hand, I totally get where your students need that foot in the door to build their practices. [00:32:30] I completely understand that value. On the other hand, I will I want to make like I would want somebody to like have level two certification or five clients or, you know, whatever it's going to be. Or maybe that's just where the badges come in. Yeah. You know, they get in, but there's a difference between just being, you know, having your partner level versus your preferred partner level, right. Or premier partner level. And maybe that's sufficient. Maybe that's totally fine. Yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: I don't know. I mean, it's [00:33:00] definitely a catch 22, right? Because because the I mean, this is always it's, it's the same thing that, you know, from years and years ago. We've, we've always said, how do you get a job without experience? You can't get experience without a job.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right?

Margie Remmers-Davis: It's the same catch 22. When it comes to having clients, like how do you get clients if you can't get listed? How do you get clients? And if you, you know, can't get listed.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Because you don't have.

Margie Remmers-Davis: The office? It is. Yeah. Right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Exactly.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah. But I mean, but I get it. Like I feel [00:33:30] the same way. Like I, um, I don't want people who have not demonstrated that they are good to be. I mean, I don't let people be in my directory unless they're good. So, um, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's tough.

Alicia Katz Pollock: There was something that you said that I did like about that they're changing the, the finder ProAdvisor directory. So it's not just searching by zip code that it's finding best [00:34:00] fit clients by searching for practice areas or skills or niches. Yeah. Because right now it's by zip code and yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: It doesn't matter.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. Zip code doesn't matter anymore. Yeah, Yeah. So that's, that's a really great point. I'm really glad that you brought that up. Um, now what we don't know is what gets you up through the levels yet, but I'm kind of assuming it's that same structure of what we already have. Now. I don't know how they would even do it differently, where [00:34:30] you get points for the number of clients you have for the level of QuickBooks that they have that, you know, advance is worth more points than simple start that your certifications are worth points. The trainings that you take inside ProAdvisor Academy are worth points. Um, maybe the number of reviews that you get.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And up your points, you know, and so we, that's something that we don't know yet. They have not released those details and won't until [00:35:00] the fall.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, what they are going to do though is sometime this fall, I think she said November ish. Um, everybody who is has moved over to Intuit enterprise know let me say that right into an accounting suite. I, um, they're going to put up your your points. They're going to tell you, okay, right now you're at this level, you know, right now you're at silver in the new program, you're at preferred so that you can see where you are and you can see which [00:35:30] benefits you want and that you can put in, um, put things into place in 2026 before the program flips.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh, interesting.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, so that you're at the tier you want to be at.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. So if I could just, uh, go back just a smidge because you said, um, about November, like this is going to happen in November. And I, I just want our listening audience to understand why [00:36:00] November is significant at Intuit. So there's probably lots of reasons, but the reason that I am so tuned into it is, um, that the Certification season has always been from November 1st to October 31st. Now we had there was somebody at Intuit, I can't remember her name, who once said on on one of the in the know podcasts or whatever they were called before that, um, had said that it was [00:36:30] always right after that they did this so that it was right after Intuit Connect that it was connected to, you know, or whatever it was called before. So, um, but I don't know if that's it or if it's related to fiscal year or whatever, but the certification season runs from October, I'm sorry, November 1st through October 31st. So anybody who gets certified as a ProAdvisor, like [00:37:00] right now, you are in the season that started November 1st and will end October 31st, and you will have to recertify the next, In June 2027. So I anticipate that the reason that they are talking about this in November is that there there might be a change to the ProAdvisor Pro certification program. Around that time, because it will be the current certification [00:37:30] season will have wrapped up. And now they're looking at, okay, what's in the future? So, um, I don't know. We'll see.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I mean, this is pure conjecture, but they did change it from core and advanced certification to level one, level two with the, you know, partially to make it available to have a level three certification. So yeah, this is conjecture. I'm making this conjecture. That's what this podcast. Yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: That's what it's [00:38:00] all about.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. I don't even remember if November was exactly what she said either. Oh, okay. But but we know it's in the fall that they're trying to prep us. And so they want us. They want to give us an opportunity to bump up our certifications to get to the tiers that we that we want to be at. Yeah. Um, that, you know, some of the things that we know with the tiers is that, um, the, the three year revenue share, so revenue share, instead of being 12 months is now going to be three years. And at partner level, it's 10% [00:38:30] at preferred partner, it's 15% at Premier partner, it's 20%. And at Elite Partner, it's 25%. Dang. So 25% revenue share for three years doesn't suck.

Margie Remmers-Davis: That's not nothing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Mhm. No. I'll I'll take it. Although I am I am absolutely loyal to my, uh, QuickBooks solutions provider at CBB. And so I'll have to decide, you know, but, you know, I'll try and run things through them as much [00:39:00] as possible. Um, another benefit to being in the premier or elite tiers is that Intuit Accountant Suites Accelerator. The $149 comes with it. It's going to be free.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh, I missed that. That's huge.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's huge. So, you know, because if you're at these high levels, you probably have to have a really good either a lot of clients that you would need a dashboard on or a lot of staff that you have [00:39:30] your, your.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yes.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Proadvisor Academy on, on those are the two use cases for accelerate because if you don't have a team and you don't have a whole lot of clients, you don't need accelerate. Yeah. Right. Going, going back to what you said about like, you know, paying for us, having to pay for it. You don't have to pay for accelerate. You don't need it, you don't need it. But the fact that it's going to be included for those at those tiers. That's awesome. Yeah, I really, really like that. Um, some of the other things that are available [00:40:00] as you go up the tiers, the career pipeline program, which, um, we, we touched on this in the last episode, um, in the, in the, in the, in the now or the now, you know, episode, the career pipeline program. Intuit is committed to upskilling 1 million high school and college students so that we have a career pipeline that we have on shore quality trained bookkeepers and cast staff that we don't [00:40:30] have to outsource offshore everything. Um, and so there's, in order to participate in that or mentor in that, you do at least have to be at the partner level.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Mhm.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, there's also an awards program. They're going to start giving awards to pro partners. And so you do have to at least be at the partner level. And again, partner level just means you've passed a certification test and that you have one client so that you really are doing books. Yeah. And so it's, you know, minimal to, to [00:41:00] be eligible. Um, so at this point, you know, we don't know how you get the points. We need to assume that it's all going to be based on how much, how the level of product and the number of products you have attached and the level of trainings that you take, which is reasonable. Hopefully they have some other creative ways too.

Margie Remmers-Davis: We'll see.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So for sake of not repeating and rehashing everything that they talked about in the [00:41:30] Now you know episode, everybody can go back and listen to episode number 149, where they talked about in, in the know everything that they could tell us at this point about the ProAdvisor program. So Dan and I broke that down last week. I do want to. So Margie and I are trying to surface new details that we've discovered. One thing that I did mention, but I didn't have the hours last time, is that they have now expanded hours for ProAdvisor support [00:42:00] the Pro Partner program. There. Even the support is actually going to have accounting experience too. And so hopefully they're starting to put that in already. But it supports not just going to be software bugs. It's going to be operations as well. But I do have the hours. So for once you're a silver ProAdvisor you get a dedicated support line. And so instead of calling regular Intuit support, you call [00:42:30] (888) 333-3451. And then it says here when prompted by the system select no. But just follow the prompts to get to it. And then they'll ask you to prove to give you your company ID or your email address so that they know that you are a ProAdvisor. And so if you are a silver ProAdvisor in the current system, the hours have now expanded. It's one hour earlier, Monday through [00:43:00] Friday from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. and there's hours on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific time. Both. Both of these are Pacific Time. And then if you are gold, platinum, or elite, you actually have 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific time. So yeah. So for those of you early birds or, you know, seven, 7 a.m. on the East Coast.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. So 7 to 11 East Coast. So if you're working at [00:43:30] 11:00 at night, like I do, and you're on the East coast, then you can still get support. Plus gold, platinum and Elite Pro Advisors get Saturday support from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time, basically 9 to 5 9 to 6 eastern and Sunday hours.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Wow.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Yeah. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific. So now we get weekend help because yeah, we work on weekends and yeah, [00:44:00] we work at night because we have a staffing shortage and because the AI doesn't categorize all the transactions yet. And so there's still work to do. So the fact that they have expanded the hours, I'm so relieved because I can't tell you how many times it has been 5 p.m. on Friday when I need to talk to them. And so this, this is excellent. So I wanted to throw that in there as a little piece of information, because I've mentioned it but never had the hours in front [00:44:30] of me. So thank you for expanding that. Okay. Um, Margie, anything else you want to say about all of this?

Margie Remmers-Davis: No, I think I got it all off my chest. Um, I am looking forward to, uh, more information coming in November. Always, you know, on the edge of my seat to find out what, uh, what is happening. And I appreciate all of the stuff that they have leaked so far because, [00:45:00] you know, everybody just wants answers. So they want to know what their life is going to look like next year.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I'm basically learning that every development has like a two year implementation and life cycle. Modern reports have been out for two years and they're finally, finally, finally close to done. Yeah. Into an enterprise suite has been out for two years already, you know, and it takes that amount of time for both adoption and debugging. And so, you [00:45:30] know, I'm, they've, they've revamped the ProAdvisor program about a year ago, I think. And so the next year is going to be the, the next level of changes. And I think a lot of these new opportunities are really good. And so thanks to Jacqueline and her team and Amanda and the other people who are working on getting this out there. So thank you and thank you into it for your renewed partnership with all of the, [00:46:00] the the small bookkeepers that you built your company on our backs. Thank you, thank you, thank you for realizing that if we're not happy, no one's going to be happy. So thanks for making us happy again, and thanks for making us happy with more than just coffee mugs.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, so. All right. Um, I think that's a good place to end it. So, Margie, what's going on in your world?

Margie Remmers-Davis: Oh, so many things happening at Acadian. Um, [00:46:30] you know, you have said many times, uh, so far in the, in the podcast about how the whole industry is shifting away from the day to day bookkeeping and more toward advisory. And, um, we at Acadian saw the writing on the wall and have made a complete shift so that all of our programs are now CAS based. So client advisory services. We launched CAS Academy, which teaches [00:47:00] not just the the advisory part, which that is part of it, but, um, but we have always focused on the foundational learning, like the deep learning. Because here's the thing about AI and, you know, this is that AI is very confidently wrong, right? So, um, you have to be, you have to know, you have to know what good looks like. You have to know what it is [00:47:30] supposed to be at a deep level so that you can be confidently right. And you can be the one to, to say to the AI, no, this is not correct. This is the way that it should be. And so we at A, at Acadian are committed to teaching people that deep level understanding first and then putting that advisory layer on top of that deep understanding. [00:48:00]

Margie Remmers-Davis: And so we launched Cass Academy. Um, that's been very exciting. As part of Cass Academy, we have, um, launched our certification pathway. So we're now, uh, we're now giving people, um, different Cass level certifications that actually mean something. In fact, the foundation of it is being able to pass a 46 essay question assessment that has them not only [00:48:30] say what the correct answer is to the question, but they have to defend that answer. They have to say why that is the answer and prove that they know it at a deep level, because I'm certainly not going to give anybody a certification with my name on it, my company's name on it. That doesn't actually mean that that person knows something and can demonstrate it. So I'm super excited about that and we're super [00:49:00] excited about the future. And, and it's a scary time for a lot of people, but I feel like we are really positioned well to help people through this transition.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So the fact that you're doing essay questions is just amazing because Nasba is, you know, is multiple choice questions that have to address the learning objectives. Yeah. But that, that really does show that somebody needs it. Now, I assume you're going to have an AI checker layer on top of that. Yes. [00:49:30] Yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: It's pretty impossible for us to as humans. So yes, we've built a very sophisticated, um, AI grader to be able to assess the submissions from the students to make sure that they match the rubric and that the people actually know what they're talking about.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Right. And hopefully that they didn't copy pasta it from. Yeah.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Because copy pasting is not allowed in the assessment. We turned that feature off.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Although [00:50:00] hopefully there's still an AI checker because I know a lot of people will just like go research it and then retype it in.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yes, we have layers even on top of that. Yes. Awesome. So, uh, so, um, Alicia, what's going on in your world?

Alicia Katz Pollock: So we are getting ready for the hands on training class. I am madly working on the finishing the my textbook for it, and we're now beginning to start prepping [00:50:30] for the fall and the direction that we're going to be taking this year, since last year was all about revamping our entire curriculum for the new interface. Everything from the boot camp all the way up through my sales tax class. Um, we are now going to start focusing on all the new things that didn't fit into those classes because, you know, my classes are already 2 to 3 hours, and there's only so much anybody can sit through. So I'm going to have to now start breaking it out. So there's going to be an AI agents [00:51:00] class coming up in September. Then I'll go into the customers hub and I'll go into the workforce HR management and just add additional detailed levels to my already extensive curriculum. So, you know, job security, there's always.

Margie Remmers-Davis: There's.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Always something to do. And, you know, it's always nice working with you because we have the same goals, but our programs have completely different approaches to it. And so it's always nice collaborating with you.

Margie Remmers-Davis: Yeah. [00:51:30] Thank you. You too.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, so yeah, I think we did it.

Margie Remmers-Davis: All right.

Alicia Katz Pollock: All right. So thanks, Margie, for joining us. And we will.

Margie Remmers-Davis: For having you having me. And we will see you in the next one.