QuickBooks Online Accountant has been the free front door to Intuit's ecosystem for a generation of bookkeepers. At the end of 2026 it closes, and the practice moves into Intuit Accountant Suite. Intuit's message is that nothing important changes and no data has to move. For most firms that's broadly true. It isn't true of the price list, though, and a practice with a few dozen clients should run its own numbers before January.
In one paragraph. QBOA is replaced by Intuit Accountant Suite on December 31, 2026. The free Core tier carries on. Accelerate, the AI review and practice layer, is $149 a month unless you're in an upper partner tier. Books Close charges $8 per client per month for firms of up to 50 clients and $6 beyond that. And in early 2027 ProAdvisor gives way to ProPartner, with a three-year revenue share and Intuit referring clients to firms.
Old arrangement, new arrangement
| QBOA (to Dec 31, 2026) | Intuit Accountant Suite | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee to the firm | None | None for Core |
| AI review, practice tools | — | Accelerate: $149/month (free in upper ProPartner tiers) |
| Close workflow | — | Books Close: $8/client/month to 50 clients, $6 above |
| Revenue share | 30% for the first 12 months | ProPartner: 10–25% for 3 years (from early 2027) |
| Firm's own books | Free QBO Advanced | Free QBO Advanced, plus Bill Pay and Workforce Elite |
| New client referrals from Intuit | Directory listing | Client-firm matchmaking |
A note on timing: sources disagree about when Accelerate and Books Close billing actually starts. Intuit has published July 1, 2026 in one place, and the trade press has reported January 20, 2027. The notice in your own Intuit account is the one to trust.
Three practices, three bills
Here is the new firm-side cost for a practice that runs every client's close through Books Close and is below the tiers that receive Accelerate free. Your clients' own QuickBooks Online subscriptions come on top of this, as they always have.
| Practice size | Books Close per year | Accelerate per year | New annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 clients | $960 | $1,788 | $2,748 |
| 25 clients | $2,400 | $1,788 | $4,188 |
| 60 clients | $4,320 | $1,788 | $6,108 |
A practice that never uses Books Close or Accelerate pays nothing new. One more change is easy to miss: QuickBooks Free, Intuit's new no-cost plan, gives the accountant no access at all. A client who starts there has to upgrade before you can open their books.
Credit where it's due
The partner side of this change is genuinely better for firms, and it's worth saying plainly. A three-year revenue share at up to 25% is a real improvement on twelve months. On a client paying list price for QuickBooks Online Plus, that can reach $1,260. And Intuit sending clients to firms puts a very large sales engine behind the practices it ranks highly. If you're one of them and your clients are well served on QuickBooks Online, stay. This change was designed with you in mind.
Who should be looking around
A practice with a real decision to make
- carries enough clients that a per-client close fee becomes a meaningful line;
- sits below the partner tiers that receive Accelerate at no charge;
- still looks after clients on QuickBooks Desktop, which Intuit no longer sells to new customers, and who need somewhere to go;
- prefers client books to live on machines the firm or the client controls, not on a vendor's servers.
How Kantivo approaches the same practice
Kantivo is desktop accounting software: proper double-entry books, GAAP or IFRS, installed on your machine and your clients', on an annual subscription. It doesn't offer Intuit's marketplace of add-on apps or a bundled payroll service, and we'd rather you knew that up front. Here's what it does offer:
- Nothing charged per client. Clients who hold their own licence don't count against any limit, on any accountant plan. For books you hold yourself, Accountant Pro covers 5 ($540 a year), Accountant Pro 15 covers 15 ($1,080), and Accountant Firm is unlimited.
- A free practice licence for partners: your own practice on the Partner plan at no cost, with unlimited licensed clients. The details.
- Every client migration done for you, free, from QuickBooks Desktop or Online, with a tie-out report comparing each balance against QuickBooks.
- 35% of what each client pays, every year they renew, for Certified Partners. Intuit's three years pays more on a large Plus client at first. Ours doesn't end.
- Review and practice tooling included: AI transaction review, reusable adjusting entries, approval queues, working papers, task boards, time capture.
- Twelve years at the rate you sign up on.
Run one client through it this quarter
A 30-day trial with the full accountant toolkit and no card. Move a single client's QuickBooks file across, check the tie-out, and decide with QBOA still in place.
Start the free trialCommon questions
When does QuickBooks Online Accountant end?
At the end of 2026 (December 31). Firms carry on in Intuit Accountant Suite, and Intuit says no data migration is required.
What replaces QBOA, and is it free?
Intuit Accountant Suite. Core is free. Accelerate is $149 a month, free in Intuit's upper partner tiers. Books Close is $8 per client per month up to 50 clients and $6 beyond. Billing start dates have been published inconsistently, so use the date on your own notice.
How does ProPartner change what accountants earn?
From early 2027, revenue share runs three years instead of twelve months, at 10–25% by tier. Preferred Pricing and the free QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription for the firm continue, and Intuit adds client-to-firm matchmaking.
Should a small practice leave QuickBooks over this?
Not automatically. If your clients are content on QuickBooks Online and Core covers your work, you lose little. The case for looking elsewhere is strongest if you'd pay close fees across a large book of clients, if you're below the tiers that get Accelerate free, or if you still serve clients on QuickBooks Desktop.