For as long as most practices can remember, QuickBooks Online Accountant cost the firm nothing. That arrangement ends with QBOA itself. Intuit retires QuickBooks Online Accountant on December 31, 2026, and every firm moves to Intuit Accountant Suite. Most of it stays free. For the first time, though, some of the tools a practice uses every month have a price. Below is what changes, what it costs at a realistic firm size, and when the right answer is to stay.
The short version. QBOA becomes Intuit Accountant Suite. The Core tier is free. Accelerate is $149 a month unless your firm sits in Intuit's upper partner tiers. Books Close is billed per client, $8 a month each up to 50 clients and $6 above that. Separately, ProAdvisor becomes ProPartner in early 2027, with a longer revenue share and a new matchmaking service.
What changes, and when
| What | Before | After the change |
|---|---|---|
| The accountant platform | QuickBooks Online Accountant, free | Intuit Accountant Suite. QBOA retires December 31, 2026 |
| Core client access and tools | Free | Still free (IAS Core) |
| AI review and practice tools | Not offered at this level | IAS Accelerate, $149/month; free in the upper ProPartner tiers |
| Month-end close tooling | — | Books Close, $8 per client per month (up to 50 clients), $6 above 50 |
| Partner programme | ProAdvisor: 30% revenue share for 12 months, or 30% Preferred Pricing | ProPartner (early 2027): 10–25% for three years; Preferred Pricing kept; client matchmaking added |
| Your firm's own books | Free QuickBooks Online Advanced | Still free, with Bill Pay Elite and Workforce Elite |
On dates: Intuit's own pages and the trade press have given different dates for when Accelerate and Books Close billing begins (one source says July 1, 2026, another January 20, 2027). Go by the notice on your own account, not by any article, ours included.
What it costs a real firm
Core being free is the headline Intuit leads with, and it is true. The cost shows up when a firm uses the parts that save the most time. Take a practice with 40 clients that would run month-end close for all of them through Books Close and sits below the partner tiers that include Accelerate:
| Line | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Intuit Accountant Suite Core | $0 | $0 |
| Accelerate | $149 | $1,788 |
| Books Close, 40 clients × $8 | $320 | $3,840 |
| New cost to the firm | $469 | $5,628 |
None of that replaces your clients' own QuickBooks Online subscriptions. They keep paying those: $38 to $340 a month at list, less whatever Preferred Pricing your firm passes on. And the new QuickBooks Free plan has no accountant access at all, so a client on it has to move to a paid plan before you can work in their books.
Where Intuit's offer got better
It would be easy to write this as "Intuit starts charging accountants" and stop. That would be unfair, and you would see through it. Two things improve for firms:
- Revenue share runs three years instead of twelve months. At 25% on a QuickBooks Online Plus client ($1,680 a year at list), that is up to $1,260 over the three years. On a large client in the early years, that beats what most alternatives pay, ours included.
- Intuit will send firms clients. ProPartner's client-firm matchmaking puts Intuit's sales funnel behind the practice, which no small vendor can match.
If you are an established, upper-tier firm whose clients are content on QuickBooks Online, this change is good for you, and you should stay.
When it is worth looking at something else
The change is a real decision if…
- You would pay for Books Close across many clients, and the per-client line grows every time you take one on.
- Your firm sits below the tiers that get Accelerate free, so the AI review your competitors get included costs you $1,788 a year.
- A meaningful share of your clients are still on QuickBooks Desktop, which Intuit no longer sells to new customers. Those clients will ask you where to go next.
- You want your clients' books, and your own, to stay on hardware you or they control.
What BizBooks Pro offers the same firm
BizBooks Pro is a desktop accounting application: GAAP-compliant double-entry books on your own machine and your clients' machines, on an annual subscription. It is not a cloud practice platform, and it does not have Intuit's app ecosystem or payroll. Here is what it does offer a practice:
- No per-client fees. Clients who buy their own licence are unlimited on every accountant plan, and you connect to their live books. If you host books yourself, Accountant Pro holds 5 for $540 a year, Accountant Pro 15 holds 15 for $1,080, and Accountant Firm has no limit.
- A practice licence that can be free. Partners run their own practice on the Partner plan at no cost, with unlimited licensed clients. How it works.
- Free client migrations, proven. Our White-Glove Import moves each client from QuickBooks Desktop or Online and gives you a tie-out report, every balance side by side with QuickBooks.
- Commission that does not stop. Certified Partners earn 35% of what each client pays, every year they renew. On a big QBO Plus client Intuit's three years pays more at first; ours keeps going.
- AI review and practice tools included: adjusting-entry templates, an approval queue, working papers, task boards and time tracking, with no add-on.
- A rate locked for 12 years from the day you subscribe.
Try it on one client before December
Thirty days, every accountant feature switched on, no card. Bring one client's QuickBooks file across and see the tie-out for yourself while QBOA is still running alongside.
Start your free trialHow BizBooks Pro works for accountants · The full QBOA comparison
Questions firms are asking
Is QuickBooks Online Accountant being discontinued?
Yes. Intuit retires QBOA on December 31, 2026, and accounting firms move to Intuit Accountant Suite. Intuit says no data migration is needed: client connections carry across.
How much does Intuit Accountant Suite cost?
Core is free. Accelerate is $149 a month, included free for firms in Intuit's upper ProPartner tiers. Books Close is $8 per client per month for firms with up to 50 clients, and $6 above that. Check the billing start date on your own notice, because published dates have differed.
What is Intuit ProPartner?
The replacement for ProAdvisor, arriving in early 2027, with tiers from Member to Elite. Revenue share moves from 12 months to three years at 10–25% by tier. Preferred Pricing and free QuickBooks Online Advanced for the firm's own books continue, and Intuit adds client-firm matchmaking.
Do I have to leave QuickBooks because QBOA is ending?
No. If your clients are settled on QuickBooks Online and Core covers what you do, the change is mostly new navigation and a new price list. The firms with a genuine decision are those that would pay for Books Close across many clients, those below the tiers that get Accelerate free, and those whose clients still run QuickBooks Desktop.