Tax and accounting professionals use a wide range of technologies in their firms, from multi-client tax systems to research, secure client portals, firm and document management systems, payroll preparation systems, audit tools, and more. Their clients, especially small business owners, also often turn to their accountant for advice on the small business management tools they should use. In addition to these systems, practitoners also need more traditional business operations tools, such as scanners, printers, laptops and other tools.
The ability of professional tax and client management systems to share inter-related data can also greatly improve data accuracy, reduce data input time, and streamline operations. The goal of enhancing productivity and reducing tedious tasks has led to many of the advancements in technology in recent years, often with the addition of artificial intelligence functions, automation, and machine learning.
For firms performing audits, providing client consulting, or preparing compliance-focused tax returns for businesses and individuals, the right technology can not only simplify their work, but help them achieve greater measurable firm ROI.
The 22nd annual CPA Practice Advisor Readers’ Choice Awards give tax and accounting professionals the chance to vote for the technologies they like most, and which they’ve found to be essential to their practice, whether that includes performing client service functions, staff management, collaboration, resource management, payroll, communications, or other tasks. While this is not a formal scientific survey, it does show the level of enthusiasm that professionals have for specific technologies and brands.
The Readers’ Choice Awards also let professionals see the technologies and best workflow practices their peers are using, which can help them stay competitive in the constantly evolving tax and accounting space. Thank you to the nearly 4,000 readers who participated in voting this year. Now, on to the results!
In-Firm Technologies
Federal/State Income Tax Preparation
Insight: Although many firms are broadening their services to be less reliant on tax as the primary revenue stream, a reliable tax preparation system is still critical to firm success, as is the support available from the vendor that makes it. In this year’s results, as they have for more than 10 years, Drake Software dominated the rankings, with its users continuing to praise the company’s tax prep, planning, management and other systems by voting in high numbers. The result: Drake wins this category again this year. MyTaxPrepOffice entered the rankings for the first time, at No. 2.
WINNER: Drake Tax Software (39.6%)
Runners Up:
- MyTaxPrepOffice (22.5%)
- Intuit- Lacerte Tax/ProSeries/ProConnect Tax Online (13.4%)
- Thomson Reuters UltraTax or GoSystem RS (6%)
- Wolters Kluwer: CCH Axcess Tax, CCH ProSystem fx Tax (5.1%)
- Wolters Kluwer: ATX or TaxWise (3.9%)
- TaxAct Preparer’s Editions (2.4%)
- TaxSlayer Pro (1.7%)
- Crosslink Professional (0.7%)
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Tax Planning Systems
Insight: The 2026 filing season was the first to have much of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act laws implemented, which meant complications for tax planning, and having a system with the correct future phase-ins, outs, and thresholds was vital to preparing clients for the future. Tax planning has great benefit to more complex clients but can also provide strategic benefit to taxpayers with more moderate complexity, reducing liability and providing actionable goals. Once again, Drake Software took the lead in this category. Only about half of our voters reporting using a planning system, but of those who did, the voting results were:
WINNER: Drake Tax Planner (54.5%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit Lacerte Tax Planner or Intuit Tax Advisor for Lacerte & ProConnect (21%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH ProSystem fx Planning (8%)
- Thomson Reuters Checkpoint or Planner CS (6.7%)
- TaxPlanIQ (3.8%)
- Bloomberg Tax Income Tax Planner (3.7%)
- Corvee Tax (1.5%)
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Specialty Systems & Tax Prep Tools
Insight: While exceling at core functions, most tax preparation system may lack a few requirements that may seem niche areas to some firms but are critical for others, such as for expats, specific industries, less common returns, or for certain firm workflow preferences. We call these tools that fill in the gaps or help increase your firm productivity “specialty systems.” Around a third of firms reporting using such a system. Voters were allowed to choose more than one product, so totals equal more than 100%)
WINNER: GruntWorx (32.8%)
Runners Up:
- QuickBooks Solopreneur (20.4%)
- Avalara 1099 & W-9 (16.3%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH Axcess and ProSystem fx Products (13.6%)
- Canopy Tax Resolution Services (9.1%)
- Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS Source Doc Processing (7%)
- SafeSend Returns – Thomson Reuters (7.1%)
- SurePrep 1040SCAN & TaxCaddy (5.7%)
- Taxfyle (4.5%)
- Value Insights AI (3.1%)
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Tax & Accounting Research Systems
Insight: The OBBBA also made the necessity of a strong tax research platform more critical than ever. Some of the available tax research systems offer direct integration with tax preparation programs, while others are used separately and can be used alongside any system. Because of the volatility of this year’s tax season, voting in this category was higher than in most years, but TheTaxBook won again due to its affordability. Voters were allowed to select more than one product because professionals often rely on more than one source for tax research.
WINNER: TheTaxBook – Tax Materials Inc. (63.5%)
Runners Up:
- QuickFinder Tax Handbooks (11.5%)
- TaxGPT (10.0%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH IntelliConnect or Accounting Research Manager (8.6%)
- Intuit ProSeries/Lacerte Tax Research or ProConnect (8.3%)
- Blue J (6.7%)
- TaxSpeaker (6.5%)
- Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (6.0%)
- Bloomberg Tax or Financial Accounting Research (4.6%)
- Parker Tax Pro Library (4.3%)
- Tax Talk Today (2.8%)
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Tax Document Automation
Insight: Artificial Intelligence continues to shape the profession, from AI agents to automation and machine learning, to a variety of models and the ability to create homemade apps, as well as for the preparation of tax and accounting financial products. Is the technology that reliable yet?
Most professionals don’t think it’s ready to take the driver’s seat alone, but with human oversight, many firms are embracing it for automating preparation processes.
WINNER: TaxDome (43.8%)
- GruntWorx Populate (17.3%)
- Intuit Tax Import for Lacerte, ProConnect & ProSeries (14.3%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH iFirm or ProSystem fx Scan (7.5%)
- Canopy Tax (7.2%)
- Thomson Reuters Source Document Processing & Workpapers CS (4.2%)
- SafeSend Returns (2.3%)
- SurePrep 1040Scan Pro, 1040Scan Organize (2.1%)
- Corvee (1.3%)
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Sales & Use Tax Preparation
Insight: For a small business with clients in only one jurisdiction, sales tax may not be much of a chore, but when the business grows (especially if they are ecommerce-based), sales tax compliance across hundreds or thousands of customer locations can be an epic challenge. Fortunately, there are several technologies that automate the application and filing of these taxes while also keeping track of special taxation rules, sales tax holidays, and other factors. About a third of our nearly 4,000 voters cited use of such systems, but many of those (47%) say they rely on the sales tax functions within their accounting system, or report client sales via their state’s revenue department website.
Of voters who chose a specialized sales tax compliance system, the following systems scored best:
WINNER: Drake Software (50.4%)
Runners Up:
- Avalara AvaTax & Avalara Returns (13.5%)
- CCH Wolters Kluwer (SureTax/SalesTaxOffice; 10.7%)
- CFS Tax Software (7.6%)
- Karbon (4.6%)
- Thomson Reuters ONESource Indirect Tax (3.9%)
- eFileSalesTax.com (3.1%)
- Bloomberg Tax Sales Tax Rates (3.0%)
- TaxJar (1.3%)
- Vertex Inc. (1.3%)
- Sovos Tax Solutions (0.6%)
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Sales Tax Exemption Certificate Management
Insight: As many states face tightening budgets, sales tax audits have risen, and the proper tracking and documenting of sales tax exemption certificates is a frequent trip-up for many small businesses. This is somewhat of a niche specialty, with only about 10% of our voters expressing a preference or personal use with these products. Those who did voted as follows:
WINNER: Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE (47.3%)
Runners Up:
- Avalara CertCapture (25.8%)
- Sovos Tax Solutions (11.9%)
- Vertex Inc. Exemption Certificate Manager (10.6%)
- Zamp (4.4%)
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In-Firm Accounting & Operations Tech
Accounting Write-Up Systems
Insight: Business accounting platforms have evolved so greatly over the past couple of decades (especially in the last five years) that they have dramatically altered what “client write-up” is these days. But while many of the tasks of reconciliation and analysis are now being automated, it still takes a keen and experienced human eye to ensure accuracy and keep a watch for intentional or unintentional miscategorization of expenses and other key business data. More than half of our survey respondents reported use of one of the systems noted below.
WINNER: Intuit Accountant Suite (43.1%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Accounting (28.5%)
- Xero (8.7%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS (6.2%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS AccountingPower (3.3%)
- Sage One (2.8%)
- Sage Imtacct (2.4%)
- AccountingSuite (1.8%)
- PC Software Accounting Inc. (1.2%)
- Crunchafi (0.8%)
- CYMA Systems Inc. (0.7%)
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Audit Engagement Tools
Insight: Audit professionals are also making greater use of artificial intelligence, automation, and machine learning technologies to streamline their engagements. About 20% of our voters reported using or recommending one of these systems:
WINNER: AuditFile (55.4%)
Runners Up:
- CCH ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach, CCH ProSystem fx Engagement, CCH Accounting Research Manager or CCH Audit Accelerator (15.3%)
- Thomson Reuters – Workpapers CS, AdvanceFlow or Checkpoint SMART Audit Suite (12.3%)
- Audit Dashboard (5.6%)
- CaseWare IDEA (5.2%)
- Suralink (4.2%)
- Wiley Advantage Audit (3.4%)
- Confirmation.com (2.1%)
- Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) by CPA.com (1.7%)
- Rivio Clearinghouse (1.4%)
- Teammate Analytics (1.1%)
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Business Valuation
Insight: While this is a niche specialty, some accounting and tax professionals who are involved in family wealth planning, business transfers, divorce litigation, and similar engagements may find business valuation software useful for their practice.
WINNER: SageWorks Valuation Solution (40.6%)
Runners Up:
- ValuSource Pro, BVM Pro & Express Business Valuation (22.5%)
- ValuAdder (18.4%)
- MoneySoft Corporate Valuation Pro, DealSense & Business Valuation Specialist (18%)
- BizEquity (1%)
__________
Fixed Asset Management
WINNER: Drake Software (52.1%)
Runners Up:
- Thomson Reuters Fixed Assets CS (13.3%)
- Intuit ProSeries/Lacerte/ProConnect Fixed Asset Manager (13.1%)
- CCH Fixed Assets Manager or CCH ProSystem fx Fixed Assets (9.4%)
- Sage FAS Asset Accounting (4%)
- Pro-Ware Asset Keeper (2.8%)
- Bloomberg Tax Fixed Assets (1.2%)
- MultiView (1.0%)
- Real Asset Management (1.0%)
- Open Systems TRAVERSE (0.7%)
- Wasp Barcode Technologies (0.5%)
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Payroll
Insight: Technology continues to make payroll processing and compliance much easier for firms managing multiple clients. And while it may be a lower revenue-per-client service, the volume that firms can provide, with low overhead expenses and manual processing, can make it a valuable revenue stream. It can also strengthen client relationships and provides a frequent contact point. Due to the number of products in this category, we only show the top 10 vote-receiving systems.
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Systems (15.8%)
Runners Up:
- ADP Payroll Solutions (19.1%)
- Drake Accounting (14.5%)
- Gusto Payroll (12.4%)
- Paychex (6.9%)
- Patriot Software (2.8%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS Payroll or myPay (2.8%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Payroll Relief (2.4%)
- SurePayroll (2.2%)
- Sage 50 (1.7%)
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1099/W-2 Compliance
Insight: Year-end payroll and contractor compliance systems that prepare W-2 and 1099 forms and can automatically file them can help relieve much of the burden of processing hundreds or thousands of forms for your clients each year. Due to the large number of products in this space, only the top 10 vote recipients are listed.
WINNER: Drake Accounting (24%)
Runners Up:
- Tax1099 (17.1%)
- eFile4Biz (11.3%)
- CFS Tax Solutions (7.7%)
- Avalara 1099 & W-9 (7.7%)
- 1099 Pro (5.8%)
- Track 1099 (4.5%)
- AMS 1099-Etc (3.7%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS Payroll Compliance (3.6%)
- W2/1099 Wolters Kluwer (3.6%)
- Greatland Yearli (3.0%)
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Time & Billing
Insight: Managing time for firm staff and projects is critical for firm efficiency, with the end product of invoicing helping ensure steady revenue flow. Effective time management is essential even now that many firms have ditched time-based billing. Multiple product choices were allowed:
WINNER: TaxDome (48.8%)
Runners Up:
- QuickBooks Time (25.1%)
- BILL (8.9%)
- 8am CPA Charge (8.7%)
- Canopy (7%)
- Karbon (3.7%)
- Sage Timeslips (3.1%)
- TPS Software (3.1%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS (2.3%)
- Others (8%)
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Practice Management
Insight: CPA Practice Advisor defines practice management solutions as those with more extensive functions for managing firm productivity and workflow management, automation of tasks, and record maintenance. Multiple choices were allowed. The top vote recipients are listed:
WINNER: TaxDome (44.6%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Software (29.1%)
- Canopy (9.5%)
- CCH Axcess Practice, CCH iFirm Practice Manager, CCH ProSystem fx (7.1%)
- Thomson Reuters Practice CS (5.1%)
- Karbon (3.3%)
- Financial Cents (2.2%)
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Online Invoicing/Bill Payment Solutions
Insight: Cloud-based, integrated invoicing tools can help firms improve AR functions and cashflow, while bill payment systems can help streamline AP. Voters were allowed to select multiple products, resulting in more than 100% total. Only the top recipients are displayed:
WINNER: TaxDome (54.8%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit Payments (40.2%)
- Drake Pay (24.6%)
- Karbon (6.9%)
- 8am CPA Charge (13.7%)
- BILL (13.2%)
- Xero (6.3%)
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Client Portals
Insight: Client portals make sharing data with clients easier. They make it easier for clients to submit documents to the firm and to retrieve documents when needed. Only the top vote recipients are displayed:
WINNER: TaxDome (36.5%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Software Drake Portals (29.7%)
- Canopy (6.3%)
- CCH Axcess Portal / CCH ProSystem fx Portal / CCH iFirm or XCM Solutions (3.9%)
- Citrix ShareFile (3.11%)
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Document Management & Document Storage
Insight: This category includes a wide range of solutions, with functions ranging from basic file folders to advanced options that include client collaboration tools, automatic archiving, retention functions, and multi-worker productivity features. Only the top vote recipients are displayed:
WINNER: TaxDome (37.2%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Document Manager (36.1%)
- Intuit ProSeries & Lacerte DMS or ProConnect Document Management (6.6%)
- Canopy (5.1%)
- Thomson Reuters FileCabinet CS/GoFileRoom (4.6%)
- CCH Axcess Document or CCH ProSystem fx Document (3.6%)
- SmartVault (2.2%)
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Other Document Management Tools
Insight: Document management also requires special tools that sometimes work with the scanner or work with the document management system directly for functions including OCR.
WINNER: Fujitsu (39.8%)
Runners Up:
- HP (39.0%)
- Canon (15.4%)
- SafeSend (12.4%)
- ABBYY (7.0%)
- Nuance (5.2%)
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Comprehensive Firm Workflow Systems
Insight: We divide workflow into two categories, Comprehensive Workflow and Other Workflow Tools, which are designed for aiding in specific tasks and engagements and for smaller firms. Top vote recipients displayed:
WINNER: TaxDome (51.6%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Workflow (20.9%)
- Canopy (7.5%)
- Thomson Reuters – FirmFlow or Practice CS Project Management (4.5%)
- Karbon (3.7%)
- CCH Axcess Workstream, CCH iFirm Practice Manager (3.2%)
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Other Workflow Tools
Insight: Multiple choices allowed; only those above 1% are displayed:
WINNER: TaxDome (44.9%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Workflow (18.1%)
- Canopy (7.6%)
- GruntWorx (7.4%)
- Various CCH ProSystem fx Systems (5.1%)
- Expensify (3.2%)
- Karbon (2.1%)
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Website Builders & Services for Accounting Firms
Insight: There are several website services and tools that make it easy and affordable to create a firm website and keep it up-to-date. Options range from doing most of the work yourself with a variety of templates to solutions where the vendor does all the work you want them to do.
WINNER: TaxDome (43.7%)
Runners Up:
- GetNetSet (18.9%)
- CPA Site Solutions (13.1%)
- CCH SiteBuilder (5.6%)
- AccountantsWorld by Iris (5.1%)
- CPASites.com (3.3%)
- CountingWorks/ClientWhys/TaxBuzz (3.1%)
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Favorite CPE Provider
Insight: Need CPE? Well, there are many ways to earn it these days, and it is not surprising that professionals increasingly turn to online options.
WINNER: The Tax Book (20.8%)
Runners Up:
- Drake (14.4%)
- CPA Academy (13.9%)
- AICPA (8.76%)
- IRS (7.2%)
- TaxSpeaker (6.4%)
- NASBA (5.9%)
- MyCPEwebinars (4.2%)
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How Do You Prefer to Earn CPE?
WINNER: Live Online Classes/Webcasts (33.5%)
Runners Up:
- Self-Study with Tests (22.4%)
- In-Person Seminars/Workshops (17%)
- N/A/ & Others (27.1%)
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Which Conferences Do You Attend?
Insight: Many state society shows are listed in the “other” category. Many respondents chose more than one event.
WINNER: IRS Nationwide Tax Forums (42.2%)
Runners Up:
- NATP (19.5%)
- Intuit QuickBooks Connect (16.55%)
- AICPA Engage Las Vegas (14.1%)
- TaxSpeaker (23.6%)
- CPA Practice Advisor’s Ensuring Success (8.7%)
- NAEA National Conference (8.1%)
- Digital CPA (7.5%)
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Small Business Accounting Systems
Insight: There are several sub-categories in this group: Below are the top vote receivers in each category.
Small Business Accounting – Installed Programs
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Desktop (61%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Software (30.1%)
- Sage 50 (3.7%)
- PC Software Accounting Inc. (2.3%)
- Priority AccountEdge (1.2%)
__________
Online Small Business Accounting
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Online/Online Accountant (61.9%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Software (19.4%)
- Xero (6.5%)
- Workful (2%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Accounting Power (1.8%)
__________
Expense and Travel Management Solution
WINNER: Expensify (44.9%)
Runners Up:
- Concur Expense (14%)
- Zoho Expense (11.1%)
- Dext (10.2%)
- Tallie (6.1%)
__________
Retail Accounting/Point-of-Sale Systems
WINNER: Square (52.8%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit QuickBooks POS (33.0%)
- NetSuite OnSite POS (4.1%)
- Celerant (2.2%)
- CAM Commerce (1.7%)
__________
Not-for-Profit Accounting
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit (70.6%)
Runners Up:
- Sage Intacct (6.6%)
- Aplos (6.6%)
- Abila MIP (2.9%)
- Blackbaud Financial Edge or Fundware (2.7%)
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Remote Technologies
ASP/Hosted Solution Providers
WINNER: Rightworks (35.2%)
Runners Up:
- Cetrom CPA Cloud (15.5%)
- Verito (14.2%)
- Thomson Reuters Virtual Office CS/SaaS (11.1%)
- Ace Cloud Hosting (9.1%)
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Outsourced Technology Services
Insight: These companies offer a variety of hosting and outsourced business process services.
WINNER: Rightworks (34.3%)
Runners Up:
- Cetrom (19.4%)
- Verito (18.4%)
- CPA.com Email Services (9.3%)
- Ace Cloud Hosting (8.8%)
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General Office Tech
Printers & Scanners
Insight: Top vote recipients; more than one selection was allowed:
- HP
- Brother
- Canon
- Epson
- Fujitsu
__________
Out-of-Office
Do You Regularly Listen to Podcasts?
- Yes: 6.2%
- No: 87.8%
- N/A: 6%
Favorite podcasts listed:
- Jason Staats (Jason on Firms)
- AICPA (Town Halls and others)
- The Accounting Show Podcast
- The Concierge CPA
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How “social” are you? Which social media tools do you use in conjunction with your work?
Insight: About 48% of our voters said they don’t use any social media tools for business purposes. For those who do use them, multiple responses were allowed.
- YouTube
- Others (1.5%)
Does Your Firm Use Any Forms of AI Technology?
- Yes, AI is used (by myself or others; 33%)
- No, AI is not used in our practice (26.1%)
- Uncertain or prefer not to answer (7.7%)
- N/A (32.5%)
- Other (1%)
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Thank you to the nearly 4,000 tax and accounting professionals who participated in the 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards.
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