The top 10 partner posts on Canadian Accountant in 2024

TORONTO, January 1, 2024 – Sponsored content if done correctly can provide readers with information and insights that make their daily lives easier. When it comes to partner posts — which is what we call sponsored content at Canadian Accountant — the best articles are those that offer solutions to the challenges facing chartered professional accountants.  

Some of these partner posts featured brand-name products used by thousands of CPAs. Others feature new products or services by rapidly developing (and often homegrown Canadian) companies. If you’re looking for solutions you can leverage as an accountant, we present, in reverse order, the top 10 partner posts on Canadian Accountant in 2024. 

10.  The year AI becomes the accountant’s ultimate partner

We kick off the list with an article that was published only two weeks ago but is quickly climbing up the charts. If it has been published in January 2024, it might have made number one. Ben Richmond of Xero explains exactly how AI will help reduce “toil tasks” and facilitate seamless integration. 

9.  Driving growth and client success: The power of client advisory services in accounting            

One of the big questions in the past year from accountants has been “How exactly is artificial intelligence going to help me in my practice?” In March 2024, we published the answer, from a Canadian company called interVal, a SaaS platform that uses AI to mine financial data to automate client advisory services. 

8.  Accelerating the CPA’s role in the innovation economy: Sattwica Goyal’s Innovation Leadership Accelerator experience

CPA Ontario did something really unique and powerful a few years back when it launched a professional development program related specifically to tech startups. With so many CPAs eager to work or invest in the sector, it has become a very successful program, as Chartered Professional Accountant Sattwica Goyal explained. 

7. Empowering CPAs: The Role of a Master’s Degree in Tax Law

The year kicked off with a partner post that updated a perennial PD favourite among our readers — the Master of Laws degree, or LLM, from Osgoode Professional Development, the lifelong learning arm of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Chartered Professional Accountants Henry Shew and Kevin Nightingale, both graduates of the program, explained the benefits of the program. 

6.  Tax Planning: Opportunities & Strategies with the Tax Immersion Program

The Canadian tax system got more complicated in 2024, with the federal government announcing changes and then backtracking on their pledges. So September was a perfect time for Alex Garber and Haroon Khan to explain the benefits of CPA Ontario’s Tax Immersion Program — as if anyone really needed convincing. 

5.  So, what exactly is carbon accounting?

In June, Tamara Somers of Xero asked a simple question, and gave a comprehensive answer. Apparently, that’s exactly what a lot of readers wanted, based on our analytics. Not only that, but Somers also explained why carbon accounting is important to practitioners, and how you can get ahead of the game. 

4.  Report: Canadian small business owners’ financial literacy skills come up short

In November, David Emmerman of Xero reported on the findings of a recent financial literacy survey of small business owners across Canada, and a huge gap in the financial literacy of SMBs. The data proved that opportunities abound for practitioners to expand their services, if you can successfully communicate the value of professional finance services to potential clients. 

3.  The tax profession's talent crisis: The transformative Certificate of Canadian Income Tax Practice

The shortage of accounting talent — both seasoned professionals and new grads — was a popular theme in the past year. In June, Chartered Professional Accountant Cara Orzech offered readers a unique professional development solution with an innovative approach to learning: the University of Toronto’s Certificate of Canadian Income Tax Practice. 

2.  Combating the shrinking accountant talent pool

Speaking of the accounting talent shortage, here’s the penultimate article in our top 10 to touch on the same theme. In July, Ben Richmond of Xero — who authored the top two articles this year — offered three ways accountants can usher in the next generation of accounting talent.  

1.  Accounting has changed: Why tech-first CPAs will succeed

For the second year in a row, Xero earned the top partner post spot of the year with an article that provided useful, timely information, and solutions that didn’t push too hard on the Xero value proposition. As a partner post, it was perfect, as were the other two articles from Xero that cracked the top 10. 

And there you have it. Ten articles by brand names that every accountant should know and trust to provide solutions for 2025. 

Colin Ellis is a contributing editor to Canadian Accountant.