At CPB IGNITE 2026 in Montreal, bookkeepers and payroll professionals who could easily see each other as competitors showed what it means to rise together—sharing knowledge, supporting one another, and raising the profession as a whole.
On paper, all of the bookkeepers who attended IGNITE are competitors. They serve the same kinds of clients and work in the same industries. In fact, some of them have probably bid on the same engagements.
Yet for four days in Montreal, they gave each other their best ideas. They shared how they price, how they hire, and how they use AI. They also talked about where they’ve made mistakes and what they’d do differently.
This year’s theme was Brilliant Minds, Bold Practices. The boldest thing about it is how freely this community shares what it knows. Nobody here is trying to win at someone else’s expense. Instead, they’re moving the whole profession forward. After all, when bookkeepers do better, Canadian businesses succeed.
Firm owners sharing their playbooks
Panel discussions often capture this community’s generosity best. Practice owners spoke openly about real decisions in front of their peers, who could easily judge them or take those lessons back to their own offices.
For example, one panel, Success, Growth & the Bookkeeping Business Lifecycle, traced how a practice evolves as it grows, from the early hustle to the decisions that come with scale. Another, From Bookkeeper to CFO: Understanding the Path, the Work, and the Opportunity, explored the journey, what it takes to make the transition, and why the opportunity is bigger than many realize.
Other sessions got even more practical. Andrew Seguin shared how his firm sets its prices, and Garett Froese shared what he’s learned while scaling his team. These are details most businesses guard closely. Here, they were on the table for open, honest discussion.
Figuring out AI together
Nobody has AI fully figured out yet, so this community is working it out together.
In the panel Ask the Practitioners: Real Stories on Automation & AI Without Losing Control, firm owners shared what automating without losing control looks like in practice. In another session, Tanya Hilts explained what happened when she gave AI three jobs in her practice. Other sessions explored where automation actually fits into a firm’s workflows and why it’s important to always have a “human in the loop.” Kerry Smithies’s session, From Automation to Advisory, tackled a question every firm using AI should be asking: how do you know the output is right? Her answer: using financial analysis to validate and explain AI-supported insights is as important as ever.
At the same time, there was a welcome counterbalance. Kimme Lafayette and Shelley Rudiger reminded us that strong manual foundations are what keep software, and its users, honest. After all, if you don’t understand what’s happening behind the transactions in your tech stack, how can you be sure you’re compliant?
What tied it all together was the community’s willingness to share the AI experiments that didn’t work, so others can skip the trial and error.
Raising the bar on payroll
For those of us who live and breathe payroll, two sessions stood out. Both were led by industry fan favourite Steven Van Alstine of The National Payroll Institute. First, he delivered the annual Payroll Issues and Compliance Updates 2026. Then he led Payroll at a Crossroads: What Bookkeepers Need to Know Now.
Payroll at a Crossroads drew on The National Payroll Institute and Deloitte’s 2026 report, Beyond Paydays: The Evolution of Payroll in Canada. The message was clear: Canada sits somewhere in the middle when it comes to payroll maturity. We have strong compliance rigour, but lag behind when it comes to digitalization, cloud adoption, and AI-enabled payroll.
That gap is already starting to close. Wagepoint’s AI Payroll Summary is one example, helping payroll professionals review and approve payroll with more confidence.
Getting payroll right has always been the job. In some ways, though, it’s getting harder. The research found that 75% of employees experience payroll errors throughout the year, most commonly incorrect pay amounts. It also flags that many organizations don’t have a tested payroll continuity plan. That’s an important gap for firms supporting employers.
Payroll data is an untapped advisory tool
Payroll holds some of the richest data in any business. This includes labour costs, overtime trends, headcount changes, and turnover. Even so, the research found it tends to be underused.
Ben Richmond, Wagepoint CEO, explored the move toward advisory in his session, Demystifying Advisory: Scaling Capability with Technology. He walked through the stepping stones from simple to complex advisory. He also made a point that resonated with the room: compliance will always keep advisory accountable.
Payroll fits that perfectly. The compliance work bookkeepers do every pay run earns them a seat at the table. From there, they can lead bigger conversations about labour costs, staffing, cash flow, and growth.
Rising together
In most industries, competitors keep their cards close. At CPB IGNITE, however, attendees showed their hands so the person across the table could take their next leap. That’s what moves a profession forward.
CPB IGNITE 2027 heads to Nanaimo, British Columbia, September 21–24. Until then, the conversation keeps going in Canada’s Payroll Collective, where bookkeepers and payroll professionals swap ideas, ask questions, stay up to date on payroll compliance, and help each other succeed year-round.
Join Canada’s Payroll Collective
