Canopy: tax software platform

Canopy publishes a full rate card for accounting practice management: Standard $74, Plus $109 and Premium $149 per user per month, billed annually, checked on 16 October 2026. Buy it if you want one system for clients, documents, workflow and billing. The catch is the service power-ups, which are billed on top.

Rajat GuptaEditorial LeadReviewed 16 October 2026Pricing checked 16 October 2026 against the Canopy pricing page

Canopy in brief

Canopy publishes a full rate card for accounting practice management: Standard $74, Plus $109 and Premium $149 per user per month, billed annually, checked on 16 October 2026.

Price: $74 per user/month (Standard, billed annually) · Per user per month, billed annually; monthly billing available
Best for: Accounting and tax firms consolidating practice management tools
Watch out for: You give up return preparation.

The short answer

Buy Canopy if your firm runs client records, document collection, e-signatures, workflow, time tracking and billing in separate tools and the handoffs between them are costing you more than a seat licence. Every tier includes the full platform rather than gating core features, so the tier decision is about depth and controls, not access, and the published rates let you budget without a sales call.

Skip it if what you need is tax return preparation software, because Canopy is practice management and does not file returns. Skip it too if your firm needs multi-office or multi-entity management today: those features are marked Coming Soon on the pricing page, as is the Premium tier itself. And price the power-ups first if tax resolution or month-end close is the reason you are looking.

Where Canopy fits

Canopy is practice management software for accounting, CPA, tax and bookkeeping firms, and the problem it is sold against is tool sprawl rather than any single workflow. Its own pricing FAQ states that every plan includes the complete suite: CRM, workflow, document management, billing, client portal, payments and core AI. That is unusual packaging in this category, and it changes the shape of the decision. You are not choosing which features to buy, you are choosing how much depth and control you need, which is why the tier gaps are things like user roles, capacity planning, custom reporting and advanced billing scenarios rather than whole modules.

The firm this fits is one where client work moves between people. Canopy's task model assigns work to roles such as preparer and reviewer rather than only to named individuals, carries recurring task logic and a scheduler, and adds capacity planning and forecasting from the Plus tier so a partner can see where the season's work is piling up. If your bottleneck is that nobody can say which returns are waiting on a client and which are waiting on staff, that visibility is the product. If your bottleneck is the return itself, this is the wrong tool and Drake Software or Intuit ProConnect is the conversation.

The client-facing half is where most firms see the change first. Canopy carries a branded client portal with a custom domain option, secure messaging, client requests and document checklists, e-signature with reusable templates, and a dedicated client mobile app. Knowledge based authentication is available on every tier at a published per-credit rate, which matters because identity verification before a client can sign is the step firms most often outsource to a second tool. The AI Notetaker is included by tier rather than sold separately, at 8 hours per user per month on Standard, 12 on Plus and 16 on Premium.

Canopy also sells service power-ups that extend the firm's offering rather than the software's plumbing, and these are the reason a Canopy budget is usually two numbers. Tax Workflow Automation covers AI intake, document requests, questionnaires and delivery with e-signature and paywall. Close Automation scans the ledger for issues and tracks month-end close across clients. Tax Resolution pulls 20 years of IRS transcripts, tracks notices and auto-fills federal and state forms with more than 200 supported. Each is priced separately, so a firm that wants all three is adding a second bill alongside the seats.

Where Canopy stops, for now, is the multi-office firm. Multi-office and entity management, role-based permissions by office, shared resources with parent controls, consolidated roll-up reporting and multi-currency support are all marked Coming Soon on the pricing page as of 16 October 2026, and the Premium tier that carries advanced workflows and advanced billing is itself marked Coming Soon even though its price is published. If you run several offices under one parent, or bill in more than one currency, that is a roadmap conversation rather than a feature you can test, and it should be in writing before you sign.

Canopy pricing

Canopy publishes per-user list prices, which in practice management software is worth looking at first. Checked on 16 October 2026, the three tiers are Standard at $74, Plus at $109 and Premium at $149 per user per month, each billed annually, with Enterprise quoted for large firms. The page says monthly billing is available and that annual billing saves you 20%, so the published rates are the annual-commitment rates and the monthly figure is higher. The subscription is not the whole bill: service power-ups and payment processing are charged on top.

What Canopy publishes

Standard: $74 per user/month (Billed annually, per user)CRM and client management, document management and eSign, client portal and secure messaging, automated and recurring task workflows, invoicing and payments, and 8 AI Meeting Notetaker hours per user per month.
Plus: $109 per user/month (Billed annually, per user)Everything in Standard plus user roles and access controls, more client intake capacity, advanced task views and filters, capacity planning and forecasting, custom reporting, and 12 Notetaker hours per user per month.
Premium: $149 per user/month (Billed annually, per user)Everything in Plus plus advanced workflows and automation, advanced billing scenarios, deep reporting and insights, and 16 Notetaker hours per user per month. Marked Coming Soon on the pricing table.
Enterprise: Quote-based (Custom contract)A tailored plan for large firms, configured to run alongside your other software. Canopy notes it may not suit firms under about 200 people.
Tax Resolution power-up: $50 per user/month (Annual billing, volume discounts available)20 years of IRS transcripts, step-by-step fixes for IRS notices, auto-filled federal and state forms with more than 200 supported, case management and at-risk IRS account monitoring.

Prices as published on the Canopy pricing page and checked on 16 October 2026. Premium is marked Coming Soon even though its price is listed, so confirm availability before planning on it. Canopy now publishes on getcanopy.com, and the older canopytax.com address resolves to the same site.

Four things move a Canopy bill, and only the first is the number on the tier card.

Staff count, because the subscription is per user per month. Tier choice is about depth rather than access, since Canopy states every plan includes the full platform, so the arithmetic is simply your seat count against $74, $109 or $149. Decide the tier on the controls you need: user roles and access controls, capacity planning and custom reporting start on Plus, and advanced billing scenarios on Premium.
Whether you commit annually. The published rates are billed annually and the page says annual billing saves you 20%, with monthly billing available. If you want month-to-month flexibility during a first season, ask for the monthly figure in writing rather than assuming the published rate applies, and weigh the difference against the risk of committing a year early.
Which power-ups you add, because they can rival the seat cost. Tax Workflow Automation starts at $34 per credit per client, Close Automation is $10 per connected client per month with the first 5 connections included, and Tax Resolution is $50 per user per month. All three are billed annually and Canopy says volume discounts are available on the credit-based and per-user ones, so ask for the discounted rate at your volume rather than the list rate.
New client volume, which drives the consumption line. Smart client intake and delivery runs on client credits, with 5 trial credits included on every tier and more purchased as needed, and Canopy's FAQ says a credit is consumed once per client rather than once per action. That makes the driver the number of new clients you onboard, not how much you use the feature, so model it against your season intake. Knowledge based authentication is separate again at $1.25 per KBA credit, with volume and tiered pricing on larger quantities.

What costs extra

Tax Workflow Automation: starting at $34 per credit per client, billed annually, with volume discounts available.
Close Automation: $10 per connected client per month, billed annually, with the first 5 connections included.
Tax Resolution: $50 per user per month, billed annually, with volume discounts available.
Knowledge based authentication: $1.25 per KBA credit, with volume and tiered pricing on larger quantities.
Canopy Payments: standard and premium cards at 3.30% + $0.20 per transaction, ACH at 1% capped at $10, on all three tiers.
AI Meeting Notetaker hours are included by tier rather than sold separately, at 8, 12 and 16 hours per user per month.

Implementation and commercial terms

The rows below are what Canopy's own pricing page and its FAQ confirm as of 16 October 2026. Where a row says nothing is published, treat it as a question for sales rather than as an absence of cost.

Published price: Yes, for Standard, Plus and Premium. Enterprise is quoted.
Billing basis: Per user per month, billed annually. Monthly billing is available and annual billing saves you 20%.
Implementation fee: None published. Canopy runs a separate implementation page with no figure on it.
Free trial: No self-serve signup. The FAQ says you trial the full platform by arranging it with a sales representative.
Included trial credits: 5 client credits for smart intake on every tier.
Payment processing: Charged on top of the subscription: 3.30% + $0.20 on cards, 1% capped at $10 on ACH.

Budget Canopy as seats plus services. Take your staff count at $74, $109 or $149, then add the power-ups you intend to use: $50 per user per month for Tax Resolution, $10 per connected client per month for Close Automation, and the credit line for intake at $34 per credit per client against your new-client volume. If you collect fees through Canopy Payments, run last year's fee mix at 3.30% + $0.20 for cards and 1% capped at $10 for ACH, because for a firm billing large engagement fees by card that line can pass the software. Then ask for the monthly rate as well as the annual one, so the 20% annual saving is a choice you made rather than one the order form made for you.

Source: the Canopy pricing page, checked 16 October 2026. Confirm current prices with the vendor before you budget.

What Canopy gives up

You give up return preparation. Canopy manages the work around a return, including intake, document requests, status tracking, delivery, e-signature and billing, and it integrates AI tax prep rather than being a tax compiler. Firms replacing a practice management tool gain from that focus. Firms hoping to retire their tax software do not, and will still be renewing a licence from Drake, Intuit or another preparer each tax year. Price both lines together before you call Canopy cheap or dear.

You give up multi-office structure until the roadmap lands. Multi-office and entity management, permissions by office, shared resources with parent controls, consolidated roll-up reporting and multi-currency billing are all marked Coming Soon as of 16 October 2026. So is advanced progress billing, and so is the Premium tier itself. For a single-office firm none of that matters. For a firm that has grown by acquisition and bills in more than one currency, it is the whole evaluation, and a Coming Soon label is not a date.

You give up a self-serve trial. Canopy's FAQ says you can trial the full platform, including client management, workflows, document management, billing and the AI coworker, but that you schedule a demo and talk to a sales representative to set it up. That is a modest friction rather than a barrier, and the 5 included client credits mean you can test smart intake on real clients once you are in. It does mean you cannot quietly evaluate the product over a weekend before telling anyone.

You give up predictability on the AI and intake lines, by design. Canopy's own explanation is that AI infrastructure costs vary by firm, so it includes a baseline and lets you scale from there: Notetaker hours are capped by tier, smart intake runs on client credits, and knowledge based authentication is billed per credit. The per-client rather than per-action credit model is the fairer version of consumption pricing, and it still means two firms on the same tier with the same headcount can pay different bills. Track usage in the first season rather than at renewal.

You give up the negotiating room that an unpublished price sometimes buys. The list rates are visible, the annual saving is stated at 20%, and the implementation fee is simply absent from the page rather than discountable. What you can negotiate is the power-up volume discount that Canopy says is available on Tax Workflow Automation and Tax Resolution, and the monthly-versus-annual choice. Ask for both at the same time as the seat count, because a seat discount is the least likely of the three to appear.

How Canopy compares

Canopy is not competing with return preparation software, but firms shop for both at once and the price shapes could not be more different: Canopy is a per-user monthly subscription, Drake is an annual licence per tax year, ProConnect is sold per return with no figure published, and CCH could not be read at all. Every price below comes from that vendor's own pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026, and anything unpublished is recorded as unpublished rather than estimated.

Tool	Best for	Price	Where it breaks
Canopy	Firms consolidating client records, documents, workflow and billing in one system	$74, $109 or $149 per user/month	No return preparation, and multi-office management is marked Coming Soon
Drake Software	Preparers who want a published annual licence and unlimited returns	$1,995 to $3,295 per tax year	Desktop licensing is per site and EFIN, and practice tools are a separate bundle
Intuit ProConnect	Cloud preparation tied to Intuit Accountant Suite and QuickBooks books	Not published, quote only	No ProConnect figure could be verified, and returns are bought per tax year
Wolters Kluwer CCH	Firms already standardised on the CCH product family	Could not be accessed on 16 October 2026	The site returned HTTP 403 and a bot challenge, so nothing could be read

What to test in a Canopy trial

Canopy's FAQ says you can trial the full platform but that you arrange it through a demo with a sales representative, so this is a guided trial rather than a self-serve one. Because the prices are published, you can model the cost before the trial and spend the trial proving the workflow and the two lines that are not fixed: credits and payments.

Rebuild your worst client onboarding, not your cleanest. Use the smart intake and delivery flow on a real new client, generate the questionnaire and the document checklist, and watch how many of the 5 included trial credits one client consumes. Canopy says a credit is applied once per client rather than per action, so prove that on your own usage before you model a season of new clients at $34 per credit per client.
Put a genuine approval and review chain through the task model. Assign work by role rather than by name, set recurring task logic for a monthly client, and see what the capacity planning view shows when two staff are oversubscribed. Capacity planning, custom reporting and user roles start on Plus, so this step tells you whether Standard at $74 per user per month is your tier rather than the cheapest one.
Test the client side on a client who dislikes software. Send a document request, a secure message and an e-signature packet with knowledge based authentication at $1.25 per KBA credit, and see how much chasing your team still does. The branded portal and the client mobile app are only worth paying for if clients use them, and that is checkable rather than assumable.
Price the power-ups against the seats before you sign. Ask for Tax Resolution at $50 per user per month, Close Automation at $10 per connected client per month with the first 5 connections included, and Tax Workflow Automation from $34 per credit per client as separate quoted lines, then ask for the volume discount Canopy says is available. A firm adding all three is buying a second subscription alongside the first.
Settle the commercial terms in the same conversation. Get the monthly price as well as the annual one, since annual billing saves you 20% and that choice is easier to make before the order form. Confirm what onboarding costs for your firm size, given no implementation fee is published, and ask for written dates or contractual commitments on anything you are relying on that is marked Coming Soon, starting with Premium itself and multi-office management.

Frequently asked questions about Canopy

How much does Canopy cost per user?

As of 16 October 2026 Canopy publishes Standard at $74, Plus at $109 and Premium at $149 per user per month, each billed annually, with Enterprise quoted for large firms. Canopy says annual billing saves you 20% against monthly billing, so the monthly rate is higher than the published figure.

What does Canopy charge extra for?

Service power-ups are billed on top of the seat price: Tax Workflow Automation from $34 per credit per client, Close Automation at $10 per connected client per month with the first 5 connections included, and Tax Resolution at $50 per user per month. Knowledge based authentication costs $1.25 per credit.

Does Canopy have a free trial?

Not as a self-serve signup. As of 16 October 2026 Canopy's pricing FAQ says you can trial the full platform, including client management, workflows, documents, billing and the AI coworker, but that you schedule a demo and talk with a sales representative to set it up. Each tier includes 5 trial credits.

Do all Canopy plans include the whole platform?

Yes. Canopy states every plan includes the complete suite: CRM, workflow, document management, billing, client portal, payments and core AI. Higher tiers add depth rather than access, so Plus adds user roles, capacity planning and custom reporting, and Premium adds advanced workflows and advanced billing scenarios.

Does Canopy prepare tax returns?

No. Canopy is practice management software: it handles intake, document collection, workflow, delivery, e-signature, time and billing, and integrates AI tax prep. You still license return preparation software separately, so price Canopy alongside a preparer such as Drake Software rather than as a replacement for one.

What are Canopy client credits and how are they consumed?

Client credits pay for smart client intake and delivery. Canopy's FAQ says a credit is applied the first time you use smart intake for a client, then that client's features cost nothing more, so the driver is new clients rather than actions. Every tier includes 5 trial credits, with more purchased as needed.

What does Canopy charge to collect client payments?

Canopy Payments is priced the same on all three tiers: standard and premium cards at 3.30% + $0.20 per transaction, and ACH at 1% capped at $10. For a firm billing large engagement fees by card, that line can exceed the software cost, so pushing clients to ACH is usually the larger saving.

How does Canopy compare with TaxDome or Karbon?

Canopy's own positioning is that it consolidates workflow, CRM, client portal, documents, billing and AI in one system, and that platforms like Karbon and TaxDome cover parts of the problem and need extra tools. That is the vendor's claim, so test it against your own tool list rather than taking it as a finding.

Does Canopy support multiple offices or entities?

Not yet. As of 16 October 2026 multi-office and entity management, permissions by office, shared resources with parent controls, consolidated roll-up reporting and multi-currency billing are all marked Coming Soon on the pricing page, as is the Premium tier. Ask for contractual dates before relying on any of it.

What access controls and security does Canopy include?

The published feature list includes multi-factor authentication for firm users and clients, role-based access control, customizable folder permissions, custom portal permissions and single sign-on through Google and Microsoft. SAML and advanced single sign-on configuration are marked Coming Soon, so confirm which applies if SAML is a requirement.