The accounting industry has a strong reputation for providing educational, engaging, and resourceful courses that touch on all facets of the sphere. From upskilling to expanding your service offerings to networking with other faces of the field - you no longer have to be face to face to reap the benefits of these courses. Whether you’re at the beginning of your career or looking to refresh your skill set, we’ve collated the best online courses for Australian accountants in 2025.
CPA Australia has a wide range of online courses available to accountants Australia-wide including free courses for CPA members alongside their paid offerings. The courses are offered either online in a live setting or you can work as you go with their self-paced option. Some of the best reviewed complimentary courses are:
- A practical guide to career planning in finance - This course educates the participant on how to set and achieve their financial career goals. The guide provides practical tips from industry leaders to map our development opportunities and works with you to create a development plan.
- Monthly tax update 2025 (Webinars) - This course is a great way to keep up to date with the latest changes in tax changes and how they impact your firm. TaxBanter Trainers deliver the webinars using concise conversation alongside technical understanding of tax legislation. If you happen to miss the live webinar, the recordings are made available 7 days after recording and last for 6 months.
- Professional ethics in focus 2024 - This course was one of the highest rated of both free and paid options with 77 five star reviews. The aim is to focus on upskilling ethical decision making to meet challenges within the industry. They use real-world case studies to encourage understanding about impact areas such as digital technologies, AI, and workplace culture. This course offers interactive activities and multiple-choice questions to elevate your education about the issue.
Smithink has been an industry leader when it comes to educating their audience and guiding them to provide high-quality resources with both in-person conferences like Young Guns 2025 and also through online training. They offer pricing scales that are designed to include firms of all sizes where you can choose which courses would specifically benefit your interests. Their website is a treasure trove of educational resources:
- Online collaboration network - Here you can connect with firms of a similar size and focus and meet twice a month to exchange ideas like practice management, business advisory services, financial planning etc. This allows your firm to collaborate with other firms within your region creating a community and the invaluable exchange of ideas.
- Future focus accounting mentorship - An accountant looking to upscale their career can engage in a 12 month online mentorship program with quarterly online meetings and bi-annual workshops. The aim is to take a deep dive on your career goals, challenges and skills as you map out the next 12 months with regular check-ins to manage your goals.
Online courses through podcasting have become a wonderful way to learn on the go. Most podcasts are free to listen to with paid options available through listening apps such as Patreon for premium and frequent content. Below is a definitive guide to the latest and greatest podcasts for improving your skills and keeping your knowledge up to date:
- Humanise The Numbers podcast - Run by Remarkable Practice and sponsored by Advancetrack comes ‘Humanise The Numbers’ podcast hosted by Paul Shrimpling. This engaging bi-monthly interview style pod chats with industry leaders to give their readers insight into key industry insights, skills, and habits that make an accounting firm successful. The latest podcast sits down with Stephen Paul, the managing director of Valued. Stephen discusses how they manage 900 clients with only 16 staff and still have a great work/life balance. A true feat in the modern accounting world.
- Accountants Daily podcast network - The network is an umbrella for a whole host of podcast topics including tax, business, technology etc. Their ‘Under The Hood’ podcast is a stand-out guide for educating accountants using experience and expertise from accounting insiders covering anything from guiding the next generation of young accountants to how small business can utilise their CGT concession.
- CPA Australia podcast network - CPA hosts a large range of podcasts covering topics relevant to Australian accountants and the impact of the world economy. ‘With Interest’ features discussions with experts who bring their know-how about business and accounting news and trends. ‘In The Black’ covers leadership, technology, innovation, ESG, the economy, careers and work/life balance - a true pastiche of the industry. ‘Excel Tips’ is quite self explanatory although everyone can always use more tips for Microsoft Excel. ‘In The Black Out Loud’ is a collection of some of the most inspiring audio-stories featured in CPA’s magazine ‘In The Black’.
- On the horizon is something exciting to keep your eye out for! Currently filming the first three episodes of our new podcast, Advancetrack’s ‘InsideOutsourcing®’ Podcast, coming soon…
