The Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the success of bookkeepers and their bookkeeping businesses, and play an important role in raising awareness of our profession within New Zealand. 

It remains vitally important that we celebrate the success of our fellow bookkeepers and provide them with the recognition they deserve. By recognising the achievements of our peers, we are all contributing to not only building the brand of our successful nominees, but also promoting the professionalism of bookkeeping to the public.

Entries are open early each year with winners announced at the Awards and Gala Dinner evening following Bookkeepcon. 

Download the Category Criteria >

Award Categories

We are excited to announce that entries for the 2026 ICNZB Excellence Awards are opening soon!

These awards offer bookkeepers and bookkeeping business in New Zealand an invaluable opportunity to raise more awareness of the important work they are doing to support business in New Zealand and position themselves as the best in the industry when they take home the award.

The 2026 member award categories are listed below.  To ENTER or NOMINATE SOMEONE, simply click on the award category below to access the relevant entry form: 

• Bookkeeper of the Year
• Bookkeeping Business of the Year
• Bookkeeping Trainer of the Year - Gayle Buchanan Memorial Trophy
• Bookkeeping Employee of the Year
• Emerging Bookkeeper of the Year
• Service to Bookkeeping Award
• Sustainable Business of the Year
• Community Contributor of the Year

Each form is tailored to its category, so be sure to select the correct one. We can’t wait to see your entries!

Entry Guidelines

The Excellence Awards are open to individual and business members of ICNZB.  There is no charge to enter. 

Nominations for awards are to be submitted via an online form and there is a limit to the number of characters per question.  We recommend you read the criteria thoroughly prior to submitting an entry to ensure the entry is valid. 

All entries will be checked for validity by the organising team before being accepted. 

Entry Confidentiality

For the award process to be effective, there must be unquestionable fairness and objectivity for all concerned.

• All awards entry forms are treated as confidential to the Executive Administrator and judges.
• Applicants are not expected to provide or reveal, proprietary information regarding products, processes or services.
• The Executive Administrator will remain impartial to the submissions and scores from the independent judges
• Judges will be asked to declare any conflicts of interest and if necessary alternative judging arrangements will be made.
• Each judge has volunteered their time without compensation and is committed to assist with the success of the awards.
• Judging decisions remain confidential to judges and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the outcome of the awards.

Key 2026 Dates:

• 9 April 2026 - Entries & nominations open for Awards Categories
• 8 June 2026 – Entries & nominations close 5pm, Monday xx June 2026
• 9 June – 22 June 2026 – Judging
• 29 June 2026 – Finalists announced
• 3 July 2026 - Final day to purchase gala dinner tickets
• 25 July 2026 – Awards Presentation at Conference Dinner

The Judging Process and Panel

We have 6 independent judges this year, each judging four award. The judging criteria are unique and specific to the ICNZB. Judging will be based on the answers supplied in the form. There will be an online form to fill in for your entry. Each question is limited to a set number of characters, as per the criteria for each category. It is imperative that you consider and answer each question.