Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI)

Detailed information for 2025

The purpose of this survey is to measure the price change of accounting services on an annual basis.

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI) is a longitudinal annual survey that collects information on the prices of accounting services.

The ASPI series is a useful indicator of economic activity in the accounting services industry, and can also prove helpful as a supplementary tool for performance evaluation, cost monitoring, contract assessment and benchmark comparisons. In addition, the indexes are used by the Canada's System of Macroeconomic Accounts to arrive at estimates of real value added Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the industry and to measure changes in productivity.

The index measures the year-over-year percentage change in the prices of repeated services of constant-quality products. The questionnaire asks the respondent to exclude from the year-over-year price change any value that is attributable to a change in the characteristics of the service offered between the two consecutive years.

Statistical activity

These indexes are a part of the Services Producer Price Index program (SPPI) at Statistics Canada.

The SPPI program develops and produces price indexes for a wide range of business service categories. This initiative fills an important data gap in the area of economic statistics and has resulted in a more comprehensive set of service price indexes. It also allows Statistics Canada to produce more accurate estimates of real value added of the Gross Domestic Product and changes in productivity.

Reference period: The time period for which the ASPI equals 100; currently this is the year 2010.

Collection period: Data collection for the previous calendar year starts in January and finishes in March

Subjects

• Business, consumer and property services
• Prices and price indexes
• Professional, scientific and technical services
• Service price indexes

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population consists of all establishments classified on Statistics Canada's Business Register to the NAICS industry 5412 - Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services. There are three (3) industries classified under NAICS 5412 and from which the ASPI will collect data; these are:

- 541212 - Accounting services or offices of accountants
- 541213 - Tax preparation services
- 541215 - Bookkeeping, payroll and related services

The target population differs from the survey population in that businesses with an annual revenue less than $100,000, as identified on Statistics Canada's Business Register, are excluded from the survey population. This is done to reduce response burden on smaller firms.

• Additional documentation

Instrument design

The questionnaire used for the ASPI was developed in consultation with accounting firms across Canada and with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) of Quebec.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design and a longitudinal follow-up.

The target sample size is 600 establishments.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2026-01-23 to 2026-03-23

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Following sample selection, new survey participants (respondents) are introduced to the survey through telephone calls. During this initial phase of data collection, respondents are guided through the process of selecting representative products for which prices will be monitored. This process typically spans several collection cycles until respondents become conversant with the survey.

During the collection process, an email invitation is sent to the respondent inviting them to log in and complete the questionnaire. Subsequent contacts with the respondent take place when questionnaires are late or the responses provided require clarification. In the case of late respondents, several follow-up contacts can be made including sending out a reminder email to obtain a response.

Information about the time it takes respondents to complete the survey questionnaire is collected and monitored closely. Currently, it takes respondents an average of 30 minutes to complete the survey.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .