Zenbooks Financial Clarity Index at Carleton University's PARG Research Seminar
The ZFCI is an annual study measuring how Canadian small and medium-sized businesses understand, manage and use their financial information.
On October 28, 2026, I am presenting the Zenbooks Financial Clarity Index (ZFCI) to the Professional Accounting Research Group (PARG) at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business. The session is part of PARG's Accounting Research Discussion Sessions, hosted by Professor François Brouard, and runs from 12:00 to 13:00.
This page holds the session materials. Slides and the recording will be added after the session.
Why present to researchers
Most academic work on firm finances relies on public company data. Public companies file audited statements under common standards, and that data sits in databases researchers already use.
Small and medium-sized businesses produce nothing comparable. Their records vary from business to business and rarely leave the business and its accountant. The ZFCI measures one part of how these businesses are run, on the same basis each year.
What the session covers
The first half covers how the index is built:
- Scoring across five disciplines, each out of 20: awareness, forecasting, decision-making, systems and risk
- Fielding of the 2026 wave: 565 owners through an online panel, after quality exclusions
- Raking weights to Statistics Canada distributions by region, firm size and sector (design effect 1.10, margin of error ±1.6 points on the national mean)
The second half covers results:
- The national score is 56.7 out of 100, and 56.5% of businesses score below 60
- Businesses with fully integrated financial systems score 71.9; businesses running mostly manual processes score 44.1
- Scores rise with accountant contact: 67.3 for multiple contacts a year, 50.6 for once a year, 38.5 for rare contact
- 77.2% of owners rate their finances good or excellent, while 43.5% score in that range
The session also covers what the data does not show. Tenure brings no measurable gain in clarity, and firms with in-house bookkeeping score no differently from those that outsource it. All findings are associational.
The session will close with a discussion of the 2027 wave, scheduled to field in March. We will bring several proposed changes to the instrument to the group for feedback before the questionnaire is finalized.
For researchers
The index exists in part because SME data is hard to get. If you work on Canadian SMEs and want to use the 2026 data, or want to discuss items for the 2027 wave, contact me at eric@zenbooks.ca.
Materials
- Full report: Zenbooks Financial Clarity Index 2026
- Methodology
- PARG Research Seminars
- Slides (Will be added after the session)
- Recording (Will be added after the session)
How to cite
Saumure, E. (2026). Zenbooks Financial Clarity Index 2026. Research Report, Zenbooks Tax Services Professional Corporation, August. (FULL REPORT)
Thank you to Professor François Brouard for the invitation, and for his feedback on the index since launch.
Eric Saumure, CPA, CA, is co-founder and Principal of Zenbooks, an online cloud-native accounting firm started in 2015 to serve 300+ Canadian small and mid-sized businesses. Before Zenbooks, Eric spent 3 years at KPMG. He specializes in financial strategy for growth-stage companies in the $1M-$10M revenue range, with a particular focus on marketing and creative agencies, SaaS, and professional services firms, e-commerce and non-profits.
Eric's commentary on Canadian small business, tax policy, and open banking has appeared in the Toronto Star, Canadian Press, CTV, CBC, Le Devoir, Policy Options, The Conversation, and Canadian Accountant. He was named to the OBJ Ottawa Forty Under 40 and recognized on both the Financial Times Americas' Fastest Growing Companies 2026 list and the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Top Growing Companies 2024. He is the principal researcher behind the Zenbooks Technology in Accounting Study, a national survey of 500 Canadian SMEs on accounting technology adoption, and the founder of OpenSME, a Canadian open banking advocacy organization. He serves on the board of Cystic Fibrosis Canada and member of the Montfort Hospital Association.
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