SpidNums vs ClickUp: an honest comparison for Canadian firms
A fair comparison for Canadian practices — what ClickUp does well first, then where the two differ.
ClickUp is an ambitious all-in-one productivity platform combining tasks, docs, whiteboards, goals and dashboards in a single product. SpidNums is the better fit when a Canadian firm wants flat USD $1,200-per-firm-per-year pricing, white-label branding on every plan, deadlines generated from Canadian rules rather than from generic recurring tasks, and client data hosted in Canada. Here is the honest breakdown.
What ClickUp does well
This section comes first deliberately. ClickUp is a serious product with real customers, and a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth reading.
- Unusual breadth: tasks, docs, whiteboards, goals and dashboards in one product, shipped at a fast release pace.
- Deep task machinery — custom fields, custom statuses, and list, board, Gantt and calendar views over the same work.
- A configurable hierarchy of spaces, folders and lists that can mirror even a complicated organisation.
- Strong consolidation value for teams replacing several separate tools with one.
Where the fit differs
These are differences in model rather than claims about missing features. Where a capability is not listed for ClickUp, that means we did not verify it — not that it is absent.
- Configuration versus shipped structure: ClickUp hands the firm maximum flexibility and expects it to build the system. SpidNums ships the system — client records, a Services catalogue with filing frequencies, and deadlines that follow from both.
- Deadline logic: SpidNums generates deadlines from Canadian rules — the T2 six-month clock and earlier balance-due date, GST/HST by client cadence, year-end reminders. ClickUp is a general-purpose platform where firms typically model those rules themselves with recurring tasks and custom fields.
- Pricing model: ClickUp prices per user by tier. SpidNums is a flat USD $1,200 per firm per year — headcount never enters the invoice.
- Client-facing layer: SpidNums ships a branded client portal and e-signed engagement letters. ClickUp is built for internal teams; firms typically construct client-facing access themselves through guest permissions and shared views.
Pricing
ClickUp does not publish pricing we could verify, so this page does not state a number for it — ask the vendor for a current quote. SpidNums is a flat USD $1,200 per firm per year with every feature included, including white-label branding.
Side by side
| Compared on | SpidNums | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat per firm | Per user by tier — see vendor |
| Published price | Flat USD $1,200 per firm per year, all features included | See vendor pricing page |
| White-label branding | Full white-label on every plan — app, emails and letterhead | See vendor |
| Canadian deadline logic | CRA-native: T2 six-month clock and earlier balance-due date, GST/HST by client cadence, fiscal-year-end reminders | General-purpose due dates and recurring tasks — firms model CRA rules themselves |
| E-signed engagement letters | Engagement letters built from the services catalogue, signed on a no-login branded page | See vendor |
| Data residency | Hosted in Canada (ca-central-1) | See vendor |
What SpidNums is, plainly
SpidNums is practice management for Canadian accounting firms: the client list, the services each client buys, the deadlines those services generate, the person who owns each one, and the engagement letter that defined the scope. It is not a general ledger, it does not prepare or transmit returns, and it does not calculate payroll — those stay in the tools your firm already files with.
The list below is the complete set of claims this site makes about the product. If a capability is not on it, we do not claim it.
- Multi-tenant white-label branding per firm — name, logo, colours, emails and letterhead
- Colour-coded SLA deadline dashboard ranked by proximity
- Aggregated reminders across tasks, service cadences and fiscal year-ends
- E-signed engagement letters with a public, no-login client portal
- Per-tenant Google Workspace integration
- Client portal
- Staff roles with confidential-client gating
- Canadian-hosted data (Supabase ca-central-1)
- Flat USD $1,200 per firm per year, all inclusive
- CSV/XLSX client import and export
Questions worth asking both vendors
Comparison grids converge because feature names converge. These six questions separate products that look identical on paper, and they are worth asking of ClickUp and of SpidNums alike.
- How is a deadline generated — from a rule tied to the client's fiscal year-end and reporting period, or from a recurring task somebody configured by hand?
- When a client's filing cadence changes, is that one field or a rewrite of every future date?
- Whose brand does the client see on emails, on the portal and on a signed engagement letter — and on which plan does that become true?
- Where is client data hosted, and is tenant isolation enforced in the database or only in the application? Get the answer in writing.
- What is the total annual cost at three seats and at ten? Ask for the total, not the per-user figure.
- What comes across on migration, and what does not? Clients usually move; documents, notes and completed work usually do not.
Who should choose ClickUp
A firm set on consolidating every internal tool into one heavily customised workspace — with a person who genuinely enjoys the configuration — should stay with ClickUp. Its breadth is real and the per-feature value is strong. SpidNums does much less, deliberately; if you want docs, whiteboards and chat in the same product as your tasks, we are not that.
If that describes your firm, take the other product seriously. If it does not, the practice management overview covers what SpidNums does in full.
Switching
Export client information from ClickUp to CSV, tidy it against SpidNums' import template, and import via CSV or XLSX. There is no direct connector. Task histories, docs and comments stay in ClickUp — keep it readable during the transition, and let assigned services regenerate the recurring work rather than recreating old tasks by hand.
SpidNums imports and exports clients as CSV or XLSX. There is no direct migration connector, so historical documents, notes and completed work do not come across automatically — plan the cutover around a period boundary rather than mid-season.
Frequently asked questions
Is ClickUp a good fit for accounting firms?
ClickUp suits firms that want maximum consolidation — tasks, docs, goals and dashboards in one product — and have someone who enjoys configuring it. Its flexibility is real, and so is the setup burden: the practice structure, CRA deadline recurrences and client-facing pieces are all things the firm designs rather than receives.
How much does ClickUp cost?
We have not verified ClickUp's current pricing and do not quote figures; check the vendor's pricing page. ClickUp prices per user across tiers. SpidNums takes the opposite approach: a flat USD $1,200 per firm per year with unlimited clients and team members, so adding seasonal staff costs nothing.
Can ClickUp track CRA deadlines?
ClickUp can hold any date a firm enters, and recurring tasks can model filing cadences — many firms do exactly that. The difference is where the logic lives: in ClickUp the firm encodes CRA rules itself; SpidNums generates deadlines from the client record — GST/HST by each client's cadence, year-end reminders a month before each fiscal year-end, personal tax every January.
How do I migrate from ClickUp to SpidNums?
Export your client information from ClickUp to CSV, then use SpidNums' CSV/XLSX import template to bring the list in. Assign services and cadences once, and deadlines generate from there. There is no direct connector; task histories, docs and comments remain in ClickUp for reference.