INSIDE Public Accounting released its annual Top 500 list last week — a.k.a. the profession’s most prestigious dick-measuring contest, or perhaps second most prestigious after the actual prestige rankings from the artist formerly known as Vault — so of course we are eager to share the list with you so that you may, for just a moment, feel superior to people working the same miserable job you are because of some objective factor (revenue) that does not benefit you in any direct way.
First, some key information you should know:
Now in its 33rd year, the IPA 100 ranking includes the Big 4, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG, which collectively generated more than $84 billion in U.S. revenue, and 96 national, regional and local firms. These range from Chicago-based RSM US ($3.7 billion) at No. 5, and Wayne, Pa.-based Global Tax Management ($48.8 million) at No. 100. The non-Big 4 firms make up a total of $34.5 billion in net revenue and 129,110 staff.
Oh, and this:
“The labor shortage is a major driver behind the behavior of the IPA 100 firms,” says Charles Hylan, managing director at The Growth Partnership, IPA’s parent company. “The combination of too few professionals and high demand is pushing firm leaders to merge up, outsource tax work and hire non-CPAs, among other strategies. They seem to be working so far, as firms are growing fast and producing impressive financial results. The question now is whether year-over-year growth of 18% will continue next year.”
Ready for your top ten? EY might have been able to pull a upset to oust PwC from second place had they not been distracted with the dumpster fire that was Project Everest. Oh well, better luck next year.
| Firm | US Revenue |
|---|---|
| Deloitte | 27.9 billion |
| PwC | 21.3 billion |
| EY | 21.1 billion |
| KPMG | 13.7 billion |
| RSM | 3.7 billion |
| BDO | 2.8 billion |
| Grant Thornton | 2.3 billion |
| FORVIS | 1.7 billion |
| CLA | 1.7 billion |
| Baker Tilly | 1.6 billion |
Let’s compare to 2022, 2021 numbers are in parentheses:
- Deloitte (1)
- PwC (2)
- EY (3)
- KPMG (4)
- RSM (5)
- BDO (6)
- Grant Thornton (7)
- FORVIS (14 and 17*)
- CLA (8)
- Baker Tilly (9)
*BKD and DHG were in the 14th and 17th spots respectively in 2021, the FORVIS merger bumped them up together to #8 in 2022.
It isn’t until you get to #16 on this year’s list — CohnReznick — that you find a firm with less than one billion in revenue. If anyone has the 2013 IPA list available let us know, all our laptops from that era have been responsibly recycled so if we did save it it’s gone now and the link a PDF of it used to live at is dead as is the AccountingWEB URL we linked to in a quick story about it because all of AccountingWEB is dead. We’re curious to know just how much revenues have grown for the top firms on the list in the last decade, mostly so we can compare that growth to salary growth over the same period. You know why.
Anyway, full list here. IPA sells extended stats and data for $495 if you’re interested otherwise just check the table for your firm or wait for the inevitable press release they’ll put out to brag about being on this distinguished list to find out where your overlords rank.
