Size and Scope of the Public Accounting Firm

are organizations that provide professional services to their clients. These services may include auditing, attestation, assurance, tax preparation, tax strategy, business valuation, risk assessment, information system design and implementation, and other consulting engagements. Because a public accountant engaged to perform an audit of a company’s financial statements is required to be independent of the client, he is often referred to as the or the .

Size and Scope of a Firm

Public accounting firms range in size from a single-person firm to a multi-national firm employing tens of thousands of employees. In general, public accounting firms provide services to business clients of similar sizes. For example, a smaller local accounting firm is unlikely to possess the expertise and human resources to provide effective services to a Fortune 500 company like Walmart or Exxon Mobil. On the other hand, a large multi-national accounting firm would likely be too expensive (and too busy) to provide services to a local restaurant or used car dealership. Because companies of all sizes and in all industries have needs for public accounting services, the market is filled with public accounting firms that vary in size and expertise.

The largest four public accounting firms (known as the ) are global networks of partners and other professionals who provide services to the vast majority of the largest companies around the world. As a general rule, if you can think of a company with national or global brand recognition, it is most likely audited by one of the Big 4 firms. Beyond the Big 4 is a relatively short list of national and large regional firms that provide services to the next tier of business clients. The vast majority of public accounting firms are smaller local and regional firms that meet the needs of the various local and regional clients in their respective areas.

The table below includes data on the ten largest public accounting firms in the world according to Accounting Today's Top 100 U.S. Public Accounting Firms ranking. 1

Table 1.1
2024 Top 10 U.S. Public Accounting Firms
Firm Name 2024 U.S. Revenues ($B) 2024 Global Revenues ($B) U.S. Partners Total U.S. Employees Number of U.S. Offices U.S. Fee Split %
            Audit & Attest Tax Advisory Other
Deloitte 33.05 67.20 6,905 172,809 136 27 16 57 0
PricewaterhouseCoopers 23.56 55.4 4,046 76,937 73 27 25 48 0
Ernst & Young 21.84 51.2 3,800 54,250 90 29 25 46 0
KPMG 12.61 38.4 2,421 48,624 90 31 30 40 0
RSM 4.05 10.00 1,183 17,773 79 28 33 38 1
BDO 2.89 15.00 874 12,169 70+ 40 41 19 0
CBIZ / CBIZ CPAs 2.76 2.76 979 9,883 151 26 34 24 16
Grant Thornton 2.37 7.70 561 9,075 46 42 27 31 0
Forvis Mazars 2.15 5.20 641 7,504 80 36 32 32 0
CLA 2.05 2.05 1,348 8,076 130 32 38 24 6

Notice the dramatic differences between the Big 4 firms and the next tier of public accounting firms. For example, the smallest Big 4 firm (KPMG) generates more than $38 billion in global revenue annually and employs more than 48,000 individuals in the U.S. The largest non-Big 4 firm (RSM) produces just over $10 billion in global revenues and employs fewer than 18,000 individuals in the U.S. To further illustrate the disparity in firm size, consider the following: you could add up the annual revenues of the 4 largest non-Big 4 firms shown in the table and still generate less than the smallest of the Big 4 firms. These differences increase dramatically when looking at client revenues and numbers of clients.

Many people have expressed concern regarding the perceived lack of competition in the market for auditing services, particularly for the larger public companies around the world. As mentioned previously, large clients are generally served by the largest accounting firms due to the small firms’ lack of personnel and other resources necessary to perform the audit of these large clients.

Independence requirements prohibit external auditors from providing a variety of for their audit clients. As a result, most large public companies employ at least two of the Big 4 firms: one to perform the audit and another to provide consulting and other non-audit services. When you consider that the Big 4 firms also specialize in certain industries, a given company may only have two or three public accounting firms to choose from when deciding which firm to engage as its external auditor.

Because of these inherent restrictions, large firms may feel limited in their choice of public accounting firms. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has performed two separate studies regarding concentration in the market for auditing services. In general, they have concluded that the lack of competition in the market is not a significant concern because no significant negative effect on the market for audit services has been observed (GAO 2003, GAO 2008).

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