Honest about what it is: a revenue league table. Just do not mistake bigger for better.
What it's really for A revenue league table for the accounting trade. It ranks firms by size, and says so plainly.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its revenue league table of CPA firms, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
- Operating since
- 1990 (36 years)
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Subscriptions and a practice-management survey. Does not sell placement.
- What they do
- Ranks the largest US CPA firms strictly by self-reported net revenue, and is transparent that revenue is the sole criterion.
- What to watch for
- It only tells you which firms are biggest, not which are good. A small firm could be perfect for you and never appear on the list at all.
- Composite score
- 3.30 / 5.00 → grade B
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Firms are ranked by net revenue using self-reported data from the IPA Practice Management Survey; it is a revenue ranking, not a quality evaluation. Source: INSIDE Public Accounting →