2nd Tier Accounting Firms
A listing of 2nd tier accounting firms is included below. The reason they are considered second tier accounting firms is because they are much smaller than the first tier accounting firms. The first tier accounting firms would be considered KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PwC. All of the top tier accounting firms earn over 25 billion in revenue. The highest earning 2nd tier accounting firm only earns about $8 billion in revenue per year. The 2nd tier accounting firms all have less than 100,000 employees as well. They offer professional services just like the big 4 do, but they offer them on a much smaller global scale than the big four accounting firms do.
2nd tier accounting firms:
- BDO
- RSM
- Grant Thornton
- Crowe Horwath
- Baker Tilly
- Nexia International
BDO
BDO is the fifth largest accounting firm in the world. They earned $8.1 billion for their fiscal year ended September 30, 2017.
BDO attributes their growth in 2017 to strategic mergers that occurred. In order for BDO to catch up to the big 4 accountancy firms they will have to continue merging internationally. It is the global presence that makes the big four the big 4.
BDO operates in over 150 countries in the world. The number of employees working at BDO was 74,000. BDO has 1,401 offices across the globe.
RSM
RSM is the next largest second tier accounting firm behind BDO. They earned revenues of $5.1 billion for their fiscal year ended December 31, 2017. As you might remember RSM launched their global brand recently in October 2015. The global brand has helped RSM reach the number sixth spot in the top 10 biggest accounting firms.
RSM has more than 43,000 employees working across their 800 offices.
Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton is another 2nd tier accounting firm. They earned revenues of $4.8 billion in 2016. The number of employees at Grant Thornton grew to 47,000 in 2016.
Grant Thornton operates in over 130 countries across the world.
Grant Thornton’s revenue by region were as follows
Africa – $98 million
Americas – $2,261 million
Asia Pacific – $692 million
CIS – $31 million
Europe – $1,667 million
Middle East – $40 million
Crowe Horwath
Crowe Horwath is the eighth largest accounting firm of the top 10 accounting firms in the world with $3.7 billion in revenue. Crowe Horwath moved ahead of Baker Tilly with their 2016 financial results.
Crowe Horwath has 216 member firms and operations in 129 countries. They have over 760 offices around the world.
Crowe Horwath has 35,327 employees around the world. 3,860 of those employees are partners and 26,447 are staff personnel.
Baker Tilly
Baker Tilly is the ninth largest accounting firm in the world. Their most recent fiscal year has them earning $3.2 billion in revenue. Baker Tilly has 30,490 professionals around the world.
They operate in over 147 countries.
Nexia International
Nexia is the last accounting firm on our listing of second tier accounting firms with $3.1 billion in revenue. The number of employees working at Nexia International was 24,781.
Nexia has 2,594 partners working around the world.
Nexia earns 50% of their revenue in North America, 43% in Europe, Middle East, & Africa, 6% in Asia Pacific and 1% in South America.
Nexia earns 45% of their revenue from audit work, 26% from tax services and 29% from advisory services.