Accounting
Art of Accounting: The vanishing buyers of small practices
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There is no question that there is widespread consolidation of accounting practices, but this is taking place among the larger firms. You can read about a merger or acquisition multiple times a week in Accounting Today. The trend I have seen is difficulty in small practices finding suitable buyers.
I believe the shortage of buyers of small practices is because the potential buyers are not qualified to handle a small practice. When I “grew up” in public accounting, I worked for small firms where I needed to do everything a client needed done. Sure, it was a less complicated period, but I needed knowledge and skills preparing all types of tax returns, as well as financial statements that were mostly compilations but still with a fair amount of reviews and even some audits. I also had to do systems review, not just filling out internal control questionnaires but helping a client work through weaknesses they had discovered or that kept them awake at night. The job involved speaking with bankers about what they wanted, the purpose of the business’s covenants and compensating balance amounts and quality of collateral.
We were reviewing escalation clauses in leases, calming down an IRS revenue officer when a client fell behind paying the withholding taxes, helping a client understand the total costs of their products and their breakeven sales amounts, the layered structure of payments to their salespeople and representatives, how to calculate their interim inventory and industry expertise. We also became sounding boards to our clients and “unlicensed” psychologists. I tell a lot of stories about this in my Memoirs book.
What has been occurring over the last two dozen or so years is a trend toward specialization or partitioning of skills. The reasons are the growing complexity of tax returns, combined with digitization of the input and many of the repetitive processes, along with the even greater difficulty of financial statement preparation, reviews and audits.
The use of virtual work has been growing over this period, with a great acceleration since the COVID shutdown in March 2020 that has reduced the relational interaction with clients. That was an important driver of queries and discussions, providing insights into a client’s thinking and concerns. A lot of higher-level discussions were with the partner but plenty of them also took place with the “kid” spending that day with the client. None of this is good or bad, it is just different, and while it raised specialized skill levels it also served to reduce the one thing that I felt created the smaller firm’s raison d’être as well as a training ground for future CPA practice owners.
Do not misunderstand me. The relationships and interactions still exist, especially with older practitioners. But it is a declining skill or talent. The younger staff are not being presented with the opportunities that were ubiquitous during my and some later generations, but no longer so. This means that the skills needed to succeed in a smaller practice have declined and this serves to decrease the pool of available buyers.
Furthermore, moonlighting, which was prevalent in my day, has become less frequent, primarily because of the longer work hours. When coupled with the drop in skill levels needed to properly service smaller clients, it has reduced the staff people’s “desire” to seek out after hours work opportunities. Again, things have changed, not just one thing but a confluence of actions.
Considering what I suggested here, the pool of available buyers of small practices has declined. It has not exactly vanished as the headline title suggests, but I think we are past the beginning of this trend. That has made it harder to sell a small practice and has served to reduce the prices and lengthen the time to consummate a sale, stretching out the exit period.
Twenty years ago selling a small practice was pretty easy since there was an abundance of buyers. That’s not so anymore. This is a trend that is occurring because of changing circumstances, not because of any predestined plan or conspiracy.
These comments are based on my limited observations of colleagues I have met or spoken with who have had extreme difficulties selling their practices that I know would have been easy sales 20 years ago. The purpose of sharing my thoughts is to provide a heads up of what might be expected, including a longer sale process and a lower sales price. I suggest factoring my thoughts into your planning. If I am wrong, you will have lost nothing.
Comment: My Memoirs as a CPA book has been published and is available in Kindle and print editions at amazon.com. Buy it, read it and enjoy it! Do not hesitate to contact me at
President Donald Trump’s drive to enact trillions of dollars in tax cuts and raise the federal debt is on track after he and congressional leaders successfully corralled House Republican lawmakers to approve a
The 216-214 vote Thursday on the budget — which outlines the parameters for the tax cut and
The president worked the holdouts by phone and in a White House meeting. House Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference to declare himself “committed” to coming up with at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. And Senate Republican leader John Thune joined the speaker to announce “a lot of” Republican senators shared the goal, though he stopped short of a commitment.
It was enough.
With the budget approved, the way is open for a follow-on package to cut taxes by up to $5.3 trillion over a decade and raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, in exchange for $4 billion in spending cuts. Republicans can now pass Trump’s tax-cut agenda solely on GOP votes, bypassing the need for negotiations with Democrats.
Trump offered congressional Republicans “Congratulations” in a social media post minutes after the vote.
The vote came a day after Trump announced a 90-day pause on some of his sweeping tariff plans that have roiled markets and sparked predictions of a looming recession. Financial markets — often a barometer of success for the president — initially soared on the news, though U.S. stocks
Republicans are planning to renew Trump’s first-term tax cuts for households and the owners of privately held businesses, and enact a fresh round of reductions, including expanding the state and local tax deduction and eliminating levies on tipped wages.
Conservative hardliners in the House say they want a final package to trim $2 trillion in spending over the next decade, a significant increase over the $4 billion the Senate is directed to cut in the budget passed Saturday. To make those reductions they’ll likely need to curb Medicaid, food stamps and other social programs with tens of millions of beneficiaries.
A group of moderate Republicans sought — and gained — assurances from Johnson during the vote that the final bill would not cut benefits for qualified Medicaid individuals and institutions, said New Jersey Republican Jeff Van Drew.
“We voted late to make the point,” Van Drew said.
The group, however, is open to eligibility reviews and work requirements for Medicaid recipients, he said.
The budget outline punts many of the hard decisions for lawmakers to hammer out later in the tax-cut negotiations. That could lead to a standoff with the Senate at the end of the process, where several members are resistant to large cuts in safety-net programs.
Democrats assailed the plan as cutting benefits for the poor in order to pay for a tax cut skewed toward the wealthy.
“Republicans do nothing to lower the high cost of living,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the House floor. “In fact, you’re making the affordability crisis in America worse, not better, when you target earned benefits and things that are important to the American people, like Medicaid.”
Senator John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said GOP lawmakers in both chambers are committed to “very serious savings for the American taxpayer.”
Trump hosted Republican holdouts at the White House on Tuesday to urge their backing. He echoed his pleas while speaking later that day at a donor event in Washington, imploring members who were hesitant to vote for the budget to “just get the damn thing done and stop showboating.”
“It is IMPERATIVE that Republicans in the House pass the Tax Cut Bill, NOW! Our Country Will Boom!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday.
Johnson has set a target of the end of May to enact the tax bill, while Senate Republicans have talked of being able to complete the process by August. The 2017 tax cuts don’t expire until the end of the year.
Those self-imposed deadlines could be overrun by a fiscal deadline: the debt ceiling.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Treasury will be unable to pay all of its bills in August or September, but that date could come as soon as late May if tax receipts are low.
Baker Tilly, a Top 25 Firm based in Chicago, reportedly is close to a megamerger with Moss Adams, another Top 25 Firm based in Seattle, creating a firm with $3 billion in annual revenue.
The deal, reported Wednesday by
Baker TIlly declined to confirm the deal, but acknowledged it’s always searching for merger candidates.
“We can’t comment on speculation or confidential discussions,” said Baker Tilly spokesperson Nicole Berkeland in an email to Accounting Today. “What we can say is that we’ve been transparent about our strategy to grow through strategic mergers. We are continually exploring opportunities with respected firms that align with our vision and will strengthen our ability to serve the middle market.”
Moss Adams also declined to comment. “It’s our policy not to comment on market speculation,” said Moss Adams spokesperson Greg Kunkel.
Koltin Consulting Group CEO Allan D. Koltin, who has previously advised Baker Tilly and Moss Adams on strategy and M&A, sees major ramifications from the deal. “Just when we thought nothing could get any bigger in CPA firm M&A than Forvis (formerly BKD and Dixon Hughes), and CBIZ (formerly CBIZ and Marcum), here comes Baker Tilly and Moss Adams (potentially) combining to create the sixth largest CPA firm in the country (only behind the Big Four and RSM),” Koltin said in an email. “After the combination, Baker Tilly will become the largest (non-Big Four) CPA firm in the Western region and Moss Adams will become part of a Top 10 Global Network. Additionally, both firms will bring over their unique areas of industry specialization and service line expertise which should provide robust organic growth opportunities to the combined firm. As a 44-year veteran and advisor to the accounting profession, I daresay there has been more change and transformation in the accounting profession in the past 4 years than the 40 prior years combined!”
Another merger expert also sees benefits in the combination. “The primary reason for this reported merger is to expand both firms’ scale and market position,” said Brad Haller, a senior partner in West Monroe’s mergers and acquisitions practice. This move would significantly boost Moss Adams’ scale and provide Baker Tilly with access to Moss Adams’ extensive client base. Together, they would become the sixth largest firm, leapfrogging over Grant Thornton and others. Additionally, this merger would allow Moss Adams to tap into Baker Tilly’s global networks, enabling them to expand their wallet share with clients. While there will be modest synergies in the long term as they combine redundant support services, the immediate benefits of this merger would be substantial.”
Baker Tilly is part of the Baker Tilly International network, based in London, which reported $5.6 billion in worldwide revenue in 2024. Baker Tilly has done several acquisitions since receiving
Last May, it merged in
Moss Adams does not do M&A deals as often, but last December, it entered the Salesforce.com consulting market by acquiring
States are looking beyond the 150-hour requirement for CPA licensure and adding alternative pathways amid the profession’s pervasive ongoing talent shortage.
See below for where things stand in those states that are moving forward on the issue, and read
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