Katz, Sapper & Miller, a Top 50 Firm based in Indianapolis, has added ValueKnowledge LLC, a valuation and advisory firm based in Downers Grove, Illinois, in the Chicago area, effective Oct. 21.

ValueKnowledge specializes in business valuations, including fair value analyses of intangible assets and impairment testing of goodwill, as well as valuations of debt and equity interests, including complex securities, for financial reporting and tax purposes. The firm also offers litigation support services for shareholder disputes and other matters. 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. KSM ranked No. 49 on Accounting Today‘s 2024 list of the Top 100 Firms, with 2023 revenue of $144,875,000. KSM has 750 employees across the U.S., including 70 partners.  

As part of the deal, ValueKnowledge’s Jim Krillenberger and Andy Stebbins will be joining KSM as managing director and director, respectively, of KSM’s business valuation practice. Krillenberger founded ValueKnowledge in 2005.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the ValueKnowledge team to KSM,” said Mike North, partner-in-charge of KSM’s advisory services, in a statement Tuesday. “Jim’s extensive experience — from his leadership at Big Four firms, to building his own successful valuation practice — adds incredible depth to our team and value for our clients. Andy’s proven skills and dedication to client success will further enhance our team’s capabilities. Integrating ValueKnowledge strengthens KSM’s advisory role, better equipping us to guide clients through complex financial decisions.”

Krillenberger has over 25 years of experience in business valuations. He previously worked as a partner at PwC, a partner in EY’s Transaction Advisory Services practice, and a managing director in Standard & Poor’s valuation practice. Stebbins has over a decade of business valuation experience working on hundreds of engagements for private and public companies.

“KSM’s reputation and client-centered approach make this a natural and exciting next step for ValueKnowledge,” said Krillenberger. “The alignment of our teams allows us to combine strengths and seamlessly continue to serve our clients while offering them expanded services and solutions.”

ValueKnowledge has done work for publicly traded entities, private equity-owned businesses, and large middle-market companies in various industries.”

KSM recently added Shanholt Glassman Klein Kramer & Co., a firm based in New York that specializes in real estate clients, and its 65 employees as of Oct. 31. KSM expanded into Ohio in May by adding Cassady Schiller in Cincinnati. In addition to its offices in Cincinnati and New York, KSM also operates offices in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Evansville, Indiana, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It acquired Noble Consulting Services, an insurance regulatory consulting firm in Indianapolis in 2021, and last year Noble acquired Eide Bailly’s insurance regulatory practice. In 2019, KSM acquired Caskey & Daily, an Indianapolis-based tax and accounting firm.

Finance platform Rho launched the Rho Partner Portal for Accountants, a version of Rho designed specifically for partners at Rho who are accountants. This could include fractional CFOs, heads of a particular practice within a large firm, accountants with just their own book of clients, and more. 

Essentially, the solution delivers Rho’s cash and spend management capabilities, with the added benefit of providing accounting partners a consolidated view of their entire book of business. 

Users can: 

• Manage team access to client accounts with fixed roles for security and efficiency;
• Request client account access, set user permissions, and manage connections from a single dashboard;
• Invite clients to Rho and track status with real-time updates for onboarding clients with minimal friction;
• Use two-factor authentication to access the portal; 
• Chat, email or talk on the phone with dedicated points of contact; and, 
• Access a consolidated snapshot of the team, and which accounts they can access. 

Rho developed the portal in response to feedback from accounting partners, who talked about the challenges of provisioning users in and out of client accounts as staffing changes, especially if they cannot self-serve the process. 
Firms wanted a simple repeatable way to get their clients onboarded to the solution they are recommending, as errors or lack of guidance in the onboarding phase start a relationship on a weak note. 

The security measures, such as two-factor authentication, were added in response to feedback from accounting partners, as they wanted to ensure data is protected during the onboarding process and that the right permissions are granted at the onset without having to chase specific people or reuse shared credentials that are vulnerable to exploitation.

“The Rho Partner Portal marks the latest step in our commitment to building the finance platform that accountants love—one that makes it easier for partners to introduce staff and new clients to Rho and deliver more client value faster,” said the company’s blog post announcing the release. 

While the feature is called Partner Portal for Accountants, a spokesperson said Rho intends for more than just accountants to use it in the long term.

The International Accounting Standards Board is looking for feedback on some targeted improvements it’s proposing to make to improve the requirements for recognizing and measuring provisions on corporate balance sheets. 

These provisions are usually liabilities of an uncertain timing or amount, so investors would like to see more transparent and comparable information about companies’ provisions for assessing future cash flows and financial positions. The IASB’s targeted improvements aim to help companies apply the requirements more consistently and give investors more useful information.

The proposed amendments to IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets, would clarify how companies assess when to record provisions and how to measure them. The amendments would also require companies to offer more information about the measurement. They would probably be mostly relevant for companies that have large long-term asset decommissioning obligations or are subject to levies and similar government-imposed charges.

“Our proposals clarify the accounting requirements for provisions, helping companies provide better information for investors,” said IASB chair Andreas Barckow in a statement Tuesday. 

The IASB is presenting the proposals in three documents:

The IASB is asking for feedback on the proposed amendments by March 12, 2025.