How much do Big 4 people really care about Vault’s annual Accounting 50? PwC, Deloitte, and KPMG and their employees probably care way more about the ranking than EY and its employees because those firms routinely comprise the top three positions. EY, on the other hand, hasn’t participated in Vault’s annual survey of accounting professionals for several years, which is why the firm was ranked 29th in the newly released 2022 Vault Accounting 50, followed by a 29th in 2021, 27th in 2020, and 28th in 2019. At least the Black and Yellow has bragging rights over the other three in consulting.
We care about the Vault Accounting 50 because, among other things, we like reading the one- and two-star anonymous reviews from verified employees who must have been absent the day the Kool-Aid was handed out at the Big 4 and top midtier public accounting firms. We’ll get to some of those later this week, along with the most prestigious firm (spoiler: same as usual) and the quality-of-life categories.
But first, the Vault Accounting 50, which is based on a survey of thousands of accounting professionals who were asked to rate their own firms in various workplace categories, such as culture, compensation, hours, and work/life balance. They were also asked to rate their peer firms in terms of prestige. The Accounting 50 is compiled using a weighted formula based on these internal and external ratings.
For the ninth straight year, PwC was named the best accounting firm to work for with a score of 8.742 out of 10—the highest score by any firm in the 12-year history of the Vault Accounting 50. The top five remains the same as 2021: PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, BDO USA, and Plante Moran.
Here’s the 2022 Vault Accounting 50 in its entirety (previous year’s ranking in parenthesis):
1. PwC (1)
2. Deloitte (2)
3. KPMG (3)
4. BDO USA (4)
5. Plante Moran (5)
6. RSM US (7)
7. Baker Tilly (6)
8. Moss Adams (8)
9. CohnReznick (9)
10. CBIZ MHM (13)
11. Friedman (10)
12 (tie). Schellman & Co. (11)
12 (tie). Withum (18)
14. Brown Smith Wallace (16)
15. PKF O’Connor Davies (13)
16. Armanino (15)
17. Eide Bailly (17)
18. Frank, Rimerman + Co. (12)
19. Marcum (35)
20. Grassi & Co. (20)
21. Aprio (19)
22. Marks Paneth (27)
23. Mazars USA (23)
24. Frazier & Deeter (24)
25. Sikich (25)
26. Rehmann (26)
27. BPM (22)
28. Freed Maxick (28)
29. EY (29)
30. Grant Thornton (30)
31. Crowe (31)
32. CliftonLarsonAllen (33)
33. BKD (32)
34. EisnerAmper (36)
35. Dixon Hughes Goodman (34)
36. Cherry Bekaert (37)
37. Citrin Cooperman (39)
38. Wipfli (38)
39. RubinBrown (41)
40. UHY Advisors (40)
41. Cohen & Co. (43)
42. The Siegfried Group (42)
43. Squar Milner (NR)
44. Elliott Davis (21)
45. Blumshapiro (44)
46. Berdon (48)
47. Anchin (46)
48. Bennett Thrasher (50)
49. Carr, Riggs & Ingram (45)
50. Novogradac & Co. (47)
We’ll continue digging through the 2022 rankings and post some more stuff this week.
Related article:
Such a farce