Monday Morning Accounting News Brief: Baker Tilly Looking at Debt Markets; PwC Partners to Take Home More Than a Mil | 7.20.26

Baker Tilly Seeking Debt Deal

A very interesting happening in the works at Baker Tilly, as reported by Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank AG is preparing to sell about $3 billion in debt markets for accounting services firm Baker Tilly Advisory Group to refinance private credit loans, according to people familiar with the matter.

The German bank is scheduled to hold meetings with investors in the leveraged loan market next week, said the people, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private.

Your AI Replacement Is Here?

Here’s a fun headline from INSIDE Public Accounting: Rational Launches AI Employees for Accounting Firms

San Francisco-based startup Rational launched AI agents designed to support accounting firms with work ranging from month-end close to tax preparation.

Backed by Y Combinator, the company said the agents can onboard through guided user interviews, build a shared company knowledge base, request documents and route work to team members for review and approval. Accountants retain oversight of the work.

Hmm. Sounds great but we’re gonna need to hear from people who’ve deployed it because we’re deep in the AI hype cycle at this point.

Meanwhile, another AI company you may have heard of is creeping everyone out with their latest ad.

Cohen & Co. Two Years Later

Crain’s Cleveland Business wrote about private equity and their headline made me think it was going to be about a flurry of private equity exit activity. “The accounting industry hits its private equity flip era” sounds like it’s about sales, right?

Instead, it’s mainly about Cohen & Co. and how their 2024 deal with Lovell Minnick Partners is working out. When we wrote that up two years ago our tipster was unusually positive about the whole thing (that is to say, unusual for Going Concern tipsters who are usually pissed off or otherwise aggrieved about something), telling us that staff would be getting bonuses as part of the PE deal and adding “I have a great deal of respect for the firm. They are good people.”

Anyway, back to Crain’s. A few bits from their piece:

Between fiscal 2023 and 2025, Cohen & Co. grew revenues by a whopping 47% to more than $224 million.

“Ultimately the strategic investment and partnership with Lovell Minnick enhanced our ability to achieve our strategic goals, which were in place before Lovell Minnick and remain unchanged to this day,” Cohen CEO Chris Bellamy told Crain’s. “We’re simply focused on meeting or exceeding the needs of our key stakeholders, including but not limited to our clients, employees, the markets and industries that we serve and the communities where we live.”

Hey tipster, if you see this reach out and let us know how it’s going now.

MNP Giving Big 4 a Run For Their Money

MNP up in Canada has been quite busy of late.

Homegrown national accounting firm MNP continues to expand its footprint with more than 10 acquisitions of smaller accounting firms and agencies thus far in 2026. The firm also had its 2025 inspection results released recently by Canada’s audit watchdog, the Canadian Public Accountability Board, which gave some indication of its audit industry market position relative to the Big Four.

According to its latest audit inspection report, the number of public companies audited by MNP compares favourably with its competitors in the Big Four. CPAB reports that, as of December 31, 2024, MNP audited 423 “reporting issuers” that fall within CPAB’s scope, 41 of which were listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

That is a higher number of public companies than those reported by CPAB for Deloitte (183), Ernst and Young (138), KPMG (284), or PricewaterhouseCoopers (271).

I naturally wondered how MNP was funding this acquisition spree, because it’s not private equity. For discussion on why private equity hasn’t shot capital all over Canadian firms’ faces, see this r/accounting thread from over the weekend: Why is private equity not buying canadian accounting firms? TLDR: They aren’t allowed to.

And then this comment:

I think in Canada, MNP plays the role that private equity firms play in the USA. The MNP model is to merge with the new firm (not acquire), add new partners, often add new real estate, and as long as the pot keeps growing at a faster rate than the number of partners, they’ll keep doing it.

Once the firm is merged in, that’s also when they start to see the new innovation and MNP way of doing things integrated into the firm. Essentially what the private equity money in the USA is trying to do.

Essentially, there is no player on the USA large enough to be the equivalent to MNP, not would the government allow a monopoly, but with private equity money, the goal is to have a few MNP equivalents in the USA within the next decade.

Also worth nothing, MNP’s growth strategy was a longterm one, spanning nearly 3 decades, with significant growth occurring in the past 8 years. Too long of a timeline for PE investors, so the additional capital is intended to accelerate that growth.

Just my opinion based on knowledge of the two markets.

That’s…just M&A, my guy.

And You Thought Your Firm Sucked

Over in Australia, an accounting firm owner who really hated doing payroll got in trouble:

Accounting firm Jazaa Accountants Pty Ltd (Jazaa) has been found to have breached the Fair Work Act 2009 and is liable to backpay an accountant after the Industrial Court of NSW determined that the practitioner was underpaid wages, annual leave entitlements, and superannuation, and found that he never received payslips and was requested to create his own.

Nafees Ahmed claims that Jazaa and its director, Jawwad Khan, are liable for underpayments totalling $31,732.75 plus interest in entitlements and has sought civil penalties against the two respondents for breaches of the Fair Work Act.

Ahmed gave evidence that “Mr Khan asked him if he would generate his own payslips if he were given access to Jazaa’s Xero account”.

“His account is that he said that he would prefer Jazaa to do it and that he did not receive any pay slips thereafter during the period of his employment,” said Justice Paingakulam.

The craziest part is that when Ahmed was hired in 2023 he was told he wouldn’t actually get paid until tax time rolled around. Just barrelling past those red flags like an enraged bull toward a matador.

PwC Partner Pay Ain’t Bad

PwC partners in the UK are getting a decent payout this year, reports Financial Times:

PwC’s UK partners are set to be paid an average of more than £900,000 ($1.2 million USD) this year after cost-cutting at the Big Four accounting firm helped lift their remuneration close to record levels.

Average profit per partner is expected to rise by a little over 5 per cent in the 12 months to June 2026 from the £865,000 payout the previous year, according to people familiar with the matter.

FT’s sources said the final numbers could change, like if the overlords of PwC overlords want to put a little extra money back into the business instead of partners’ pockets.