Jump for joy, it's time for the Vault Accounting 50, people.
If you're not up-to-date on your accounting profession rankings, this is the one that curates feedback from accounting professionals on accounting firms in a variety of areas including prestige, culture, empty work/life balance initiatives, tchotchkes, CEO sex appeal, etc. They have a full breakdown of the Vault Accounting 50 secret sauce if you're into that sort of thing.
The rankings are increasingly predictable as this year the top 8 firms didn't change at all and only one firm, Moss Adams, actually made a move, up to 9 from 11.
Here's the Top 10 from the Top 50:
1. PwC
2. EY
3. Deloitte
4. KPMG
5. Grant Thornton
6. BDO
7. McGladrey
8. Plante Moran
9. Moss Adams
10. Crowe Horwath
PwC is at the top for the 3rd year in a row, driven mostly by even more predictable prestige ranking. Here are the Top 10:
1. PwC
2. EY
3. Deloitte
4. KPMG
5. Grant Thornton
6. McGladrey
7. BDO
8. Crowe Horwath
9. Moss Adams
10. Baker Tilly Virchow Krause
The top 12 firms did not change from last year in this ranking.
The main story behind this year's lists is that PwC seems cemented as the most prestigious firm and scores well enough in other areas like Diversity (#1), Hours (#18), and Work/Life Balance (#10) to take the top spot in the overall ranking for a third year in a row. PwC also took top spots in all the practice areas the surveys cover: Audit & Assurance, Forensics, and Tax.
I guess this is why someone said that PwC, "in the accounting world, it’s the equivalent of going to Harvard," which, uh, I guess their colors are similar? Does that mean Columbia is KPMG? Is there are accounting firm equivalent of Rice or Northwestern? How far does this person's thinking go? Never mind the fact that someone else has already made this shitty comparison but used Deloitte instead.
Anyway, here are a few other winners in some of the sub-categories:
