On Tuesday, Ernst & Young became the third surprise victor in the Vault Accounting 50; the first Big 4 firm to take the honor since the change in methodology for the 2011 list. It's a comeback of sorts for E&Y who has basically been the butt of many, many, many Lehman Brothers jokes. For some people, the Vault 50 is a dubious honor specifically because the methodology gives weight to culture, work-life balance, compensation, business outlook, job satisfaction – things that people pretend they care about (okay, maybe they really care about money). But honestly, isn't what people care about it name recognition? Reputation? That certain something that, when someone walks in the room, you think to yourself, "I bet his/her excrement has not scent at all!" That's what people are really concerned with when it comes to their accounting firm of choice, right? Oh, fuck it – who knows. Let's just get to the list:
1 (1) PwC
2 (3) Ernst & Young
3 (2) Deloitte
4 (4) KPMG
5 (5) Grant Thornton
6 (6) McGladrey
7 (7) BDO
8 (8) Moss Adams
9 (9) J.H. Cohn
10 (11) Crowe Horwath
11 (10) Plante Moran
12 (17) Baker Tilly Virchow Krause
13 (18) Reznick Group
14 (12) Clifton Gunderson
15 (16) BKD
16 (13) EisnerAmper
17 (15) Rothstein Kass
18 (25) Wipfli
19 (19) Dixon Hughes Goodman
20 (20) Cherry, Bekaert & Holland
21 (24) ParenteBeard
22 (23) CBIZ
23 (27) Marcum
24 (30) Eide Bailly
25 (22) WeiserMazars
The problem with the prestige list is that it's predictable. PwC will be number 1, E&Y and Deloitte will swap 2 and 3 here and there and KPMG is far off the medal stand. Things will remain this way until Arthur Andersen gets the Lazarus treatment.
