TIL: There’s a Ranking of the Top 50 Construction Accounting Firms

The editors at Construction Executive must have been desperate to fill their editorial calendar for 2019 because the trade magazine just came out with its inaugural ranking of the top 50 accounting firms that provide services to construction clients.

Here’s all the work Construction Executive did to come up with its first-ever accounting firm listicle:

CE developed The Top 50 Construction Accounting Firms ranking by asking hundreds of U.S. construction accounting firms to complete a survey. Data collected included: 1) 2018 revenues from construction practice; 2) number of CPAs in construction practice; 3) percentage of firm’s total revenues from construction practice; 4) number of construction clients in 2018; 5) number of office locations with a construction accounting practice; 6) number of employees with CCIFP certification; and 7) year construction accounting practice established. The ranking was determined by an algorithm that weighted these factors in descending order of importance. Note: A number of accounting firms elected not to share revenues, which affected their ranking.

I’d bet that it was the Big 4 firms that didn’t offer up their construction practice revenues, or even participate in the survey, because Construction Executive didn’t care how prestigious they are or how absolutely amazing (allegedly) their cultures are. Which is fine because none of the Big 4 firms made the top 50. That’s refreshing. Neither did Grant Thornton and BDO.

So, which firm is the No. 1 construction accounting firm in the U.S.? It’s the love child of Clifton Gunderson and LarsonAllen:

CLA ranked top construction accounting firm by Construction Executive magazine. #CLApromise #CreateOpportunities https://t.co/YGDfNZanPK

— CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) (@CLAconnect) August 1, 2019

CLA has the second-most construction CPAs (254) behind RSM US (1,631), and it has 6,762 construction clients, which is second behind RSM’s 7,923, according to the survey results.

Here are the top 25 construction accounting firms in Construction Executive’s ranking. You can download the magazine’s report to find out firms 26 to 50.

1. CliftonLarsonAllen
2. RSM US
3. Crowe
4. Moss Adams
5. Wipfli
6. Baker Tilly
7. Marcum
8. CohnReznick
9. BKD
10. Eide Bailly
11. Dixon Hughes Goodman
12. CBIZ & MHM
13. Aldrich CPAs + Advisors
14. Anchin, Block & Anchin
15. Withum
16. Berntson Porter & Co.
17. Somerset CPAs and Advisors
18. The Bonadio Group
19. Doeren Mayhew
20. Hertzbach & Co.
21. Schneider Downs
22. Horne
23. Castellano, Korenberg & Co., CPA
24. Harding Shymanski & Co.
25. Sax

If you have thoughts on this ranking, you know what to do.