Vault Accounting 50 Rankings: Digging Into The Top 10

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Kicking off our series of posts on the Vault Accounting 50 is the Top 10 firms. While we’ve got two very familiar names at the top, the rest of the top ten you may not be familiar with.

Feel free to comment on any of the firms in the top ten and their appropriateness or lack thereof or whatever else strikes you.

Plus If you’ve got any news, gossip or other information (compensation, cost-saving ingenuity and so on) for any of these firms that is fit for this here site, do get in touch with us at tips@goingconcern.com.

Now before we get to the highlights and lowlights on each, let’s refresh your memory on the top ten:

1. Deloitte – New York, NY
2. PricewaterhouseCoopers – New York, NY
3. Rothstein Kass – Roseland, NJ
4. Marcum – Melville, NY
5. Dixon Hughes – High Point, NC
6. Moss Adams – Seattle, WA
7. Elliott Davis – Greenville, SC
8. Friedman – New York, NY
9. Kaufman, Rossin & Company – Miami, FL
10. Cherry, Bekaert & Holland – Richmond, VA


Here’s some of the buzz (and maybe a comment from us) from Vault’s profiles on the top ten:

• Deloitte – “Earning potential as a partner is huge” but “Long path to partner” (that includes working “a lot of hours and weekends”)

• PricewaterhouseCoopers – “The dean of public accounting” but “Pompous; GPA’s their only concern—they don’t consider experience or ambition”

• Rothstein Kass – “Underdogs; competitors, hard workers” that are “Understaffed and undertrained”

• Marcum – “Close to the Big Four—and growing in size daily”; “Works you to death; will spit you out if they don’t think you’re top talent”

• Dixon Hughes – “Plenty of opportunities to advance”; “Headaches of rapid growth yet still limited by regional size”

• Moss Adams – “Well-run, great firm”; “Could do better with its overall minority recruiting efforts” (Barry Salzberg might be willing to help!)

• Elliott Davis – “Good, smaller firm”; “Lacks technical expertise”

• Friedman – “Easy going atmosphere”; “Heavy pressure” (Jekkyl and Hyde?)

• Kaufman, Rossin & Company – “Great working environment”; “Works with a lot of hedge funds; boys’ club”

• Cherry, Bekaert & Holland – “Very reputable; Southern powerhouse”; “Work product is subpar”

And a sample of stories around these parts on the Top 10:

• Deloitte associates attempting hip-hop

• A PwC partner in Houston that might make you think twice about attending happy hours

• Pre-Labor layoffs at Rothstein Kass

• Consider hitting the books before interviewing at Marcum

• Moss Adams picked up Grant Thornton’s Albuquerque office

• Kaufman, Rossin settled their lawsuit over their role in missing the Petters Ponzi Scheme for a shade under $10 mil.

Related Posts

Strip Club Owner, Sans High School Diploma, Blames His Accountant for Tax Troubles

When you own a strip club there are certain things that you understand. Things like, knowing that there is large portion of the male species that will pay women to take off their clothes regardless of the fact that sex is not happening. And while this is going on, they’ll imbibe lots of booze. And eventually, they may get hungry and with the last sliver of will power they have left, pull themselves away to pay $5.99 for a prime rib buffet. AND since there’s no windows in the place these men will stay in your strip club and spend money until you throw them out or they’ve spent every last dime. Oh, and poles are imperative.

On the other hand, there are things that strip club owners are less savvy about. One of these things may be tax compliance. Accordingly, many proprietors find a local accountant, they swap services, everyone wins.


However, every once in awhile this traditional arrangement may run awry. Kevin Moury, owner of Kittens (NSFW), is suing his accountant, Michael Walsh, for negligence in preparing his returns that resulted in “criminal charges, penalties, costs, fines, loss of income, medical expenses, loss of life’s enjoyments, emotional distress and mental anguish.”

Okay, before we continue, we have to ask – “loss of life’s enjoyments” and “medical expenses” because of a CPA? Where do we draw the line people? Next thing you know, accountants will be blamed for the collapse of the entire financial system…

Anyhoo, Moury pleaded guilty in October to “federal charges of falsifying tax returns and failing to report substantial cash income.” He spent one night in jail, got nine months of house arrest and had to pay back taxes of $88k, etc. etc.

This all came up because Moury apparently thought it was a-okay to deposit money from various revenue streams like fining dancers for tardiness or bolting early, massages for customers, and Jell-O shots (you know, the usual stuff) and then not report it as income. Obviously the IRS was not cool with this, prosecutors threatened to go after his wife and daughters (all employees at Kittens, btw) and that got him to plead guilty.

As a result of his guilty plea, Moury lost a sweet $90k/year gig as a “superintendent of environmental management” (which sounds a lot like “boss of the garbage collectors” but whatevs) and this resulted in lost future earnings of $1.3 million, allegeth the lawsuit.

Regardless, this shit ain’t fair and the accountant needs to be held responsible (his attorney the allegations or “groundless”) and Moury’s attorney isn’t shying away from the stupidity defense:

The lawsuit claims Moury’s lack of formal education — he didn’t finish high school and has a high school equivalency certificate — led him to rely on Walsh to accurately report his income and prepare his tax returns.

“Mr. Moury gave his accountant anything and everything for his business, his real estate and the salary from his job with Methuen,” Cote said. “He signed the returns, but did he looked at them? No. Is he responsible? Yes.

Strip club owner blames accountant for his tax woes [Eagle-Tribune]

RSM McGladrey Can Explain the Disappointing Year

H&R Block announced its earnings for fiscal 2010 yesterday which included the details for the fka RSM McGladrey. The company’s press release basically says that times are tough but RSM had some good reasons for that.


For starters, the small tiff with M&P sort of put a damper on things and a nasty goodwill write-off:

RSM McGladrey reported fiscal 2010 pretax income of $58.7 million, down nearly 39 percent from $96.1 million in the prior year. Revenues declined 4.2 percent to $860.3 million, primarily due to the impact of the overall weak economic environment, which continues to pressure billable rates and hours within the industry. Profitability was negatively impacted by costs associated with previously resolved arbitration proceedings involving McGladrey & Pullen and other costs of litigation totaling $14.5 million in the aggregate, as well as a $15.0 million goodwill impairment charge at our capital markets business unit.

A 39% drop in profits could explain the nationwide layoffs at McGladrey that we reported on earlier this month. It’s a good thing they didn’t have the ginormous golf cake in this year’s numbers, otherwise the results would have been worse.

But if you ignore all that, things were essentially flat and everyone knows that flat is the new up!

Excluding these charges, pretax income would have been approximately $88 million and pretax margin for the segment would have been 10.3 percent, essentially flat with the prior year. The shortfall in revenues was partially mitigated by cost reduction efforts throughout the year. These efforts included headcount reductions to reflect lower client demand, as well as other non-client facing cost reduction initiatives.

OH! There’s the layoffs and they’re citing “lower client demand.” Thoughts on that, anyone?

H&R Block Reports Fiscal 2010 Financial Results [Market Wire]