Industry Focus · Accounting Firms
Selling an accounting practice?
We help owners of Australian accounting practices prepare for a sale and run it, often as founders near retirement. Internal succession is getting harder to fund, and outside buyers are active.
01 · Coverage
Sectors we serve.
The buyers, the structure and the price change with every type of practice.
- CPA practices
- Bookkeeping and payroll
- Tax preparation and international tax
- Audit firms
- Outsourced CFO services
- Advisory and consulting practices
- Specialist e-commerce and medical practices
- Specialist property and R&D practices
By the numbers · Indicative
12 – 36mo
Earn-out tied to client retention
20 – 50%
Of the price is often deferred
$1 – $20m
Revenue range buyers are most active in
02 · Market dynamics
What's driving M&A right now.
- Succession. A large group of founders is nearing retirement with few internal options.
- Consolidation. Mid-tier firms and private equity backed groups are buying practices with $1M to $20M in revenue.
- Advisory work. Buyers favour cloud-based, advisory-led firms over compliance-heavy ones.
03 · Value drivers
What buyers pay for.
Headline revenue is the easy number to quote. The premium sits in how well that revenue holds once the founder steps back.
- Recurring fees: compliance, bookkeeping, fixed-fee advisory
- Long-standing clients, especially five years or more
- Strong managers and senior staff
- Specialist work that is hard to copy
Cloud-based, advisory-led firms attract the strongest prices.”
04 · Mechanics
How deals are structured, and what catches owners out.
Practice sales live or die in the handover, so the structure has to keep both sides aligned through it.
- Earn-outs follow client retention. They typically run 12 to 36 months.
- Vendor finance is common. 20 to 50% of the price is often deferred.
- Restraints are heavily negotiated. Restraint of trade clauses are material to value.
One partner being the rainmaker is the most common discount we see.
- Key-person risk. When one partner brings in the work, buyers worry the clients will leave too.
- Client concentration. Too much of the fee base sits with the top ten clients.
- Overstated profit. Gaps between charge-out rates and what is actually billed can flatter the numbers.
Other industries we focus on
Considering a sale or merger?
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If you're a partner planning your exit, talk to us before you tell the team. The first call is confidential and carries no obligation.
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