The world’s largest accounting names are known as The Big Four and they offer a variety of services: audit, taxation, consultancy, and legal services too. Learn more here.
The Big Four
Originally known as the Big Eight, this has now reduced to four after a series of mergers. They handle the audits of many large public and private firms – including 99% of FTSE 100 firms.
Deloitte
Deloitte is a British company and is the largest of the four in terms of employees and revenue.
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is another British firm headquartered in London and is the second largest of the big 4.
PwC was formed in 1988 as a result of a merger between Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse. In 2017 it became the first Big Four firm to accept bitcoin as a currency.
EY
Known as Ernst and Young, this is another British organisation based in London and dated back to 1849. The company came about as a result of a series of mergers.
Out of all the Big Four, EY is the one most rigorously managed on an international scale due to it having global standards for all employees, no matter where they are based. Client work of EY is managed by the many member firms it has around the world.
It has been rated an attractive employer within publication such as Forbes, among others.
KPMG
The last in our list of the Big Four was set up in the UK, but its head office is currently in The Netherlands.
For 8 years in a row, KPMG has been votes as one of Canada’s best 100 employers and was also rated as one of Greater Toronto’s top employers – announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.
All these firms are widely regarded as some of the ideal places to work in the world and all of the big four have a presence in most of the world’s major cities. They also all have a few hundred thousand employees each.
With an accounting qualification from TSoM, you soon could be a member of these firms. Check out our courses here.
