Business valuation and related services typically fall under the “advisory services” practice area at the Big Four and other accounting firms. Advisory services now total 40% of all revenue for the Big Four firms, according to GlobalData’s International Accounting Bulletin World Survey 2020 (select tables are available here). Audit and accounting services trail behind, only generating 34% of the Big Four’s total income for 2019. The revenues generated from different service lines have changed dramatically since 2008, when audit and accounting services amounted to 52% of total fee income, and advisory a mere 24%, reports the International Accounting Bulletin, which tracks fee income and staff information from accounting networks and associations. Outside of the Big Four, audit and accounting services still make up 49% of fee income, compared to 25% from tax and 19% from advisory services. The services line breakdown has seen little change since 2008 when audit and accounting made up 53% of their total fee income.
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