Research · Lead
U.S. retirement plans by the numbers: 401(k)-type plans hold $6.7T, DC participants grew to 96.4M as pensions fell, and the 2026 deferral limit is $24,500.
From the newsroom
Research
The accounting software market: Intuit revenue hit $18.83B in FY2025, Xero reached 4.41M subscribers, and worldwide ERP software was $66B in 2024.
Research
Public-company audit fees: U.S. companies paid $21.7B in FY2024 (avg $3.26M), fees have quadrupled since 2003, and the Big Four collect 69.5% of the…
Research
The U.S. nonprofit sector: 1.6M 501(c)(3) organizations, $6.17T in assets, 12.8M jobs (9.9% of private employment), and $592.5B given in 2024.
Research
The U.S. transfer tax by the numbers: the 2026 exemption rose to $15M per person under OBBBA; estate and gift tax raised $31.1B in…
The Seven Desks
Software Shootout
The four practice management platforms most CPA firms shortlist in 2026. We ran 30-day trials on real client engagements: workflow fit, mobile reliability, e-sign integration, billing accuracy, and the hidden-cost line items that surface at year two. Pricing ranges from $39 to $129 per user per month.
2026 Comparison
Original Research
We publish original datasets on the accounting profession because the trade press reuses the same numbers from the same sources for years at a time. The PE Roll-Up Tracker catalogues every recapitalization of a CPA firm since 2021 with deal terms. The Audit Firm Rotation Index covers 1,140 SEC registrant auditor changes. The Crypto CPA Market Sizing report estimates $2.4 billion in 2026 fees across 380 firms. Methodology is disclosed on every dataset. Anyone can cite us with attribution.
42
CPA firm PE recapitalizations tracked since 2021
1,140
SEC registrant auditor changes catalogued since 2020
$2.4B
Estimated 2026 crypto CPA market size (380 firms)
From the archive
“The STR may be regarded as a combination of a ledger with some encryption and communication scripts. Or you might regard it as a ledger with an http or email daemon bolted onto it.”
— Todd Boyle, Shared Transaction Repository, 2003
Restored 2026
Twenty-seven essays and software specifications on general ledger architecture and distributed accounting, written between 1997 and 2010. Cited by the Nakamoto Institute, Ian Grigg's iang.org, the Apache Confluence wiki, and the Financial Cryptography blog. Restored at their original URLs to preserve the citation chain that runs from double-entry accounting through triple-entry accounting to Bitcoin.