Sell a Accounting & CPA Firms business

Owner-operator accounting & cpa firms businesses trade at 1x–1.4x SDE for typical $500K–$3M SDE ranges. At $3M+ EBITDA scale the same operators sell at 6x–12x EBITDA. Multiples in this category are ebitda-based and data-sourced from InsuranceJournal Q4 2024 + Cerulli Associates RIA M&A 2025 + Optis Partners. Where you land in the range is driven by growth trajectory, revenue mix, customer concentration, and management-team depth beyond the owner.

Aprio (backed by Charlesbank), Baker Tilly (Hellman & Friedman + Valeas), Eisner Amper (TowerBrook), and CBIZ (NYSE: CBZ) drive accounting-firm consolidation. Active buyer archetypes in financial services include Aggregator / roll-up platform, Financial services PE, Internal succession. Which of these bids for your business depends on scale — sub-$1M SDE is typically individual or search-fund territory, $1-3M SDE opens up PE platforms and strategics, and $3M+ EBITDA gets full LMM buyer attention.

CPA firms with recurring tax and accounting-services revenue mix above 70%, industry-vertical niche practice, and modernized cloud-accounting stack (QBO, Xero, NetSuite) trade at premium. Beyond the industry-specific factor, the universal drivers in financial services are recurring commission or aum revenue (not one-time transactional); client retention rate (>95% for premium multiples); book of business quality (commercial vs personal, hnw vs mass market).

CPA firms face intense CPA-shortage labor pressure and PE-backed aggregator competition on talent; buyers scrutinize your partner-succession plan and staff retention. Buyers in this category also standardly scrutinize producer / advisor departure with book of business and carrier or custodian concentration. Addressing these in advance in a well-prepared CIM materially reduces retrade risk during diligence.

Typical transaction range for accounting & cpa firms is $1.0M–$40M in annual revenue. Below that, buyer pool narrows to individual and small-search-fund. Above that, PE platforms and strategics dominate. NAICS code 541211 — buyers screen by NAICS in most deal sources.

From the day you engage a broker to close, expect 6–12 months for a well-prepared business in financial services. The prep work — financial cleanup, addbacks documentation, key-employee retention agreements, real estate lease sorting — is where 3-6 months of the timeline hides. Starting that early is what separates a full-multiple exit from a discounted one.