2025 Rosenberg Survey: What the Numbers Are Telling Us

It’s that time of year again, when we get to enjoy the bounty of data available through the Rosenberg Survey, with gratitude to all the firms that put in the effort to respond. Here’s what we’re noticing. Average revenue is up, as usual, though the increase is smaller than last year. Profits are also up, but not by as much as revenue. Revenue increased 7.9% from the prior year, compared with a 10.7% rise in the previous year.

(1) Average income per partner increased 3.2% to $615k, up from a 2.2% increase to $596k in the prior Survey, but still lagging behind and remains notably below the increase in revenue growth.

Interestingly, firms with $2M–$5M in revenue posted a nearly 25% increase in income per partner (moving from $371k to $464k). Offsetting this, firms with $10M–$20M in revenue saw their IPP decline by 7.2%.

(2) Staff charge hours continue their downward trend

The drop has been continuous across firms in every size category, with only a few exceptions.

This view shows a significant drop in the “1500s” category, from 14.9% to 8.5%, with most of that shifting over to the “1400s,” which increased from 17.1% to 24.0%.

I don’t see as a trend that will reverse. It might steady at some point, but the sentiment I hear from firms and younger staff is, “Who wants to work those long hours?” And with the comp increases needed for retention, I’m not sure I’d want to go back and work more hours either.

Firms are using many approaches to tackle the cost–productivity balance. On the one hand, pay increases were — and in some cases still are — aimed at bolstering our profession as an attractive one to students. And, as an industry, we need to embrace the technology tools available to achieve profitability targets within these more reasonable hour ranges.

I’ve heard of firms asking employees to specify how many charge hours they want to work each year and building comp around that. I’ve heard of various compensation structures to reward the type of work firms most need. Additional work at the firm-level, such as culling clients and pricing more strategically, can help offset the profitability impact of lost hours.

(3) Rapid-fire interesting tidbits:

• New partner compensation – increased on average from $241k to $258k.
• Average new partner buy-in was $133k.
• Average firm valuation multiple of revenue (used for retirement payments) dropped in all firm sizes except the $2M–$5M category, which grew. For all firms >$2M, the multiple changed from 78.4% in the 2024 Survey to 76.9% in the 2025 Survey.
• Staff turnover is at 11%; it was 19% in 2022.

If you don’t yet have your copy, we have both the PDF and the Excel versions available for purchase this year. I mean, who doesn’t want to slice and dice industry data and compare your firm’s performance in all the ways?

The Rosenberg Survey is a trusted resource for accounting firms seeking to sharpen their competitive edge, identify growth opportunities and enhance operational efficiency. With years of deep insights into the profession, the Rosenberg Survey has become one of the most respected tools in accounting, providing benchmarks in profitability, growth, billing rates, and turnover.

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Lastly, I wanted to share our consultant’s responses:

Question

How would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

Answers

Matt Rampe

AI has entered the mainstream consciousness, and firms are racing to automate as much as they can. CPA.com claimed, “some firms reporting over 80% automation of individual return preparation” and that bookkeeping workflows can be done with fully agentic automation.

Private equity has also picked up momentum with many Managing Partners fielding calls daily from would-be suitors. More firms have taken PE investment and more firms have also proudly declared their independence. Our research with IPA shows that the PE honeymoon is over: 31% of our respondents reported that PE had positive effects on partners, only 12% reported positive effects on staff and a meager 4% cited positive effects on clients (while the balance in each category was either rated as neutral or negative).

Partners reported staffing challenges loosening up slightly, but not significantly.

Succession was still a major hurdle across the industry but was proven to be doable for many firms with adequate advance planning.

Firms were forced to wrestle with fundamental questions like who they want to work with (ideal clients and pricing), how they want to do the work (technology, hybrid workforce, offshoring) and who will be doing the work (succession planning, next generation leadership).

Kristen Rampe

Firms are taking positions of strength on their future path. Some are selling to PE, some are declaring their independence, finding a larger firm to combine with, and evaluating ESOPs. The right path depends on each firm’s interests and needs.

I don’t believe the traditional CPA firm model is dead, but I do believe ownership alignment and achievement of goals and results for independent firms will make for the best outcomes. This isn’t new but will more greatly separate firms with a strong financial succession plan from those with weaker positions.

Many firms are still stuck in uncertainty, knowing they need to understand their options and make a choice for succession, exit, and/or operations, but are having some difficulty doing so. These firms will continue to operate, though they may have a reduced overall value by not giving attention to a specific strategy that works for them. Plans around not only succession and capital, but also for AI, recruiting and retention, profitability and the like need to be included.

Staffing levels are less tenuous than in past years. There isn’t an abundance of talented senior accountants and managers looking for jobs (will there ever be?), but the labor market isn’t quite as tight as before. Some firms are even finding sufficient capacity to add good-fit clients, or an easier choice on when to cut a low performer.

Marc Rosenberg

In the movie Demolition Man, Silvester Stallone is a cop who has been in the deep freeze and then thawed 36 years later. He saves the mayor’s life and to honor Stallone, a celebratory dinner is to be convened at…Taco Bell. As Stallone is being driven to the dinner, he says to his driver: “I save the mayor’s life and we go to Taco Bell?” The driver tells Stallone “while you were in the deep freeze, you missed the Great Restaurant War. Taco Bell won and now all restaurants are Taco Bell.” This seems prescient of what’s going on in the PE space.

The advent of PE deals arguably has been of the biggest game changers in the history of the CPA profession, ranking right up there with the passing of the income tax law, creation of the SEC, firms providing consulting and the start of the digital age.

The perfect storm of firms enjoying robust revenue increases along with all-time highs in partner compensation but…being frustrated by the lack of competent, ambitious staff.

Though this was easily predictable, baby boomer managing partners are retiring in droves and are being replaced by much younger, some very young partners. We see lots of this.

Question

How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts?

Answers

Matt Rampe

Private equity will keep making inroads and driving consolidation. We may see some early PE-backed winners (windfall buyouts) and losers (talented partners, staff and clients exiting the PE model). AI and technology will continue to drive innovation on our work. It remains to be seen whether the efficiency gains will be in stair steps – or just incremental progress.

Given the multiple factors impacting the accounting profession simultaneously, change and disruption feels like the new norm – at least for now. Firms may be wise to embrace what Jim Collins called the “Hedgehog Concept” in his famous book Good to Great by answering three questions: What are you passionate about? What can you be the best at in the world? What drives your economic engine? Firms that are thoughtful about their future vision and strategy to get there can have a bright future and can capitalize on the many opportunities arising from the disruption.

Firms that ignore their future or can’t adapt are going to face increasing headwinds.

Kristen Rampe

Over the next year, more firms will feel comfortable with their position in the marketplace. Either because they have completed or are in the process of a transaction, or because they determined their best option was to continue as they have been (with ongoing improvements, of course). This is unlikely to reduce the hourly calls from PE investors just yet but will make the decision on what to do with all those calls easier.

I am hopeful that, as an industry, we will continue to increase staff starting salaries. Looking at today’s economics of adult life, which many young accounting professionals are interested in, such as buying a home or starting a family, the current pay rates are insufficient. We can make the changes necessary here to continue to support communities, employees and the profession of accounting.

AI will advance, which will take the work no one wants to do anyway, away. And possibly it’ll chip away at the 952 different applications CPA firms need to run their businesses. I can dream anyway!

Marc Rosenberg

In the coming years, we won’t recognize what a CPA firm looks like compared to today.

How can any discussion of the future not include artificial intelligence? I see a parallel between advent of PCs, the internet and email in the 1980s and 1990s and AI. Early on, adoption and advancement of the digital age was slow. But it picked up steam and today, the use of technology dwarfs what it was 30-40 years ago. The same thing can be said about AI. Though some firms have slowly adopted AI technology, this will pale by comparison to what it will be in the coming years.

Every time I see an announcement that yet another firm has been gobbled up with PE money, it reminds me of Stallone’s discovery. In the coming years, instead of say, the few thousand firms operating today with revenue over $5M, there may be just a very small number of “winners” left. The initial PE deals a few short years ago were primarily with very large firms. As predicted (by many, not just me), this has trickled down to firms of practically any size. Larger firms, backed by PE capital, are eating up the smaller ones in droves. The merger “buzz” that started 10-15 years ago when both the buyer and seller were traditional CPA firms, has petered out quite a bit, replaced by PE deals.

Firms are getting and will continue to get more creative with ways to solve the staff shortage. The best way to solve a problem is to not let it become a problem in the first place. A few of the many strategies that firms will be using, if they haven’t started already, are:

• Increasing use of technology, including AI, to reduce the time it takes to do our work, thereby reducing the headcount needed.
• Hiring staff from around the country instead of focusing on a firm’s location.
• Hiring staff from around the world.
• CPA firm services shifting from accounting and tax to consulting, which requires fewer staff.
• Firms getting smart and shifting to a lower volume/higher price model from the traditional high volume/lower price blueprint that CPA firms have misguidedly used for decades.

What is the data telling you?

Note: All charts, tables, and data are from the 2025 Rosenberg Survey. The Growth Partnership compiles the Rosenberg Survey. This is the 27th year of the survey, which reports on 2024 data.