Accounting firms
Private equity is buying accounting firms. It reads the client agreements first.
Accounting practices are being consolidated by platforms that buy for recurring revenue and staff capacity. A buyer wants to know which engagements recur under an agreement rather than a habit, which clients belong to the firm rather than to a partner, and whether the reasoning behind prior positions survives a change of hands. Those are the same questions that arise every time an engagement comes back around. Verelume is designed to help your team find that from the record, with the sources attached.
The record
What your record already holds.
- Workpapers and supporting schedules
- Engagement correspondence and memos
- Prior-year returns and filings
- Client-provided documentation
- Review notes and sign-offs
- Position and treatment memos
The questions
The questions worth answering.
- “What was the basis for the treatment we applied last year?”
- “Why did we take this position, and who reviewed it?”
- “What did the client tell us about this item, and when?”
- “What changed in this client's situation across engagements?”
- “Where did a prior judgment come from, and what supported it?”
Key-person risk
When someone leaves, the reasoning shouldn’t leave with them.
When a manager or senior leaves mid-cycle, the workpapers remain but the reasoning behind judgment calls can be lost. The team inheriting the engagement sees the numbers, not the thinking. Verelume is designed to keep that reasoning retrievable so transitions do not reset the firm's understanding of a client.
High-stakes moments
When the record has to answer.
Recurring engagements
Returning to a client means recovering the basis for prior-year positions. Finding it quickly, with citations, keeps the work consistent.
Review and quality
Understanding how a judgment was reached and who signed off supports the firm's own review processes.
Staff transitions
When the person who ran an engagement leaves, the firm needs the reasoning to survive the handoff, not just the files.
The published record
What the sources actually say, and what they do not.
The two sources here disagree, and they disagree in a way that is easy to misread. One publishes a band. The other publishes a single average drawn from a large set of closed transactions, and that average sits below the band entirely. A range and an average of actual sales are not the same kind of statement, and the gap between them is the useful information. Our estimator leads with the sold figure, sets the advertised range against it as an asking versus sold contrast, and does not split the difference. Because the sold figure here is a single average rather than a band, the top and the bottom of that range are the same number, which is itself worth noticing: it is one publisher's central estimate, not a spread that real transactions produced.
2.5x to 4x owner earnings
CT Acquisitions. Applies to owners with $200K to $2M of owner earnings. verified 5 June 2026.
2.33x owner earnings, an average rather than a range
Sundance Financial. Applies to average of 194 closed transactions reported in 2025. updated March 2026.
Verelume does not average these publishers or choose between them. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the finding.
What diligence concentrates on here
- Which engagements recur under a written agreement rather than by habit
- Client concentration, and which clients are attached to a partner
- Realisation rates and write off history
- Partner and staff agreements, including non-solicit terms
- Workpaper completeness on prior positions
- Software and workflow dependencies that a buyer would have to absorb
What Verelume does not do
Verelume does not provide accounting or tax advice, form audit opinions, or make professional judgments. It helps your team find and understand what your own records say, with the sources attached, and flags where the record is unclear or conflicting. Professional judgment remains with your qualified staff.
Related use cases
See what your accounting firm's record can answer.
Start with a founder-led Diligence Readiness Assessment, Founding price $5,500, with the Verelume platform included. See all three ways to engage.