whhytrain

Does size matter? In practice, it really does

When it comes to accounting practices, size matters I’m afraid.

There are lots of differences between big and small accounting practices. In fact, every firm – big and small – are different. They differ on clients, culture, hours, pay and a whole host of factors. It’s impossible to describe every difference in detail, but we thought a few rules of thumb might help you:

 

Bigger practices

  • Bigger practices tend to have more graduate training contracts. The higher their revenue, the more graduates they hire;
  • The bigger the practice, the more likely they are to have stricter entry criteria around exam results;
  • Bigger practices tend to have bigger clients – makes sense, right? See the ‘like with like’ concept to understand a little more about why this matters;
  • Bigger practices tend to have more niche departments (audit, tax, consulting, corporate finance and transaction services, for example);
  • Bigger practices tend to be a little stricter about passing your exams and you might find a clause in your contract to say that if you don’t pass, you don’t get to continue as an employee; and
  • Bigger practices tend to limit the qualification you can study, with Chartered Accountancy (ACA) their qualification of choice. Some firms are a little more flexible about this, but expect the default qualification to be ACA in the larger firms.

 

Smaller practices

  • Smaller practices tend to have less graduate training contracts;
  • The smaller the practice, the less likely they are to have very strict entry criteria around exam results;
  • Smaller practices tend to have smaller clients (‘like with like’ cropping up again);
  • Smaller practices tend to give you broader exposure – they don’t have big, niche departments;
  • Smaller practices tend to be a little less strict around passing your exams quickly; and
  • Smaller practices may not be as limited as to the qualification you can study, but they will tend to have a leaning to one or another qualification (often the one the key partners hold).

 

Knowing the differences is one thing. Deciding which size firm to train with is a whole other question – a question your team in Cruncher has thought a lot about. Read more about the difference between practices on Cruncher and review some of the questions you should be asking yourself before making the big decision.