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Why is Big 4 so special?

Big Four refers to the top four accounting firms globally that audit more than 80% of US public companies, including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. For these accounting firms, this term is used because of its huge size, good reputation, and worldwide reach in the field.

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What is the Big Four?

Big Four refers to the top four accounting firms globally that audit more than 80% of US public companies, including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. For these accounting firms, this term is used because of its huge size, good reputation, and worldwide reach in the field. Although these companies are usually identified as single companies, each one of these accounting firmsAccounting FirmsPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP, Ernst &Young LLP, Deloitte LLP, KPMG LLP, and Grant Thornton LLP are among the top accounting firms that provide services to various individuals, organizations, and other entities.read more has a network of different independent corporations who, by entering into agreements, work with each other with the decided quality standards and a common name.

List of Big Four Accounting Firms

Four companies that fall under this category are as follows:

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For eg:

#1 – Deloitte

Deloitte is also known as the Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu Limited. The company is incorporated in the UK as an international firm for audit services. The company began working as separate companies of four-person names as William Deloitte, Elijah Sells, Charles Haskins, and George Touche, out of which three companies merged and became Deloitte & Touche. Presently the company is primarily known as Deloitte LLP having four subsidiaries named Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte financial advisory services LLP, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and the Deloitte Tax LLP. Over the period, Deloitte bought out many companies and created them as its subsidiaries or merged them and became one of the biggest firms in the world, offering a wide range of employment opportunities. A person looking for a job in Deloitte can be in any category like consulting, tax advisory, financial advisory services, etc.

#2 – Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC)

The Price water house Coopers (PwC) headquarters is situated in London and was founded in 1849 by Samuel Lowell Price. A large selection of the services is being offered by the PricewaterhouseCoopers to their clients, which includes auditing and assurance, consulting, tax-related matters, IFRS reporting, etc. All these provide a great opportunity to the current and the potential employees to work in different areas and find out their specialty within the same company.

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#3- Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG)

KPMG is also known as the Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler. It was established originally in the year 1911 as, at that time, two companies merged and formed Peat Marwick. Three primary services are being offered by the KPMG, namely auditing, advisory services, and taxes. These three services can be broken into many sub-services, thereby making KPMG a full-service firm. KPMG prioritizes building a culture that rewards a high level of performance and nurtures talent.

#4 – Ernst & Young (EY)

Ernst & Young, also sometimes referred to as EY, is another international accounting firm out of four firms of the big four, having its headquarters in London. EY was formed by the merger of the two companies, namely Ernst & Ernst and the Arthur Young company, in 1989. The company is located in various countries, counts more than 150, and has more than 700 offices worldwide. They offer multiple services, including auditing and assurance, tax matters, advice, transactions, etc. As the big fours offer various services in different areas, it allows the employees and potential employees to work in diversified fields. Also, they can find a specialty in working with the same company. These accounting firms provide different types of services to the clients so that the clients can avail of the various services at the same place. Also, as there is a broad base of clients with these firms, they can provide more informed decisions than others using their past experiences with their clients. Offering a wide range of services helps the company cater to a diverse group of employees.

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Disadvantages

Even though they have various resources and inside access to the companies, these big four giants were involved in the massive frauds, which have caused massive pain to the shareholders of companies and the investors of funds. Sometimes, these firms don’t ask too many questions and don’t report the suspected things in their report for fear of losing the clients.

Important Points

#1 – Before the big four firms, for many of the past, there were big eight firms that got reduced to the big four firms when the consolidations happened between the 1990s and the early 2000s. The consolidations which took place are as follows:

Arthur, young with Ernst & Whinney.

Price Waterhouse with the Coopers & Lybrand.

Deloitte Haskins sells with the touché Ross Tohmatsu.

On Arthur Andersen, many lawsuits for the audit malfeasance were put due to which it went out of business forcibly. #2 – For many large public companies, auditing work is being performed by these top firms.

Conclusion

Big 4, also known as the final 4, is the four largest accounting and professional services firms with an international presence. For the majority of the public traded companies, auditing work is being performed by these big four firms. These include Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & young. Apart from these, several other firms provide a similar type of services but are small compared to them.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to the Big Four and its definition. Here we discuss the big four accounting firms, including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young, along with their advantages and disadvantages. You can learn more about accounting from the following articles –

wallstreetmojo.com - Who are the Big Four Accounting Firms? - WallStreetMojo
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