In the next couple of weeks, we will be sending out Accounting Today's annual Top 100 Firms survey, to be published in March 2007. The list, and our accompanying report on the profession's trends can only be as good as the data you provide.Over the years, the contact list for the survey has grown to more than 150 firms, all of which we will be sending this year's survey to via e-mail. The rankings are compiled according to annual revenues and this year, firms with over $25 million in revenue for 2006 should be certain they return the paperwork.
The deadline to return the survey is in early January. If you haven't received the forms via e-mail yet, don't worry just yet. Our plan isn't to have all the surveys distributed for another couple of weeks.
Because the supplement also includes a regular "Firms to Watch" feature -- highlighting firms with revenue just below the Top 100 threshold with growth rates that make them contenders for the next year's list -- and because the Practical Accountant's regional firm survey also draws heavily from these responses, there's more than one chance for a firm to be recognized, even if it is technically ranked at No. 103, or is a regional powerhouse in New England.
For firms who haven't quite closed out their fiscal year and don't yet have final 2006 numbers, estimated numbers are acceptable, just so long as you disclose that they are estimates.
If for some reason we should have been in touch with last year, and weren't, feel free to drop a line to me at
If you were among the firms we reached out to last year and returned the survey, you should expect to see the survey pop into someone's e-mail inbox by Dec. 15. Likely, our contact is either a managing partner or the firm's marketing director or owner. If you know that your firm has changed its domain name, or the person who likely handled the forms has since left the firm, or you just want them sent to someone else, please feel free to send an e-mail and let me know that as well. It cuts down on the number of bounced-back messages and ensures that you get the forms with plenty of time to complete them.
