Deloitte Accounting Firm

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Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (usually referred to as just “Deloitte”) is one of the Big 4 accounting firms in the world, and is actually the largest of the Big Four. Deloitte has over 170,000 employees in 140 countries and earned over $26 billion dollars in 2010. Their headquarters is based in New York City. This is the only member of the Big Four who is based in the United States.

Of all the members of the Big Four, Deloitte’s roots extend the farthermost, originating in 1845 with William Welch Deloitte in London. Years later he would open a branch in New York. Several other firms, such as Haskins & Sells, Touche Niven were created later and through a series of mergers all of these companies eventually came together.

It was Arthur Hazelton Carter, simultaneously the President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and as a partner of Haskins & Sells who testified to the US Senate that public companies should have independent audits conducted.

In recent history, Deloitte purchased BearingPoint, which was previously a consulting firm spun-off from fellow Big Four member, KPMG. Deloitte also took over Drivers Jonas the next year Deloitte also absorbed Arthur Andersen’s UK branch into its own UK branch. Also, before its takeover of BearingPoint, Deloitte had created its own spin-off consulting group called Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group.

For years Deloitte operated as a Swiss Verein, a type of association popular form of business association commonly used throughout the world. In 2010, the Verein became part of a private UK company, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Each member firm in the world is a separate entity governed by the laws of whatever country that member firm resides in.

Deloitte’s tagline is “Always One Step Ahead” and its vision is defined as “To be the Standard of Excellence” – Deloitte’s currently on the top of the Big Four, but is actually neck and neck with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). Deloitte needs to remain one step ahead of PWC in order to remain the standard of excellence in the world of accountancy.

Deloitte offers several services, all are typical of accountancy firms. They offer Audit and Enterprise Risk Servies, Consulting, Financial Advising, Tax help, and other services.

Every other accounting firm has been involved in disputes and other controversies, and Deloitte is no exception. In 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commision decreed that Deloitte owed Adelphia $50 million dollars to settle charges related to Adelphia’s financial statements for the year 2000.

Deloitte, it’s a company that many people haven’t heard of but it’s one of the most powerful corporations in the world. Today it’s the top of the Big Four, will it be eaten by another member of the Big Four, or will it do the eating and become the most supreme member of the accountancy world? It’s already #1. It has no place to go but up… and down. Which will it be?

Ernst And Young Around The World

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Ernst & Young is one of the Big 4 accounting firms in the world and is currently ranked #3. As of 2010, Ernst & Young had 144,000 employees and revenues of $21.3 billion dollars. It was also ranked by Forbes as the 9th largest private corporation in the United States that same year. Its headquarters is located in London, England. Their motto is “Quality in Everything We Do.”

Like all of the other members of the Big Four, Ernst & Young’s current iteration is due to mergers of older companies into the form Ernst & Young takes today. The oldest company that forms Ernst & Young today was founded in 1849 as Harding & Pullein in England. In 1903 Ernst & Ernst was founded in Cleveland and in 1906 Arthur Young & Co was founded in Chicago.

Over the years these three firms merged and became the Ernst & Young of today.

Of the Big Four, Ernst & Young is the most global. Ernst & Young has four global subsidiaries in the world, they are in the Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa region, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Japan regions.

Ernst & Young has four major service lines, and those are Assurance, Advisory Services, Tax Services, and Transaction Advisory Services.

The Assurance service comprises almost half of Ernst & Young’s business and consists of Financial Audits, Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services, and Climate Change and Sustainability Services. The Advisory Services section is nearly a fifth of Ernst & Young’s business and includes Actuarial, IT Risk and Assurance, and Risk and Performance Improvement sections.

At nearly a third of Ernst & Young’s business, is the Tax Services section. This section comprises Business Tax Compliance, Human Capital, Indirect Tax, International Tax Services, Tax Accounting, and Transaction Tax services.

Lastly, the Transaction Advisory Services department is nearly ten percent of Ernst & Young’s business and includes financial, real estate, and tax services as well as several others.

In addition to being the 9th largest corporation in the US, Ernst & Young has been ranked one of the best places to launch a career, one of the best companies to work for, and one of the best companies for working mothers, among many other accolades.

Like many other accountancy firms, Ernst & Young has been hit with a variety of criticisms of the way they have done business. In 2004, in the UK, a lawsuit was filed against Ernst & Young by a life insurance company, but the case was abandoned.

In 2009, a company claimed Ernst & Young was negligent over their accounting of gold and dollar contracts. Ernst & Young settled the lawsuit, but claims they did nothing wrong.

In terms of how long the original firm has been around, Ernst & Young has a pedigree going back further than 150 years. It is this pedigree that has allowed Ernst & Young to operate around the world and into becoming one of the top four firms in the world. Where will it go from here? No one knows.

KPMG History and Tenure

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KPMG is the smallest of the Big Four international accountancy and professional service firms. Founded in 1870, KPMG employs over 138,000 people around the world. Its headquarters is based in Amstelveen, Netherlands.

KPMG offers three types of services, those being audit, tax, and advising. The advising branch is further split into the three categories of Risk & Compliance, Performance & Technology, and Transaction & Restructuring.

In the audit arena, KPMG offers two tiers of service: Financial Statement Audit and Regulatory Audit. In the Tax section, they offer Business and Personal Tax services as well as China Tax services and Asia Pacific Trade and Customs services.

As mentioned before, KPMG’s advisory section is split into three types, growth, governance, and performance. These are further split into many other service lines.

In 1979, three European-based accounting firms, Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co, Thomson McLintock, and Deutsche Treuhandgesellschaft formed the KMG group. In 1987, the firm Peat Marwick joined this new mega-firm in a monumental merger and the group became known as KPMG.

KPMG is a series of firms around the world and each firm is its own independent legal entity. KPMG International is led by a group of people, one from each region KPMG operates in.

In more recent history, KPMG divested its US consulting firm and is now called BearingPoint, Inc, in 2009, BearingPoint filed for bankruptcy and has started selling portions of itself to third parties, including members of the Big Four.

In 2007, KPMG member firms in four European countries merged to form KPMG Europe LLP. Later 13 other countries’ KPMG member firms joined the four European firms in KPMG Europe LLP.

In 2008, an organization that KPMG audits was revealed to have invested billions of dollars in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

In other, better, news, KPMG’s US office was ranked as one of the top ten companies for working mothers. It was also rated among the list of best companies to work for.

One thing that many people ask about KPMG is what do the letters stand for? The letters stand for the surname of the four partners who merged their own accounting firms together to form KPMG. The K is for Piet Klynveld, founder of Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. P is for William Barclay Peat, founder of William Barclay Peat & Co in 1870, the oldest firm that is now part of KPMG. The M is for James Marwick, co-founder of Marwick, Mitchell & Co. Finally, the G is for Reinhard Goerdeler, chairman of DTG.

As with many other companies, there have been some criticisms over the way KPMG has done business and they have had lawsuits levied against them. For example, in 2004, KPMG had to settle lawsuits that came about as a result of software company Lernout & Hauspie’s speech prodcuts.

KPMG was also accused by the Department of Justice in creating fraudulent tax shelters helping their clients avoid billions of dollars worth of taxes.

Whatever problems KPMG has had in the past, it is still one of the top big four accounting firms in the world.