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Accounting / CPA Firms

The 3 anchors. Don't leave the meeting without them.

1THE PRICE
2.0x–3.5x (premium well-systematized firms: 3.25x–4.0x)
Typical deal: $500K
2THE LEVER
High recurring/retained revenue
Push this up, multiple goes up
3THE LANDMINE
Owner-dependent client relationships
Surface this in the first 15 min
SDE multiple
2.0x–3.5x (premium well-systematized firms: 3.25x–4.0x)
EBITDA multiple
4.0x–7.5x (PE platform acquisitions: 7x–10x+)
Deal size range
$250K – $3M+
OPEN

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Three things to nail in the first 10 minutes.

  1. 1

    CPA firms trade at 2.0x–3.5x SDE; premium well-systematized firms with recurring revenue reach 3.25x–4.0x.

  2. 2

    EBITDA multiples of 4.0x–7.5x; PE platform acquisitions can reach 7x–10x+.

  3. 3

    Revenue multiples of 0.75x–1.35x (median 1.0x–1.11x per BizBuySell 2025) — one of the higher revenue multiples in professional services.

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