The Firmlever Weekly Roundup: Issue #31

This issue is a little different. Bear with me.

I have a confession to make.

I've been putting off this newsletter for months.

Not because I didn't have anything to say--because I've been collecting data.

I talk to firm owners every week. Its given me many opinions. Probably too many.

I kept waiting until I had "enough" data. Enough credibility. Enough polish. Then I realized I was being an idiot.

Here's the thing: There is no real-time benchmark for small and mid-market accounting firms.

Rosenberg does an annual survey (I love these guys to death btw).

AICPA publishes reports that are 18 months stale by the time you read them.

Inside Public Accounting has there IPA 500 and various industry reports (very high quality I must say).

But then why are most firms STILL making decisions based on gut feel and gossip?

Based on what the last keynote speaker said at a conference on how AI is "coming for your lunch"?

There is really no real-time pulse on the market--that a firm can rely on week to week to compare themselves to peers.

Or that a firm seller or acquirer can rely or for valuation and comps across not just revenue bands but by dozens of other criteria like Profit Per Partner, tech stack, MRR %, Rev/FTE, Rev/Client, etc, etc.

So I built one.

(More on this later)

Right now I've got about 240 firms in the benchmark database—not thousands (yet), but enough to start seeing patterns.

Every week, as more owners run their diagnostics, the data gets sharper. You'll watch it grow with me.

Maybe this works. Maybe it doesn't. But somebody needs to try.

(A big thank you to some of the early firms that have participated thus far).

And the best thing about it? Totally anonymous.

Compare your firm to any other firm in the US (yep, 100% cloud-based ones too) across a wide spectrum--without giving up your identity.

Early Signal (What 240 Firms Are Telling Us)

Here's what's showing up in the data so far:

Owners consistently overestimate their gross margin by 8-11 points. They say "around 50%." The math shows 39-42%.

That gap isn't rounding error but money walking out the door every month and nobody noticing.

Effective hourly rate is all over the map.

Top quartile firms are north of $380 (very niche and boutique).

Bottom quartile is under $95. Same credentials, same services, wildly different economics. The difference usually comes down to three or four decisions that compound over years.

That's why I'm also building a diagnostic tool called Firmlever FastPath that surfaces these gaps...in about 90 seconds.

More on that next week, but if you want an early look before I officially launch it--here's how: