I spent some time this week studying 100 top accounting firms in the U.S., the firms Accounting Today ranks as the best places to work. The list reports more than names: headcount, staff turnover, days off and paid holidays for every firm.
I wanted to know what the top firms actually have in common. Here’s what the numbers say, and where AI fits in.
1. You don’t have to be big to be great
63 of the 100 firms have 100 employees or fewer. Thirty-six of them have fewer than 50. The smallest firms on the list have 15 people.
So if you lead a 12-person or a 40-person firm, this list is about you. Being a great place to work isn’t a big-firm perk.
2. People stay
The typical small firm on the list (15 to 49 people) reported 6% voluntary turnover. Midsized firms (50 to 249) came in at 8%, and the large firms at 9%.
Six small firms reported zero voluntary turnover: Bormel Grice & Huyett, The Swanson Group, Hawaii Accounting, Lilling & Co., PAAST and The Accountants for Creatives. Nobody chose to leave. In this profession, that’s remarkable. Congratulations to all six.
3. They give people their time back
About 1 in 5 firms on the list offer unlimited paid time off. Among the 63 firms with 100 people or fewer, more than half give 20 or more days off a year, or unlimited. And the typical firm adds 10 paid holidays on top.
Time is the perk. Not ping-pong tables. Time.
The catch: time off only works if the work fits in the week
Here’s the part nobody puts on the poster. You can’t give people 20 days off, keep turnover at 6%, and still bury everyone in busy season. Something has to give, and usually it’s your best people.
The firms that make this work have found ways to take the repeating work off people’s plates, so the hours left go to the work that needs a person: the review, the judgment calls and the client conversations.
Where AI fits
This is exactly what AI is good at in an accounting firm. Here’s what I teach my team to hand off first:
- The chasing. Document requests, missing statements and the polite follow-ups nobody enjoys writing.
- The first drafts. Reconciliation exception notes, month-end checklists, client report summaries and engagement letters. AI drafts, a person reviews.
- The repeat explanations. The same five client questions every month, answered clearly and checked before they go out.
None of it replaces your people. It gives them back hours, and hours are what these firms turn into lower turnover and real time off. AI does the typing. You make the judgment calls.
One more thing the best firms do: they learn together. One person experimenting with AI doesn’t change a firm. A whole team learning the same way does.
Start free, with your whole team
THE AI-NATIVE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, FREE FOR YOUR WHOLE FIRM. Regularly $1,000 a person a year. Through my partnership with Humans+Agents, every leader at your firm can join free for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027: a 10-minute lesson every morning, 36 live sessions a year, and a ready-to-run deck to teach each lesson to your team. The partner offer ends November 30.
Join the Academy free
Want to go further? On the same page, the AI-Native Black Belt Academy tab shows something I haven’t seen anywhere else: one person’s price covers your entire firm. See every level
And our FREE stuff is still here
- Claim a FREE AI agent. Growing too? Pick the LinkedIn Connection Engine to bring in more of the right clients: https://aiaccounting.legacysbc.com/claim-agent
- Ready for more growth agents? The Practice Growth Bundle has 14, including referrals and reviews, lead magnets and niche messaging.
- Join our FREE community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1024923770013348
- Lead a firm of 10 to 100 people? Grab 15 minutes with me and tell me what’s eating your team’s week. No pitch, just your questions.
Source: Accounting Today’s Best Firms to Work For rankings, as reported by each firm. Turnover is voluntary turnover; days off are PTO days or combined vacation, sick and personal days after one year.
Here’s to building firms people never want to leave.
Yvonne






