Accounting service establishments by state and size

Our data

We selected 51 state-level rows for accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services, calculated each state's share of 137,069 establishments, and derived local employment-size comparisons. The CSV and JSON expose the same counts, source codes and missing-value status. These are computed public-data aggregates at the industry and state level.

Download the 51-row CSV · JSON dataset · Source checksums · Methodology

Source: Census Bureau 2023 County Business Patterns state bulk file. Industry filter: NAICS 5412; all legal forms; 50 states and District of Columbia. The five leading states sum to 56,998 establishments, or 41.58% of this geographic total.

The largest state counts cover several accounting activities

California leads with 18,655 establishments, followed by Florida with 12,917 and Texas with 11,224. New York contributes 9,056 and Illinois 5,146. These five states account for 56,998 establishments in the selected geography. Their size makes them useful starting points for checking whether a territory model overlooks a large part of this source population.

The category includes several accounting-related activities. A campaign designed for one service line needs to filter establishments for that activity. The state table provides a geographic denominator for the broad group. A narrower program needs a corresponding industry filter and current business-level evidence.

Why the four-digit group is kept intact

We select the exact source code 5412//, the file's representation of the four-digit 5412 industry group. The trailing slashes are part of the bulk-file hierarchy notation. We keep the group total separate from its more detailed child categories, since adding them would count the same industry activity twice.

This choice also prevents a misleading shortcut in naming the result. The 137,069 figure counts employer establishments assigned to the selected industry group. Certified public accountants, licensed professionals and independent firms use different units of observation. A professional-license register answers a different question and would need a separate matching method.

Small establishments dominate this historical distribution

The under-five-employee band represents 69.70% of the group's establishments. Combining the three bands below 20 employees produces 129,097 establishments across all 51 jurisdictions. Each of those three input bands is numeric for every row in this extract, so that combined count uses the reported values throughout.

Florida has 12,400 under-20 establishments among its 12,917 total, or 96.00%. California has 17,763 of 18,655, or 95.22%. Texas has 10,629 of 11,224, or 94.70%. These distributions suggest checking whether an account model incorrectly treats every local office as a large employer. Collect revenue, software-stack and purchasing-authority evidence at the business level.

Separate the location from the legal account

An accounting practice with several offices can create several establishment records in an aggregate statistical system while remaining one commercial parent account. A parent-account and domain crosswalk supplies the business identities needed to investigate independent buying decisions behind a state's total.

In an account review, keep a location-level view for geographic service coverage and a separate parent-level view for ownership and contracting. A shared brand or website can be evidence to investigate, and confirming that relationship requires business-level evidence. Avoid dividing an establishment count by a guessed number of offices per firm to manufacture a company count.

A defensible use in territory and data-quality planning

Choose the accounting activities that match the service you offer, then record whether your internal count describes firms or physical offices. Only after those definitions agree should you compare a state distribution with this report. A state that looks underrepresented in the CRM may be a collection gap, but it may also reflect a narrower customer profile.

Use a sample of current official business sources to investigate that gap before expanding a list. Record which records are in scope, which belong to an existing parent and which have uncertain activity or operating status. The CSV can prioritize that work geographically. Assess list completeness and prospect fit against the current business records gathered during that review.

All state counts and derived shares

The table is ordered by total establishments. Shares use the full 51-jurisdiction denominator. Employment-size columns count establishments within each local size band. Use the horizontal scroll area on a narrow screen; the CSV is available above for filtering and analysis.

Method, missing values and reproducibility

1. Selection. Select the 2023 CBP state bulk file, retain LFO '-' (all legal forms), the exact industry code and the 50 states plus District of Columbia. Do not add legal-form subgroups or industry children to their totals. Join state labels using Census FIPS codes preserved as two-character strings.
2. Share calculation. Sum EST across the 51 rows. Divide each row's EST by that sum and multiply by 100 for geographic share. Sort by EST descending, then FIPS ascending to give ties a stable display order.
3. Employment-size rule. For the under-20 count, add N<5, N5_9 and N10_19 only when all three are numeric. Otherwise retain a null result and the source N marker. Divide a known under-20 count by the same row's EST for its percentage. Round displayed percentages to two decimals; retain integer counts for reconciliation.

The Census state record layout for 2020–2023 defines the fields and the N marker for unavailable or non-comparable size-class counts. We preserve those markers rather than replacing them with zero. The official state FIPS reference supplies the geography labels.

The observation year is 2023; the report was prepared in 2026. The unit is an employer establishment in the chosen industry, not a unique company or contact. Nonemployer businesses are outside this extract's population. Employment-size categories describe local establishments rather than corporate parents. Geographic shares use only the 50 states and DC, excluding territories. A blank derived size value means unavailable, not zero. These descriptive aggregates do not establish current operating status, parent ownership, buying authority, revenue, purchasing intent or contact-list completeness. The table is not a professional-license register and cannot count independent buying decisions or verify a software stack.

The source archive and its extracted text have recorded SHA256 hashes. A retained subset contains the 255 source rows used across this five-industry series, including the original size-band values. The included calculation script can reproduce every exported row from that subset. CSV blanks correspond to JSON nulls; rounding can leave shares above or below exactly 100%.

The Census methodology page currently warns that its guidance is being updated. This report remains tied to the archived 2023 file and its published record layout, and leaves future release procedures for review against their own documentation. The industry-code reference identifies the 2017 NAICS classification used for this vintage.

This analysis and its prose were prepared with AI assistance. Verum is responsible for the report. Recheck the calculations when a source correction or new data vintage is adopted, and preserve the 2023 baseline as a dated version. The preparation date records this analysis; the business counts retain their original source year.

Related research and account-data methods

• Engineering service establishments across the states
• Custom computer programming establishments by state

For the next step, see market-sizing data work and how to define data-quality measures. Match the unit, industry scope and observation date before interpreting any ratio between your records and these aggregates.