This document provides an industry snapshot of the small business F&A (finance and administration) backoffice sector. It outlines the size and descriptions of key industry segments including CPA accounting firms, F&A services firms, outsourcing providers, and FaaS/fintech companies. It also summarizes recent M&A deals in the sector showing typical revenue multiples between 0.25x to 4x. The document identifies over 2,600 potential small business acquisition opportunities across outsourcing, vendor services, BPaaS, consulting, and professional services subsectors.

1.
ERGO Comps, LLC
O: 281.756.7178
www.ERGOcomps.com
Small Business F&A Backoffice Leaders.
Finance & Administration Backoffice Industry Snapshot.
F&A Services
Accounting‐as
‐a‐Service
Backoffice
Solutions
Small business
Software
Small Business F&A Industry Snapshot.
Industry Sector Count Description
CPA Accounting 53,800 More than 53,800 CPA accounting firms in North America; 40% without employees and the
majority with less than <9 FTE professionals.
F&A Services 1,500 Thousands of fractional firms that provide certified professionals either on‐demand, virtual,
or part‐time on a project, consulting, or retainer basis.
FAO Outsourcing 550 Hundreds (approximately ~550) outsourced providers most commonly focused on an
industry, metro, and select platforms.
FaaS & FinTech 400 Hundreds funded and active that provide Finance or Accounting “As‐a‐Service”
Small Business B2B Partners
Finance Advisory Digital Marketing
Finance & Lending Services Marketing, Sales, Support, Customer,
Ops

2.
ERGO Comps, LLC
O: 281.756.7178
www.ERGOcomps.com
M&A Deals Recap
Deal valuation multiples range from 0.25x to 4x EV/Rev.
M&A Deal Multiples Revenue Valuation
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 4X
Staffing Accounting & Consulting Recurring Solutions Outsourcing BPaaS Tech
Illustrative deals
2019 – Wave acquired by H&R Block for $405m.
Small business accounting platform will operate interpedently.
2019 – Out‐of‐the‐Box Technologies acquires EBS Associates. Undisclosed.
Merger of two QuickBooks VARs creates national leader with offices across the United States.
2019 – iSolved acquires SAGE Payroll Solutions for $78m, at 2.05x EV/rev multiple.
2019 – Certify acquires Chrome River Tech expense reporting and invoice management in deal valued at more than $1b.
Combined has 11k customers across SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft, JD Edwards and QuickBooks.
2019 – ATAX Franchise Inc joins LoyaltyBrands to expand nationwide and serve the US Latino market. Undisclosed.
"Together we will create the largest Latino Franchise company with thousands of locations throughout the country"
2019 – Indinero acquires mAccounting, outsourced accounting and CFO services to SMBs. Undisclosed.
“We’ve always felt like the accounting firm that wanted to be a tech company,”
Combines technology with full‐stack finance expertise to deliver outsourced accounting & tax.
2018 – Deloitte acquires Legacy Advantage bookkeeping firm (Western Canada HQ).
2018 – Alight acquired Carlson Management Consulting (Adaptive Insights partner with $5.6m in annual revenues and 34 FTE).
2018 – InfoSys acquired by SWK Technologies, reseller of SAGE and Acumatica, for $1.7m.
2018 – AcctTwo acquires Leap The Pond ($3.7m, 16 EE).
Creates global Sage Intacct preferred partner.
2018 – Paychex acquires Oasis Outsourcing (multiple PEO acquisitions) for $1.2B.
2017 – Accretive Solutions acquired by RGP, FAO acquired for $19.4m (500 EE, <1X Rev multiple, 4X EBITDA).
2017 – Donuts acquired Rightside Grou Ltd, Internet Domains, for $213m, at 3.4x EV/rev.
2017 – B&G Finance & Accounting acquires SmartResources for $8m at 0.6x EV/Rev multiple.
2017 – SNI Companies, F&A staffing, acquired by Gee Group for $86m at 0.8X revenue multiple.
2016 – RealPage (NASD: RP)acquires NWP Services provider of backoffice
services for $68m at 11.3x EBITDA, 1.2X revenues. Billing, payments and
backoffice solutions for the rental housing industry.
2012 – GoDaddy acquires Outright Bookkeeping for $17.75m in cash and
$1.894m in stock.
Outright (24 FTEs, 200k users) is a provider of web‐based accounting
and bookkeeping solutions for small businesses.
2010 – Spherion acquires Tatum CFO for $46m (0.25X EV/revenue, 5.5x EBITDA).

3.
ERGO Comps, LLC
O: 281.756.7178
www.ERGOcomps.com
Small Business Deal Opportunities
Number of Subscale Acquisition Opportunities by Industry Model
Focus SERVICES PLATFORM DESCRIPTION SMB COUNT
Small Business Outsourcing Outsourced bookkeeping and accounting controller
services / QBO, Xero, Freshbooks, Bill.com
400
Small Business Vendor Services
Provide compliance and support services to SMBs
ADP, Paychex, Avionte, Bullhorn, Thomson, etc.
1500
Small Business BPaaS
Provide tech‐enabled cloud solutions
Proprietary platform, multiple partners
425
Midmarket Consulting
Implementation, consulting and managed services
Intacct, NetSuite, MSFT, Acumatica, Industry ERP/PSA
200
Midmarket FAO Agnostic Proprietary fully outsourced FAO 80
All Services Tax, CPA, Accounting professional services 41,220
Midmarket F&A Certified professionals: advisory, consulting, or staffing 400
*The above firms are focused on serving SMBs, small business with less than 500 employees.
Deal
Briefing
→ For a complete list of opportunities, contact
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About ERGO. Corporate development partner for M&A deal sourcing.
Deal Sources.