How consolidation is reshaping the European accounting landscape

EBM EXPERT ANALSYIS By An Maes, CEO, Silverfin

For many accounting firms, growth traditionally meant adding clients, hiring staff and expanding team capacity. But that approach is becoming harder to sustain.

Across Europe, accounting firms are operating in a market that looks very different from the one many leaders built their businesses in. Consolidation is accelerating, regulatory demands are increasing, and technology is changing the economics of compliance work faster than ever. At the same time, firms are grappling with recruitment shortages, staff retention, partner succession planning and tech stacks shifting and improving constantly.

On top of the challenges, the sector faces a sharp structural divide. On one side, firms are building deep expertise in a specific sector or service area. On the other, firms are creating the scale, consistency and visibility needed to operate across larger client portfolios, multiple offices and, increasingly, multiple acquisitions. 

Caught between them is the traditional generalist firm.

The death of the mid-sized generalist 

For decades, the mid-sized generalist firm occupied a strong position in the accounting market. Growth was often a straightforward equation – add clients, hire people and expand capacity. Today, that model is coming under pressure from firms that have either developed deep specialist expertise or built operating models designed to scale more effectively.

Clients looking for specialist expertise can find firms that understand their sector in extraordinary detail. Clients focused on efficiency can find firms that have invested heavily in optimised workflows and scalable operations. Which means the middle ground is becoming less distinct.

Many generalist firms now find themselves in an uncomfortable position. They are expected to offer the breadth of a larger organisation while competing against specialists with deeper expertise and firms with greater operational scale. Being competent across multiple service lines no longer guarantees differentiation, and it can lead to a slow decline in growth. 

Capacity is becoming the real constraint

The issue across the board is capacity. Many firms are looking for ways to increase capacity without increasing headcount at the same rate. Growing client portfolios, succession challenges and ongoing talent pressures are forcing leaders to think differently about how work is delivered. Growth opportunities exist, but many firms struggle to take advantage of them because their operating model was never designed to absorb that level of expansion.

This is also where the conversation turns to AI. If capacity is the real constraint, won’t AI simply solve it?

The reality is that, on its own, it won’t. AI amplifies whatever it’s built on. The firms turning AI into lasting capacity are the ones that have done the less glamorous work first: connecting their data and standardising how work flows through the firm. Get that foundation right and AI compounds it. Get it wrong and the gains rarely stick.

In practice, the firms seeing the greatest gains are not treating AI as a shortcut. They are using it to accelerate operating models that were already built for consistency and growth. This is one reason firms focused on scale are paying closer attention to how work is actually delivered across the organisation. Those creating room for growth are finding ways to increase file volume without increasing complexity at the same rate. They are reducing dependency on individual people, shortening onboarding times and creating greater consistency across teams.

As firms grow, knowledge transfer becomes just as important as technical expertise. When critical know-how sits with a handful of people, growth becomes harder, succession becomes more complicated and acquisitions become more difficult to integrate.

The time and resource challenge

There is another pressure that receives less attention. Most firm leaders understand the need to invest in new technology, modernise processes and develop new capabilities. The challenge is finding the time and resources to do it.

Larger firms can spread investment across thousands of clients, while specialist firms can often support investment through premium pricing and focused service offerings. Generalists frequently have less room to manoeuvre.

When growth depends heavily on utilisation and billable hours, investment can feel like a short-term sacrifice rather than a long-term necessity. Yet delaying those decisions becomes increasingly risky as the market moves forward.

Two models are pulling ahead

As these pressures intensify, we’re seeing two distinct firms emerging:

The specialist

These firms have chosen depth over breadth. Rather than serving every type of client, they focus on specific industries, service lines or market segments. Their expertise allows them to solve problems others cannot and to charge accordingly.

The scalable firm

At the other end of the spectrum are firms that have focused on building organisations capable of handling growth repeatedly and predictably. They have invested in consistency, visibility and operational discipline. New staff can be onboarded more quickly. Acquisitions can be integrated more smoothly. Leaders have a clearer view of work across the business. Their advantage comes from creating an organisation that performs consistently as it grows.

The decision facing firm leaders

The forces reshaping the profession are unlikely to slow down. Consolidation will continue. Succession challenges will become more pressing as experienced partners retire. At the same time, firms will remain under pressure to improve productivity while creating capacity for higher-value client work.

The question is how firms respond. For some, the answer will be deeper specialisation. For others, it will be building the operational foundations needed to scale. What’s becoming increasingly difficult is remaining somewhere in between. As consolidation continues, the firms best positioned for the future will be those that choose a direction and commit to it.

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