Editorial Policy

This policy covers the guides, the city rankings and the text on directory pages. The rules for the listings themselves (sources, which firms get a page, ordering) are on how we build the directory.

Sources

We work from primary sources first: IRS publications, the Code of Federal Regulations, state accountancy statutes and board rules, the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, and SBA program rules. Market figures such as sale prices and multiples come from marketplaces and brokers that publish them, and are attributed to them by name. Every guide ends with a numbered list of the sources it uses.

How figures are labeled

• Observed: read directly on the source page or computed from published data, such as a regulation’s text or a median of listed prices.
• Claimed: a company’s statement about itself that we could not check, such as a broker’s number of closed deals.
• Estimate: a third party’s estimate, reported as theirs.

Independence

No firm, broker, marketplace or advertiser pays for coverage, for a mention in a guide, or for a position in a list, and the site carries no sponsored content. If that ever changes, paid content will be labeled as paid on the page where it appears.

accounting8 runs its own free board of practices for sale. Guides that describe brokers and other marketplaces therefore cover alternatives to that board; they are described from their own published materials, and the guides say when a broker is the better choice.

Dates and updates

Each guide shows the date it was first published and the date it was last updated. The updated date changes only when the content changes. Rankings and directory pages are rebuilt when new listing data is collected; firm profiles show the month their data was collected.

Corrections

To report an error, email hello@accounting8.com with the page address and what is wrong. We check the claim against its source. If the page is wrong we fix it and change its updated date; a correction that changes a figure or a conclusion is noted at the end of the page. Corrections to a firm’s listing go through add or update a listing.

Links

Links to official sources (government agencies, regulators, standards bodies) are ordinary links. Links to commercial sites, including the firms in the directory, carry a nofollow attribute: they are there for the reader and are not endorsements.

Not advice

Guides explain rules and market data in general terms. They are not tax, legal or accounting advice for your situation. For that, work with a licensed CPA, an Enrolled Agent or an attorney.