Crowe Horwath LLP is a professional services

Professional services

Professional services is an industry of infrequent, technical, or unique functions performed by independent contractors or by consultants whose occupation is the rendering of such services....

 firm with offices throughout the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, including California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. In addition to its U.S. presence, Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of the Crowe Horwath International global professional services network. Crowe's services include assurance, benefit plans, financial advisory, forensic services, performance consulting, risk consulting, tax and technology, among others. Crowe customers primarily consists of large and middle market public companies and large privately held businesses.

According to Accounting Today, SourceMedia’s publication servicing the public accounting profession in the United States, Crowe ranked ninth in net revenue among the nation's top 100 public accounting and consulting firms in 2011. According to its company website, Crowe brands itself as "The Unique Alternative to the Big Four

Big Four auditors

The Big Four are the four largest international professional services networks in accountancy and professional services, which handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies, creating an oligopoly in auditing large companies...

."

History

Crowe was founded in 1942 in South Bend, Indiana by Fred P. Crowe Sr. and Cletus (Clete) F. Chizek. Fred previously worked in public accounting for many years and served as the St. Joseph County auditor for eight years. Clete was head of the accounting department at the University of Notre Dame and worked part-time in public accounting. According to the company website, the firm today has 25 offices and 2,400 personnel across the U.S.

Crowe also serves clients worldwide as a leading independent member of Crowe Horwath International, a global professional services network that it joined in 1991. The name of the firm was changed from Crowe Chizek and Company LLC to Crowe Horwath LLP on September 1, 2008.

Services

Crowe offers the following services:

• Audit: services include external audit, financial reporting, accounting advisory, benefit plan audit and specialized audits.
• Tax: services include federal, state and local, international, tax accounting and private client.
• Advisory: services are categorized into 10 service lines:

1. Bankruptcy and insolvency
2. Benefit plan consulting and compliance services
3. Business management
4. Forensic services
5. Fresh-start accounting
6. Investment banking
7. Restructuring advisory
8. Transaction services
9. Merger and acquisition integration
10. Valuation
    • Risk: services include enterprise, regulatory, technology, fraud, operational and financial risk.
    • Performance: services include revenue enhancement, operational improvement, advisory services and change management.

Industries overview:

• Construction
• Financial Services
• Food & Commodities
• Government
• Healthcare
• Higher Education
• Manufacturing and Distribution
• Not-for-Profit
• Private Equity Groups
• Retail Dealer

Industry Recognition

• Crowe won PAR's (Public Accounting Report’s) annual audit crown for the 2009 calendar year. This title is determined by weighing net audit wins, as well as net gains in the revenue audited of new clients, net gains in the assets audited of new clients and net gain in audit fees. PAR noted that Crowe’s “net gain of 24 SEC entities was tops among the firms analyzed…” and “Crowe posted across-the-board net gains in revenue audited, assets audited and audit fees gained for the year, according to PAR’s analysis of data compiled by AuditAnalytics.com.” Additionally, PAR noted that Crowe’s “dominant financial institutions practice” played a role in its 2009 success. The firm gained eight SEC audit wins with either commercial banks or savings institutions, including five that were previously Big Four clients. Four of Crowe’s won SEC clients in the banking or savings institutions categories boasted assets audited of more than $1 billion. Additionally, five of those new banking clients were headquartered in New York, where the firm officially opened an office after its combination with Hays & Co in 2009.

• PAR ranked Crowe as the ninth largest public accounting and consulting firm in the nation, based on 2008 U.S. net revenue.

• Crowe is one of only nine firms to be inspected annually by the Public Company Audit Oversight Board (PCAOB)because of the size of its public company audit practice, with smaller firms having an inspection every three years. As reported by World Accounting Intelligence in May 2009, Crowe received a relatively "clean bill of health" in its most recent PCAOB inspection report.

• The American Bankers Association (ABA) endorsed Crowe’s governance, risk and compliance management consulting services. Crowe’s risk management consulting services were chosen after a thorough review and analysis by ABA and its affiliate, the Corporation for American Banking, based on a wide range of factors including functionality, regulatory compliance, management strength, financial soundness and customer service. Crowe provides risk management consulting services to more than 500 financial institution clients nationally.

• Crowe has been named to the Microsoft Business Solutions President's Club. The President's Club recognizes the top 5 percent of Microsoft Business Solutions partners worldwide and their dedication to delivering solutions that meet their customers’ needs, their active pursuit of product and technological advancement and their impressive sales performance.

• The public company auditing profession and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) launched the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) in 2007. Along with the AICPA, Crowe is one of the eight firms that co-founded the CAQ. Its mission is to foster confidence in the audit process and to aid investors and the capital markets by advancing constructive suggestions for change based on the profession’s core values of integrity, objectivity, honesty and trust. The CAQ convenes a public dialogue with key stakeholders across the country, facilitates discussions about improvements to the quality, relevance and integrity of financial reporting and conducts research on these topics.

• In 2009, Crowe received the National Balance Award from the American Society of Women Accountants (ASWA) for its commitment to work/life balance and sensitivity to the concerns of women.

External links

• Crowe Horwath - Main site
• Crowe Horwath International - The Swiss Verein
  Swiss Verein
  A Swiss Verein is a legal structure in Swiss law. It is similar to the Anglo-American voluntary association. Unlike in Germany, a Swiss Verein does not need to be registered in order to have a separate legal personality...
  
  of which Crowe is part.