PwC took the lead with $6.96 billion in net revenue, followed by Ernst & Young with $6.1 billion and Deloitte & Touche with $5.34 billion, PAR reported. KPMG jumped to fourth place with $4.11 billion, while newly divorced Arthur Andersen slid from the top spot to fifth place at $3.3 billion without revenue from Andersen Consulting.

While the average growth rate among the Top 100 firms remained strong in the double digits at 17.8 percent, that's a drop off of nearly 8 percent from last year's rate of 25.6 percent, marking the first time since the early 1990s that the accounting profession's expansion pace slid, PAR said.

"This year's growth is solid, but it's not what it used to be," said executive editor Jon McKenna. One reason may be a slowdown in the growth of consulting.

"Consulting is down all over the map, particularly in the top five," McKenna said. "Y2K work went away, and systems integration work went away."

"We're seeing signs that business is slowing," he added. "Things may be leveling off after the boom, but I don't know that will play out."

The cutoff to make PAR's Top 100 this year was $12.4 million, compared to $10.7 million last year. That's an increase of 16 percent, nearly commensurate with the 17.8 percent revenue growth across the Top 100.

-- By Melissa Klein

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