# How Accenture makes money

CXProWealth Business Lens · Accenture (ACN) · FY2026

Read from the 10-K for the period 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31, filed 2026-10-16 with the SEC (accession 0001467373-26-000049): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467373/000146737326000049/

Business Lens explains how a company earns, spends and keeps its money, from its own filings. It is insight and context, never a view on the shares, a target, or advice. Figures are raw units as filed; percentages are percentage points.

## Headline figures

- Revenue: $74.2B (+6.5% on the year)
- Operating income: $11.4B (operating margin 15.4%)
- Net income: $8.4B (net margin 11.3%)
- Gross margin: 32.0%
- Free cash flow: $11.6B (15.7% of revenue)
- Cash conversion (operating cash flow / net income): 1.48x
- Capital expenditure: 1.0% of revenue

## Where the money goes (FY2026)

- Consulting → Revenues: $36.9B
- Managed Services → Revenues: $37.3B
- Revenues → Total operating expenses: $62.8B
- Total operating expenses → Cost of services: $50.4B
- Total operating expenses → Sales and marketing: $7.2B
- Total operating expenses → General and administrative costs: $4.8B
- Total operating expenses → Business optimization costs: $307.5M
- Revenues → Operating income: $11.4B
- Operating income → Interest expense: $303.4M
- Operating income → Other income (expense), net: $93.6M
- Operating income → Income before income taxes: $11.0B
- Interest income → Income before income taxes: $363.2M
- Income before income taxes → Income tax expense: $2.8B
- Income before income taxes → Net income: $8.5B
- Net income → Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests in Accenture Canada Holdings Inc.: $7.9M
- Net income → Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests – other: $147.9M
- Net income → Net income attributable to accenture plc: $8.4B

## Where the revenue comes from

### Products and services (SEGMENT REPORTING - Schedule of Revenues by Industry Group and Type of Work (Details))

| Member | Value | Share |
|---|---:|---:|
| Managed Services | $37.3B | 50.3% |
| Consulting | $36.9B | 49.7% |

The members sum to total revenue.

### Segments (SEGMENT REPORTING - Schedule of Reportable Operating Segments (Details))

| Member | Value | Share |
|---|---:|---:|
| Americas | $36.5B | 49.3% |
| Emea | $27.0B | 36.3% |
| Asia Pacific | $10.7B | 14.4% |

The members sum to total revenue.

### EquitySecuritiesByIndustry (SEGMENT REPORTING - Schedule of Revenues by Industry Group and Type of Work (Details))

| Member | Value | Share |
|---|---:|---:|
| Products | $22.5B | 30.3% |
| Health & Public Service | $15.2B | 20.5% |
| Financial Services | $14.0B | 18.8% |
| Communications, Media & Technology | $12.7B | 17.1% |
| Resources | $9.9B | 13.4% |

The members sum to total revenue.

## Key insights

### The Americas out-earn the other two regions combined

With under half of revenue, the Americas earn a 17.1% operating margin against 12.7% in EMEA, so regional mix moves group profit.

The Americas produced $36.55B of revenue, 49.27% of the total, and $6.24B of operating income, 54.75% of the $11.41B total. That is an operating margin of 17.1%. _(from the filing)_
EMEA produced $26.96B of revenue, 36.34% of the total, but $3.44B of operating income, 30.13% of the total, a margin of 12.7%. Asia Pacific earned $1.73B on $10.68B of revenue, a 16.2% margin. _(from the filing)_
The filing text in this record does not explain the regional gap. Pricing, the mix of Consulting and Managed Services work, and delivery costs could each play a part, but the record does not break these out by region. This is analysis. _(analysis)_
Because EMEA carries more than a third of revenue, a change in its margin moves group operating income more than the same change in Asia Pacific would. The record gives regional operating income for this year only, so whether the gap is narrowing or widening cannot be read from it. _(analysis)_

### Halved business optimization costs supplied most of the margin gain

Operating margin rose 0.7 points; lower business optimization costs supplied 0.47 of them, so the underlying improvement was smaller.

Operating income grew 11.54% to $11.41B while revenue grew 6.47% to $74.18B, so the operating margin rose to 15.38% from 14.68%. _(from the filing)_
Business optimization costs fell 50.02% to $307.5M from $615.3M. As a share of revenue they dropped to 0.41% from 0.88%, which is worth 0.47 points of the 0.7-point margin gain, about 67% of it. _(from the filing)_
Sales and marketing grew 2.84%, slower than revenue, and fell to 9.76% of revenue, saving 0.35 points. Cost of services eased 0.14 points to 67.95% of revenue. General and administrative costs moved the other way, rising 10.75% to $4.82B and taking 0.25 points more of revenue. _(from the filing)_
Business optimization costs are restructuring charges by nature, so halving them lifts the margin once. The lines that recur every year, sales efficiency and the cost of delivering the work, would have to carry any further gain. This is analysis, not a forecast. _(analysis)_

### Free cash flow exceeded operating profit

Operating cash flow was 1.48 times Accenture's net income and capital spending only 1.0% of revenue, so profit arrives as cash.

Free cash flow was $11.62B against operating income of $11.41B, and the free cash flow margin of 15.66% sat above the 15.38% operating margin. _(from the filing)_
Operating cash flow of $12.36B was 1.48 times net income attributable to Accenture of $8.37B. Capital expenditure was $742.7M, 1.0% of revenue. _(from the filing)_
This is a pattern rather than a single year. A year earlier free cash flow was $10.87B against operating income of $10.23B, and free cash flow exceeded operating income in five of the eight years the record covers. _(from the filing)_
The diluted share count fell to 617.5M from 632.4M, so diluted earnings per share rose to $13.56 from $12.15, faster than the 8.97% growth in net income attributable to Accenture. _(from the filing)_
Cash arrives unevenly through the year. First-quarter free cash flow was $1.51B, against $3.67B in the second quarter, so a single quarter understates or overstates the annual picture. _(from the filing)_

## For members

Signed-in members read, on the page: the investor's and the founder's views of Accenture (its fundamentals against its peers, where the profit is made, how the model works, where every $100 of revenue goes against the industry, the path to scale), its performance over time with every line as filed, and the edge and the risks. Membership is free.

## Member research

Signed-in members read, on the page: what Accenture's numbers depend on from here, and the playbook behind each mechanism (what needs scale, what transfers, how to test it, the metric that would show it).

## Sources

- Accenture 10-K for the period to 2026-08-31: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467373/000146737326000049/ (2026-10-16)

Methodology business-lens-1.0 · schema 1.2.0 · run business-lens-2026-11-03 · as of 2026-11-03