NAICS code for consulting: 541611 and the six codes beside it

This page is for consultants filling in a form that asks for a NAICS or SIC code (SAM.gov, a bank, an insurer, a grant) and for sellers building a list of consulting firms.

The NAICS codes for consulting

Consulting sits in NAICS 5416, Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services. The Census Bureau splits it into seven six-digit industries by subject, and IT consulting sits outside it.

How to choose between them

NAICS classifies a business by its primary activity. The NAICS manual says that ideally means the service with the largest share of production costs and capital, and in practice revenue usually stands in for it. So add up last year's revenue by type of engagement and take the code for the biggest share. A firm that genuinely covers several management areas belongs in 541611, which names general management consultants in its definition.

The Census Bureau's cross-references move these activities out of consulting altogether:

IT consultancies that design or integrate systems use 541512 (custom software is 541511); the NAICS code for IT consulting page covers their edge cases.

The SIC codes for consulting

NAICS replaced the 1987 SIC in 1997, but the SEC's EDGAR system and many banks and data vendors still use SIC. The Census Bureau's concordance links the old and new codes, and the match is many-to-many:

Use 8742 for management, HR, marketing or operations consulting and 8748 for economic, agricultural, educational or other business consulting. The SEC's own SIC list has 8742 but not 8748, so listed consultancies show up under 8742, 8741 (management services) or 8700.

How many consulting businesses there are

County Business Patterns 2023 counts these US establishments with paid employees. The figures use the 2017 NAICS codes, which are unchanged for consulting in 2022.

Most consulting establishments are tiny. Of the 104,494 in 541611, 87,328 (84%) have fewer than five employees, 7,108 have 5 to 9, 4,311 have 10 to 19, 3,084 have 20 to 49, 1,294 have 50 to 99, 840 have 100 to 249, 316 have 250 to 499, 128 have 500 to 999 and 85 have 1,000 or more. The top states for 541611 are California (17,851), Florida (11,375), Texas (9,705), New York (6,148) and North Carolina (3,887).

CBP counts locations, not companies: a firm with eight offices is eight establishments. It leaves out the self-employed, so the many solo consultants without staff aren't in these numbers.

SBA size standards for consulting codes

If you bid for federal work, the SBA's size standard for the code decides whether you count as small. All consulting codes use average annual receipts, counted over your last five completed fiscal years (or your time in business, if shorter) and including affiliates. These are the standards in the SBA's table effective March 17, 2023:

The small business size standards page explains how affiliates and receipts are counted.

Where the code gets used, and what a wrong one costs

• SAM.gov and federal bids. You list the codes you want to be found under, with one as primary. Each solicitation carries one NAICS code chosen by the contracting officer, and you must be small under that code's standard to compete for a set-aside. Getting your size wrong invites a size protest from a rival bidder or the contracting officer. If you think the code itself is wrong, you have 10 calendar days from the solicitation to appeal it to the SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals.
• Tax returns. The IRS business activity codes look like NAICS but are grouped: consultants enter 541600 (Management, scientific, & technical consulting services) on Schedule C. Don't copy 541600 into SAM.gov, where it isn't a valid NAICS code.
• Banks, insurers and vendor forms. Lenders, insurers and procurement teams ask for a code to classify you. A consulting code says you give advice; if you also run work for clients, such as their payroll or recruiting, say so, because that work has its own code.

Finding consulting companies

Public consultancies file under SIC 8742, and the EDGAR company list for SIC 8742 shows every registrant with that code. The largest by revenue in their latest 10-K:

Two cautions. An SIC search pulls in companies a seller wouldn't call consultancies: Astrana Health, which describes itself as a risk-bearing healthcare management company coordinating care through physician networks, files under 8742. And some of the biggest consultancies use other codes: Accenture files under 7389 (business services) and Leidos under 7373 (computer integrated systems design). For the ranked list, see the largest consulting firms.

For private firms, filter by code, then by size: the 10,058 establishments in 541611 with ten or more employees are the ones with a managing partner, an operations lead and a budget for tools. Bebop finds private consultancies from a plain-language description, explains why each fits and researches each account.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The firm and figures are invented to show the method.

Northfield Advisory (northfield.example) has 14 staff. Last year's revenue split 58% operating model and strategy work, 30% pricing and go-to-market projects, and 12% compensation design.

1. Primary code: 541611, because general management work is the largest share.
2. Other codes to list in SAM.gov: 541613 for the pricing work and 541612 for compensation, so contracting officers searching those codes find the firm.
3. Size check: receipts over the last five fiscal years were $3.1 million, $3.8 million, $4.4 million, $5.0 million and $5.7 million. Total $22.0 million, divided by 5, is $4.4 million average annual receipts. That's under every consulting standard, including the lowest, $19.0 million.
4. Tax return: the owner files Schedule C and enters activity code 541600, not 541611.
5. SIC for the bank's form: 8742.

Next step: look up any other business's codes with the NAICS code lookup.