Women make up one in five accounting partners across the Top 100 Accounting Firms list and about one in three newly appointed partners.

Data from the Financial Review Top 100 Accounting Firms shows that 35 firms have no women partners at all, while five firms had partnerships that were split 50-50 between men and women.

One of the few firms with gender parity is Power Tynan, a six-partner regional accounting and financial advice outfit in Queensland.

Executive director Amanda Kenafake has worked at the firm for two decades and is set to become its CEO from January 1.

"About five years ago our current CEO Paul [Hilton] said he wanted to slow down. We needed to look at succession. I put my hand up for the job, so I've been shadowing him since," Ms Kenafake said. Mr Hilton will become chairman when she takes on the leadership role.

"When I started 20 years ago, there were four male partners and about 12 or 13 years ago Gilda [Brisotto] and I were the first women to be promoted to partner," she said.

Having gender parity in the partnership, as well as a staff that is about 60 per cent women, makes a positive difference to the way the firm operates.

"Look, we think differently, and some clients are better suited to dealing with men or women. To be honest it's not a big thing for us," Ms Kenafake said.

Growth in advisory services

Like most other firms in the Top 100, advisory was the fastest growing area for Power Tynan.

"We are doing a lot in the IT space: getting client systems up and working, getting the systems to talk to each other, doing the data analytics. That all leads into greater advisory because we've got access to the right information," Ms Kenafake said.

Revenue at the firm, which has 50 staff, was up 1.3 per cent to $6.7 million in the past financial year, below the 6.3 per cent growth rate across the 53 smallest firms in the Top 100 list.

Other firms with 50-50 splits in their partnership were WSC Group, Rhodes Docherty & Co, Pluta Accountants, and Bush & Campbell.

There were a total of 4485 equity and salary partners at the Top 100 Accounting Firms, and women made up 20 per cent, or 898, of this. Of the 432 new partners during the year, 34.5 per cent, or 149, were women.

Ms Kenafake said there wasn a simple way to get more women into leadership positions at accounting firms.

"You've got to be well supported in the business. That's it. If you're not well supported, it'll make it hard for women to make it happen. It has to be easy and seamless to allow them to juggle their commitments," she said.