Audit and Review Readiness
Assess whether your trial balance, reconciliations, schedules, contracts, controls, and prepared-by-client package are ready for external accountants.
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For owners, founders, and finance leaders
Ownership Succession and Exit Planning
Assess how ready the business is for an eventual ownership transition or sale, from clean records and documented processes to owner dependence, and what to prepare early.
6 guided steps
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Official guidance links
Start the free checker
Your free guided checker
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational business diagnostic only; not accounting, audit, tax, legal, investment, lending, or valuation advice.
The questions this tool walks you through
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Do you intend to exit or hand over ownership within roughly the next three years?
A three-year horizon is short for a transition - clean books, a deal structure, and reduced owner dependence all take one to three years to put in place.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Have you already identified the specific successor or buyer - a named family member, a management team, or a concrete acquirer?
With a near-term exit, whether the receiving party is known decides whether you are executing a deal or still searching for one.
Start the transition timeline now and prepare the business to go to market.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Are the last three years of financial statements prepared on an accrual, GAAP-consistent basis - and ideally reviewed or audited by an outside CPA?
Buyers and lenders price off numbers they can trust; cash-basis or owner-only books are commonly discounted or reworked in diligence.
Build transferable value and put clean, defensible financials in place first.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Could the business run substantially without you for 90 days or more - with someone else holding the key customer, supplier, and banking relationships?
Value that walks out the door with the owner is discounted heavily; transferable earnings are what a buyer or successor actually pays for.
Reduce owner dependence and build a second layer of management before you market.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Do you intend to keep ownership inside the family or pass it to the next generation - rather than sell to an outside party?
A family transfer is driven by gifting, estate, and control questions; an outside sale is driven by valuation, diligence, and deal terms - they are different playbooks.
Structure a family or next-generation transfer with gifting and estate planning.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Do you have a broad, loyal employee base - roughly 20 or more full-time staff - and want the business to stay independent and employee-owned rather than sold to a competitor?
An ESOP can buy out the owner tax-efficiently and reward employees, but it needs enough payroll and headcount to carry the plan's cost and administration.
Evaluate an ESOP as a tax-advantaged way to transfer ownership to employees. Prepare for a third-party sale and assemble the deal and diligence team.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
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