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
Acquisition or Sale Readiness
Identify the financial records, quality-of-earnings questions, working-capital items, tax exposures, and accounting issues to organize before a deal.
5 guided steps
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Official guidance links
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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.
In this deal, are you the buyer acquiring another business - rather than the owner selling or raising capital?
Buyers pay for evidence and downside protection; sellers are paid for a clean, defensible earnings story - the readiness work runs in opposite directions.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Are the target's financial statements audited or reviewed by an independent CPA firm, with a full set of records already in a data room?
An unaudited target with thin records is where hidden liabilities and overstated earnings live - the diligence budget scales with that gap.
Scope confirmatory buy-side financial diligence on the target. Commission a full buy-side quality-of-earnings analysis before you sign.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Do you expect a letter of intent, signed term sheet, or closing within roughly the next nine months?
Inside a live timeline you are cleaning up under a diligence clock; with runway, you can fix the earnings story before a buyer ever sees it.
Run a pre-market clean-up so the business is sale-ready before you go out.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Are your last two to three years of financials audited or reviewed by an independent CPA firm - rather than internally prepared only?
Buyers discount internally prepared numbers; an independent audit or review is the single biggest lever on how fast diligence moves and how few surprises arise.
Commission a sell-side quality-of-earnings report to get ahead of diligence.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
Is each add-back and owner adjustment to EBITDA already supported by a document a buyer could tie out - invoices, contracts, or a memo?
An add-back a buyer cannot trace to evidence is not an add-back; unsupported adjustments are where sale-side valuation quietly erodes.
Assemble a sell-side data room and defend your working-capital peg. Build a documented add-back schedule before the numbers reach a buyer.
Official guidance: SBA guidance for closing or selling a business
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