Trigger: diligence started
A buyer or investor started diligence and your books are behind
The clock is now running on someone else's schedule. Every week your numbers are late is a week of leverage handed to the other side, and messy books get read as risk and priced accordingly.
What is needed
What diligence asks for that your books do not have yet
Buyers are not trying to understand your business. They are trying to find the reason to pay less. Clean numbers remove the easy reasons.
Books brought current and consistent
One-time items, owner expenses, and misclassifications identified rather than buried where a buyer will find them.
Normalized and documented
Earnings restated so the buyer sees what the business actually produces, with every adjustment defensible when challenged.
What they ask for in week one
A financial summary, monthly detail, and the supporting schedules a buyer or their accountant asks for first.
Support for the follow-ups
Unanswered diligence questions do not stay questions. They become price adjustments.
Straight answers
Questions owners ask at this point
What do buyers ask for in diligence?
Monthly financials for two to three years, tax returns, revenue by customer, AR and AP detail, a debt schedule, payroll detail, and an explanation for anything unusual. The list grows once they start reading.
How long does it take to get books diligence-ready?
It depends on how far behind they are, which gets assessed and stated before any commitment. What matters more than speed is that the numbers survive being questioned, because a package that falls apart under scrutiny costs more than a slow one.
What is normalized EBITDA and why does the buyer care?
Normalized EBITDA restates earnings to exclude items that will not continue after a sale: one-time costs, above-market owner compensation, personal expenses run through the business. Every adjustment needs documentation, because buyers discount the ones you cannot support.
Do you replace a quality of earnings provider?
No. A formal quality of earnings report is a separate engagement, usually the buyer's. This work is getting your side ready so that report finds clean numbers instead of surprises.
There is a deadline on this
Get the number right the first time.
One call, 30 minutes, no cost. Tell me the deadline and what the other side has asked for, and you will get a straight answer on what it takes.