Someone is about to look at your numbers properly.
Diligence does not fail on the headline figures. It fails on the third question, when the answer is not in the file and the person asking starts wondering what else is missing.
What usually brings you here
- A term sheet is close and your accounts will not survive the reading.
- You need a model that ties to actual results, not a spreadsheet built for the deck.
- A lender wants statements going back further than your records go.
- You are the one being asked, and you cannot answer without calling your accountant.
What you get every month
- Accounts rebuilt and reconciled back through the period under review
- A financial model that reconciles to the accounts it came from
- A data room organised the way the questions will arrive
- The awkward questions found by us first, with an answer prepared
Where we would start.
We prepare the numbers. Statutory audit, if the deal needs one, goes to a licensed firm.
The order the questions actually arrive in.
Diligence does not begin with the interesting questions. It begins with whether the numbers in the deck can be traced to a ledger, and a surprising number of processes end there. Everything downstream of that is a conversation you only get to have if the first answer holds.
This is also the one part of the work that cannot be compressed. Rebuilding and reconciling accounts back through the period under review takes as long as it takes, which is why starting after the term sheet arrives is the expensive way to do it.
What we get in place before anyone starts reading
- Accounts rebuilt and reconciled back through the period the reader will actually examine.
- A model that reconciles to those accounts, so the first check passes.
- A data room organised the way the questions arrive rather than the way your folders happen to be arranged.
- The uncomfortable items found and written up by us, with your answer ready, because the damage is rarely the item itself. It is being surprised by it in front of the person deciding.
Work we have done, and what changed.
These are engagements of our United States practice, not Bangladesh clients, and the client names are withheld. They are here because they are the standard your work in Dhaka is done to.
A founder dependent business made ready for a buyer
There was a term sheet on the table. The buyer flagged that the business ran entirely through the founder: no documented processes, no management layer and no operating structure a new owner could take on.
Documented how the business actually ran, built the management layer, and put the operating structure in place that the buyer had said was missing.
The business went into the process able to answer the question that had been raised against it.
Before you call.
How early should we start?
Before the term sheet, not after it. Rebuilding accounts back through the period under review takes time, and it is the one piece of work that cannot be compressed once somebody is already reading.
Will the model reconcile to our accounts?
Yes, and that is the test we build it to pass. A model built for the deck rather than from the accounts falls apart in the first diligence call.
Are the statements you prepare audited?
No. Statutory audit is ICAB licensed work and we refer it. What we hand over is a reconciled set of records and a data room organised the way the questions will actually arrive.
Do you talk to the investors for us?
No. We prepare you and the numbers, including the awkward questions we think are coming, with an answer ready. The conversation is yours.
More general questions are answered on the contact page.
Get a free review of your accounts.
Thirty minutes, no charge. We say honestly whether we can help, and what it would cost.