Two commercial bankers read a bound package together in a bank boardroom.

Capital Readiness

The package a lender or investor opens, built before the first meeting.

Raising capital, refinancing or preparing for lender scrutiny? LIMESTONE helps build the financial analysis decision-makers need: historical reporting, forecasts, cash-flow scenarios, debt service coverage and the assumptions behind them. Buyers financing an acquisition start on the SBA quality of earnings page.

We prepare the financial work with management and can remain involved in forecasting and lender reporting afterward.

The package, piece by piece, and who opens it

Lender · investor

The piece

The question it answers

Opened by

01

13-week cash viewBuilt with the first weeks of actuals against the forecast; kept weekly in the CFO seat

Is the business in control of its cash, week to week?

Lender
02

Add-back schedule, testedEvery adjustment with the document behind it, the declined ones shown

Which adjustments would a reviewer strike, and what is left after they do?

LenderInvestor
03

Debt schedule and covenant mathCoverage and debt load before and after the loan

Does coverage hold on tested earnings, with the new debt in?

Lender
04

Monthly working capital and the agingsThirty-six months of receivables, inventory and payables

What does the line have to cover, and when in the year?

LenderInvestor
05

Three-statement model and forecastAssumptions tied to three years of history, with the departures explained

Can the business carry the debt, or earn the return, on assumptions that tie to history?

LenderInvestor
06

Use of proceeds and the equity storyWhat the money does, and what it returns

What changes with the money, and by when?

Investor
07

The data room indexOrganized the way the money reads it

Where is everything, and how fast does the next request come back?

LenderInvestor

The package

Each piece answers one question a committee asks.

A lender opens the cash view and the debt schedule first; an investor opens the model and the use of proceeds. Both strike any add-back without a document behind it, so those are gone before the file goes out. Nothing in it is a template: the assumptions tie to three years of history, and the forecast says where it departs from them and why.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA, leads the package; Jared Luegers, CFA, reads the operation behind it. One fixed fee, quoted at scoping.

Raising equity

Investors, a family office or a strategic partner. The operating model and forecast, the data room, and the numbers behind the story, so the raise runs on a proof point. You run the raise; we make the business ready for it.

Refinancing

A term loan, a line, or a lender who wants more than the tax returns. The debt service story, the covenant math and a package a credit committee can read. Add-backs that clear scrutiny, and a plain read on concentration.

Two reasons to be here

An equity raise and a refinancing read the same numbers for different answers.

The raise asks what the business becomes with the money; the refinancing asks what it already carries. The same model answers both. The forecast is built forward for the investor, and the coverage is built back from the debt service for the lender.

What we are

We build the package, and the lender decides.

We are not business brokers or investment bankers. We take no cut of the money and no fee from any lender, so the structure we describe is the one that fits the business and the kind of lender we point you to is the one that fits the deal. We diligence you the way the money will, so the forecast is one you can defend in the room.

Add-backs claimed and tested

Illustrative · $ in thousands

The three declined items total $139,000 and stay in earnings.
Excess owner compensation
250.0
One-time legal settlementFY2024, outside the TTM
95.0
Related-party rent to market
90.0
Rebrand and website project
85.0
Personal and discretionary expenses
70.0
Estimated personal expenses
30.0
“One-time” marketing program
24.0
Payroll taxes on excess compensation
3.6
Accepted, all three gates clearedReviewed and declined
5 of 8
claimed add-backs cleared all three gates
The readThe TTM carries 413.6 of accepted add-backs; the 95.0 settlement counts in FY2024 only.
Hoosier Supply Co. is our sample company. Exhibit 1.4 of the sample Exhibit Book.
Crews load equipment across a commercial landscape company’s fleet yard at dawn.

After the package

A package goes stale, and the CFO role keeps it current.

Owners who will raise or borrow again keep the CFO seat in the business, where the 13-week cash view and the lender reporting are standing work. If the capital event is a sale, the buyer’s lender reads the same package, and the Exit Readiness Review runs that test first, from the buyer’s side.

Questions

Three questions owners ask before a raise or a refinancing.

The article on lender-ready financial statements covers what a credit committee reads first. Every deal service is on one page, with the question each answers.

How is the timing set?

It depends on the condition of the books and how many entities there are, so the scoping call sets the window and the fee together, in writing. Day 1 is the later of the last critical item on our request list and cleared payment, and the slow items, the payroll records and the preparer’s copy of the returns, are requested first.

Will a lender accept your numbers?

The package carries statements that tie to the returns, a forecast with a stated basis and an add-back schedule with the document behind each adjustment, which answers the questions that usually stall a file. Approval runs through the lender’s own underwriting and credit committee.

Do you find the lender or the investor?

No. We take no fee from any lender and we do not place debt or raise equity for a fee, so we have no reason to steer the structure toward one lender. We will tell you which kind of lender fits the business, and your banker or advisor runs the introductions.

Get started

Walk in with the package they will ask for.

Tell us what you’re raising or borrowing, and we’ll tell you what stands between you and the money. A thirty-minute call with both partners, then one fixed fee in writing.