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Diligence for searchers, from first review to acquisition decision.

You’re buying the business. Make sure you understand the earnings.

For self-funded searchers, search funds and entrepreneurs through acquisition, the stakes are personal. You are committing your capital, taking on financing and often stepping into the operator’s seat on day one.

LIMESTONE runs fixed-fee Quality of Earnings. Start with a Red-Flag Review if you are screening, a buy-side QoE under LOI, or Operational & Market Diligence when a finding needs a deeper answer. Ryan Anoskey, CPA, leads the financial review; Jared Luegers, CFA, reads the operating risks on every QoE. For businesses earning roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA. Indiana-rooted. Serving buyers and owners nationwide.

The questions that matter

Six questions to answer before you own the business.

Diligence is where the seller’s story meets the records, the operating realities and the market outside the business. Clean historical financials are necessary for many decisions, but they cannot tell you by themselves whether the earnings will hold over your ownership period.

The six questions

  1. 01

    What does the business actually earn?

    We test reported earnings against the records and show which add-backs hold.

  2. 02

    How much cash will the business need?

    Historical cash generation and, in scope, the working capital you will need at closing.

  3. 03

    Will the business and its customer relationships transfer?

    Where owner or customer dependence matters, Operational & Market Diligence investigates it.

  4. 04

    What will your lender or investors require?

    We agree the report’s intended use with the lender before work starts; acceptance is never automatic.

  5. 05

    What happens if the market or margins change?

    Targeted research and downside cases, scoped separately from the historical QoE.

  6. 06

    Can the business adapt and what deserves attention after closing?

    What the first year needs: investments, responsibilities and timing, with help after close scoped separately.

The central question is what evidence supports these earnings holding up under new ownership.

Full commercial market sizing, independent customer research and specialist technology assessments are separate engagements when they matter to the thesis.

Where you are in the process

Don’t spend your entire diligence budget before you know what you need.

Early screening, full diligence and post-close work answer different questions. You can engage LIMESTONE for one stage without committing to the others.

Where you are in the process

Four stages, one at a time

  1. 01

    Before an LOI

    Red-Flag Review

    An early review of the available information to identify issues worth investigating before you commit to a full QoE. It is not proof of cash, an independent lender report or a substitute for confirmatory diligence.

    From $2,500 · a document-limited early read

  2. 02

    Under LOI

    Buy-Side Quality of Earnings

    Ryan leads the financial review and Jared contributes the operating perspective. Depending on scope, we test cash support, earnings adjustments, revenue, working capital and other transaction questions, with the findings and limitations documented.

    Lite from $7,500 · Core from $15,000 · Full from $25,000

  3. 03

    When a finding needs a deeper answer

    Operational & Market Diligence

    Owner dependence, customer continuity, management depth, pricing pressure or market disruption may call for deeper interviews, desk research and downside sensitivities. We specify the questions and procedures in writing; a full market study is not automatically included.

    Scope and fixed fee agreed before work starts

  4. 04

    After closing

    CFO & Operating Partner

    Need help turning your first-year priorities into a plan and following through? LIMESTONE can help with reporting, cash decisions, management accountability and targeted operating improvements. This work is optional and separately agreed.

    One role or both · from $2,500 a month per role at Advisory

On a 7(a) initial acquisition or business expansion at a business purchase price of $3 million or more the lender must obtain the report; the SBA page has both routes to the lender’s file.

Before the names are released

Pre-LOI request list

Ask for

Checked against

Each account as a letter, with revenue by year for four yearsCustomer A to Z, no names

Twelve months of bank statements; deposit size and frequency show the concentration.

When each account started buying

The oldest invoice on each account.

Contract or handshake, and the notice period

The contracts’ assignment and change-of-control terms, once the names are released.

Who holds the relationship, the owner or the business

The sales system’s representative of record, and the owner’s calendar.

Accounts lost in the last three years, with the reason

The revenue ledger, account by account.

Gross profit by account, where the books allow it

The price file and cost of sales, built in the review where the business has never produced it.

The rule

Names are usually withheld until confirmatory diligence. If the shape is withheld too, that is recorded as a limitation and weighed in context.

The LIMESTONE buy-side request list, pre-LOI items. Intermediaries usually release customer and employee names at confirmatory diligence.

Before the names

Ask for the shape of the customer base before you ask for the names.

Sellers hold customer and supplier names back until confirmatory diligence, and that is normal. What a seller can give you before the letter of intent is the shape of the customer base, and twelve months of bank statements will show the same concentration with the names stripped out.

Searchers and first-time buyers

Buy one business, and pay for one quality of earnings.

Most self-funded searchers sign more than one letter of intent before one closes. They buy one business. The Red-Flag Review is built for that stage: a short, document-based read of the deal in front of you before you pay for a full review. Once you’ve picked the deal, the Quality of Earnings and the operating read run together, and on an SBA loan the lender’s report comes from an independent firm. The field guide walks the path from first memorandum to wire.

Diligence spend across one search

Illustrative · starting fees

Three letters of intent, one close: a read on each deal and a full review on the one that survives.
Read each deal first
RFRRFRRFRQoE Coreon the deal that survives
$22,500
RFR × 3QoE Core on the deal that survives
A full review on every deal
QoE CoreQoE CoreQoE Core
$45,000
QoE Core × 3
$0$15,000$30,000$45,000
Red-Flag Review (RFR), $2,500 eachQoE Core, $15,000 each
$22,500
kept for the deal that closes, on these starting fees
The readThe read costs a fraction of the review, so the review is spent once.
Illustrative. Red-Flag Review from $2,500; QoE Core from $15,000; fees are starting fees for qualifying scopes and are quoted in writing after a call. A Red-Flag Review is a document-limited read; it is not a substitute for the Quality of Earnings.
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The people behind the work

A CPA tests the earnings. An operator reads what is behind them.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA, has completed more than 100 buy- and sell-side QoE engagements during his career. He leads the financial testing and the conclusions supported by that work. Jared Luegers, CFA, began in investment research evaluating business models, competition and earnings durability, then worked on acquisitions and operating initiatives. He reads the operating risks in the materials and says where interviews, commercial research or operating work would be worth scoping. Samples and an illustrative case are on the Case Studies & Samples page.

Extensive management interviews, customer calls and operational fieldwork are performed only when the written scope includes them.

What you receive

The report, the Financial Exhibit Book and the client workbook.

Every formal QoE delivers all three, at the depth of the tier you choose: the written findings with the treatment of every proposed adjustment, the exhibit book that supports them, and the Excel workbook the package is built from. Larger scopes add the procedures and schedules agreed for the transaction. We show you a sample and explain what your fee buys before you sign.

Questions

Questions we hear from searchers

Do I need a QoE before signing an LOI?

Not necessarily. Many buyers begin with their own screening and targeted professional input, then commission confirmatory diligence after an LOI. If the deal already has unusual financial risks, a defined pre-LOI review can help you decide whether to proceed.

Is a Red-Flag Review a cheaper QoE?

No. It is a limited, document-based read of the information available; a tested QoE is a separate engagement. If you need bank reconciliations, earnings support, a working-capital assessment or a lender-directed report, we scope the proper engagement.

Will my SBA lender accept your report?

We confirm the lender’s requirements and engagement process before scoping. Where the SBA requires a report, one you commission counts only if the lender elects to have one of its approved vendors review it. No provider can promise acceptance.

What if my existing accountant is handling the QoE?

We can scope standalone Operational & Market Diligence that addresses agreed operating and targeted commercial questions without automatically repeating the financial review or promising an exhaustive market study.

Will you try to become my acquisition partner?

No. Independent diligence is a complete standalone service, with no obligation to retain us after delivery. Any separate acquisition or operating partnership must be explicitly discussed, independently scoped and evaluated for potential conflicts. We do not work both sides of the same independent diligence assignment.

Helpful resources

Want the deeper technical explanation?

Read our Due Diligence for the Self-Funded Buyer guide for the full decision sequence. Visit Quality of Earnings for the scope ladder and sample report. See SBA Quality of Earnings for lender-specific requirements, or Operational & Market Diligence for the deeper operating questions.

Get started

Bring the deal you’re looking at.

Whether you have a CIM, a signed LOI or a lender asking questions, tell us where the deal stands and what you need to learn. A thirty-minute call with both partners, then one fixed fee in writing.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · Partner · ryan.anoskey@limestonesp.com

Jared Luegers, CFA · Founder and Managing Partner · jared@limestonesp.com