Straight talk for owners and dealmakers.

Forty-six tests at full scope, about twelve at $2 to $3 million. The ladder by deal band, with fees, the clock, and what each tier does not test.

What sets the fee: scope, the condition of the books and who does the work. And when you should not buy one at all.

A quality of earnings report proves last year’s profit was real and that the add-backs hold up. It cannot prove the customers stay, that the business runs without the seller, or that the profit survives the day you take over. Those are the risks that break deals after close.

Above-market pay, personal spending and related-party rent usually clear; growth spending, deferred maintenance and a manager who will have to be replaced usually do not. Where the line falls, and why two buyers can draw it differently.

The three gates an add-back has to clear, a tested register showing the three that failed, and the earnings ladder from the filed tax return upward.

There are two numbers in every sale of a business: the earnings you report, and the earnings that survive a buyer’s review. A buyer tests four things: your real provable earnings, whether the revenue repeats, whether the bank statements match the books, and the working capital the business runs on.

From 1 October, on a 7(a) acquisition or expansion of $3M or more, the lender must use the QoE earnings in the coverage test. The arithmetic at every loan size.

Under SOP 50 10 8.1 the lender must have a quality of earnings report, a seller’s report never counts, and since 25 September yours can count if the lender elects to have one of its approved vendors review it. What that means for a report you already paid for.

What Appendix 15 of SOP 50 10 8.1 requires on a 7(a) acquisition, category by category, after SBA’s 25 September update, and the one point where SBA’s notice and the SOP text still differ.

Underwriting stalls on numbers that cannot be tied to a source document. What an SBA credit file actually requires, using SBA’s own arithmetic.

No threshold when SBA tests the earnings, a 20 percent default when it lends against the invoice. The reference-call protocol, published in full.

Computed against tested, the four peg methods, how a working capital true-up works on a 7(a) deal, debt-like items and the tax that survives an asset purchase.

How to map the five seats a business runs on, test the bench behind each one, and write the transition taper so a buyer knows what breaks in the first month.

Some changes after a close are forced on you and some you choose; sorting them is what makes a 100-day plan work.

Two dental practices with the same collections can sell for very different prices. What a buyer’s quality of earnings checks, how a DSO prices a practice, and the fixes that raise the price two years out.

The five findings that move the price after the letter of intent, which two arrive after the price is agreed, and what an owner one to two years out can do about them now.

You raise what a business is worth by making it less dependent on you and more certain for a buyer. Five levers do most of that work: clean numbers, a business that runs without you, a real second-in-command, a clear growth story, and books you could open tomorrow.

Two owners sold the same year with profit within rounding distance of each other, and walked away with very different checks. The higher price went to the owner whose earnings a buyer could prove and expect to keep after the sale, and an owner controls both.

Many of the owners who ask us for a CFO need a controller first. What each seat fixes, how deep it sits in the management team, and what it costs to hire the wrong one.

Before an RIA buys anything, it needs a corporate development function: a clear strategy, capital lined up, a repeatable way to source deals, real diligence, and a plan for integration.

Valuation in the RIA space comes down to what buyers will pay and why. Organic growth, margin discipline, client age, niche expertise and team depth move the number more than headline AUM, and the multiple shifts sharply across the size spectrum, with mid-tier platforms drawing the strongest interest.

As an RIA scales from $200 million to $2 billion in AUM, finance has to stop being a back-office cost center. The modern CFO partners with the CEO on capital, pricing and growth decisions, using current data to decide.