My application is already in. Am I under the old rules or the new ones?

Whichever rulebook is in force when your SBA loan number issues. Not when you applied, not when you signed the LOI. If your number lands on or after 1 October you are under 8.1, and there is no grandfathering for a file that has been sitting in underwriting.

I already own a company and I'm buying a second one. Is that an expansion?

Only if your existing business has operated for two full fiscal years under your ownership and the target sits in the same four-digit NAICS Industry Group. Two full fiscal years, not twenty-four months, which are different things if you bought in June. Miss either test and it is an initial acquisition: 1.25 coverage, ten percent down that cannot be reduced, and a quality of earnings report if the business price clears $3M.

SBA said one thing on the call and the SOP says another. Which does my bank follow?

Your bank. The SOP is the floor and every lender builds an overlay on top of it, and on this particular question a conservative credit team has the text on its side until the technical update publishes. Ask them directly rather than reasoning from the rule. It is the only answer that binds.

What happens if the report comes back below the price I agreed to?

The loan shrinks and the difference lands on you. The appendix is direct about it: if the coverage does not support the valuation and the proposed debt structure, the loan amount must be reduced accordingly, and the gap has to be filled with additional equity. Where that extra money comes from a limited source, it goes on full standby for the term. So a low number does not only cost you purchase price. It can lock up cash you were planning to operate with.

Why is buy-side more than sell-side?

Reliance, mostly. When a lender underwrites from the report, we are carrying a liability rather than writing an extra chapter. Information friction is the rest of it. On a sell-side file the client controls the data room. On a buy-side file you are waiting on somebody with other priorities.

Is a fixed fee always better than hourly?

For this work, yes, and not because hourly firms are doing something wrong. A fixed fee puts the risk of a messy file on the provider, which is where it belongs, because the provider is the one who is supposed to be able to read a trial balance and predict the work. It also removes the incentive to take longer.

Will a cheaper report still be accepted by my lender?

Lenders set their own requirements, so no honest firm can promise you that. What we can tell you is what they look at. Who engaged the firm, whether the preparer is credentialed and independent, and whether the earnings figure is supported well enough to underwrite from.

How fast can you tell me my number?

Usually within a business day of a short call. We answer the counts above, quote one fixed fee, and put the scope in writing before anything starts.

How is this different from a fractional CFO?

A fractional CFO owns the finance function, and owns it properly. An operating partner owns whatever is in the way, which in the first 100 days is usually not finance. It is a supplier relationship, a key employee deciding whether to stay, or a system that quietly belonged to the seller.

When should I bring someone in?

Before close, if you can. The difference between finding a change-of-control clause in week two of diligence and week two of ownership is the difference between a negotiation and a problem.

Sometimes, and it depends on the situation rather than on a policy. We would rather agree the scope and the fee first and talk about alignment second, because a stake is not a substitute for the work being right.

We scope it fixed-fee against a written list rather than hourly, so you know the number before you start. The first months run heavier than the steady state, and we say which is which up front.

My books are on a cash basis. Is that a problem?

It is a conversion project, not a disqualifier, and it is one of the more time-consuming pieces of the work. Revenue and the cost that produced it land in different periods on a cash basis, so margin appears to move when only timing did. Plan for it rather than discovering it.

The seller says the add-backs are legitimate. Why does the bank disagree?

Usually it does not disagree about the item. It disagrees about the proof behind it. A lender will typically accept adjustments that can be verified as one-time or genuinely owner-related, and decline the ones resting on an explanation. The burden sits with whoever wants the higher multiple.

How far below the broker’s number do these usually land?

There is no honest average, and we will not quote you one before reading your file. What is predictable is the direction and the mechanism: replacement salary at market rather than what the owner paid himself, personal expenses split rather than added back whole, and one-time items tested against the two years either side.

How long does this take?

The work itself is weeks, not months. What sets the timeline is how fast the documents arrive. Files that stall are almost always waiting on a seller, not on an analyst.

Do I need this if my deal is under $3 million?

The mandate does not attach, and financial due diligence is still required on every change of ownership. The threshold is measured before your equity and any seller note, and owner-occupied real estate comes out at appraised value first, so check the arithmetic before you assume you are under it.

I already paid for a QoE. Do I have to buy another one?

If your deal is an Initial Acquisition or Business Expansion, the business purchase price is $3 million or more, and it funds on or after 1 October, then the lender must obtain a report for its own benefit. That does not automatically mean starting over. SBA said in its 26 August training that a lender may use a buyer's report where one of the lender's approved vendors reviews it and incorporates it, so ask your lender whether they will do that before you commission anything else.

Does my sell-side report count?

No. A sell-side report is prepared for the seller, which is the specific thing the SOP excludes. It is still worth having. It shortens the buyer's work and it tells you what will be found before someone else finds it.

Who picks the provider, me or the bank?

The bank, because the engagement is for their benefit. Most will consider a recommendation. Ask early whether they keep an approved list.

What if the purchase price is just under $3 million?

Then the mandate does not attach, and financial due diligence is still required on every change of ownership transaction. Remember that the threshold is measured before your equity and any seller note, and that owner-occupied real estate comes out at appraised value first. Deals land on the wrong side of $3 million more often than people expect.

When should the report be ordered?

As early as the lender will allow. It feeds the debt service coverage calculation, so underwriting cannot finish without it, and on a tight timeline it is the item that moves the closing date.

Insights

Straight talk for owners and dealmakers.

Operator-grade thinking on the deals big firms won't touch: what actually moves the price of a business, how a buyer reads your earnings, and how to be ready before you go to market. Written by the people doing the work. No pitch, and we add to it over time.

Start here

If you read three things.

Field guide

Bought, Not Sold

The owner’s guide to the five things a buyer scores before they pay, with an honest self-assessment. Read it in full on the site, or download the printed edition.

Article

Two owners. Same profit. Very different price.

Two owners sold the same year with profit within rounding distance of each other, and walked away with very different checks. The gap was never the earnings number. It was how provable, how durable and how transferable those earnings were, and all three are things an owner controls.

selected work

The clean-looking deal with a 22% problem.

How a buy-side Quality of Earnings kept a searcher from overpaying, without killing the deal.

Field Guides & Whitepapers

Institutional guides, free to read.

Downloadable, plain-spoken guides for owners and deal teams. Built to the standard of the ones the big firms hand their clients.

Field Guide

Bought, Not Sold

The owner’s guide to the five things a buyer scores before they pay, with an honest self-assessment. Read it in full on the site, or download the printed edition.

Field Guide

Getting to Yes on Capital

Why the answer is usually the package, not the business, and what a lender or investor opens first. The owner's guide to being fundable.

Field Guide

What a Buyer Checks

Proof of cash, add-backs, revenue quality, and working capital: the buyer's-eye read of your earnings, and how to get ahead of the retrade before you list.

More guides are on the way. Want one we have not published yet? Ask us.

Articles

Field notes on value, earnings, and getting ready.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · 30 August 2026 · 12 min read

What the SOP Leaves Out, and SBA Said Anyway

SOP 50 10 8.1 binds every 7(a) acquisition loan numbered on or after 1 October 2026. What Appendix 15 requires, category by category, and the three things SBA said out loud that the rulebook does not say.

Jared Luegers, CFA · 30 August 2026 · 19 min read

Bought, Not Sold

The owner’s guide to the five things a buyer scores before they pay, with an honest self-assessment. Now readable in full, with the printed edition to download.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · 30 August 2026 · 11 min read

What a Quality of Earnings Report Costs

Published prices run from $3,900 to $25,000. That is not one market, it is four products. Here is what sets your number, and when you should not buy one at all.

Jared Luegers, CFA · 30 August 2026 · 8 min read

What an Operating Partner Actually Does After the Close

You do not get to change nothing. Some changes after a close are forced on you and some you are choosing, and sorting them is what makes a 100-day plan work.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · 30 August 2026 · 8 min read

What a Lender Needs to See Before They Will Fund

Underwriting rarely rejects a weak business. It stalls on numbers that cannot be tied to a source document. What an SBA credit file actually requires, using SBA's own arithmetic.

Ryan Anoskey, CPA · 30 August 2026 · 9 min read

The QoE You Already Paid For May Not Count

Under SOP 50 10 8.1 the lender obtains the quality of earnings report, and it cannot be prepared for the buyer or seller. What that means for a report you have already paid for.

Selected Work

What the work looks like.

Named, client-approved case studies go here as engagements close. Until then, an illustrative walk-through shows the format and the kind of read we deliver. We never manufacture proof.

Buy-side QoE

The clean-looking deal with a 22% problem.

How a buy-side Quality of Earnings kept a searcher from overpaying, without killing the deal.

A Quick Self-Check

Twelve questions a buyer will ask before you sell.

If you can answer these cleanly, you are closer to ready than most. If a few make you wince, that is your punch list, and better to find it now than at the closing table.

If you, or your key person, were gone for a month, what would break?

Can you tie every dollar of profit you claim to the bank account?

Which add-backs could you defend to a skeptical buyer, out loud?

What share of revenue rides on your single biggest customer?

How much of the revenue recurs, versus starts from zero each year?

Who makes the day-to-day decisions when you are not there?

Is the plan written down, or is it in your head?

Could you raise price 10% and keep nearly every customer?

Do the monthly numbers close cleanly, and on time?

What is the business actually worth, and what would you net after the deal?

Who are the two or three most likely buyers, and why?

What will you do the day after the check clears?

get started

Reading is a start. A conversation is faster.

Book a straight call with both partners, no pitch.