Quality of Earnings led by a CPA, with an operator’s read.

We work for the party that engages us. Our conclusions and our fee do not depend on whether the deal closes, and we never work both sides of a transaction. If a number does not hold up it goes in the report, including when that is inconvenient for the party paying us. Our read only helps if it is honest, so we show the add-backs we decline.

A partner. Ryan Anoskey, CPA, leads the work and prepares the report; he helped build the transaction advisory practice at Blue & Co. Jared Luegers, CFA, is the documented second reviewer and writes the operator’s read. LIMESTONE issues the report. The person who reached the conclusion is the person you talk to.

We are an operating firm that does diligence, so the questions we ask about the numbers are the ones an owner has to answer after the wire clears. The trade is capacity: we carry a small number of engagements at a time on purpose. That is a real constraint, and we say so at scoping before we commit to a date.

Businesses with roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA, buy-side, sell-side or on an SBA 7(a) loan. Above about $5M, or for a carve-out or a business in several countries, a larger transaction advisory team is often the better fit, and we say so on the first call.

Deal services are fixed-fee, quoted as one fee in writing after a short scoping call. A Lite quality of earnings starts at $7,500, Core at $15,000 and Full at $25,000, sell-side or buy-side. A Red-Flag Review starts at $2,500. What moves a fee is the condition of the books, the number of entities and locations, and how far back the analysis has to reach. None of it is driven by the length of the report, by the findings, or by whether the deal closes.

If the deal is small enough that a full report is out of proportion, a narrower piece of work is usually the better buy, and we will tell you so before you pay for a report you do not need.

The report says what each problem means for the earnings and whether it can be fixed before close. If you want help with the fixes, we scope that as its own engagement, from deeper diligence on one issue to staying on as your CFO and operating partner. The report stands on its own, whichever you choose.

Yes, and that is deliberate. The fee pays for the work, whatever it finds. A fee that depended on your deal closing would make the report worthless as an independent read.

Walking away on the strength of a report is a good result, and it costs far less than owning a business that was not what the numbers said.

It is normal, and it changes the work. Converting cash-basis books to accrual can move the earnings figure a long way, and an adjustment that rests on a market assumption where a source document should be will not survive a lender’s review.

We convert from the underlying records, show what each adjustment rests on, and say plainly where the support is thin.

Yes. A dental practice sells on its earnings, and both kinds of buyer, another dentist or a DSO, test the books first: collections against adjusted production, the add-backs, overhead against similar practices, and how much of the work runs through the owner. We wrote up what a buyer’s quality of earnings checks in a dental practice and what raises the price.

Read it closely, then commission your own. A sell-side report is scoped and paid for by the other side of your negotiation, and it exists to present the business. Where SBA requires a quality of earnings, the lender cannot use it at all: the SOP says that report must not be prepared by or for the seller.

Treat it as a document request list. It tells you what has already been assembled, which usually shortens the work on your side.

Yes, for applications SBA receives on or after 1 October 2026, when the business purchase price is $3 million or more on an Initial Acquisition or Business Expansion: the lender must obtain the report, keep it in the credit file and set debt service coverage from its earnings. A report the buyer commissioned can be used if the lender elects to have one of its approved vendors review it. If you commission the report for your lender’s vendor review, scope it at Core or Full; Lite is built for deals with no lender relying on the report. The rule, both routes to the file and the fee are on our SBA quality of earnings page.

The lender decides which report it relies on. Under SOP 50 10 8.1 the report is performed for the lender’s benefit, and a report prepared by or for the seller never counts. A report you commissioned can, once one of the lender’s approved vendors has reviewed it and the findings of that review sit in the loan file with the report. SBA’s notice announcing the 25 September update also mentions a reliance letter; the SOP text describes only the vendor review, and a lender is entitled to follow the SOP.

Whether a particular lender accepts a particular provider is the lender’s call, so settle it before the work starts. We will get on a call with your lender, confirm the scope it needs, and go through its approval process ourselves if it keeps a list.