Two partners and an associate review financial statements in a regional accounting firm’s conference room.

Referral Partners

Send us the client, and the client stays yours.

LIMESTONE works alongside CPAs, attorneys, M&A advisors, lenders and wealth advisors when their clients need financial diligence, exit readiness or strategic finance and operating support.

We respect existing advisory relationships, work within an agreed scope and coordinate with referring advisors as authorized by the client.

The lanes

What each advisor keeps, and where our work stops.

Six seats around an owner, and what each one owns

Where we work, and where we hand back

The CPA

Owns

The return, the books, the monthly work and the tax structure of the deal.

We do

Test the earnings against the bank and the return; the books stay yours.

The attorney

Owns

The documents, the deal and the estate plan.

We do

Prove the numbers before the other side tests them. The drafting is yours.

The broker

Owns

The listing, the process, the buyer and the price conversation.

We do

The sell-side review before the business goes to market.

The lender

Owns

The credit decision, the underwriting and the structure of the loan.

We do

The quality of earnings, built to Appendix 15 for the file. The decision stays yours.

The wealth advisor

Owns

The plan, the proceeds and the owner’s life after the sale.

We do

Test the earnings the plan’s largest figure rests on, while there is time to improve them. The plan stays yours.

LIMESTONE

Owns

Proving the earnings and reading the operation, and running the fixes when an owner asks us to.

One role per deal

One side of a transaction, the other declined in writing. The client goes back to whoever sent them.

Standing practice; the engagement letter with the client governs each engagement. LIMESTONE does not take business listings or act as a transaction broker. Potential investment interests and other material conflicts are evaluated and addressed separately.

Where we stop

On any engagement that reaches us through you,

  • we do not let a diligence fee move with the outcome;
  • we do not broker the sale or take the listing, now or later;
  • we do not draft legal documents or give legal or tax advice;
  • we do not put a value on the business in writing;
  • we do not contact your client’s customers on a live sale without the owner’s written consent;
  • and we do not introduce a buyer around you.

What you receive from us

The sheet for your seat, a sample report, a note the day we email your client and another at delivery. Our mutual NDA before anything is shared, or yours on review.

What stays the client’s

The findings, the draft and the readout. If a client later asks us for operating help after a deal closes, that conversation starts with the client.

What you see, and when

You see the status; the client releases the findings.

We email the client the same or next business day after your introduction and send you a note saying so. While the work runs you see where it stands; the findings belong to the client and reach you when the client says so, and if a finding changes the deal we ask the client that day to bring you in. The readout is walked live and you are welcome in the room. Afterward the relationship goes back to you.

By the seat you sit in

When to send a client, by seat.

The sheet for your seat

A PDF or a page

  • CPAs and tax advisors

    A client with a buyer surfacing, a lender asking for a quality of earnings, or a sale twelve to thirty-six months out.

    The sheet (PDF)

  • Attorneys

    A client moving toward a sale or a succession whose earnings have never been tested by anyone with a reason to find a problem.

    The sheet (PDF)

  • Brokers and M&A advisors

    A seller going to market with add-backs that need defending, or one a year of fixes away from listable.

    The sheet (PDF)Exit Readiness Review

  • Lenders

    A borrower whose package is not financeable yet, or a 7(a) initial acquisition or business expansion at a business purchase price of $3 million or more that needs a quality of earnings built to Appendix 15. Write to us for our vendor information.

    SBA quality of earningsCapital Readiness

  • Wealth advisors and planners

    An owner whose plan rests on what the business sells for, the largest figure in the plan.

    The sheet (PDF)

Refer a client

Tell us who to reach, and we email the same or next business day.

Your name, your seat and the client’s name and email. Both addresses are on the Contact page if you’d rather write first.

Received. We will email the same or next business day and let you know when we have.
That did not send. Try once more, or write to either of us from the Contact page.

We use this to email the client and to tell you we did. Nothing else.

Questions

Three questions advisors ask before the first referral.

The independence rules are in the FAQ; the scopes and sample reports are on the Quality of Earnings, Operational & Market Diligence and Exit Readiness Review pages.

What does the first conversation cost?

The thirty-minute call costs nothing. If there is work worth doing, we say so in writing and quote it as one fixed fee.

Will you contact my client’s customers?

Never on a live sale without the owner’s written consent, and otherwise only with the owner’s introduction and on the owner’s timing. The concentration read comes from contracts, invoices and churn history.

Do you work with exit planners and coaches?

Alongside them, on top of the plan. You own the plan and the relationship; we are the finance and operating work the plan calls for.

get started

Start with one client.

Send a name, or book a partner call. The first conversation is free, and we tell you in writing whether we can help.