Know what you're really buying.

We test whether the numbers the seller presents are real and sustainable: revenue quality and customer concentration, true owner-adjusted profit, working capital needs, debts and lease commitments, staff entitlements, tax and super compliance, and whether the asking price stacks up against what the business actually earns. The output is a plain-English report and a view on price.

For a typical small-to-medium business purchase, allow one to three weeks from receiving the seller’s information. Complex structures, poor records or slow sellers stretch that — which is itself a finding worth knowing before you buy.

Scale the work to the deal, not zero it. Even on a small acquisition, a focused review of the last two years’ financials, BAS lodgements and the top customer relationships costs a fraction of one bad quarter of a business that was not what it appeared. Most of the worst purchases we have seen skipped exactly that step.

Yes — how you buy (assets vs shares, which entity, how it is funded) changes your tax outcome, your risk and sometimes the price. Due diligence, purchase structuring and the day-one accounting setup run together here.