Diligence is not a vibe. It is a tie-out.
I review files that were "good enough for taxes" and then a buyer asked for three years of financials that match the bank.
Add-backs without support. Owner draws in revenue. Credit-card spending that never hit the books. That is not a branding problem. It is a records problem. Deals slow down when the numbers cannot survive a bank-to-P&L walk.
If you are heading to market, start with book reconstruction for selling a business. That page is the owner path. CPA firms running the same rebuild under their brand use For CPA Firms.
What I rebuild before anyone sends a CIM
- Revenue tied to deposits tied to source
- Reconciled books for every year a buyer will see
- Documented add-backs, not a spreadsheet of hopes
- A written log behind every categorization so diligence gets answers
IRS recordkeeping rules still apply. If you cannot support the number, it belongs on a gap report. Inventing clean years for a buyer is how you inherit a dispute after close.
The sample pack at sample deliverables is a monthly set of those statements. Diligence work includes them for every year presented. I also wrote what catch-up bookkeeping costs so you are not shopping a fake per-year sticker.
Do this before the listing, not during the LOI
Once a letter of intent is out, you are reconstructing under a clock someone else set. Pull statements now. Get the $499 diagnostic. Approve a fixed quote. Pricing is the same diagnostic-then-rebuild structure we use for tax deadlines.
If the books are two or three years behind, read 2 years behind on bookkeeping or 3 years behind on bookkeeping first. Selling does not change the records work. It only raises the cost of being late.
Accounting Today has covered how firms use structured outsourcing when they cannot staff the production. A sale is not the moment to put a junior on a diligence file unsupervised.
Your preparer and your broker still own their seats
We rebuild. We do not broker the deal. We do not prepare the return. A licensed CPA signs off before the file leaves. Your CPA, EA, or diligence team uses the work.
Get a reconstruction quote if a sale is on the calendar, or read diligence-ready reconstruction first.