Sale readiness: books that hold up when a buyer looks.
A buyer’s accountants rebuild your earnings from the books. Unreconciled months, personal spending in the expense lines and revenue that does not tie to the returns all become questions — and questions can become a lower price or a longer escrow. We get the books into the state due diligence expects, on a written fixed-fee scope, and hand your advisers a clean history.
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
Sale readiness gets your books into the state a buyer’s due diligence expects: every month in the review period reconciled, revenue tied to deposits and filed returns, owner and one-time expenses documented, and a balance sheet that holds. It is priced as a cleanup ($1,200–$15,000+) or catch-up ($2,000–$20,000+), fixed in writing. TechBrot does not perform quality-of-earnings reviews.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
What due diligence does to your books.
When a buyer is serious, their accountants rebuild your earnings month by month from the general ledger, bank statements and tax returns. The exercise is often called a quality-of-earnings review: it tests whether the profit you report is real, recurring and supported.
Every place the books cannot answer a question becomes a finding — a month that was never reconciled, revenue that differs from deposits, an expense nobody can explain. Findings tend to become price adjustments, holdbacks or delays, negotiated after you have already agreed a number.
Sale readiness is doing that review’s groundwork before the buyer does, on your timetable.
The findings we clear before a buyer sees them.
Unreconciled history
Every bank, card and loan account reconciled for the periods the buyer’s diligence covers.Revenue that does not tie
Sales tied to deposits and to the revenue on your filed returns, with every difference documented.Owner and one-time expenses mixed in
Personal, owner-related and one-time expenses identified and scheduled with the support behind each, so your advisers can evaluate adjustments to earnings from evidence rather than memory.A balance sheet that does not hold
Receivables reviewed, payables complete, inventory tied to counts, payroll and sales-tax liabilities tied to what was filed, loans to the lenders’ statements.Inconsistent classification
The same kind of cost recorded the same way in every period, so margins compare year over year.From first look to a data room.
- STEP 1
Discovery
Free, 30 minutes: your timeline, the periods a buyer will look at, and the state of the file. - STEP 2
Diagnostic and written scope
Accountant-user access to your own QuickBooks file, then a written fixed-fee scope of what needs fixing, by period, within 3 business days. - STEP 3
Clean the history
Reconcile, reclassify and document the periods in scope, oldest first. - STEP 4
Document the adjustments
A schedule of owner-related and one-time items with the support behind each, for your advisers. - STEP 5
Hand over
Monthly closes, reconciliations and schedules organized for the data room, and a walkthrough for your M&A adviser and CPA.
What to have in hand before a buyer asks.
- Every month in the review period closed and reconciled.
- Prior-year books matching what your CPA filed.
- A schedule of owner-related and one-time expenses, with receipts or agreements behind each.
- Customer and vendor lists that match the receivable and payable balances.
- Loan, lease and payroll records that tie to the balance sheet.
A fixed fee for the history, then month by month.
The historical work is a cleanup ($1,200–$15,000+) or a catch-up ($2,000–$20,000+), scoped by period, fixed fee in writing. Keeping the months clean until closing is monthly bookkeeping, or the controller retainer when someone must own the close and the controls.
TechBrot is not a business broker, a valuation firm or a CPA firm, and does not perform quality-of-earnings reviews, audits or valuations. We make the books those people work from reliable.
Questions about getting the books ready to sell.
How much does sale-readiness work cost?
It is priced as a bookkeeping cleanup ($1,200–$15,000+) or catch-up ($2,000–$20,000+), scoped by period and fixed in writing before work starts. Ongoing months until closing are monthly bookkeeping or the controller retainer.
Can you value my business or find a buyer?
No. TechBrot is not a valuation firm or a business broker. We make the books reliable for the people who value, market and buy the business.
Which periods will a buyer look at?
The buyer’s diligence request sets them, and it often covers several years plus the current year to date. We scope the cleanup to the periods on that request, or to the ones your adviser expects.
Will cleaning up the books change my reported profit?
It can. Moving personal spending out of expenses, correcting revenue timing and fixing inventory all change reported numbers — which is why doing it before a buyer does matters. Your CPA advises on any tax effect.
Clean the history before a buyer reads it.
Tell us which decisions the numbers need to support. We’ll tell you whether advisory, a controller or cleaner books come first.
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