Get your figures ready for a buyer's questions.
Ben Davies works through your accounts with you, so adjusted profit, recurring income and cash are clear before a buyer of an electrical business starts asking.
Part of the Reads Pre-Sale Programme. Led by Ben Davies, Financial Preparation Specialist.
Why buyers read the accounts first.
Every buyer of an electrical contractor reaches the same point in due diligence: the accounts. They want adjusted profit they can rely on, and to see how much of the turnover is recurring testing and maintenance rather than one-off project work.
If the accounts do not show that split, or personal costs run through the company, the buyer has to guess. Buyers who have to guess tend to protect themselves in the price or the structure.
Where a buyer is borrowing to fund the purchase, their lender reads the same figures, and Reads Commercial Finance handles acquisition finance for buyers of electrical businesses.
What Ben does with you.
Management accounts you can rely on
Monthly management accounts that reconcile to the year-end figures, so you and a buyer are reading the same numbers.
Adjusted profit and add-backs
A clear schedule of owner costs, one-off items and anything else a buyer should add back, with the evidence behind each line.
Recurring income shown separately
Testing and inspection, EICR and maintenance income reported apart from installation and project work, because buyers value the two differently.
Cash flow and working capital
A cash flow forecast and a clear view of debtors, retentions and work in progress, the areas buyers ask about in any contracting business.
Who leads financial preparation.
Ben Davies, Financial Preparation Specialist
Ben is a CIMA-qualified management accountant and the founder of LedgerFix Consulting. He is at his best explaining what a set of figures is really saying, to the owner first and then to a buyer, in plain terms.
When this starts.
Financial preparation belongs in the final year, once the growth and structural work is showing in the numbers, and a buyer will expect several years of accounts behind it.
See every stage of the programme · Next: Tax, legal and finance
Talk to us about your figures.
A short, confidential conversation is enough to see what needs doing before a buyer sees them.