How to prepare your business for a valuation

Most of the work in a valuation happens in the business, not at the valuer's desk. Owners who arrive with clean records get a faster, cheaper and stronger result — and they usually learn something about their business on the way through.

Financials that reconcile

Three years of signed financial statements and tax returns, reconciled to the accounting system, with any differences explained. If the business runs through several entities or a trust, a clear map of who owns what, who does what, and how money moves between them.

An itemised owner-benefit schedule

Everything the business provides to you and your family: salary, superannuation, vehicles, travel, accommodation, rent, discretionary expenses — listed with amounts. This is one of the highest-value documents in any valuation. It either supports a substantial add-back or removes an argument entirely.

Evidence of what is recurring

Contracts and their terms, renewal rates, a customer list with tenure and revenue, and the numbers behind any claim you want to make about growth. Assertions are worth less than records — and the records already exist, they simply have to be gathered.

An honest view of the risks

Customer concentration, key-person dependence, expiring agreements, deferred maintenance, a market in flux. A valuation that ignores these is worth less than one that names them and prices them. Being the person who raises them first is a much stronger position than being asked about them later.

A date in the diary

If the 30 June 2027 transition applies to you, the preparation above is worth doing now — while what it reveals can still be acted on. Improving a business is far easier before the number has been pinned than after.

When you are ready for a first read on where you stand, start with the free indicative range.