Buy-Side Financial Due Diligence / SDE Validation

I am evaluating the acquisition of an established owner-operated service business and am looking for an experienced CPA, transaction advisory professional, fractional CFO, or financial analyst with actual experience performing buy-side financial due diligence on small business acquisitions. This is not intended to be a full institutional Quality of Earnings engagement. I am looking for a practical, independent review of the seller’s financial performance to determine sustainable earnings and identify anything that should affect valuation or require further diligence. PHASE 1 SCOPE • Reconstruct and independently validate normalized SDE for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 YTD • Compare 2026 YTD performance with the same period in 2025, taking seasonality into account, and assess what the current year appears to be tracking toward • Review seller add-backs and identify anything aggressive, unsupported, recurring or otherwise inappropriate • Determine what drove changes in earnings between years and whether recent earnings appear sustainable • Identify significant changes in revenue, margins, labor/contractor costs, operating expenses or other factors affecting normalized earnings • Perform a preliminary reconciliation of reported revenue against available third-party revenue reports, tax returns, financial statements and bank activity • Identify inconsistencies, unusual transactions, missing information or areas requiring additional seller support • Provide an independent assessment of a reasonable sustainable normalized SDE range AVAILABLE RECORDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCLUDE • 2023–2025 business tax returns • Historical financial statements and P&Ls • Detailed sales/activity reports • 2026 year-to-date financial information • Bank statements/deposit information as needed • Third-party revenue reports • Seller-provided SDE calculations and add-backs • Contractor/labor information DELIVERABLE I do not need a lengthy or highly polished institutional QoE report. Excel working papers plus a concise written summary are sufficient. The final deliverable should include: • Normalized SDE calculation by year • 2025 vs. 2026 YTD comparison • Explanation of material adjustments • Significant discrepancies or concerns • Additional information that should be requested from the seller • Estimated sustainable SDE range • Overall assessment of whether the seller’s historical earnings appear supportable IDEAL EXPERIENCE Please apply only if you have meaningful experience with some combination of: • Buy-side financial due diligence • Quality of Earnings • Small business acquisitions • SDE normalization • Proof-of-cash/revenue reconciliation • Owner add-back analysis • Transaction advisory • Owner-operated businesses valued primarily using SDE WHEN APPLYING, PLEASE BRIEFLY ANSWER 1. How many buy-side financial due diligence or QoE engagements have you personally completed? 2. Have you worked on acquisitions valued primarily using SDE rather than EBITDA? 3. What records would you request to independently validate a seller’s reported SDE? 4. How would you evaluate current-year performance for a highly seasonal business? 5. Briefly describe a situation where your diligence materially changed a buyer’s understanding of normalized earnings or the economics of an acquisition. 6. What would you charge for the Phase 1 scope described above? Please do not send a generic bookkeeping or accounting proposal. I am specifically looking for someone with business acquisition diligence experience. If Phase 1 goes well, there may be additional work involving deeper proof-of-cash testing, customer revenue retention and concentration analysis, contractor/labor normalization, and assistance with final acquisition valuation.