Many business owners struggle to sell their businesses even if they have been operating successfully over many years.
One of the key issues preventing a sale is often the quality of accounting, bookkeeping and record-keeping systems. Whilst these systems may have been perfectly adequate for the successful operation of the business, potential buyers will put them under the microscope. They will also see these systems as a reflection of other aspects of the business.
A clean-up exercise may be required involving both a reconciliation process and the completion of ATO compliance obligations.
Another key issue which can be detrimental to the successful sale of a business is the poor presentation of financial performance. Potential buyers will gain an appreciation of the true value of a business much more quickly if information is presented in a visually appealing and easily digestible format.
Dexterous Group has tailored services to address these issues. Our services will enhance the presentation of a business that is for sale, as well as provide dashboard reporting and data visualisation capabilities - improving prospects of a successful sale.
*Dexterous ‘preparation for sale’ services
Accounting and bookkeeping clean-up
'Getting your house in order' is one of the most important steps in preparing a business for sale. Business owners need to optimise the quality of accounting information and their bookkeeping processes. This will enable prospective buyers to fully appreciate the quality of business processes and more readily trust the financial information provided.
Dexterous Services
Accounts clean-up: balance sheet reconciliation process with a focus on bank accounts.
Compliance clean-up: ATO compliance review and clean-up. This may include:
- Prepare and lodge outstanding BAS and IAS
- Prepare and lodge outstanding income tax returns.
Identifying business expenses that may not be applicable once a new buyer has acquired the business. These types of expenses will detract from the projected profitability likely to be available to the buyer and if not properly identified, significantly reduce the sale price.
Produce a table of depreciation, amortisation and interest costs.
Produce a table of discretionary and non-recurring expenses.
Documentation of policies and procedures.
- Policy and procedures review
- Policy and procedure development (for key finance and accounting functions)
Dashboard reporting and data visualisation
'How is the business performing?' is a primary question of potential buyers. One of the first steps in preparing for a sale is to accurately assess your business performance and be able to clearly present both current and past performance to potential buyers. This will significanlty increase the chance of a successful sale, optimise the price achieved and save many hours of work during the sales process itself.
Dexterous Services
We can establish a performance dashboard that can be used to communicate performance to potential buyers. For example this can show:
Financial performance over time
- Revenue, expenses, profit
- Cash flow
- Customer profitability
- Financial trends
Non-financial performance
- Customer acquisition (leads, conversions) and retention
- Marketing
- Customer feedback / Net Promoter Score
- Employee engagement
- Employee productivity
- Inventory management
*Why Dexterous Group
Deliver an accurate and visually appealing set of accounts so business owners have a better chance of selling their business for the value they want.
Offer a standard set of packages that brokers can easily communicate to their clients.
Employ blended on-shore and off-shore support to provide expertise and a cost-effective solution
Provide simple pricing.
