An SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet is a few of the key tools for your small business analysis in one:

* A collation of all of the annual Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet statements into a single spreadsheet for easier viewing and analysis.
* Identification of strange outliers. Odd changes in spending. Dramatic differences in margin. A curious reduction of COGs in the last 12 months. A sudden increase in net profit without the corresponding changes in revenues. These and more are what are highlighted in the analysis.
* A high level overview of the business from the perspective of a business acquisitions company that has analyzed thousands of small businesses for acquisition.
* Questions we would ask. Often, looking through the financials will lead not so much to answers as it does to questions. Some of the best insights into small businesses that we've received come from asking very specific questions from the financials. The answers and stories that result give you a much better view of the on-the-ground realities of the business.
* Red Flags. Sometimes, there are just some signs that point to enough trouble that you don't want to get involved with. We will note these bad signs so that you can be fully informed.

All of this isn't everything you'll ever need to know financially about the company. But it is plenty to decide the general health of the company, whether you should proceed with an acquisition, and some questions to ask that will help better evaluate the company.

Don't get us wrong - an SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet isn't better than a QofE report. This is a different thing. This is an early-stage financial analysis to know that the company is fiscally sound. The QofE report should include a lot more detail than our report, but will also cost a lot more.

But at the earlier stages, you don't need a lot more. You just need to know - quickly and cheaply - whether the company that you're looking at is worth all of the time, effort, relationship-building, travel, and expense that you would normally put into buying a really good company.
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Think of our SMB Financial Analysis as the CliffsNotes version of a financial analysis. It's quicker, cheaper, and just enough information for you to know whether it's time to fish or cut bait.
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Absolutely not. The SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet is a different report for a different purpose than a QofE report.

The SMB Financial Analysis is an initial look at the financials to get an idea of the general health of a company, an acquirer-focused overview of the company from the financials, red flags to be aware of, and questions to ask in your analysis of the company. It is an inexpensive look to make sure you're not wasting your time.

A Quality of Earnings report will do a much deeper dive on a company that you're getting very serious about acquiring. It goes to another level of analysis which should absolutely cost more if it is done properly. This is absolutely what you should be doing once you're to the point of due diligence.

The main difference is that the QofE report is overkill, both financially and effort-related, for your pre-LOI/IOI analysis of a company that you're just starting to talk with.

In order to complete an SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet, the minimum information required is 3 full years' + YTD Profit & Loss statements as well as Balance Sheets.

For a fully accurate report, these financial reports must be generated by the financial software (QuickBooks in 85%+ of the small businesses in America) and not altered, changed, or redacted prior to sending.

These reports must be in Excel (.XLS / .XLSX), Google Sheets (.sheet), or comma-delimited (.CSV) format. All other fully digital data formats (primarily .PDF) will incur a translation charge of $50. Images of financials in standard image formats (.JPG, .JPEG, .TIFF, etc.) and all other alternative formats will be assessed on an individual basis based on legibility and expected translation time.

First of all, the SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet is being prepared by a team that has analyzed thousands of <$20 million revenue companies' financials. This team has been told that they've find things that a QofE analysis didn't touch, mainly because they're used to this size of business and what the typical business owner does to get by.

Beyond that, this is our guarantee: If your QofE analysis points out something dramatically different from our analysis, we will refund your fee in full.

Daniel Sweet, Managing Partner of Sweetview Partners, has been doing acquisitions since 2018 and has personally reviewed hundreds of companies for acquisition. He has completed 5 acquisitions in that time and was forced to learn the ins and outs of all financials during that period. His entire team has reviewed thousands of companies and more than 90% had serious financial issues making a successful, profitable acquisition impossible.

Daniel's team will be producing all of the financial analyses and he will personally validate every one of them for accuracy and completeness.

The base SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet is $500 for each complete P&L / Balance Sheet analysis.

While we anticipate adding additional services and options for further financial analysis, this is the only offering we have and the only possible additional charges are:

Data Translation - Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and Comma-Delimited formats are all included in the fee aboe. Financials in PDFs will incur a $50 data translation charge. All other formats will be analyzed for a translation fee depending on the amount of time it will take to get translated.

We guarantee a financial report within 1 business week / 5 business days.

The limitations of the SMB Financial Analysis by SMB Vet are essentially the data we start with and the depth to which we go.

The Data: We have seen many instances of modified data. That could mean outright fictional creation or it could mean someone tried to clean up messy data. Whatever the case, this data won't return a good result. The good news is that we are often able to look at data that is usually connected, see the the disconnect, and identify a problem.

The Depth: We're not digging into whether the business that you're looking at has classified all of their purchases correctly by GAAP standards. In fact, through painful experience, we can tell you that they have not in almost every case. We also aren't going back to the original source data (bank statements, etc.) to validate the data. Lastly, we're not using accounting rules as our lens. We use the operational experience we have in running P&Ls to determine interesting information about the business.

The only charges other than the base report charge ($997) would be a data translation charge if the financials submitted are in anything other than Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or Comma-Delimited formats.

Keep in mind that if the company you're looking at is actually several linked companies, each taxible unit (every LLC, for instance) is a separate company for analysis.