Anyone have some good diligence request lists they can share?

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October 02, 2023

by a professional from DePaul University in Orlando, FL, USA

I have a handful from my former banking days but they are way too extensive for small business acquisitions. I am curious to understand the "industry standard" for businesses in the $500K-$1mm EBITDA range. Any help is very much appreciated!

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Reply by a searcher
from Florida International University in Raleigh, NC, USA
^redacted‌ I don't have a list distilled down for SMB DD, but I've been trying to work through the same question. I've been involved with some larger deals (corporate M&A), and have a more comprehensive list from that.

The key categories included: Governing Docs (formation docs, cap table, operating agreements), Financials (P&L, BS, 3 years tax filings), Contracts (key customer & vendor agreements, employee agreements, etc), Management & Employees (employee census with roles, dates, comp, org charts, HR docs, benefits), Regulatory / Gov (licenses, permits, filings), IP (list of patents, trademarks, copyrights, etc), Asset schedule, Litigation (past or current filings), Sales / Marketing (pipeline, process, metrics, etc), Customer Operations (process docs for day to day ops, churn history, CSAT, etc)
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Reply by a searcher
from Naval Postgraduate School in Washington, DC, USA
Permanent Equity has a good due diligence process you can tailor to any small business acquisition. It's very comprehensive. I would also contact a couple M&A lawyers to see if you can get a copy of their checklist as well just to compare. https://www.permanentequity.com/diligence
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