QoE Saved Me

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by a searcher from University of Louisville
in St. Louis, MO, USA

2w ago

QoE Saved Me

Okay the title is misleading. I'm looking not providing stories. Does anyone have any good QoE stories? Specially stories of buyers in the $500K-$1M SDE range where getting the QoE saved you from making a big mistake. I'm curious if there are any patterns I can learn from.

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reply by a searcher 2w ago
from SDA Bocconi in Ireland

treat the financials with great suspicion because the accounts are not audited, get a copy of the actual books and analyse the ledgers, check invoices, receipts - usually inflated figures fall apart with a bit of forensic analysis

reply by an intermediary 2w ago
from California State University, Northridge in California, USA

I recently sold a business for $450K that had been listed for over $1 Million. An Employee Retention Credit (ERC) had been miscoded in the basic financial reporting as revenue. This was uncovered by the buyer's QoE company during due diligence. As a business broker, I'm able to confirm PPP and EIDL loans online in public records. Not so with ERC refunds. Normally I would only know about it if it was properly reported in the tax returns or P&Ls or if the seller disclosed it. We do not, as a practice, audit the general ledger. This embarrassing discovery indicated a much lower profitability for the company, and therefore, a much lower valuation. Thankfully, the error/(misrepresentation?) was discovered prior to closing.