After a few hundred CIMs, my first pass got mechanical. Sharing it because I watched myself waste whole evenings on deals a 20-minute pass would have killed. 1. Go straight to the financials. Skip the story. If revenue is presented only as a chart with no table, that is a choice someone made. 2. Rebuild EBITDA yourself from the P&L. Do not accept the adjusted number. Circle every add-back and ask: would a lender accept this? "Owner salary" yes. "One-time marketing" is never one-time. 3. TTM vs last FY. If TTM is missing, the trailing months are probably ugly. Ask for them before your next hour of work. 4. Customer concentration. If it is not disclosed, it is bad. Disclosed at "top 10 = 60%" means top 1 is worth asking about. 5. Working capital. A CIM with no balance sheet is a CIM hiding a balance sheet. 6. The multiple math. Asking price over YOUR rebuilt EBITDA, not theirs. It is routinely a turn or two higher than advertised. If a deal survives all six, it earns real modeling time. Link to the free blueprint: redacted