Seller-side Quality of Earnings review.
Reported EBITDA is not the number a buyer pays for. Before you go to market, we normalise it, rate every add-back for defensibility, and surface the red flags a buyer's quality-of-earnings (QoE) team will hit — while there's still time to fix them.
In most mid-market sales, the single largest cause of a price re-trade is an EBITDA bridge that does not survive the buyer's diligence. Aggressive add-backs get reversed, "non-recurring" costs are recharacterised as recurring, and the multiple applies to a lower number than the one in the information memorandum.
A vendor-side QoE review flips that dynamic: you table a defensible, documented bridge first — and you remediate the weak spots before the books open, not during exclusivity.
A partner-reviewed report — 6 to 10 pages.
Normalised EBITDA bridge
Reported → adjusted EBITDA, every step shown, nothing hidden in a single "after-tax" figure.
Add-back register
Each add-back rated defensible / at risk / weak — the way a buyer's QoE team will rate it.
Owner & related-party normalisations
Founder salary vs replacement cost, SCI rent to market, personal costs run through the P&L.
Non-recurring 3-year trend test
Which "one-off" items survive — and which recur under different labels and will be reversed.
Cash conversion & working capital
DSO / DIO / DPO, cash conversion, and the EBITDA-to-cash gap a buyer will probe.
Remediation, sequenced
The specific fixes, prioritised P1/P2, with a realistic timeline before go-to-market.
France (Plan Comptable Général). We reconcile from EBE (excédent brut d'exploitation) to an adjusted EBITDA the way a French QoE does — restating crédit-bail (lease financing), employee profit-sharing (participation), owner remuneration to market, related-party rents, benefits in kind, and non-recurring items (litigation, restructuring, transaction fees). QoE is now a near-mandatory step in French SME deals.
Switzerland (Code des Obligations / Swiss GAAP FER). Statutory CO accounts permit hidden reserves (réserves latentes) that mask true earning power — we unwind them, reconcile to a true-and-fair basis, and flag BVG/LPP pension exposure, related-party pricing and personal costs. In Swiss SME deals, QoE adjustments commonly run 15–30% of reported EBITDA.
Request & scope
Send the request below. A partner replies within one business day and shares a secure link for your accounts — three years of P&L and a trial balance.
Senior analysis
A senior team reconstructs the normalised bridge and stress-tests every add-back — the same lens a buyer's advisers will apply.
Branded report
You receive the partner-reviewed report in 5–7 business days, with a call to walk through it.
Fixed entry fee, creditable in full against an Exit Readiness Programme if you engage. It is a paid, confidential deliverable — not a generic checklist.
Start with a defensible number.
Enter your details and a partner will be in touch within one business day to scope the review and send a secure link for your financials. Nothing is shared without your request.
Received. A partner will be in touch within one business day — check your inbox for confirmation.
Indicative, partner-reviewed deliverable for planning — not a statutory audit nor a formal QoE opinion. Any position must be validated with a qualified adviser before you act.