A QoE is buyer-focused financial diligence that validates sustainable earnings, confirms proof of cash, and flags the risks that change price, structure, or whether you should proceed.

An audit is designed for financial statement assurance. QoE is designed for a transaction decision. It focuses on normalizing EBITDA, validating add-backs, assessing cash conversion, and identifying deal risks like working capital traps and revenue concentration.

Ideally right after LOI and before you harden terms. If you are earlier in the process, a quick-turn QoE Lite can help you screen risk before you invest heavily in diligence and legal.

It commonly impacts purchase price, working capital peg/target, holdbacks or earnouts, reps and warranties, and specific diligence requests. Sometimes it leads to a renegotiation. Sometimes it confirms you are safe to proceed.

We start with a short scoping call, then send a clear data request list. Most work begins once the data room is ready (financial statements, general ledger, bank statements, AR/AP detail, payroll, and customer/revenue detail depending on the business).

QoE Lite is typically 5–7 business days once we have the required data. Standard QoE (complex) is typically 2–4 weeks from data room readiness.

We use simple fixed-fee tiers: $5,000–$10,000 for Quick-turn QoE Lite and $15,000–$20,000 for Standard QoE (complex). Final pricing depends on deal size, data quality, and complexity (multi-entity, inventory, carve-outs, accrual conversions).

Yes. We can help you translate findings into a lender/IC-ready narrative and address questions during diligence so you are not stuck defending unclear numbers.

Lower middle market acquisitions where the deal is big enough to hurt if you get it wrong, and where you want decision-grade clarity without Big 4 overhead.

That is often when QoE is most valuable. We will tell you early if the data quality limits what can be concluded and what would be required to get to confident answers.