Adjusted EBITDA is the number a price gets built on, and it is also the number the other side will spend most of its time trying to take apart. Each of the two engagements produces a file a counterparty's diligence team can work through on its own, with every adjustment tied to the document that supports it, so the number is tested before somebody else tests it for you.
The fee is fixed against a published scope.
A quality of earnings engagement establishes what a business actually earns and whether that figure will survive somebody else testing it. The report documents the adjustments, the working capital, the net debt and the revenue analysis, with the schedules sitting behind them. The full databook goes further, running to fifty named schedules with proof of cash tied to the bank statements and reconciliation to the financial statements.
You need the earnings number tested before the exclusivity period runs out, while price and structure can still move.
You are six to eighteen months from a process and you want the number built and supported before buyers start taking it apart.
A lender or a credit committee has asked for adjusted EBITDA with the support sitting behind every adjustment.
Each engagement builds on a defined scope, and the three columns are size bands measured by the enterprise value of the business.
You receive the full written report with the schedules behind it.
From $3,500
Request this engagementYou receive fifty named schedules, proof of cash and reconciliation to the statements.
From $7,500
Request this engagement| Engagement | Under $2M EV | $2M to $10M EV | $10M to $50M EV |
|---|---|---|---|
| QoE ReportOne-off | $3,500 | $5,100 | $7,500 |
| QoE Full DatabookOne-off | $7,500 | $13,500 | $19,800 |
Businesses beyond the published enterprise value bands are scoped individually.
Fees last reviewed 15 October 2026.
The same work goes deeper as the engagement gets larger.
| Work | Report | Full Databook |
|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EBITDA build | Full | Full |
| Written report | Included | Included |
| Company, normalizing and pro-forma adjustments kept separate | Three categories | All three |
| Support indexed to document, page and amount | Included | Included |
| Revenue by customer, type and end market | Customer and type | All three plus location |
| Monthly working capital with a peg range | Included | Reported and adjusted separately |
| Net debt and debt-like items | Included | Included |
| Proof of cash against bank statements | Not included | Included |
| Reconciliation to audited or reviewed statements | Not included | Included |
| Payroll reconciliation to the ledger | Not included | Included |
| Consolidating views by entity and by location | Not included | Included |
| Fixed asset rollforward and lease detail | Not included | Included |
| Transaction-level general ledger database | Not included | Included |
| Walkthrough call with the deal team | Not included | Included |
| Named schedules in the delivered file | 21 | 50 |
The report fits a live transaction where the number has to stand up. The adjustments, the working capital, the net debt and the revenue analysis are all documented in writing, with the schedules sitting behind them.
The databook is for an institutional counterparty, a deal with a lender in it, or a business running several entities and locations that have to be shown separately as well as consolidated. It is the engagement that carries proof of cash, reconciliation to the audited statements, payroll reconciliation and the transaction-level general ledger database.
A quality of earnings engagement exists to answer one question, which is what the business actually earns and whether that figure will survive somebody else testing it.
Reported EBITDA rarely answers that on its own, because the number sitting in the accounts carries whatever the owner happened to be taking, along with personal costs that have run through the business for years, rent paid to a related party at a figure nobody ever negotiated, and the start-up losses of a location that opened in the fourth month of the year sitting in the same line as the sites that have been trading for a decade. None of that is unusual and almost none of it is dishonest, but all of it has to be found, sized and supported before anyone can put a price on the business with any confidence.
What comes out of the engagement is a number, the support that sits beneath it, and the context that surrounds it. The number is adjusted EBITDA by period, with every adjustment calculated and placed in its proper category. The support is the document, the page and the amount behind each of those adjustments, indexed so that the other side can check the work. The context is revenue quality, customer concentration, working capital behavior and net debt, which matter because an earnings figure presented without those four things beside it tells a buyer very little about what they would be acquiring.
Adjustments fall into three categories, and the file keeps them apart, because collapsing them together is the most common reason a seller's number gets discounted once diligence starts.
These are the items management puts forward. Each one gets tested against the source support and then accepted, resized or rejected, with the reasoning written down beside it, because a proposed adjustment that has nothing behind it is worth nothing in a negotiation and it is far better to establish that before a buyer does it for you.
These are the adjustments we make ourselves to bring the period onto a comparable basis, which usually means moving owner compensation and related-party rent to market, isolating the legal and professional costs that came from something that has now finished, and pulling out one-time settlements and anything else that happened in the period and will not happen again.
These are run-rate items, and they sit in their own category because buyers and lenders treat them differently from everything else. A price increase that landed in month ten, a site that opened in month four and a contract signed after the period closed all belong here, each one annualized with the basis shown, and all of them kept clearly apart from the normalized figure so that nobody has to guess which number they are looking at.
The engagement also produces an EBITDA bridge, so that reported, normalized and pro-forma earnings appear together in one view and the walk between them can be followed without opening another schedule.
The engagement is built around the questions that buyers' teams, lenders' credit committees and sponsors' diligence providers actually ask, which are consistent enough across deals to prepare for in advance.
The analysis covers eleven areas, and the depth of each one moves with the engagement you choose.
We start by understanding how the business is actually run, which means the entity structure, the locations, how revenue is earned and billed and how the internal reporting is assembled, because everything after this depends on knowing where each number comes from.
We build adjusted EBITDA by period with company, normalizing and pro-forma adjustments kept in separate categories, each one calculated and tied to the document that supports it, and we walk reported earnings through to adjusted in a single bridge.
We run recorded revenue and disbursements against the bank statements month by month, so that the earnings figure is supported by cash that genuinely arrived.
Revenue gets split into recurring, contracted, project and one-time work, with revenue and margin by customer, retention and churn, and the effect on earnings of losing the largest accounts.
We break out expense detail by category and separate run-rate costs from one-time items, so cost behavior and margin stability can be read across the whole period.
We build working capital by month on a reported basis and an adjusted basis, isolate the seasonality and propose a peg range, because an annual figure hides whether the balance was being managed around the period end.
We schedule the debt, the capital and operating leases, the deferred revenue, the accrued owner items and the earnouts, because these are what move the number between enterprise value and what the seller receives at close.
We roll forward the fixed assets with additions, disposals and depreciation by class, separate maintenance capital expenditure from growth, and schedule every lease with its terms, escalations and renewal dates.
We reconcile the payroll registers to the general ledger and explain every difference, then isolate owner and related-party compensation and bring it to market where it needs to be.
We tie the databook back to the audited or reviewed financial statements and name and explain each difference in the file.
We put our questions to management, record the answers and what we could corroborate, and hand over a list of what remains open at delivery, what would be needed to close each item and who is holding it.
Four things arrive at the end of the engagement, and the working files come with them as a matter of course.
You get every schedule named and built out, running to fifty named tabs on the full databook, in a file a diligence team can work through without asking where anything came from.
The report covers the findings, the adjustments, revenue and earnings quality, working capital and net debt, with every exception quantified and the basis of preparation stated.
You keep the working files behind the analysis, so the work can be updated later by whoever needs to update it.
We walk your deal team through the file on a live call, with the lender on it where there is one involved.
Start with the records that let the earnings figure be tested and supported.
To start we need the accounting records for the full period, which means the trial balances and general ledger detail, the monthly financial statements, audited or reviewed statements where they exist, the bank statements and the payroll registers. We also need the receivables and payables agings by month, revenue by customer by month, and contracts for the largest customers. Alongside those, send the lease schedule, the fixed asset register, the debt agreements, the tax returns, and the detail behind owner compensation and any related-party arrangements. We quote the turnaround once that comes back complete.
Give your deal team an earnings figure they can trace to the supporting records.
Request this engagementThis is every tab in the delivered file.
Audit, review and compilation engagements. Any opinion or assurance on financial statements. 409A valuations and certified appraisals. ESOP valuations. Fair value measurement under ASC 805 and ASC 820. Fairness opinions. Tax return preparation and tax opinions. Securities placement, investor solicitation, and any transaction-contingent or success fee.
TEOL Capital is not a broker-dealer, an investment adviser, a placement agent or a finder. Engagements are preparation and support work. TEOL does not place securities, solicit investors or make investor introductions, and takes no success, contingency or placement fee.
The fees published here are indicative, set against the scope described on each page, and a final quote is confirmed in writing before any engagement letter is issued. Nothing published here is an offer, and no engagement begins until a letter is signed by both sides. Work outside the stated scope is identified and quoted before it begins. Full payment or a 50% deposit on engagements under $10,000, and 50% at start with 50% at delivery above that. Turnaround is quoted on receipt of a complete information request and is a target rather than a term of the engagement. Fees are reviewed quarterly, and an engagement letter issued at a published fee holds that fee regardless of any later review. Work is prepared for the client named in the engagement letter and for that client's own use. Anyone else who receives it does so for information and cannot rely on it. Management accounts, consolidations and financial statements we prepare are built from the records management maintains and remain management's responsibility. We do not guarantee any particular outcome, including a sale, a financing, a valuation conclusion or a price. Our liability on any engagement is limited to the fees paid for that engagement.