The Role of an Accountant When Selling a Business

Whether you are retiring, moving onto your next adventure or simply cashing in, selling your business is a complex process and it is important that you take your time with it. There will be a number of professionals that can help and an accountant will play a major role in the process of selling your company.

An accountant plays a crucial role in the regular running of a business. Throughout your time at the company, you will have relied on an accountant to oversee the financial health of the company, help you to make intelligent financial decisions and be tax compliant. Now that you are looking to make a sale, you will need to utilise the knowledge of your accountant to prepare the company and ensure that you are getting the maximum value.

Preparation

An accountant will play a key role in getting the business ready to be sold. Not only will they be able to inform you on what steps you need to take to maximize the sale price of the company when selling your company, but they will also help by establishing exactly what is being sold including any business assets, property and cash within the company.

Financial Documentation

There are many important factors that will be used to determine the value of a company, but nothing is more important than the financial documentation. An accountant will be able to analyse key financial documents to provide a fair valuation of the company. These documents will include the profit and loss statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet.

Tax Advice

If you use an accountant that is a certified tax advisor, they will also be able to help by advising you on how to structure the deal and help when it comes to the tax when selling a business. Your tax liabilities will influence the price of the sale, so you will want to make sure that you maximise financial value which an accountant can help with.

Objectivity

There can be a lot of emotion involved in the selling of a business, especially if it is a family company. An accountant can remove emotion from each stage of the process to ensure that a fair and reasonable deal is being structured between both parties so that everyone is left happy and satisfied with the outcome.

As you can see, an accountant plays a key role when it comes to selling a business in terms of getting the business prepared and helping to structure the deal.