M&A Advisory for Buyers
Buying a Business – Comprehensive Support Through Every Stage
Purchasing a business is rarely just about agreeing on a price. It’s about understanding what you’re buying, evaluating the associated risks, and structuring the transaction to protect your investment. At Plan A Financials, we combine financial, tax, and commercial insight to help buyers make informed and confident decisions.
From your first review of a target company through to completion, we support you at every stage – analysing the numbers, negotiating terms, and managing completion mechanics. Our aim is to ensure that your acquisition is financially robust, tax-efficient, and structured for long-term success.
Our end-to-end support for buyers includes:
- Deal Structuring & Funding – identifying the best way to finance and structure your acquisition.
- Valuation Analysis – assessing whether the target’s asking price is supported by its financial performance.
- Due Diligence – Assets, Liabilities & Financial Health – reviewing the company’s financial integrity and key risks.
- Net Working Capital & Completion Accounts – protecting against overpayment and post-completion disputes.
- Coordination with Legal Teams – ensuring warranties, indemnities, and completion terms accurately reflect the financial position.
- Stamp Duty & Transaction Taxes – clarifying all acquisition-related tax obligations.
- Post-Acquisition Planning – supporting integration and early-stage financial management to secure long-term success.
With Plan A Financials by your side, every stage of your acquisition is managed methodically and transparently, giving you confidence that your investment is secure and well-structured.
Deal Structuring & Funding
Every acquisition begins with the right structure. Whether you’re buying shares or assets, leading a management buy-in, or growing through a strategic acquisition, we help design a structure that aligns with your objectives and risk appetite.
We work closely with you to model how different transaction types affect cash flow, tax exposure, and control. Our team can also introduce you to trusted legal and funding partners to explore financing options, including bank lending, vendor finance, private capital, or debt facilities. Establishing the correct structure and funding mix early ensures your acquisition proceeds efficiently and on solid financial footing.
Valuation Analysis
Valuing a target business requires a combination of financial insight and commercial judgement. We critically review the seller’s assumptions and assess whether the asking price is justified by the underlying performance. Our analysis focuses on sustainable profitability, recurring revenue, debtor recoverability, and the business’s capital requirements.
We help you determine the business’s true value to you, taking into account integration costs, risk exposure, and potential synergies. By grounding negotiations in clear, data-driven insights, we enable you to make informed offers and avoid overpaying for inflated or non-recurring earnings.
Due Diligence – Assets, Liabilities & Financial Health
Due diligence is the stage where a carefully planned acquisition is either confirmed or reconsidered. At Plan A Financials, we carry out a structured, independent review of the target business to ensure that what you are buying matches what has been represented.
Our financial due diligence covers all critical areas:
- Assets – verification of tangible and intangible assets, confirming ownership and ensuring valuations are accurately documented.
- Liabilities – assessment of trade creditors, loans, contingent liabilities, tax exposures, and any off-balance-sheet obligations.
- Financial Health – analysis of historic and current performance, cash flow stability, debtor recoverability, and overall solvency.
Beyond the numbers, we evaluate commercial dependencies, customer concentration, and operational risks that could affect future profitability. Every finding is presented clearly, highlighting potential red flags and opportunities for negotiation or post-acquisition improvement.
Our objective is straightforward: to protect your investment, validate your assumptions, and give you complete confidence before committing to completion.
Coordination with Legal Teams
We work closely with your solicitors throughout the drafting and negotiation of the Heads of Terms, Share Purchase Agreement (SPA), and related documents. Our role is to translate financial insights into commercial and contractual protections, ensuring warranties, indemnities, and completion statements accurately reflect the financial position uncovered during due diligence.
By bridging the gap between financial analysis and legal drafting, we streamline communication, reduce ambiguity, and keep your deal on track for a timely, successful completion.
Net Working Capital & Completion Accounts
Net Working Capital (NWC) and completion account adjustments are crucial to ensuring you don’t overpay for a business. At Plan A Financials, we help calculate a fair working capital “peg” based on the company’s trading cycle and verify that the balance sheet accurately reflects operational liquidity.
Our analysis ensures that cash, debtors, and creditors are properly adjusted at completion, so the final purchase price reflects real, maintainable working capital. By clearly defining completion mechanics, we minimise the risk of post-completion disputes and safeguard the value of your acquisition.
Post-Acquisition Planning
Completion is just the start of ownership. We support financial integration to ensure the acquired business fits seamlessly into your existing operations. This includes reviewing management reporting, aligning accounting policies, and modelling post-completion cash flow and working capital requirements.
Our objective is to give you full visibility from day one, allowing you to focus on growth rather than the complexities of transition.
Stamp Duty & Transaction Taxes
We help you understand the tax implications of your acquisition so you can plan and budget with confidence. For share purchases, Stamp Duty is typically applied at 0.5% of the consideration, while asset purchases may attract different rates depending on the type of asset. We also identify deductible costs and work closely with your accountants to ensure your transaction is structured for maximum tax efficiency.
Knowing your full acquisition costs, including all transaction taxes, helps avoid any unexpected financial surprises once the deal completes.
Pricing for Buyers
At Plan A Financials, we specialise in small and micro-business transactions with deal values up to £1.5 million. This focus allows us to provide a director-led, hands-on service that larger corporate finance firms rarely offer at this level.
Our seller-side advisory fees are fixed or capped upfront and may include a success-linked element for more complex or performance-based sales. Fees are proportionate to the scope and structure of your deal, with full transparency and no hidden costs.
| Target Company Turnover | Typical Advisory Fee (ex. VAT) | Scope Highlights |
| Up to £500,000 | £5,000 + VAT | Core financial due diligence, cash/debt review, headline NAV testing |
| £500,000 – £1.0m | £7,000 + VAT | Full due diligence, working-capital peg, completion statement review |
| £1.0m – £2m | From £9,000 + VAT | Comprehensive accounting review, debt structure analysis, integration planning |
Every buyer-side engagement includes close coordination with legal and tax advisors to ensure that due diligence findings are accurately reflected in the Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) and completion accounts.
All fees are confirmed in writing before engagement, following a brief scoping discussion, providing you with complete cost certainty from the outset.
Ready to Begin Your Acquisition?
Buying a business is a significant financial commitment, but with the right guidance, it can also be a transformative opportunity. At Plan A Financials, we provide clear, numbers-driven M&A advisory that safeguards your investment, strengthens your negotiations, and gives you confidence at every stage.
Contact us today for a confidential discussion about acquisition structuring, due diligence, and completion planning.
Why Choose Plan-A?
Partnering with Plan-A means entrusting your limited company’s accounting to professionals who are committed to your success. From ensuring compliance to driving growth, we tailor our services to meet your needs. Let us take the financial burden off your shoulders, so you can focus on what matters most—building your business.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR), previously known as Entrepreneurs’ Relief, offers business owners a significant tax advantage. It enables them to pay a reduced Capital Gains Tax rate – currently 10% – when selling or winding down a qualifying business. This rate is set to increase to 14% in April 2025 and 18% in April 2026, making timely planning essential.
We manage all the financial, structural, and tax elements of your transaction, ensuring everything runs efficiently. You’ll still need a solicitor to handle the legal documents and contracts, but we collaborate closely with them to make the entire process seamless and stress-free.
A roll-up acquisition occurs when a business or investor acquires several smaller companies within the same sector. The goal is to consolidate operations, boost market share, and benefit from economies of scale. This approach is especially effective in industries that are fragmented, offering opportunities for growth and efficiency.
For small and micro-businesses, transactions can often be completed within 8–16 weeks, though timelines depend on factors such as the complexity of the deal, the quality of financial records, and the pace of negotiations.
Without expert guidance, sellers can miss out on potential value, while buyers may overpay or overlook important risks. Our role is to ensure your transaction is financially robust, properly structured, and tax-efficient, giving you confidence at every stage of the deal.
No. We work on a transparent flat-fee basis, calculated according to the size of your deal. This means you know your costs upfront and can retain more of your transaction proceeds.
Absolutely. As both accountants and deal advisers, we can continue to support you post-completion, handling bookkeeping, payroll, compliance, and tax planning to keep your business running smoothly.