Substantive analysis on selling an accountancy practice in the UK. Valuation, structure, tax, and the realities of consolidator integration. Written at Jack Ross.
The headline price on an accountancy practice sale is the number that gets talked about. The net cash that arrives in the seller's bank account is the number that matters. Between the…
Read articleWhen a buyer prices an accountancy practice, the headline number is built up from a view of two distinct things: what proportion of the fee book is genuinely recurring, and what the…
Read articleThe Heads of Terms is the document that records, in two-sided agreement, what you and the buyer think the deal looks like. It is not the contract. The contract is the SPA,…
Read articleNot tax advice. A list of the questions worth taking to your independent tax adviser before you sign anything binding. The specific facts of your practice, your other affairs, your pension position,…
Read articleMost retiring principals' solicitors are good corporate solicitors who have not done many practice acquisitions. The country has perhaps two hundred firms of accountants changing hands in any given year, against many…
Read articleOnce a buyer asks for exclusivity, the negotiation changes shape. You stop talking to other buyers, the clock starts on due diligence, and your bargaining position weakens. Everything you wanted to test,…
Read articleThe first practical question retiring principals ask is rarely "what is my book worth?" It is "how do I tell my team?" The good answer is operational, not emotional. Done properly, communicating…
Read articleThis is a worked illustrative example. No specific seller is being described. The practice profile, the dialogue, the figures, the tax outcomes, and the timeline below are constructed to show what an…
Read articleGross recurring fees are the annualised fees a UK accountancy practice will continue to bill for the same services next year if no client leaves and no new client joins. The figure…
Read articleThe principal of a UK chartered accountancy practice who has decided, in the abstract, that they will retire within the next five years has not yet started planning. They have started thinking.…
Read article** WARNING: connection is not using a post-quantum key exchange algorithm. ** This session may be vulnerable to "store now, decrypt later" attacks. ** The server may need to be upgraded. See…
Read articleIf you are exploring exit and you have had any conversations with the active buyers in the UK accountancy sector, you have already encountered the two dominant categories: PE-backed consolidator platforms and…
Read articleIf you are a sole practitioner UK chartered accountant in your late fifties or sixties, the question of what to do next is not abstract. Why "what is your fee book worth"…
Read article** WARNING: connection is not using a post-quantum key exchange algorithm. ** This session may be vulnerable to "store now, decrypt later" attacks. ** The server may need to be upgraded. See…
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