What to prepare before a first valuation call

Gross 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 is taken from the prior twelve months of recurring revenue (monthly retainers, year-end compliance, payroll, bookkeeping, statutory accounts), excluding one-off advisory work and any deal-driven spikes. For a sole-principal or two-partner firm under £1m of total fees, gross recurring fees are the central input in any valuation: a buyer prices the fee book at a multiple of GRF, typically in the 0.8x to 1.5x range for general-practice books, with the multiplier moved up or down by eight factors covered on the GRF multiple explainer.

A first valuation call is largely a conversation about your gross recurring fees: how much, how recurring, how concentrated, and the qualifying detail that distinguishes a clean book from a thin one. The five data points below are what we ask in that fifteen-minute first call, plus what is also useful, and what we will not ask.

The first call with us is fifteen minutes. There is no commitment afterwards, no NDA required, and no obligation to share confidential client information.

What the call is for

The first call has three jobs:

1. We tell you whether your practice broadly fits what we acquire (size, geography, type) before either side spends more time.
2. You ask whatever question is uppermost in your mind, in confidence.
3. You leave the call with an indicative valuation range and a clear sense of whether a second meeting is worthwhile.

It is not a sales pitch. About a third of these calls turn into a second meeting. The other two-thirds are usually quick mutual recognitions that the fit is not right, which is also a useful answer.

The five data points the call will use

These are the same five inputs the on-page valuation calculator uses. If you have run the calculator, you already have everything you need. If not, jot down approximate answers to:

1. Annual fee income, total. A round number is fine: £350k, £600k, etc. Includes recurring and one-off work.
2. Recurring proportion. Roughly what percentage is monthly retainer, year-end compliance, or otherwise predictable repeat work.
3. Biggest single client, as a percentage of fees. The accountant whose biggest client is 35 per cent has a different book to one whose biggest is 8 per cent.
4. Location. Postcode area is enough: M3, BL9, SK7, WA14, BB10. Determines whether we are likely a fit at all.
5. Practice type. General practice (OMB focus), tax-led, advisory-led, or mixed. We can probably work it out from the conversation; saying it explicitly upfront saves a few minutes.

What is also useful, if you have it

The five points above are enough for an indicative range. If you have these to hand the conversation goes faster:

• Approximate client count. Not a list, just a number. Sixty clients, two hundred clients, etc.
• Staff count and rough mix. Qualified accountants, AAT, bookkeepers, admin. We are interested in continuity, not in a CV.
• Year-on-year fee trajectory. Last three years' total fees, or just whether they are flat, growing, or declining.
• Office and lease. Owned, leased, working from home? Lease term remaining, if leased.
• PII history. Claims-free is the most common answer. If there is a claim, broad strokes are useful (settled, ongoing, type of matter); the detail comes later under NDA.
• Your timeline. Twelve months, eighteen months, "I have not really decided yet." All are valid answers.

What we are not asking on the first call

Not on the first call, and not in your first email:

• A client list, even anonymised.
• A staff list with names.
• Salary or partner drawings figures.
• Detailed financial accounts.
• Engagement letters.
• Anything you would not want a competitor to see if the conversation went no further.

If the conversation progresses to a second meeting, a mutual NDA is signed first and the heavier information passes under that protection. The first call is deliberately light on detail; the heavy detail belongs after the NDA.

What you should ask us

Sellers tend to under-ask on first calls. The questions that genuinely matter, and that we welcome, include:

• Have you actually completed acquisitions of practices like mine? Direct, fair question. Ask it.
• What is your maximum capacity for absorbing a book this size? Operational answer, not marketing.
• What funding comfort can you show, and at what stage? Reasonable to ask before any exclusivity.
• Who handles client introductions in the first ninety days? Tells you whether continuity is real or rhetorical.
• What does your standard SPA look like on the staff and retention clauses? A buyer who cannot summarise these in a sentence each is not a serious buyer.
• What is your dealbreaker? If something would make us walk away, you are entitled to know in advance.

How to filter time wasters and ridiculous offers

When a practice goes to market, the seller will get unserious enquiries. Window-shoppers, competitor reconnaissance pretending to be buyers, broker scouts collecting price data for other deals, individuals testing what the market looks like before they have any funding in place. This is normal and the antidote is straightforward: filter at the door rather than after weeks of disclosure.

Filters to apply before responding in any detail:

• Has the enquirer named their firm and provided a contactable role? A buyer with no firm name and no role is rarely a buyer.
• Will they sign a mutual NDA before fee book disclosure? A serious buyer always will. An unwillingness here is a clear signal.
• Do they have a track record of completed acquisitions? Ask directly and ask for two specifics: the year of the most recent completion and the rough size of the book. A buyer with no completed deals is not yet a buyer in any operational sense.
• Have they given an indicative range before seeing your numbers? Disciplined buyers can quote a range from a high-level description. Buyers who insist on seeing your full accounts before offering anything are often fishing.

On ridiculous offers: an opening offer 30 per cent or more below market is sometimes negotiation theatre, sometimes a tell of an unfunded buyer who needs a bargain to make their funding work. The right response is to ask for a funding letter from their bank or a comfort note from their backer. A funded buyer will provide one; an unfunded buyer will go quiet.

Practical vendor protection tactics during the conversation period:

• Use a generic email address for first contact. Do not expose your practice domain in the first exchange.
• Do not disclose your client list in any form, not even an anonymised summary, until exclusivity.
• Do not disclose the partner and senior staff roster until heads of terms.
• Cap the number of buyers in active conversation to two or three at a time. More than that and the leak risk to staff and clients rises sharply, and the seller's attention is too split to manage any one conversation properly.

Practical logistics

• The call is fifteen minutes. We keep to time.
• Phone or video. Whichever you prefer.
• The call is with the Managing Partner. There is no junior on the line.
• No follow-up unless you ask for one. We do not chase.
• If a second meeting is wanted, the mutual NDA goes round before that meeting.

After the call

You receive a short follow-up email with the indicative range we discussed, the next-step options if you want them, and the mutual NDA template if a second meeting is agreed. Nothing is forwarded to the wider Jack Ross team unless you choose to take the conversation further.

If you would prefer not to schedule a call yet, the on-page calculator gives you the same indicative range without speaking to anyone, and the deal structure page sets out the 50/25/25 mechanics in the same level of detail we would discuss on the call.

The next step

Book a confidential 15-minute call

Related reading

• Practice valuation calculator — the same five data points, run instantly on the page.
• A clean structure, not a leveraged earn-out — the 50/25/25 mechanics with worked examples.
• Why sell to Jack Ross — why a direct sale to a chartered firm is different from the broker or PE routes.
• Book a call — the contact page, with the Managing Partner named.