If you want to sell your business, your numbers need to hold up when a buyer checks them. Missing records leave questions. Those questions could change what someone’s willing to pay.
I saw this in a call with one of our operators. He was helping a buyer check a truck leasing business.
The business had roughly 700 trucks. Records were missing for close to 100 of them.
The buyer liked much of what he saw. But that gap still needed an answer.
Can you show what each asset earns?
The operator wanted to know what the trucks earned and what they cost.
The first files didn’t give him all of that. He wanted repair costs, equipment costs, sales records, and payment history.
Think about that from the owner’s side.
You may know your business is good. But when you sell it, someone else needs to check that. They can’t just take your word for it.
If part of the business is missing from the files, they’ll want to know why.
What came in? What went out?
Reported rent didn’t tell the operator everything he needed to know.
He asked for the cash ledger. He wanted to see the payments that had come in and the money the business had spent.
The files were messy. He cleaned them up and wrote another report.
He also found a weak period he wanted to discuss. The deal was still being reviewed when we spoke. I don’t know whether his findings changed the price or the final decision.
Get the questions answered before a buyer asks
This story shows the kind of work a buyer may do on your business.
As an owner, you can ask the same questions now.
- Do our records cover all our assets?
- Can we show what they earn and cost?
- Can we explain when cash came in?
- Where are the gaps?
- Who’ll find the answers?
Missing records don’t prove your business is bad. But they make parts of it harder to judge.
I’d want someone to work through those gaps while I still had time to fix them.
Make your business easier to check
The operator’s job was to open the files, ask for what was missing, and explain what he found.
That’s useful work for an owner preparing to sell, too.
Your numbers aren’t the only thing a buyer will question. Read how one large customer can make a business harder to sell.
If your records need work, get matched with an operator who can help you clean them up and find the gaps.