Sell-Side Financial Due Diligence

Financial Due Diligence for a secure and successful company sale

  • A sell-side Financial Due Diligence prepares your financial position in a structured and consistent way and provides buyers with a reliable basis for their analysis.

  • Financial and tax due diligence create clarity on earnings quality, balance sheet strength and the key drivers of valuation.

  • A clearly defined due diligence process reduces follow-up questions, increases transparency, enhances enterprise value and ensures a well-managed sale process.

  • We deliver robust analyses, assess underlying purchase price assumptions and substantiate them through QofE analyses and targeted normalisations.

  • The result is greater process certainty, improved comparability of offers and a stronger position in negotiations.

Get in touch with us today
Power BI Dashboard

Radial Consulting known from:

Logo Business Punk
Business Insider Logo
Logo Finance Magazin
Logo KSI
Logo Börsen Zeitung

Why Financial Due Diligence is critical for sellers

n a company sale, the objective is not to reassess your business internally, but to present it from a buyer’s perspective in a structured, consistent and convincing manner. A sell-side Financial Due Diligence creates transparency, trust and comparability. It clearly demonstrates the financial stability of the business, the sustainability of earnings and the value drivers underlying the purchase price. This preparation supports an efficient sale process, reduces follow-up questions and provides a solid basis for purchase price discussions.

Presenting your financial position with clarity

A sell-side Financial Due Diligence provides transparency on your financial position and key performance indicators not for internal insight, but as a professional decision-making basis for potential buyers.

Buyers receive a consistent and reliable analytical foundation, while you present your business in a structured way and strengthen your position throughout the process.

Anticipating buyer perspectives

A sell side Financial Due Diligence structures your business from a buyer’s point of view and provides all interested parties with a uniform and robust analytical framework. This reduces follow-up questions, accelerates the transaction timeline and significantly relieves management and finance teams.

Targeted normalisations and quality-of-earnings analyses create transparency around value drivers and professionally substantiate purchase price assumptions.

Providing a robust basis for decision-making

The systematic preparation and analysis of financial data creates a solid decision-making basis for both buyers and sellers. This increases clarity, reduces uncertainty and makes the due diligence process significantly more efficient overall.

Substantiating purchase price and value drivers

A detailed financial analysis transparently explains how enterprise value is generated and which drivers sustain it over time. Value-enhancing factors are deliberately analysed, clearly prepared and presented in a comprehensible manner.

This enables robust valuations, realistic purchase price arguments and professional preparation for negotiations.

Creating certainty throughout the deal process

A sell-side due diligence ensures that all assumptions, accounting principles and financial positions are consistently identified, documented and clearly explained.
This minimises interpretational leeway, reduces buyer-side risk and supports a smooth transaction process.

Building trust with buyers

A well-prepared Financial Due Diligence signals professionalism, structure and reliability. It reduces uncertainty, accelerates decision-making and strengthens your position with investors, banks and strategic buyers.

Bildschirm Mockup

Due Diligence Process Timeline

We create clarity, reduce risk and prepare you specifically for buyer questions and negotiations. The exact timeline depends on the scope and complexity of the transaction.

Week 0 to 1:

Kick-off, data request, materiality assessment, proposed KPI map

Week 1 to 2:

Data preparation, analysis and initial findings

Week 2 to 3:

In-depth work on earnings sustainability, working capital, debt and KPIs

Week 3 to 4:

Drafting of the due diligence report and management review

Week 4 to 6:

Finalisation, data room validation, buyer Q&A and contractual support

What we Deliver to Safeguard your Sale Process

  • Quality of Earnings report with normalised EBITDA and reconciliation

  • Revenue quality analysis by customer, product and channel

  • Working capital analysis including normalisation and seasonality

  • KPI package with glossary and transaction-ready definitions

  • Review of accounting standards and analysis of unusual items

  • Pro forma adjustments for carve-outs and add-backs

  • Cohort and retention analysis where applicable

  • Margin and contribution analysis at segment level

  • Inputs for transaction and SPA definitions

  • Data room index, document delivery plan and quality control

  • Coaching for management presentations and Q&A preparation

  • Support for buyer Q&A and tracking of all requests

  • Day-one reporting templates

Who benefits most from Financial Due Diligence

  • Founder-led or private equity-backed companies preparing for a (partial) sale

  • Mid-sized businesses with private equity involvement and revenues of approximately EUR 10 to 500 million

  • Management teams requiring robust KPIs, vendor QofE and faster deal execution

  • Clients in Germany and the United States, with bilingual delivery available

Tombstones

Here is a list of a few Sell-Side Financial Due Diligence projects we successfully worked on over the past:

Transaction - Tombstone 6
Transaction - Tombstone 1

Modern Tools for Transparent and Robust FDD

A sell-side FDD requires reliable systems, structured data management and traceable reporting. We use modern technologies to ensure all figures are consistent, audit-ready and fully transparent for buyers and advisers.

  • Buyer-ready Financial Due Diligence reporting provided through a structured, commented report, with Power BI and SQL-based analyses used selectively to support deeper analysis where required

  • Data room preparation and document management

  • Dashboards usable by both management and buyers

Key Elements of Sell-Side Financial Due Diligence

  • Clearly defined scope: Predefined due diligence criteria clarify which financial areas buyers will focus on and assess.

  • Robust budgeting and forecasting: Verifiable budgets and realistic forecasts enhance credibility and support buyer evaluation of future performance.

  • Complete financial history documentation: A comprehensive and well-organised presentation of historical financials enables efficient and reliable assessment.

  • Alignment of KPIs with the business model: Key financial metrics must logically reflect the business model to ensure a transparent and defensible valuation.

Why working with Radial takes you to the next level

  • Big Four level rigor with boutique speed and attention

  • Ex Big 4 leadership, bilingual team, and PE native ways of working

  • Data first delivery with dashboards, models, and governance you can run

  • Proactive communication, clear ownership, and weekly deliverables

Radial Consulting Logo

Prepare your transaction professionally

A sell-side Financial Due Diligence determines how confidently you navigate the process, how clearly you articulate enterprise value and how convincingly you support your purchase price.

If you want to engage buyers early, reduce friction and prepare your deal strategically, we support you with experience, structure and a value-enhancing approach.

Let’s talk and lay the foundation for a successful business transaction.

Get in touch with us today and tell us what you need.
Wolf-Heinrich Werling

Frequently Asked Questions

Sell-side Financial Due Diligence is a structured analysis performed on behalf of the seller, in which financial data, tax-relevant aspects and transaction-related opportunities and risks are reviewed and transparently prepared. It provides buyers with a robust basis for their analysis while reflecting industry-specific characteristics.

Vendor Assistance supports data room preparation, documentation and process coordination without issuing a formal report. Vendor Due Diligence includes a comprehensive report with analyses and assessments that buyers can directly rely on.

Industrial manufacturing, machinery and equipment, SaaS, project-based businesses, e-commerce, consumer and industrial goods, among others. We tailor value drivers and KPIs to each business model.

Ideally eight to twelve weeks before the formal sale launch. In many cases, an earlier start is beneficial to properly define KPIs and reporting standards.

Typically four to ten weeks from kick-off to final report, longer for more complex transactions.

Financial statements, management reporting, transaction-level accounting data, ageing schedules for receivables and payables, payroll data, lease agreements, debt documentation and key contracts. We provide a detailed data request list.

HGB, IFRS and US GAAP. We also support conversions between frameworks where required.

Yes. We coordinate closely with your advisers and align SPA definitions and process milestones.

Yes. We coach management, draft responses and maintain tracking logs to ensure timely and consistent follow-up.

Vendor Due Diligence enables sellers to proactively address risks and opportunities, reduce follow-up questions, accelerate the sale process and enhance enterprise value and purchase price. It strengthens negotiation leverage and builds buyer confidence.

We combine financial expertise with modern technology, clear models and a highly execution-focused approach. Instead of lengthy reports, we deliver concise analyses, clear conclusions and transaction-ready materials.

What our customers say

Thorsten Preiss
Radial has helped us make great strides in our efforts to digitize financial reporting and increase transparency. I look forward to the next steps, in which we will once again be relying on Radial for support.
Thorsten Preiss, DETAX GmbH

Prepare your exit strategically and with confidence

A sell-side Financial Due Diligence shapes how clearly value is articulated and how effectively pricing discussions are anchored in facts. By establishing a clean earnings baseline, applying disciplined normalisations and clearly evidencing value drivers, valuation outcomes can often be meaningfully improved – frequently by an amount that exceeds the cost of the due diligence by a wide margin.

If your objective is to reduce execution risk, create transparency and present enterprise value in a structured and defensible manner, we support you with experience, rigour and a transaction-ready approach. Get in touch to lay the groundwork for a successful company sale.