Questions, answered honestly.

You get four things: your real valuation benchmarked against actual comparable sales in your industry; a quality-of-earnings-style analysis that runs a 3-way match between your QuickBooks, bank statements, and tax returns; a buyer's lens report showing the exact issues a buyer will find and use to negotiate your price down; and a priority fix roadmap ranking the 3–5 things most likely to move your number. Everything is delivered as a report you can review with your team or advisor.

A broker's valuation reflects what they need it to be to get you to sign a listing agreement. A banker's reflects what will help them close a deal. The Fenwick Diagnostic is independent — no one here has a financial interest in what you decide to do next. We're not in the business of running your sale. We tell you what the number actually is and what's holding it back.

You get a range — low, typical, and high — based on real comparable transactions in your specific industry. We show you how many transactions sit behind the benchmark and explain in plain English where your business lands within that range and why. Any tool that gives you a single precise number is overstating its certainty.

Free tools use a handful of numbers you type in — usually just revenue and a rough profit figure — and apply a generic multiple. The Fenwick Diagnostic connects directly to your actual QuickBooks data and runs a 3-way match against your bank statements and tax returns. It uses industry-specific benchmarks from 285 business categories, not a one-size-fits-all multiplier. The methodology was developed in conjunction with a professor at NYU Stern School of Business. There is no comparison.

A quality-of-earnings (QoE) review is what a buyer's accounting team does in due diligence — they check whether the earnings you're reporting are real, repeatable, and defensible. They reconcile your books against your bank and tax returns, verify add-backs, and look for one-time items inflating your numbers. A formal QoE from a CPA firm costs $30,000–$75,000. The Fenwick Diagnostic runs the same core workup automatically from your own data. Most owners have never seen this view of their business before a buyer does.

From a large database of completed private-company sale transactions — real closed deals matched to your specific industry. The methodology was developed in conjunction with a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and covers 285 industries. For each industry we use the actual spread of what buyers paid, benchmarked against independent M&A surveys and trade-association market reports.

You authorize a read-only connection through Intuit's own secure login screen — we never see your QuickBooks password. The tool reads your P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and underlying transactions. It cannot change, post, or delete anything in your books. The connection takes about 5 minutes and you can disconnect anytime.

You can upload your financial exports instead — a P&L by month and a balance sheet is enough to start. QuickBooks Desktop, other accounting software, or a well-organized spreadsheet all work. The analysis runs the same either way.

Once your QuickBooks is connected or your files are uploaded, results are typically delivered within 24–48 hours. Setup takes about 5–10 minutes on your end.

Yes. The QuickBooks connection is read-only — the tool can read your data but cannot change anything in your books. Your data is encrypted at rest and in transit using AES-256-GCM encryption. We never sell your data and never share it with any buyer, broker, or third party unless you specifically request it.

Only you and Fenwick Partners. The analysis runs automatically. No buyer, banker, or broker sees your numbers as part of this process. If you later want to share results with a specific advisor or buyer, you control exactly what they see — and you can revoke access at any time.

Yes, anytime. Disconnecting QuickBooks revokes the access token with Intuit immediately — the tool can no longer read your books. You can also request deletion of all your data. No waiting, no email required.

Yes — and honestly, this is the best time to run it. The issues that buyers discount most — owner dependence, customer concentration, thin recurring revenue, financial statements that don't reconcile — take 12 to 24 months to fix. Seeing them now gives you time to address them before you're at the table. Owners who find out mid-diligence have no leverage left.

The diagnostic is still valuable. Knowing what a buyer will find before they find it lets you get ahead of the negotiation. You'll know which issues they'll use to push your price down and have a defensible answer ready. At a minimum, you won't be surprised.

The diagnostic is $1,999, one time. No subscription, no recurring fee, no upsell to run your sale. The same analysis from a CPA firm and independent valuation advisor would run $43,000–$100,000+.

No. The diagnostic stands on its own. For owners who want to go deeper — working on the issues the diagnostic surfaces — Fenwick Partners offers a hands-on engagement. That's a separate conversation and entirely your call. The $1,999 gets you the full diagnostic, full stop.