Accurate inventory reporting and tax filings are crucial to business exit planning. By maintaining accurate financial records, streamlining inventory management and business growth, as well as mitigating risks in the supply chain, business owners can enhance their company's value and marketability when it comes time to sell.
Inventory reporting, properly filing taxes, and building business value are among ways middle market businesses within manufacturing, retail, or wholesale spaces, can impact business exits or sales.
Financial Reporting to Attract Buyers
Accurate inventory reporting is essential for business owners planning to sell their businesses and provides for accurate cost and gross margin information. Monthly reporting helps to keep records current and without error.
Prospective buyers may want to see inventory and margins categorized at a more granular level than what’s customary to owner processes, such as by product or service line. This is because understanding financial reporting demands for selling a business are higher than those needed to run it.
Business owners and executives should note that buyers may require them to prove their company’s performance in ways they may have taken for granted given their years of experience.
File Taxes to Be Transaction-Ready
Tax filings should be up to date before entering negotiations. Many deals will have some sort of escrow or holdback—namely, taxes. Avoiding surprises regarding taxes and business exits can be crucial, as unforeseen state or local tax liabilities can deter buyers.
A nexus study can help identify unreported state taxes, including unreported sales tax, which can add up significantly over time. These issues can have a negative impact when they arise during negotiation, so identifying and addressing these issues before going to market can prevent unforeseen complications.
Importance of Building Business Value
Business owners should monitor business value and company marketability in the years prior to exit, particularly in the following areas listed below.
Customer Relationships
Maintaining strong relationships with key customers and securing long-term contracts where possible is ideal, since buyers like to see sticky revenue. A diversified customer base with recurring revenue streams provides stability and ultimately can enhance the company's value.
Inventory Management
Implementing efficient inventory management systems to track stock levels and lessen carrying costs is also important. Excess inventory ties up capital and can reduce the company’s valuation, making a streamlined inventory process crucial.
Diversifying suppliers and having contingency plans can help avoid potential disruptions and enhance the company’s appearance of resilience to buyers.
Revenue Growth
Growing the revenues and profits of the business is the best thing owners and executives can do to drive value. A transaction can be a complex process, so seeking opportunities to expand to new customers, geographically or via acquisition, is essential.
We’re Here to Help
If you have questions on financial reporting and how it could affect the business exit process, please contact your Moss Adams professional.