M&A Databooks
Build investor-ready M&A databooks with detailed financial schedules, reconciliations, and executive insights for confident transaction decisions.
What We Deliver
We specialize in creating robust, audit-ready M&A databooks designed to streamline your transaction process:
- Build investor-ready databooks with monthly P&L, BS, CF, NWC & Net Debt schedules.
- Reconcile bank statements, invoices & ledgers; perform tie-outs and flux analysis.
- Clean and standardize management accounts; sensitivity & scenario analysis in models.
- Offer 72-hour first-cut databook for urgent diligence when scope allows.
Outputs You Receive
- Excel databook (linked schedules & formulas)
- Source-to-summary reconciliation pack
- 2–3 page executive note with red flags & opportunities
Timeline: Typically 5–10 business days, with NDA-first confidentiality.
Discuss Your Databook NeedsNordic deals — SIE and SAF-T native
The Nordics are our priority market, and the source data there is unusually good once you know how to read it.
- Sweden. We work from SIE4 exports — full transactions and vouchers, not a period summary — and bridge K2/K3 reporting onto the basis you underwrite.
- Norway. SAF-T Financial exports (v1.30 mandatory from January 2025) give the same transaction-level completeness.
- Denmark and Finland. Native general ledger exports from e-conomic, Dinero, Netvisor and Procountor.
- Full CET overlap means same-day turnaround rather than overnight lag.
What we do on the engagement
Profit and loss
Monthly and annual, at account-code level rather than summarised category. Includes year-to-date columns for current-period comparison and CAGR per line so cost creep is visible.
Balance sheet
Reorganised the way a deal team reads it — fixed assets, working capital, net debt and other — rather than statutory presentation order, with a waterfall view.
Cash flow
Operational free cash flow walked from EBITDA, with working capital movement and capital expenditure separated into maintenance and growth where the data allows.
Working capital
Every component tagged by type, period-end alongside LTM average, plus the adjustment schedule that turns reported NWC into the figure used in the SPA.
Net debt
Reported borrowings separated from debt-like items: pension deficits, lease liabilities, unpaid dividends, corporate cards, and any trapped or restricted cash.
Revenue analysis
By product, geography, channel and customer. Price, volume and mix decomposition of growth between periods.
Customer concentration
Top customers by revenue across every period in scope, with year-on-year movement so churn and recovery are both visible.
Personnel and FTE
Payroll split into salary, bonus, social security, pension and allowances, tied to headcount with average cost per FTE derived.
Capex and fixed assets
Additions, disposals and depreciation by asset class, with a fixed asset register reconciled to the balance sheet.
Supporting schedules
The transaction-level flatfile, pivots, AR and AP ageing, COGS detail and every adjustment working — so any figure can be traced to source.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is an M&A databook?
The analytical Excel file that sits behind a diligence report. It holds the reconciled historical financials, every supporting schedule, and the workings for each adjustment — structured so any figure in the report can be traced back to source data in a few clicks. The report states conclusions; the databook proves them.
How is it different from the management accounts?
Management accounts are prepared for running the business. A databook is prepared for pricing it. That means standardising the chart of accounts across periods, reconciling to source, isolating non-recurring items, and adding the schedules a buyer needs but management never produced — working capital by component, customer concentration, price/volume analysis.
Can I see one before engaging?
Yes. Our sample databook is published in full on this site, built on synthetic data. Ten annotated pages plus the complete PDF extract, no email required.
How many tabs does a full databook run to?
For a mid-market target, typically 40 to 50 across executive summary, quality of earnings, business overview, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, working capital and supporting schedules. Our published sample runs to 43.
Will it work in our template?
Yes. Send your house template and formatting conventions during onboarding and we build to them from the first deliverable.
What happens to the file after the deal?
It is yours. On the buy side it becomes the opening baseline for portfolio reporting; on the sell side it answers buyer questions for the rest of the process. Either way you keep the working file, not just a PDF.