Specialist accounting, tax, and CFO support for the people who actually buy businesses. Quality of Earnings and tax structuring before the deal closes, operating support from day one after.
Most CPAs come in for a piece of the deal and then disappear. We don’t work that way. We’ve been the buyer ourselves, so we know how much falls apart in the gap between closing and your first month of operations. Our job is to make sure nothing falls into that gap.
Here’s what working with us looks like at every stage.
We pressure-test the numbers and help you build an LOI that protects you on price, structure, and contingencies.
Every deal is different. We give you options for the right-sized diligence your deal needs, so you walk into the next negotiation knowing exactly what you’re buying.
Asset deal or stock deal, LLC or S-Corp, F-reorg or rollover equity. How the deal is structured can swing your tax bill significantly, and these decisions can get locked in at signing.
Most sellers hand you a chart of accounts that hasn’t been touched in a decade and a payroll system you can’t log into. We help rebuild it from the ground up so you have a real operating system instead of a hand-me-down.
Many buyers overlook this. An appropriate PPA and OBS is key to saving tax and also keeping things clean for when you operate and (eventually) sell.
Clean bookkeeping every month, AP and AR moving on schedule, and reports that tell you what’s actually happening.
We build a forward-looking cash flow forecast so you can see what’s coming 13 weeks out, plus a CFO in your corner for the bigger calls on pricing, hiring, and growth bets.
Tax planning isn’t something you do in April. We do it throughout the year, looking at entity moves, depreciation strategy, retirement contributions, owner comp, and credits you might not know exist so you keep more of what the business earns.
We pressure-test the numbers and help you build an LOI that protects you on price, structure, and contingencies.
Every deal is different. We give you options for the right-sized diligence your deal needs, so you walk into the next negotiation knowing exactly what you’re buying.
Asset deal or stock deal, LLC or S-Corp, F-reorg or rollover equity. How the deal is structured can swing your tax bill significantly, and these decisions can get locked in at signing.
Most sellers hand you a chart of accounts that hasn’t been touched in a decade and a payroll system you can’t log into. We help rebuild it from the ground up so you have a real operating system instead of a hand-me-down.
Many buyers overlook this. An appropriate PPA and OBS is key to saving tax and also keeping things clean for when you operate and (eventually) sell.
We build a forward-looking cash flow forecast so you can see what’s coming 13 weeks out, plus a CFO in your corner for the bigger calls on pricing, hiring, and growth bets.
Clean bookkeeping every month, AP and AR moving on schedule, and reports that tell you what’s actually happening.
Tax planning isn’t something you do in April. We do it throughout the year, looking at entity moves, depreciation strategy, retirement contributions, owner comp, and credits you might not know exist so you keep more of what the business earns.
Whether you’re making your first acquisition or your tenth, we’ve been there. Let’s talk.
Darin has sat on both sides of the closing table, as the CPA structuring the deal and as the buyer who had to operate the business the morning after.
He started at Ernst & Young, then spent a decade at Big 4 and boutique firms working with clients in a range of industries before founding Ashford Sky. Along the way, he bought an e-commerce business, ran it for three years, and sold it. So he knows the full arc firsthand: messy diligence, the post-close scramble to clean up books and stand up a tech stack, and what it actually takes to exit cleanly.
That’s the experience he built Ashford Sky around. At every step of a deal, the firm has the same job: save you money, take headaches off your plate, and free you up to operate. During diligence, that’s catching QofE adjustments. At close, it’s structuring the deal so tax doesn’t eat what you negotiated. After close, it’s keeping the books clean, the tax planning continuous, the tech stack working, and a CFO in your corner so you can run on data, not gut feel.
Whether you’re leaving a W2 to buy your first business, or you’re three deals deep and need a CPA team that actually speaks the language, that’s the seat Ashford Sky fills.
We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Book a free consultation and we’ll help you understand exactly what you’re getting into before you sign, and exactly what to do after you do.
A full quality of earnings report for $7,500 on deals up to $5 million. Our regular fee is $15,000, and this price holds for engagements booked by December 31.
See What's Included in the QoE ReportDon't see your question? Ask us directly and we'll give you a straight answer.
The financial diligence a smaller deal actually needs, with CPA Darin Pierson.
