When selling an accounting firm, clean books aren’t enough. Buyers dig deep into HR compliance, leave liabilities, culture and leadership because messy people processes can quickly erode value. This story explores why due diligence starts with people, how leave entitlements can impact price and why strong culture and transparent HR systems build buyer confidence, protect legacy and ultimately drive better deal outcomes.

Having recently returned from a four-week holiday to Europe, Victoria Berry is very happy with the situation of the firm she once owned. Her staff are well managed and happy. Her clients are confident and comfortable with the level of attention and expertise they’re experiencing. Even the hundreds of daily emails to the business are being looked after … by somebody else.

There are numerous issues that can strike late in a business transaction, turning a done deal into a dog’s breakfast. But if you know what to look out for and where the solutions lie, there’s no reason your firm’s sale or merger can’t go all the way. Here are five of the biggest deal killers.

Having run his regional Victorian firm for several decades, Kevin Paynter was facing burnout, health problems and an uncertain future. SELLERS helped him find a buyer, a future for his clients and staff, and a more gentle transition to retirement.

Selling or merging your business is a big, exciting, life-changing decision, but it’s also a complex process. Over the years, I’ve seen lots of great deals succeed, and a few fall apart, because of the ways the big challenges were handled. If you’re at all concerned about the future of your firm, here are the five things you’ve got to get right.

There’s a whole lot of extra work involved in accounting these days, Glenn Stephens, partner at Mackay-based firm CE Smith & Co, says. From constantly changing taxes and legislation, to surprise disruptions and the process changes they bring, to the fact that customer expectations are rising by the minute, there’s more work than ever for an accountant to do.

If you’re an accounting firm owner whose identity and passion is closely linked to your business, the concept of selling can be frightening. Fortunately, there’s a much better way that makes those final few years in business engaging and rewarding.

Handing over to someone you’ve worked with – someone you trust with the business you have built, who is known and liked by clients and who is deeply familiar with your culture, team members and systems – is an excellent outcome when the time comes for you to ease out the door. It’s clean, personal, and less disruptive than selling to an external party … if it’s done right and prepared well in advance.

When two geographically distant accounting firms combined, the resulting organisation was far greater than the sum of its parts. Success had a lot to do with excellent advice that ensured mutual growth in culture and capability.

After decades in practice the thought of stepping away, of relinquishing control, can be daunting. But for Graham Gunn, having been at the helm of Sydney-based Gunn & Co. for 48 years, there was great comfort around the idea of passing management responsibility on to a new owner.

Christmas of 2023 wasn’t a time of rejuvenation for Andrea Pearce, whose accounting and business advisory company Dream Accounting had become more like a nightmare. That holiday period was a time of reckoning. She faced the return to work feeling burnt out, burdened by financial debt and not sure of where to turn.

My office has a proven track record of working with accountants who are buying, selling or merging and, for well over a decade, have successfully produced sustainable outcomes for clients across all three transaction types.