Sell Your Accounting Firm
"What are my GRF and EBITDA actually worth?"
Buyers will rebuild your gross recurring fees, normalise partner compensation, strip non-recurring work and stress-test client concentration. Without your own defensible bridge the multiple compresses quickly.
"Will my team and partners stay?"
Audit managers, tax leads and client partners are the asset. If a roll-up changes pay, autonomy or culture the people who own the client relationships leave first.
"Will my clients accept a new owner?"
Client transition risk is the number one diligence concern in accounting M&A. Sequencing, communication and partner continuity have to be planned long before the deal is announced.
We know how Sumer, Xeinadin, Azets, Cooper Parry and US PE-backed platforms model practices: GRF multiples, normalised partner comp, lock-up days, WIP, client concentration and earn-out structures.
You Will Have Multiple Offers
A structured competitive process with multiple qualified consolidators and strategics on the table at the same time. Real choice on price, equity, earn-out length and partner continuity.
We Qualify Buyers Before They Meet You
Every acquirer is vetted for intent, capital and platform fit before introduction. No fishing expeditions and no client-list extraction.
Your Partners and Team Matter
We help you find acquirers who invest in retention, autonomy and quality, not buyers whose model is rapid central consolidation that breaks what you built.
Accounts, bookkeeping, payroll and tax compliance for owner-managed businesses. The largest pool of acquisition demand sits here.
Tax Advisory & Specialist Tax
R&D, EIS/SEIS, capital allowances, VAT, international tax. Specialist firms command premium multiples driven by senior fee earners and partner expertise.
Monthly management accounts, fractional FD and FP&A. Subscription-style economics increasingly attract PE attention.
Xero, QuickBooks Online and modern stack-led practices with higher gross margin per fee earner. Premium positioning in consolidator buying.
What multiple will my accounting practice achieve?
Multiples in UK and US accountancy M&A are driven by gross recurring fees, normalised EBITDA, partner dependency, client concentration, sector specialism and growth. Modern, advisory-led practices materially out-trade compliance-only books. We deliberately avoid quoting a single multiple range on this page; the matched valuation guide and a confidential call will produce a realistic, defensible range for your firm.
Will I have to stay on after sale?
Most consolidator deals include a two to five year management commitment with an equity rollover. Strategic deals can be shorter. Structure is negotiable and competitive processes routinely surface better terms.
What happens to my clients?
Client transition is the single most important risk in accounting M&A. We work with you on partner-led communication, retention bonuses for client-owning fee earners and the sequencing of disclosures so clients hear from the right person at the right time.
How long does an accounting practice sale take?
Typically six to twelve months. Preparation including GRF schedules, partner comp normalisation and a defensible client mix takes four to eight weeks; marketing four to eight weeks; legals and diligence eight to sixteen weeks.
Do you provide regulated advice?
No. DealFlowAgent is an independent sell-side M&A advisory firm. We do not provide tax, audit or regulated accounting advice. Your existing tax and legal advisers continue to act for you alongside our process.
What fees do you charge?', answer:
Accountants who refer client exits
Many accountants send their exit-stage clients to DealFlowAgent rather than try to run a sale process internally. If you would like to refer clients and earn alongside us, see our advisor referral programme.
Complete Business Valuation Guide: Why Most Owners Undervalue
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Buyer Match: Find Acquirers For Your Business
Discover which acquirers actively match your business profile.
M&A advisory for law firm and legal services owners.
M&A advisory for insurance brokerages and MGAs.
Refer clients to DealFlowAgent and earn alongside our process.
+ 13,000 more registered acquirers with defined search criteria
See every sector hub and niche we cover.
Get a benchmark valuation in under two minutes.
Position twelve to thirty-six months ahead of a sale. Register your criteria for proprietary deal flow.
Book a confidential 30-minute call with Joe from our M&A advisory team. No obligation. Everything discussed stays between us.
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Joe Lewin, founder of DealFlowAgent, explains how the firm helps owners of building services, facilities management and healthcare businesses run a confidential, competitive sale process with 13,000+ vetted acquirers.
Pricing, relationships and know-how walk out of the door with you. Buyers price that risk into their offer.
Time, materials and margin slip quietly on live jobs, and by the time the accounts show it, the money is gone.
Financial reports, KPIs and pipeline figures arrive late because someone has to pull them together by hand.
Project work and ad-hoc jobs make cash flow hard to predict and cap the multiple a buyer will pay.
Organisations search Google and AI answer engines every day for providers in your niche, and find your competitors instead.
We agree whether to launch buyer conversations, pursue a hybrid route, keep preparing, or pause. The decision is evidence-led rather than pushed by advisor momentum.
Stage one buyer pack and data room
We build the teaser, the management narrative, the financial bridge and the stage one information pack. You approve the story before any buyer sees it.
We approach a curated set of buyers where there is a credible strategic, cultural or structural fit. The aim is buyer tension without creating noise around the business.
We qualify interest, prepare you for each meeting and keep a truthful view of buyer behaviour, concerns and seriousness.
Buyers receive deeper access only when their interest, fit and seriousness justify it. Information flow stays controlled.
We compare price, structure, retained equity, earn-out, role expectations, cultural fit and execution risk side by side rather than chasing the headline number alone.
We drive competitive tension where it exists, challenge weak terms and help select the route that best balances value, legacy and practical deliverability.
Legal, diligence and completion support
We project-manage the advisory workstream alongside your appointed solicitors so diligence, disclosure, legal drafting and buyer communication do not drift.
Signing, funds flow and the announcement. We handle press and completion-day communication with you, your team and the buyer.
Three clear phases. Start wherever you are: some owners begin at Phase One, others are ready for Phase Three today.
Requesting your report takes about 3 minutes of your time. Your confidential, 4-page Valuation and Buyer Report is produced in minutes. It benchmarks your company against live sector transactions, scores your business across key value drivers, and maps active strategic and financial acquirers registered in our network.
The report is completely free, with no obligation. Your data is held in strict confidence and is never shared with buyers or third parties.
You then have one, two or three confidential discovery calls with a senior adviser, covering:
We review the numbers with you, examine the factors capping your multiple, and help you decide whether your best move is to build value, prepare for an exit, or stay the course.
As light or as hands-on as you need: from monthly progress reviews to on-site strategy days with you and your leadership team. We systematically address the 30 scorecard factors that acquirers scrutinise during due diligence, and the quick wins alone can materially move your multiple before entering the market.
Taken on its own, to strengthen the business without selling, Phase 2 is a small, transparent fixed fee with no long-term tie-in.
The patterns below come up again and again in founder-led businesses. Each one is fixable.
The end to end sale, run step by step. Nothing reaches a buyer until you have approved it.
There is no upfront cost for Phase 3. Our advisory fee is charged only on successful deal completion.
Throughout, you are looked after by a dedicated core advisory team and industry specialists, with AI agents working beneath the advisers the way analysts and associates support a deal team. The top-tier banks reserve that bench strength for companies above £100 million in revenue. We bring it to yours.
Option A', title: 'Know Where You Stand
Option B', title: 'Value Optimisation Only
Option C', title: 'Value Optimisation and Sale
Get Your Free Valuation Report
Six months or three years away from a sale, the report is free and there is no obligation to proceed.
Pre-empts how corporate acquirers and private equity analysts will test your working capital, gross margins and customer concentration.
Calculates defensible add-backs, from director compensation adjustments to non-recurring professional fees and personal motor costs, backed by source documentation.
Drafts anonymous teasers and full information memorandums to tier-one corporate finance standards.
A valuation that holds firm
You enter negotiations with an unvarnished, defensible valuation bridge. Buyers cannot exploit messy accounting to chip your price.
More time on buyers, less on spreadsheets
Duncan and our sector specialists do not spend 40 hours building models in spreadsheets. They spend that time qualifying buyer intent, rehearsing your management presentation and running competitive tension between bidders.
Checks statutory books, director filings and sector accreditations, including BAFE, NSI, WRAS and ISO, to ensure zero lapses.
Flags contractor IR35 exposures, intellectual property assignment gaps and key-person bottlenecks before a buyer uncovers them.
Monitors counterparty document engagement, flagging to the partners exactly which chapters and files a buyer\u2019s legal team is scrutinising.
No surprises once a buyer is in diligence
Diligence skeletons are resolved in private before go-to-market. When exclusivity begins, the buyer finds a clean, audit-ready data room, leaving zero room for renegotiation.
Partners focused on terms and cash at completion
Joe and our legal advisers are not chasing administrative paperwork. They focus exclusively on commercial deal structure, share purchase agreement warranties and securing maximum cash at completion.
A senior M&A bench, plus a sector specialist recruited for your industry on every deal.
Nine years in corporate finance. Formerly Associate Director, Corporate Finance at Quantuma, with earlier corporate finance and audit experience at BKL, joining DealFlowAgent from the largest M&A advisory firm in the UK, part of K3 Capital.
As an ex-Director he managed teams of M&A advisors, analysts and associates, working daily with business owners, buyers and stakeholders on live acquisition deals. Selected from 260 applicants alongside colleagues from investment banking backgrounds, he brings that experience and network to lead the advisory bench across Building Services, Facilities Management, and Healthcare.
Senior Building Services & FM Advisor
Martin is one of the most well-connected figures in UK fire, security, building services and FM. He is Chairman of both the Fire Industry Association and the British Security Industry Association, the only person in the UK to hold both roles simultaneously. Martin spent over a decade in senior leadership at Mitie, latterly as Industry Liaison Director for its fire and security division, helping scale the business past £500m in revenue and playing a role in the £366m acquisition of Marlowe plc, which created one of the UK's largest compliance, fire and security services groups. He joined DealFlowAgent because owners in these sectors deserve a genuine sector-specialist advisor across valuation, business optimisation and buyer access. In recognition of his industry roles, he acts in a personal, non-partisan capacity.
Industry Partner, Hiring and Leadership
Nick leads FM Talent Partners, the facilities management and real estate leadership search firm, and is a leading specialist in building services and FM management talent. He partners with DealFlowAgent on two-way referrals: helping business owners and acquirers fill the key roles that decide whether a business is sellable, and introducing owners who are thinking about their next chapter to a team that knows their industry and their market. Key-person dependency is one of the two most common reasons a sale collapses, and Nick fixes it at source.
For every engagement we add a sector specialist from your industry to the core team: a 15–25 year operator or advisor with direct relationships in your niche. Recruited per deal so you get the right fit, not a generalist.
Every mandate at DealFlowAgent is led directly by our senior partners (Joe Lewin, Duncan Moore, Martin Watson) and supported by dedicated sector specialists. We never hand your business off to junior associates.
Richard and Sally are our internal, always-on analytical infrastructure. They operate strictly behind the scenes, preparing materials, stress-testing numbers, and auditing documentation so our partners can spend their time where it matters most: strategic counsel, confidential conversations, and negotiating terms on your behalf.
Richard and Sally never contact clients, never message buyers, and never release documents.
Industry publications and events where DealFlowAgent has either been featured in or exhibited at. It is often where we build relationships with business owners, business buyers, and team members.
Buying a business in building services, facilities management or healthcare?
Most of our buyers engage owners one to three years before a formal process starts. Tell us your criteria and we introduce you ahead of the market.
M&A advisor, broker or boutique investment bank?
Access more qualified acquirers for your sell-side clients. You stay lead advisor and we supplement buyer coverage only. No upfront fee.
Specialist M&A advisory for building services and facilities management businesses (fire and life safety, electrical, water hygiene and Legionella, lift and elevator maintenance, HVAC, plumbing, security, TIC) and specialist healthcare including clinics and care homes. £500K–£100M. UK & US.
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Learn more about the valuation and value drivers report