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Which decisions still depend on you? Exit Lab Research
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The Add-Back Workbook

Your tax return is built to make your business look like it earns as little as legally possible. A buyer values something different. This workbook finds the difference, line by line, and it is usually a bigger number than owners expect.

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Excel and Google Sheets compatible. No cost and no obligation. Email is used only for this request.

What is inside

Add-Back Worksheet

All eight categories buyers recognize, with realistic example rows and blank lines to fill in. Subtotals and a grand total calculate themselves.

Your Earnings

Enter revenue, net profit, and owner pay. The workbook computes your SDE, your EBITDA, and which of the two a buyer will value you on. Same formulas the Exit Score uses.

What Buyers Challenge

Eight add-backs that get pushed back on in diligence, why, and the documentation that makes each one stick. Written from the buy side.

Why one dollar matters more than one dollar

Buyers pay a multiple of earnings. If your business trades around 4x, then every dollar of legitimate add-back you document is roughly four dollars of purchase price. Finding $60,000 of real add-backs is not a $60,000 difference. It is closer to $240,000. That is why this is worth an afternoon with your bookkeeper.

The workbook stops at your earnings figure on purpose. It does not guess your multiple, because your multiple is decided by recurring revenue, customer retention, management depth, concentration, books, and systems. That is what the scan is for.

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Want help finding the add-backs you are missing?

Most owners miss several categories on the first pass. Leave a number and we will go through your P&L structure with you. No pitch, no cost.

Best time to reach you

Contact me by phone about this specific request. This does not authorize text messages, marketing emails, or a buyer introduction. Optional. You already have your number above either way.

Educational tool only. Not accounting, tax, legal, or valuation advice. Confirm your add-backs with your CPA before presenting them to a buyer. Exit Lab Research.