Forte Consulting Group
Required Documents & Info
Check these off as you gather them. You don't need all of this on day one, but every serious buyer, lender, or advisor will eventually ask for it.
Business
Date
Financial
- P&L (profit & loss statements), typically the last 3 years
- Balance sheets, typically the last 3 years
- Tax returns (federal, and state if available), typically the last 3 years — business and personal, if it's a pass-through entity
- Current year interim (year-to-date) financials
- A summary of major one-time or personal expenses run through the business, if any (add-backs)
Legal & Entity
- Articles of incorporation or formation documents
- Operating agreement or bylaws
- Business licenses and permits
- Any outstanding contracts, leases, or loan agreements
Operational
- Lease agreement, if you don't own your location
- A list of major equipment or assets
- An org chart or a simple list of key employees and roles
- A basic description of how the business generates revenue
Customer & Vendor
- A general sense of customer concentration — whether a small number of customers make up a large share of revenue
- Key vendor or supplier relationships, especially any that would be hard to replace
This is the foundational set. The deeper layer of documents is part of a pilot session, once there is a real reason to go further.
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