Incite buys tax and accounting firms, and our team absorbs the work from day one. Step away clean, or stay on and have Incite take over the headache of backend operations.
Two years out or two weeks out. No pressure.
Clients kept referring you until you looked up and had a real business. That's the good news. Here's the rest of it.
Payroll, software, marketing, collections, hiring. None of it makes money, and all of it eats the hours that do.
You hold every relationship and do the hardest work. That's what makes you great. It's also exactly what a buyer discounts.
You can read anyone's books. But earnouts, seller notes, asset vs. equity, retention terms? Nobody teaches you that until you're across the table from a buyer who's done it before.
I'm a single parent.
In 2011 I was jamming three workdays into every 24 hours and calling it winning. One night I got home at 2am and my wife was waiting up. She said, "I'm a single parent."
I was sharing a roof with my family, but not a life.
If you've had your own version of that night, you know why owners stay anyway. Your clients count on you, and you can't picture who else would take care of them.
Selling well can be the last good decision you make as an owner. Sometimes it's the first good decision you make for yourself.
John Briggs, CPA
Founder & CEO, Incite TaxMost small accounting and tax practices sell for 0.8x to 1.3x their annual revenue. A healthy, ordinary firm lands right in the middle. Lots of bookkeeping clients push you higher. Mostly 1040s? Expect the lower end.
*Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE): your profit plus your own pay and perks added back. Both methods usually land in the same neighborhood.
The multiple gets all the attention. How the deal is structured usually decides what actually lands in your account.
Sale conversations go sideways when the seller hasn't decided what they're solving for. Burned out and want out clean? Respectable answer. Want top dollar and don't mind staying two years? Different answer, different buyer.
Earnouts, longer transitions, more of your money riding on what happens after you leave.
Traded for more cash at close and a short handoff.
Everyone says they'll keep your people and treat your clients well. Interrogate them. Their answers tell you who can.
Erin was great at bookkeeping. Clients kept referring her until she looked up and had a real company. Payroll, software, marketing, collections, hiring. None of it made money, and all of it ate the hours that did.
We bought her business. She stayed on as an Incite Licensed Partner. She dropped the ops headaches, kept her clients, and plugged into our systems and client acquisition engine. Her book grew faster than it ever had on her own.
Her take-home now beats her old top line.
Sell the headache. Keep the part you love. If that sounds like you, ask for it directly.
Start Your ApplicationWhoever you talk to, ask one question: Does this buyer have the team, today, to serve my clients without me?
If their plan is "you keep working here," you sold your practice and bought yourself a job. We're a platform buyer. Our team absorbs the work from day one, and you pick how you stay involved.
A few quick questions about your services, revenue, clients, team, and what you want next. No financials to upload yet.
We review your answers and reach out to set up a call. You'll know in that first conversation whether we're a fit.
Sell and step away, or stay on as an Incite Licensed Partner and keep the client work you love. Either way, our team absorbs the rest.
No pressure. Burned-out firm owners are kind of our whole thing.
No. The best price goes to a stable book, and the prep takes time. Two years from done? Start conversations now. The application has a "2+ years / just curious" option for exactly this.
Tax, bookkeeping, payroll, and CFO practices with roughly $500K to $8M in revenue, anywhere in the US, virtual or physical. We don't buy audit or attest work.
That's your call. Some owners sell and step away. Others, like Erin, stay on as an Incite Licensed Partner: they keep the clients they love and drop the payroll, software, hiring, and collections.
Most small practices land between 0.8x and 1.3x annual revenue. Recurring revenue, firm-loyal clients, and clean books push you up. Deep discounting, a single referral source, and declining revenue pull you down. We'll talk about your specifics on the call.
One more thing: purchase price allocation can swing your after-tax outcome by tens of thousands of dollars. Get your own tax advice before you sign a letter of intent, with any buyer.
Every serious buyer checks the same things: revenue by client and service line for three years, tax returns and bank deposits that match your P&L, client concentration (any client above 15–20% of revenue gets a hard look), how many production hours you personally work, who holds the client relationships, and current signed engagement letters.
Start now, even if you're not sure you're selling. None of that is needed to apply.
We're a platform buyer, so the team, systems, and client acquisition engine are already in place. Your clients have people serving them from day one. Your warm letter introducing us is what protects retention, and retention is what protects your payout.
Even if you just want to understand your options before you're ready. Get your time back, and get paid for what you built.
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