Before You Sign an LOI, Know Whether the Deal Deserves to Advance.

TrueQoE First Pass helps acquisition buyers understand what the seller's financials actually support — before formal diligence gets expensive.

You have the seller's financials. You have an earnings story. And at some point you have to decide whether this opportunity deserves the next round of time, money and diligence.

TrueQoE First Pass is built for that decision.

We analyze the financial package you have now, trace the material figures back to their source, separate what the evidence supports from what still needs proof, and help you determine your next step.

Proceed. Investigate further. Renegotiate. Or stop.

$1,250 per transaction·paid after your session

Bring Us the Deal You're Evaluating
  1. Seller financials received
  2. TrueQoE First Pass3 business days · $1,250
  3. LOI and deeper diligence
  4. Lender or CPA Quality of Earnings$10,000–$15,000+ · weeks

A First Pass comes before the LOI and before the formal, lender-ordered Quality of Earnings. It does not replace either.

The Founding Buyer Offer — September 2026

If you don't think it was worth it, you don't pay.

You tell us at the end of your session. No claim form. No debate.

Founding First Pass — $1,250

One transaction. One decision. Paid after your session.

Limited to the first 10 qualifying transactions, through September 30. A qualifying transaction is a live acquisition you are evaluating now, with the seller's financial information in hand.

Compare that with a $10,000–$15,000 Quality of Earnings — before legal, financing and other diligence costs begin to accumulate.

You get

  • A founder-facilitated First Pass on the deal you're evaluating now
  • A written First Pass with material figures traced to source
  • Session within 3 business days of a complete package
  • Direct access to the founder throughout

You give

  • Structured feedback after your session
  • Permission to use the engagement as an anonymized case study, within your confidentiality obligations and any restrictions governing the transaction

No public testimonial is required.

Founding pricing ends with the cohort.

Bring Us the Deal You're Evaluating

A First Pass Before Formal Diligence

A lender-ordered or CPA-prepared Quality of Earnings can cost $10,000–$15,000 or more and take weeks to complete.

TrueQoE does not replace that work. It comes earlier.

Before you spend heavily on formal diligence, a First Pass answers a more immediate question:

Does this deal deserve the next round of time and money?

A First Pass can help you:

  • Add-backs

    Identify add-backs that need additional support.

  • Earnings

    Separate reported earnings from adjustments that still need evidence.

  • Classification

    Surface classifications or inconsistencies that warrant a question.

  • Concentration

    See concentrations, trends and other signals worth understanding before you commit.

  • Questions

    Develop sharper diligence questions before engaging additional professionals.

  • Confirmation

    Confirm when the financial story appears strong enough to justify moving forward.

Sometimes the important result is finding an issue. Sometimes it is confirming that the evidence supports continuing.

Both can improve the decision.

How It Works

  1. Bring us the deal you're evaluating.

    Send the financial information you already have through the secure upload link we provide — not as email attachments. That may include:

    • profit and loss statements;
    • balance sheets;
    • tax returns;
    • seller add-back schedules;
    • CIMs or offering materials;
    • other supporting financial documents.

    You do not need a completed diligence package to begin. A First Pass can often begin with three years of P&Ls and whatever additional information the seller has provided.

    You do need the right or authorization to provide the information you submit.

  2. We perform the First Pass.

    TrueQoE analyzes the available financial information and organizes the evidence around the questions most relevant to your decision. Material figures are traced back to source so you can see what supports each finding — and what doesn't yet.

  3. We go through it together.

    Your First Pass Session is scheduled within three business days of receiving the agreed package. It focuses on four questions:

    • What appears supported?
    • What needs more evidence?
    • What should you ask next?
    • Does the deal deserve deeper diligence?

  4. You decide what happens next.

    If the transaction deserves further diligence, you move forward better prepared, with better questions.

    If it does not, you may avoid thousands of dollars in professional fees and weeks of work on a transaction that does not deserve to advance.

Every material figure in your First Pass is tied back to source evidence.Illustrative excerpt. Figures are examples, not from a client engagement.

The Decision Guarantee

For September Founding Buyers:

If you don't think it was worth it, you don't pay.

You tell us at the end of your session. No claim form. No debate.

A First Pass that does its job leaves you in one of four places:

  • Keep going.

    The financial story appears strong enough to justify deeper diligence.

  • Get more evidence.

    Specific questions need answers before you commit more resources.

  • Reconsider the economics.

    The evidence changes how you think about earnings, risk or price.

  • Stop.

    The transaction no longer justifies additional time and expense.

We do not get paid for finding problems.

We get paid for helping you make a better-informed next decision.

Confidential by Default

The seller's financial information may be the most sensitive material you handle in an acquisition. TrueQoE treats it that way.

Documents travel through a secure upload link over an encrypted connection, are held in access-controlled systems, and are accessible only within your authorized First Pass. They are never posted publicly or indexed by search engines. Any third-party processing involved in producing your First Pass is disclosed in your engagement terms.

Before you send anything, check your NDA — many permit disclosure to a buyer's advisers — and confirm you are authorized to provide the information. Your confidentiality obligations continue to apply, and we work within them.

A New SBA Deadline Makes the Pre-Diligence Decision More Important

On October 1, 2026, SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 takes effect.

For qualifying 7(a) change-of-ownership transactions with a business purchase price of $3 million or more, the lender must obtain an independent Quality of Earnings report.

TrueQoE does not produce a Quality of Earnings report and does not satisfy the SBA's lender-commissioned QoE requirement. It is designed for the decision that comes before it:

Does this transaction deserve to reach formal QoE?

Read: The New $3M SBA Quality of Earnings Rule

Mark Hirsch, founder of TrueQoE

Built From the Buy Side

TrueQoE came out of a problem I had myself.

From 2015 through 2022, I led M&A for a private-equity-backed platform company rolling up smaller, owner-operated businesses. Since then I've advised buyers on acquisitions — evaluating opportunities, shaping acquisition strategy, and deciding which businesses deserve deeper diligence.

The same reality kept showing up.

Small-business financials are messy.

The companies were often successful and well run, but they weren't built for an institutional diligence process. Reporting was inconsistent. Expenses moved between categories from one year to the next. Seller adjustments needed support. Personal and business spending overlapped — whether the target was an HVAC company, another field-service operator or a different owner-operated business.

The problem wasn't simply that the analysis took time. It was that the decision depended on assumptions buried inside inconsistent financials, unsupported adjustments and incomplete evidence.

Before I could decide whether a business deserved deeper diligence, I first had to determine what the numbers actually supported — and what they didn't.

As a buyer, I wanted a faster, more disciplined way to answer three questions: What do the financials actually tell me? What still needs to be proven? Do I understand this business well enough to justify going further?

That is why I built TrueQoE. It doesn't replace formal diligence. It helps you decide whether the deal deserves it.

Mark HirschFounder, TrueQoE

You Don't Need Perfect Financials. You Need Enough Evidence to Make the Next Decision.

A First Pass shows you what the numbers support and what they don't — so you can decide whether the deal deserves to advance.

TrueQoE First Pass·$1,250 per transaction through September 30·10 Founding Buyer positions

Bring Us the Deal You're Evaluating

TrueQoE provides financial analysis and decision-support information. It is not an audit, review, compilation, attestation, valuation, legal opinion, tax opinion or lender-required Quality of Earnings report. TrueQoE does not replace professional accounting, legal, tax, lending or other transaction advice. Buyers should engage appropriate professional advisers as circumstances require.