Audit Existing Assets and Identify Missing Items
Systematically catalog existing legal, financial, technical, and commercial assets against a standardised M&A due diligence checklist. Categorise files by version history, verification status, and strategic sensitivity to highlight critical missing records.
Conducting this focused audit exposes hidden liability gaps and missing documentation before potential acquirers initiate formal diligence. It ensures the venture presents an organised, transparent corporate structure that protects valuation and mitigates deal friction.
The founder must deliver an exhaustive M&A audit index detailing every existing document, its current version number, owner, and verification status. A clear red-flag log of missing assets, unexecuted contracts, or outdated filings must accompany the index.
Five questions an expert would ask when reviewing your output
Use these to challenge assumptions, pressure-test your logic, and check the quality of this action's output in the context of the parent task and wider venture development.
- 1
Which missing documents present the highest risk of delaying or jeopardising a transaction during formal due diligence?
- 2
How have you verified that the versions of key customer contracts uploaded are the final, fully executed copies?
- 3
Why are certain critical operational or technical assets currently unevidenced or missing from the index?
- 4
What process have you instituted to handle historical corporate decisions that lack formal board minutes or written approvals?
- 5
How does your asset audit account for IP assignment agreements for all past and present developers?