1
Building to sell is just a list of decisions
The specific choices, made years before a sale, that decide what a buyer will pay for your firm.
Anatomy of an Exit / Episode One / The Decimal Deal
Nov12
Thursday, November 12, 2026
12:00 PM ET
What actually happens when an accounting firm gets sold.
A real accounting firm exit from the inside.
6 things about selling a firm that you only find out by being in the room, including what
happens when the deal falls apart 10 days before closing due to lack of funds.
For owners of accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation firms doing $3M+ revenue. If your firm is smaller, come anyway. The lessons will become relevant 1-2 years from now.
Daniel Talbott · what this session covers
Reserve your seat
Free. Seats are limited to keep the room small enough for questions.
Thu, November 12
12:00 PM ET
Block 60 minutes now. You can add it to your calendar the moment you register.
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You are on the list.
Add it to your calendar now so the reminder finds you on the day.
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Why this session exists
Almost everything written about selling a firm is written by people who have never sat in a closing.
You can find plenty of advice about tidying your books and reducing owner dependency. What you cannot easily find is an account of what the months between "I want to sell" and money in the bank actually look like at the higher end of the accounting firm M&A market.
This is one deal, told properly. The firm is Decimal, and its founder Matt Tait has already told parts of this story publicly with me. We ran the process, it collapsed 10 days before closing because the “buyer” had no money. We had to do it all over again, and closed successfully.
Matt Tait, founder and CEO of Decimal
Roughly 110 employees and more than 1,000 clients at the time of the sale.
Watch the full conversation
6 things came out of that deal that we now raise with every owner we speak to. They are the core of this session.
2
The owner is the designer of the machine, not the machinist
What you do all day once you are no longer the most senior technician in the building.
3
Where the margin actually comes from
SOPs, offshore delivery, and the objection every owner raises before they try it.
4
A firm is sold on 3 narratives, not on its numbers
The exit story, the market story and the numbers story, and why Matt credits the packaging for the offers that arrived.
5
600 inquiries, and the handful that were real
How to screen buyers at volume, and how to spot “poser equity”: wannabes with no money.
6
How a deal gets built… and what happens when it dies
Cash, earn-out, seller financing and transition terms, plus the 10 days from closing when the financing evaporated.
40 minutes of walkthrough, then 15 minutes of questions. You can ask anything, including the questions you would not put in front of your partners or your team, and you can ask without being named. The walkthrough is recorded for everyone. The Q&A only goes to the people who were in the room.
Who this is for
Built for firm owners at $3M and up.
For owners of accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation firms doing $3M or more in annual revenue, and taught toward the $5M to $10M range. That is the part of the market where running a real process makes the biggest difference to the final number, and where the buyer pool changes completely versus the sub $1M crowd.
If your firm is smaller, you are welcome and you will still get plenty out of it. Some of what we cover will simply be a year or two early for you, which is the best time to hear it.
You will get something out of this if
- You are 1 to 5 years from selling, or you have no plans to sell and want the firm to be worth more anyway.
- You are curious what buyers would actually pay.
- You have had an unsolicited approach and do not know whether to take it seriously.
The seller, on the record
“It is one of the biggest reasons we hired you instead of trying to run the process ourselves. Blocking and tackling was great. Negotiations, you were awesome. But that story to the market, how you package it and tell it, is what opens the doors. That was what you did so well that got us so many opportunities. Both times.”
Asked whether he got the right exit
Without a doubt. I would recommend this to any of my friends, and I already have. We could not have been happier. We had to do it twice and the outcome got better.
Lightly edited for readability. Both passages are in the full conversation, published in Built to Sell: The Decimal Deal Story
Who is presenting
Daniel Talbott
I sell accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation firms.
I am a Certified Business Intermediary and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, and before RightExit I ran an accounting firm myself, so I have sat where you are sitting. I do not run a high volume practice. I take on a small number of firms and run an in-depth process for each one to get you the deal you want.
That is also why this session exists. I would rather show you one deal completely, with the failures left in, than 10 deals in summary.
Deal record
- Personally led to close
- 4
- Closed as part of the team
- 7
- In process as of October 2026
- 4
- Sectors served (accounting, bookkeeping & tax preparation)
- 1
Before you register
Questions people ask first
Is this a pitch?
There is an offer at the end. You don’t have to stick around for it.
Will you share the sale price?
No. Decimal is still trading under its own brand and the terms of the sale are confidential.
Everything else about the process is on the table, including the parts that did not go well.
I would rather name a real firm and hold back the number than anonymise the whole thing and
leave out key details so that no one can reverse engineer the name.
I am not selling for another 3 years.
That is the best time to be in the room. Nearly everything that moves a firm's value takes years
to build, and buyers look at several years of financials, not your best one. Owners who prepare
get to choose. Owners who do not take what is offered.
Will anyone see that I attended?
Other attendees will, unless you would rather they did not. Most owners are happy to be in the
room as themselves, and the session is better for it. If you would prefer not to be
identifiable, tick the box when you register and we will send you instructions. It takes about 10 seconds on the day. Either way, the registration list is never shared with anyone, and you
can put a question in the chat during the session and I will answer it without naming you.
I cannot make the time.
Register anyway. The walkthrough recording goes to everyone on the list within 24 hours. The Q&A recording is different: it only goes to the people who were in the room,
because the questions there get personal and we keep that circle small. You can still submit a
question when you register and I will answer it live.
Nov12
Thursday, November 12, 2026
12:00 PM ET
One deal, with the failures left in.
60 minutes, live on Google Meet. 6 things you only learn from inside the room, and 15 minutes to ask about your own firm.
If you only ever watch one thing about selling an accounting firm, make it a real deal rather than a list of tips ChatGPT can give you.
Reserve your seat
Thu, November 12
12:00 PM ET
You are on the list.
Add it to your calendar now so the reminder finds you on the day.
Your confirmation email with the Google Meet link is on its way. If it is not in your inbox in a few minutes, check your spam or promotions folder and mark it as not spam, so the reminders reach you.