Blog
Explainers and worked examples on financial due diligence, audit and controls, and valuation — and how finance teams turn raw data into defensible, fully sourced work.
M&A & diligenceBest AI tools for equity research (2026)
The AI worth knowing for equity research in 2026, by the job it does — a deliverable-focused deep dive (MacrosLM), document search across filings and transcripts (AlphaSense), fundamentals extraction (Daloopa), and accessible chat-based research (Fiscal.ai) — plus what to look for and what AI still can't do.
8 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is DuPont analysis?
DuPont analysis breaks return on equity into the components that drive it — net profit margin, asset turnover, and leverage — so you can tell whether an ROE comes from fat margins or heavy debt. The 3-step and 5-step formulas, a worked Costco example, and where the method breaks down.
8 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is precedent transaction analysis?
Precedent transaction analysis values a company by what buyers actually paid for similar businesses in past M&A deals — why the multiples run higher than trading comps (control premiums and synergies), how the analysis is built, where it breaks down, and a live cybersecurity M&A comps example.
11 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceBest AI tools for financial modeling (2026)
Financial modeling isn't the arithmetic — it's the historicals, the assumptions, the sensitivities, and a number you can defend. A 2026 roundup by which piece each tool attacks: a finished, source-traced valuation (MacrosLM), Excel-model generators (Shortcut, o11), data extraction (Daloopa), and in-spreadsheet assistants.
9 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceDLOM explained: what is a discount for lack of marketability?
A discount for lack of marketability (DLOM) reduces the value of a private or illiquid interest that can't be readily sold — how appraisers estimate it (restricted-stock, pre-IPO, and option-pricing models), why it's so heavily litigated, and a live calculator to explore it.
11 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is loan covenant compliance?
Meeting the conditions in a credit agreement — the affirmative, negative, and financial covenants a borrower must keep, the ratios lenders test, how compliance is certified quarterly, and what happens (from waiver to acceleration) when one is breached.
10 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceBest AI for financial due diligence (2026)
The AI worth knowing for financial due diligence in 2026, by layer — financial engines that produce the sourced analysis (MacrosLM), virtual data rooms (Datasite), contract review (Kira), and data extraction (Dili) — plus what AI can't do and how to choose.
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M&A & diligenceBest AI tools for credit analysis (2026)
The AI worth knowing for commercial credit analysis in 2026, by layer — agentic workspaces that produce the analysis and memo (MacrosLM), end-to-end underwriting (Crediflow), institutional platforms (Moody's CreditLens), and credit intelligence (Hebbia) — plus how to choose.
10 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is a DCF model?
A DCF values a company by projecting its future free cash flows and discounting them to present value — the formula, FCFF vs. FCFE, terminal value, the step-by-step build, and why the assumptions matter more than the arithmetic.
12 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is an EBITDA bridge?
A waterfall that explains how EBITDA moved from one number to another, driver by driver — and the second, easily-confused version that does the heavy lifting in M&A.
9 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is a Quality of Earnings (QoE) analysis?
The independent test of whether reported earnings are real and repeatable — what's inside a QoE report, how it differs from an audit, what it costs in 2026, and where the manual work hides.
12 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is net working capital normalization?
Working out the “normal” level of working capital a business needs to run — the peg a deal trues up against dollar-for-dollar, and where the definitions and documentation decide who wins.
10 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is the Altman Z-Score?
Five financial ratios rolled into one number that flags bankruptcy risk — the formula, how to read the safe/grey/distress zones, the private and non-manufacturing variants, and what it misses.
9 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceWhat is WACC and how is it calculated?
The blended rate a company pays to finance itself, and the discount rate behind every DCF — the formula, the cost of equity via CAPM, the after-tax cost of debt, and a worked example.
10 min readRead more
M&A & diligenceFinancial due diligence, explained
Financial due diligence is a toolkit, not one procedure. A map of the core concepts — earnings quality, the EBITDA bridge, working capital, WACC, the Altman Z-Score, and the controls underneath — each with a plain-English explainer.
5 min readRead more