What a Quality of Earnings Report Costs

Updated October 6, 2026

The short answer

A Quality of Earnings report from Tonnesen Accounting Services is $7,500 flat for SBA-sized acquisitions of $10 million and under. That covers the engagement from the document request to the final walkthrough. There is no hourly billing and there are no change orders.

Buyers, SBA lenders, business owners and brokers get the same scope at the same price. Larger or more complex transactions are scoped and priced individually after an initial call.

Pricing at a glance

What the $7,500 includes

• Cash proof and bank statement reconciliation. Balance sheet cash tied to bank statement ending balances for the last two fiscal years and the trailing twelve months, with deposits and withdrawals compared to reported revenue and expenses.
• Tax return reconciliation. The books reconciled to the last three years of filed returns and IRS transcript data, with book to tax differences explained.
• Documented add-backs and adjustments. Owner compensation, related-party items, non-recurring revenue and expenses, and cash versus accrual differences, with the supporting detail documented.
• Trend and margin analysis. Multi-year revenue, margin and expense trends, separating seasonality and one-time swings.
• Customer analysis. Concentration, contract continuity, and whether revenue and margins hold after the sale.
• Working capital analysis. Work in progress, deferred revenue and the other working capital categories for the transaction.
• CIM reconciliation. The earnings in the CIM or broker material reconciled to our recalculated figures, with the variances explained.
• Projection model. A five-year monthly model of the P&L, cash flow and balance sheet built from historical results.
• Risks and opportunities summary. The items affecting how durable the earnings are, written up for the buyer and the lender.
• Full management Q&A. The questions we asked and the answers we received, documented in full.

The detail on each procedure is on the Quality of Earnings page.

How that compares

Pricing in this space is all over the map. National firms commonly quote $25,000 to $50,000 for a lower middle market deal. At the other end, some shops will run one for a couple thousand dollars and hand back a spreadsheet. The difference usually shows up in scope: whether the work ties deposits back to revenue, reconciles the books to filed tax returns, and documents the support behind the add-backs.

More on this in How much does a Quality of Earnings report cost?

Why the price is flat

Volume. We run about 40 engagements a month and have completed more than 600. Our request lists, templates and review process are built out of that experience, and we pass the efficiency through instead of billing hours against it. The lower price does not buy a lighter scope. It is the same ten procedures.

What changes the timeline

• The company's response time sets most of the pace. Some engagements wrap up in about a week; others take several months.
• Multiple entities or businesses in the transaction can add time.
• Rebuilding the books from scratch typically adds about one extra week.

Questions about cost

Is the price different if the lender engages you instead of the buyer?

No. The scope and the fee are the same whether a buyer, an SBA lender, a business owner or a broker engages us.

Does a $7,500 report work for an SBA loan over $3 million?

Under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, what matters is who engages the provider and what the report covers, not what it costs. Our reports include proof of cash, reconciliation to filed returns and IRS transcripts, documented add-backs and customer concentration. Lenders set their own acceptance criteria, so confirm with yours. See Quality of Earnings for SBA lenders.

Can I see what I am paying for first?

Yes. Sample reports and the full engagement scope are available on request, and we will walk you through a report section by section on a call.

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