Exit Process Checklist for Private Equity
Four documents and three sheets that price every exit-readiness finding against the deal's own multiple, then rank the list by dollars rather than category.
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Value Driver Register
[Company] — Findings Ranked by Dollars at Risk
Every finding priced against the deal's own terms, then ranked by dollar figure rather than by category.
| Rank | Finding | Category | Pricing Basis | Dollar Figure at Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
A checklist tells a seller what to look at. This register tells them what each finding costs, so the ranking matches what a buyer's own diligence will do with it.
Kilcolman Industrial Supply, a lower-middle-market industrial distributor, carries a $69,300,000 headline enterprise value in Strathfell Capital Partners' letter of intent: 7.5 times a $9,240,000 adjusted EBITDA. Three findings price out against those exact terms. A $340,000 add-back for consulting fees that two years of recurring invoices disqualify from a quality-of-earnings review: $2,550,000 at the deal's own multiple. An unsubstantiated federal research credit spanning three tax years: $285,000 at its face amount. A customer contract requiring consent to assign: $6,300,000. The three sum to $9,135,000, 13.2 percent of the deal.
Page one for 'exit process checklist private equity' is a checklist ordered financial, then commercial, then legal and tax. Every result tells a seller what to look at; none assigns a dollar figure, so findings get fixed in whatever order a table of contents lists them, not the order that protects the most value. The gap has an arithmetic answer. Price an earnings-quality finding, the kind normalizing a target's EBITDA exists to catch, at the amount in question times the deal's own multiple. Price a liability at its direct dollar exposure, no multiple applied.
The customer contract is the case that matters most. Ellerslie Regional Utilities is 9.09 percent of Kilcolman's revenue, and the same concentration a buyer's commercial diligence prices becomes a specific consent requirement under an asset-deal structure. Priced at its EBITDA contribution times the multiple: $6,300,000, 69 percent of the total at risk, filed under 'commercial,' after 'financial statement integrity,' on a category-first checklist. The R&D credit uses the other basis: the IRS's four-part test has to be met for each claimed year, or the credit is owed back at face value, no multiple applied.
What is in the pack
Value Driver Register
Every finding priced against the deal's own multiple or at its direct dollar exposure, ranked largest to smallest rather than by category.
Exit Readiness Assessment
The register's findings narrated in rank order: what a reviewer would find, what fixing it requires, and what the assessment did not cover. The same rank-by-dollars discipline carries into a post-close review once the deal is done.
Buyer Register
One row per buyer, strategic or financial sponsor, with stage, materials sent, and indication-of-interest terms once one arrives.
Buyer Approach Materials
The anonymized teaser and the named confidential information memorandum, built from the same adjusted EBITDA the register already priced.
Management Presentation Outline
A slide-by-slide outline for the management team's buyer meeting, built from the same numbers as the CIM.
Process Timeline
The dated path from preparation through close, with every milestone that depends on a fixable finding flagged explicitly.
Preparation Item Tracker
The register's fixable findings turned into owned, dated remediation work, ranked by the same dollar figure.
A finding is priced, not just flagged
The space rule. No severity score and no ordinal rating, only a dollar figure and the basis it was computed on, so the register can be ranked and summed rather than merely read.
How it works
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent price your own deal's findings, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly.
- 2
Send the deal's own terms
The headline multiple and the EBITDA it applies to, even from a preliminary indication of interest, plus whatever findings already exist from a QoE read or counsel's cleanup pass.
- 3
Price each finding on its correct basis
An earnings-quality finding at the amount in question times the deal's own multiple, the same number behind every mark this fund carries; a liability at its direct dollar exposure, no multiple applied.
- 4
Run the buyer process once findings are priced
Build the Buyer Register and Buyer Approach Materials, checking each disclosed item against what a buyer's own data room review is about to surface anyway.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The Value Driver Register, Buyer Register and Preparation Item Tracker sheets, plus the Exit Readiness Assessment, Buyer Approach Materials, Management Presentation Outline and Process Timeline documents, download free with no account and no time limit. Edit with AI opens the same pack in River with an agent already primed to price your own deal's findings.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free account, installs this exact pack as a private space, and opens it with River already primed to ask for the deal's terms and whatever findings already exist. Nothing is shared with other firms or buyers, and no finding is priced until you confirm the multiple and the amount behind it.
Does this replace the sell-side advisor or the quality-of-earnings provider?
Neither. This space prices what a buyer's diligence is about to find while there is still time to fix it, and runs the process of turning that finding into a closed deal. Selecting a sell-side advisor, negotiating terms, and the quality-of-earnings review itself stay with the professionals a seller already retains for those roles.
Why are some findings priced against the deal's multiple and others at face value?
A finding that questions normalized EBITDA, an add-back a review would disallow, gets the deal's own multiple applied to the disputed amount, since that multiple already prices every dollar of the business's earnings. A finding that is a plain liability, an unsubstantiated tax credit, a working capital shortfall, is owed dollar for dollar and gets no multiple at all.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents for the Exit Readiness Assessment, Buyer Approach Materials, Management Presentation Outline and Process Timeline, and CSV for the Value Driver Register, Buyer Register and Preparation Item Tracker sheets. The documents open in Word, Pages and Google Docs; the sheets open in Excel, Numbers and Sheets with every column intact.
Does the timeline account for Hart-Scott-Rodino filing requirements?
Only where it applies. The 2026 Hart-Scott-Rodino size-of-transaction threshold is $133.9 million; Kilcolman's $69.3 million deal sits well under it, so its own timeline carries no federal waiting period. A larger deal's Process Timeline should flag the filing and its 30-day initial wait explicitly in the closing phase.
Find out what your own exit process is worth in dollars
Send the company financials, the deal terms you're working from, and whatever findings you already suspect. The first pass prices and ranks every one of them.
Edit with AI