GuideFundamentals
Adjusting profit when the business rents from the owner
How profit is normalised when a business pays an owner's related entity more or less than market rent, with a worked example and the evidence a valuer needs.
Valuo Insights
Valuation guides, tools and research for Australian business.
Plain explanations of how businesses are valued, calculators that show their working, checklists you can download without an email address, and research that keeps real transaction evidence apart from asking prices and opinions.
Featured research
Valuo Business Value Monitor
A research programme on Australian private business transaction evidence. The methodology, evidence standards and data sources are published; findings are released only when licensed data supports them.
- Status
- Methodology published. No figures yet: data access and licences are being arranged.
- Evidence standard
- Completed transactions, asking prices and valuation opinions are reported separately and never combined.
- Written for
- Business journalists, accountants, brokers and industry associations.
Practical tools
Calculators, worksheets and checklists
Download
Business valuation preparation pack
Document checklists by business type and a briefing template that an owner completes with their accountant before a valuation starts. Free, no email needed.
Free. No email address needed.
Tool
Capitalised earnings sensitivity table
See how a range of capitalisation multiples, which you supply, changes an earnings-based value, and the capitalisation rate each multiple implies.
Free. No email address needed.
Tool
Earnings normalisation worksheet
Adjust reported profit for owner remuneration, personal expenses, related-party rent and genuinely non-recurring items, over up to three years. Download it as an Excel workbook.
Free. No email address needed.
Tool
Enterprise value to equity value calculator
Bridge from enterprise value to equity value with surplus cash, debt, debt-like items and a working capital adjustment, with every formula shown.
Free. No email address needed.
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Essential guides
How do you value a small business in Australia?
Most small businesses are valued on maintainable earnings, checked against other methods. Here are the main methods, when each fits and common mistakes.
Business value and share value are different questions
Understand enterprise value, equity value and the bridge between them, with a hypothetical example covering surplus cash, debt and working capital.
How to normalise a working owner's salary in a business valuation
Why a valuation replaces what a working owner draws with the market cost of the roles they perform, including super, family payroll and evidence.
SDE and EBITDA: what is the difference?
Compare seller’s discretionary earnings with EBITDA, understand owner salary adjustments and avoid applying a multiple to the wrong earnings measure.
Why turnover alone does not tell you what a business is worth
Two hypothetical businesses with the same revenue and very different values, and when a revenue-based approach is used in a valuation and where it falls short.
How cash, debt and debt-like items change what the shares are worth
How surplus cash, borrowings and debt-like items such as unpaid tax, leave and shareholder loans move a business value to a share value, with a worked bridge.
Is a 25% shareholding worth 25% of the company?
Why a minority shareholding is not automatically worth its percentage of equity value, and how rights, agreements, control and liquidity shape the answer.
Preparing a client's financials for a valuation: an accountant's guide
For accountants: how to prepare a client's figures for a business valuation, with a worked example from the tax return through add-backs to normalised EBITDA.
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Topics
Business valuation fundamentals
How value is actually worked out: earnings, normalisation, methods, cash and debt, goodwill and the interest being valued.
31 resourcesBuying, selling and shareholder buyouts
Preparing a business for sale or purchase, due diligence, minority interests and partner or shareholder exits.
16 resourcesTax, CGT and restructures
Market valuations for tax purposes, CGT events, small business concessions and restructures. Oliver Group is the Valuo practice for this work.
8 resourcesFamily law and disputes
Valuations in property settlements, disputes and contested buyouts, including how to review a report prepared for the other side.
8 resourcesHealthcare and practice valuations
Medical, dental, allied health, pharmacy and NDIS businesses, where practitioner dependence and funding change the analysis. Medival, part of Valuo, handles healthcare practice valuations.
7 resourcesProperty valuations
When a property valuation is needed instead of, or as well as, a business valuation. Property valuations are provided by APAVAL, a partner brand.
5 resourcesIndustry research and market evidence
What market evidence can and cannot show, the Business Value Monitor research programme, and what drives value in particular industries.
14 resourcesCalculators, worksheets and checklists
Free calculators and worksheets that show their formulas, and practical checklists you can download without giving an email address.
5 resources
Industry collections
What drives value in particular industries
Small business industries
Recent publications
Latest from Valuo Insights
ReferenceFundamentals
Business valuation glossary
Plain explanations of the terms used in Australian business valuations, each linked to a worked example or deeper guide.
DownloadTools and checklists
Business valuation preparation pack
Document checklists by business type and a briefing template that an owner completes with their accountant before a valuation starts. Free, no email needed.
ExplainerProperty
Business valuation, property valuation, or both?
When you need a business valuation, a property valuation or both: freehold going concerns, SMSF premises, family law, business-only sales and CGT on property.
ToolTools and checklists
Capitalised earnings sensitivity table
See how a range of capitalisation multiples, which you supply, changes an earnings-based value, and the capitalisation rate each multiple implies.
GuideFundamentals
Choosing the valuation date and valuing a business at a past date
Why the valuation date matters, who or what sets it, and how a business is valued at a past date using only what was known or reasonably foreseeable then.
From the specialist practices
Deeper reading from the Valuo practices
Some subjects are the daily work of a Valuo practice. Their articles stay on their own sites so that each piece is published once.