Who Should Coordinate Contract, Due-Diligence and Finance Conditions in an Accounting Practice Acquisition?
Updated: 1 day ago
The buyer should ensure someone coordinates the acquisition, while each adviser confirms the position within their agreed area of responsibility.
Contract requirements, due-diligence findings and finance conditions can move at different speeds. Your solicitor may be reviewing a proposed variation while your acquisition finance adviser is waiting for lender feedback and your financial adviser is still testing a material earnings adjustment.
Each person can be doing useful work without the transaction being ready for your next decision.
For an Australian accounting-practice buyer, coordination means bringing those separate updates into a shared, current picture. It should help you see what remains open, who will address it and when a decision is needed. It does not transfer your commercial decisions to the person keeping the timetable.
The short answer: agree who brings the updates together
Nominate a coordinator and agree the scope of that role.
Have your solicitor confirm contractual requirements and formal communications.
Have your due-diligence advisers explain reviewed evidence and unresolved findings.
Have your acquisition finance adviser clarify the current funding position and outstanding lender requirements.
Keep the buyer’s decisions, supporting advice and next actions visible.
Who should coordinate finance conditions and the wider purchase?
There is no single arrangement that suits every acquisition.
You may coordinate the process yourself, agree a broader role with an adviser or engage a transaction coordinator. What matters is that the person accepts a clearly defined responsibility, has access to the relevant updates and knows when to refer an issue to a specialist.
A first-time buyer running a busy practice may find it difficult to chase several parties consistently. Conversely, an experienced acquirer with a small, established advisory team may be comfortable maintaining the shared record.
Discuss capacity as well as experience: the role requires time during the weeks when your ordinary workload continues.
Agree who maintains the timetable, requests updates, circulates material changes and arranges decision discussions.
Avoid assuming that engaging a solicitor or finance adviser automatically includes coordination of every workstream. Their engagement should explain the work they have agreed to perform.
Keep professional responsibilities clear
business.gov.au’s acquisition guidance identifies financial records, business operations and legal documents as parts of due diligence. That breadth helps explain why an accounting-practice purchase may need several reviewers. Although a coordinator connects the reviewers’ findings, the relevant professional still needs to assess each issue.
You remain responsible for the commercial decision
As the buyer, you decide whether the proposed practice still suits your objectives, contribution and capacity. You provide information, consider the advice and give instructions through the agreed process.
An unresolved finding should reach you with its practical implications, rather than disappearing into an adviser’s correspondence.
Business Queensland’s purchase guidance describes advisers helping with valuation, negotiation and purchase documents. Bringing that advice together helps you assess the actual proposal: what you can afford, what you are willing to pay and what the evidence supports.
Your solicitor explains the contractual position
Your solicitor interprets the contract, advises on rights and obligations, and manages agreed legal documents and formal notices. Ask them what each relevant deadline requires, including any decision or communication.
The coordinator can prompt the discussion, but should not decide that a condition has been satisfied, waived or extended.
business.gov.au’s legal essentials guidance encourages businesses to understand applicable laws and consult legal expertise. That professional perspective remains relevant after the early signing and payment decisions as the acquisition develops.
Your due-diligence advisers explain the evidence
Financial and operational reviewers should explain what they have checked, what remains uncertain and which findings affect your assumptions. Their review of the practice’s financial information also informs the acquisition funding discussion. A report being delivered does not establish that every requested review is complete or that its conclusions have been addressed.
How your acquisition finance adviser and specialist advisers contribute to the review
Your acquisition finance adviser manages the finance services agreed with you, communicates the lender’s position and identifies outstanding funding requirements. Your solicitor considers how that position relates to the purchase contract.
Technology, employment or other specialists address matters within their agreed scope, while the vendor and selling broker provide information and communicate the seller’s position.
Use a shared record that describes the real position
A useful tracker does more than display dates. It tells you why an item remains open and whose input is needed.
For example, a note saying ‘lease progressing’ gives little guidance, whereas a note explaining that the landlord has requested purchaser information, the buyer will supply it and the solicitor will confirm the consent requirements identifies the next actions.
For each material requirement, the shared record should identify:
The requirement, its source document and relevant deadline confirmed by the appropriate adviser.
The current status and evidence supporting it, with the date of the latest update.
The responsible person, next action and expected response date.
Any dependency on another document, approval or decision.
The question the buyer needs to resolve and the adviser who will explain it.
Keep contractual dates distinct from internal target dates. An earlier review meeting can create time to consider advice, but it does not change the contract.
Where an extension is requested, show the request as pending until your solicitor confirms the agreed position and how it has been established.
Documents received are not necessarily matters resolved
A crowded inbox can create the impression that the transaction is nearly complete. Yet receiving a document, reviewing it and resolving the issue it raises are separate steps.
Before marking an item complete, ask the responsible adviser what the document establishes and whether further action remains.
This distinction matters for premises and lease arrangements. A landlord’s preliminary response may be useful progress while assignment documents or other requirements remain outstanding. Record that qualified position so it reaches both your solicitor and finance adviser accurately.
Business Queensland’s due-diligence guidance describes gathering and reviewing documents with advisers, including contracts and financial records. Your shared record should show who has reviewed each material item.
Separately, ask your acquisition finance adviser what finance information remains outstanding: supplying a document does not establish approval or readiness to release funds.
An illustrative example: one finding creates several tasks
Suppose a buyer discovers greater dependence on the vendor’s technical review than expected. The proposed vendor handover is revised to include paid support. The financial adviser updates the operating forecast, the solicitor considers how the revised arrangement should be documented, and your acquisition finance adviser checks its effect on the funding proposal.
The coordinator brings those updates together before the approaching contractual decision date. If information is still missing, the buyer can obtain advice about the available options promptly. This hypothetical example illustrates connected responsibilities without predicting whether an extension, funding change or particular contractual outcome would be available.
Make each decision discussion specific
Before a significant deadline, ask each adviser for the current position, unresolved matters and next action. Circulate material changes to the people who need them, using the current documents and agreed information-sharing arrangements.
You should tell your acquisition finance adviser about a changed purchase price or payment structure, and tell your solicitor about any changed lender requirement affecting the transaction.
If two updates appear inconsistent, ask the relevant advisers to reconcile them. ‘Approved’, ‘agreed in principle’ and ‘complete’ need context.
Your decision becomes clearer when the team explains precisely what has been established and what remains to happen.
Frequently asked questions
Can your acquisition finance adviser coordinate all my advisers?
Discuss the services and communication arrangements agreed with your acquisition finance adviser. Finance work does not automatically include responsibility for legal deadlines, specialist reviews or whole-transaction coordination.
Can I coordinate the acquisition myself?
Yes, if you have the capacity and a clear process for obtaining updates. Continue obtaining specialist advice and agree who handles formal contractual communications.
Does a tracker determine whether a condition is satisfied?
No. It records the position confirmed by the relevant adviser. Your solicitor explains the contract’s requirements and the legal effect of proposed actions.
What if the vendor says everyone has agreed to more time?
Give your solicitor the communication and ask them to confirm the position. Do not treat an informal update as proof that the contractual deadline has changed.
Know who will act next
Good coordination leaves you able to explain the outstanding issue, the evidence needed and the person taking the next step. Before progressing, bring the current legal, review and funding positions together. The shared picture should support your decision while leaving each professional’s responsibility clear.
Considering Buying an Accounting Practice?
Speak with your acquisition finance adviser about the current funding position and the finance requirements your acquisition team needs to understand.
General information only. This article does not constitute financial, credit, legal, tax, accounting, compliance or valuation advice. Finance is subject to lender approval, eligibility criteria, terms, fees and conditions. Consider obtaining independent professional advice for your circumstances before acting.
