Tree Walk

A letter of intent is the document that sets out the headline terms of a deal, and starts the clock on exclusivity and diligence. Most of it is non-binding on price, but the exclusivity clause almost always binds, which means signing one takes the busines

Canadian payroll compliance means paying people correctly, withholding the right source deductions, remitting them to the CRA on schedule, and filing the year-end and event-driven forms that go with employment. It is the most unforgiving part of the accou

An accounting system migration moves your books from one platform to another: desktop to cloud, a small-business ledger to a full ERP, or an acquired company's system onto yours. The move itself is ra

Customer concentration risk is the exposure created when a large share of revenue depends on a small number of customers. If one of them leaves shortly after a sale, the earnings the buyer paid for leave with them. At Treewalk we test concentration on eve

Accounting records in due diligence are the source documents a buyer's advisors use to verify what the financial statements claim. The list is shorter than most sellers expect and it arrives in a particular order, because the purpose is not to collect eve

GST/HST compliance means registering when you are required to, charging the right rate, claiming input tax credits properly, and filing and remitting on your assigned schedule. The rules themselves are not the hard part. What causes real damage is how sal

Owner compensation normalization replaces what an owner chose to pay themselves with what the role would actually cost to fill. Owners of private businesses set their own salary for tax and personal reasons, not to reflect market value, so the reported fi

US payroll compliance turns on one question more than any other: is this person an employee or an independent contractor? A W-2 employee carries withholding, employer taxes and benefits obligations. A 1099 contractor carries almost none of that. Getting t

The practical difference is not features, it is access. Online can be opened by your accountant, your lender and a buyer's advisor from anywhere, read-only, in seconds. Desktop cannot, and everything downstream of that is slower. At Treewalk we work in bo

A general ledger review is the examination of a company's transaction-level accounting records to establish whether its financial statements can be relied on. It is the first thing we ask for on a diligence engagement and the first thing we read. Everythi