A Quality of Earnings review delivers value well beyond confirming normalized EBITDA.A Quality of Earnings review delivers value well beyond confirming normalized EBITDA. While standard adjustments address non-recurring items, a rigorous QofE examines revenue quality, customer concentration, working capital trends, and accounting policy risks that directly influence enterprise value and deal structure. For buyers, this analysis sharpens the basis for purchase price and surfaces integration risks before close. For sellers, a sell-side QofE strengthens credibility, accelerates diligence timelines, and reduces the likelihood of price chips late in the process. In middle market transactions, where financial reporting is often less formal, the depth of a QofE can be the difference between a clean close and a renegotiated deal. […]

Private Company Council (PCC) accounting elections offer PE-backed companies a meaningful opportunity to reduce the scope and cost of purchase price allocation work, but the decision carries long-term implications that extend well beyond the close. Under ASU 2014-02, private companies may amortize goodwill on a straight-line basis over up to 10 years, eliminating the burden of annual impairment testing. Under ASU 2014-18, customer-related intangibles and noncompetition agreements may be subsumed into goodwill rather than separately recognized and valued. Together, these elections can streamline acquisition accounting and lower ongoing audit and compliance costs, but they also introduce restatement risk if the portfolio company later pursues an IPO or is acquired by a public buyer. For PE sponsors, the decision should be evaluated in the context of the fund’s exit thesis and applied consistently across portfolio companies. […]

Revenue looks strong on paper – but ASC 606 compliance in construction tells a different story. In this case study, The McLean Group’s Financial Consulting and Transaction Due Diligence teams walk through a real construction services engagement where a project-level ASC 606 review surfaced a pattern of revenue recognition issues that materially changed the earnings picture. We examine the KPIs that matter most, including cost-to-complete accuracy, change order approval rates, and over and under billing trends, and explain why ASC 606 compliance deserves the same rigor in diligence as working capital analysis or debt-like items. […]

A purchase price allocation (PPA) is the first post-close workstream that directly affects reported EBITDA, lender covenant calculations, and eventual exit valuation for PE-backed acquirers. Under ASC 805, every acquisition requires the buyer to allocate the total purchase price to identifiable assets and liabilities at fair value — including intangibles that never appeared on the target’s balance sheet. For middle-market deals, identified intangibles commonly represent 30–60% of total consideration, and each carries its own valuation methodology, useful life assumption, and amortization consequence. The McLean Group’s Valuation Advisory team breaks down what every CFO, controller, and deal team needs to know about getting the allocation right the first time. […]