Business Valuation Services

A business valuation is not one product. The purpose determines the standard, the evidence, and who is entitled to rely on the answer.

Sale of the business. A prospective buyer, their financier, or a due diligence team will test the number against normalised earnings and comparable transactions.

Shareholder or partner exit. A buy-sell agreement, oppression claim, or divorce property settlement often needs a valuation of a minority or majority interest, not just "the business."

Tax. Tax authorities expect a supportable market value for capital gains events, related-party transfers, and estate or gift purposes. They assess the process and evidence behind a number, not the letterhead it arrived on.

Finance. A lender may want an independent opinion behind a facility secured against goodwill or enterprise value.

Succession and internal transfer. Family businesses passing to the next generation, or an employee buy-in, need a defensible starting price that will not later be disputed.

Litigation and family law. Court and arbitration matters require a valuer who understands their duty to the court or tribunal, not the paying party, and who can survive cross-examination.

Most professional standards, whichever body issues them, recognise three broad engagement types: a calculation engagement (agreed procedures, narrower conclusion), a limited-scope valuation engagement (some procedures omitted or restricted), and a full valuation engagement (complete analysis, highest reliance). In Australia this framework sits under APES 225, the mandatory standard for members of the major accounting bodies; other markets apply an equivalent tiered logic without the same formal name. The purpose of your valuation should determine which engagement type you commission, not the other way around.

Fees are not centrally regulated in any market we operate in, and quoted prices vary on report depth and on what the client is entitled to rely on. Pricing detail differs by market, so we break it out below.

Australia (A$)

The ranges below reflect current published Australian market pricing.

Engagement	Market fee range	Typical delivery	Appropriate use
Online calculator or broker opinion	Free to about A$500	Immediate to 2 days	Early orientation only, not an independent opinion
Low-cost indicative report	About A$1,500 to A$3,000	2 business days to 2 weeks	Exit screening, internal planning, early partner discussion
Desktop or limited-scope valuation	A$2,000 to A$5,000	1 to 2 weeks	Internal planning, preliminary sale assessment, simple buy-sell talks
Standard SME valuation report	A$5,000 to A$10,000	About 2 to 4 weeks	Shareholder buyout, CGT support, finance, straightforward transaction
Comprehensive independent valuation	A$10,000 to A$30,000+	4 to 8 weeks	Material sale, complex tax issue, multi-entity group, formal dispute
Expert witness or contested valuation	A$30,000 to A$80,000+	6 to 12+ weeks, excluding hearing	Court, arbitration, shareholder oppression, complex family law or tax dispute

What moves the fee within these bands: the number of entities, business units, and valuation dates involved; whether normalised EBITDA, owner remuneration, or related-party transactions need reconstruction; the presence of intangibles, options, earn-outs, or contingent liabilities; the quality of the ledgers and forecasts on offer; and whether a court, lender, or regulator will rely on the conclusion.

Australian business valuation is served by several distinct provider types, each suited to a different job. Big Four and global multidisciplinary firms, including PwC Corporate Value Advisory, Deloitte Valuation & Modeling, EY-Parthenon Valuation, Modeling & Economics, and KPMG Valuation Services, handle listed groups, large private companies, and complex transaction work, typically well above A$30,000 for substantive mandates. National and mid-tier networks, including BDO Australia, Grant Thornton Australia, and RSM Australia, cover mid-market companies, independent expert reports, and litigation matters. Leadenhall operates as an independent specialist valuation firm with lower audit-conflict risk, relevant where a report must be genuinely independent of an audit relationship. SME and private-company specialists, including SME Valuations, Hayes Knight, Professional Business Valuers, Rushmore Group, and Business Reports & Values, serve owner exits, CGT matters, family law, and shareholder disputes with fixed-price options. Low-cost indicative providers such as Shinka Advisory publish fast, cheap desktop opinions, useful for triage but not a substitute for a report a bank, court, or tax officer has actually been told to expect. Business brokers also produce pricing opinions tied to a proposed sale mandate; a broker appraisal estimates a likely sale price to support a listing, which is a different exercise from an independent valuation.

United States and United Kingdom

Neither market runs a single published fee table the way desktop-priced Australian providers do, but the same shape holds: cost scales with the reliance placed on the report, not with the size of the business alone. A quick indicative calculation or desktop opinion for internal planning generally sits in the low four figures. A standard SME valuation report intended for a shareholder buyout, a lender, or tax purposes typically runs into the mid four figures to low five figures. A comprehensive independent opinion for a material sale, a complex group structure, or a formal dispute moves into the five-figure range, and litigation-grade expert reports for court or arbitration sit at the top of that band, priced on the complexity of the matter and the time an expert witness needs to prepare for cross-examination. As in Australia, the driver is evidence-gathering and independence testing, not headline revenue.

Which method applies depends on the business, not on preference.

Capitalisation of future maintainable earnings, applying a multiple to normalised, maintainable EBITDA, is the workhorse method for profitable private companies. Discounted cash flow suits businesses with supportable, detailed forecasts, typically larger or more capital-intensive operations. Market transaction evidence cross-checks the earnings multiple against comparable completed deals where a relevant, dated dataset exists. Revenue multiples work as a cross-check for recurring-fee or high-growth models but are weak on their own, since two businesses with identical revenue can carry very different margins and owner dependence. Net asset or replacement cost methods matter for asset-heavy or low-return businesses where earnings alone understate the picture.

Take a business with revenue of 1.8 million and reported net profit of 620,000 in the local currency. Add back the owner's above-market salary of 140,000, 35,000 in personal motor vehicle costs run through the business, and 20,000 in one-off legal fees from a resolved dispute. Normalised, maintainable EBITDA comes to approximately 815,000.

Applying an established professional-services multiple range of 3.0x to 6.0x to this normalised figure gives an enterprise value of roughly 2.45 million to 4.89 million, before any size, concentration, or owner-dependence adjustment specific to this business. From enterprise value, the valuer would then subtract debt, add agreed surplus cash, and adjust for the agreed normal level of working capital to reach equity value. That bridge, not the headline multiple, is what tells the owner what the shareholders actually receive. This example is illustrative only; a real report anchors the multiple to the business's specific sector, size, growth, margin, and risk profile rather than a generic professional-services band.