Jen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski and I’m here today with Kimberly Wood, an Audit Senior Manager and one of the faces of our PKF Texas Transaction Advisory Services team. Kimberly, welcome to The Playbook.

Kimberly: Thanks for having me.

Jen: You’re on our Transaction Advisory Services team, and I know you tend to handle due diligence. What is due diligence and why should somebody do a due diligence project?

Kimberly: Due diligence is an investigation of a company or a business, and basically, we are validating the information or assumptions that haven’t been provided, or that should have been provided. It’s an essential information gathering process, whether it’s for legal, operational, or financial due diligence. Basically, the goal of both parties is that they want a lack of surprises. The due diligence process helps them identify all the potential risks that could come up in the transaction or any potential deal killers.

Jen: And who is requesting the due diligence? Is it a banker, is it an attorney, can you request a due diligence on yourself?

Kimberly: It can be either. There could be a buy side or there could be a sell side.

Jen: Perfect. And when would you recommend doing a due diligence project?

Kimberly: Generally, on the buy side, it comes when they’re getting a letter of intent and they’re ready to dive in.

Jen: Kimberly, that sounds great. We’ll get you to talk a little bit more about due diligence in another episode. Does that sound good?

Kimberly: Sounds great.

Jen: Perfect. For more about this topic, visit pkftexas.com/transactionadvisoryservices. This has been another Thought Leader Production brought to you buy PKF Texas The Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.