AI Deal OS / Blog
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Due diligence software, explained plainly.
Guides for buyers of small companies: what AI diligence tools check, what they cannot, and how to evaluate them. Start with AI due diligence software: what it checks, what it cannot, and how to evaluate it, or read the short answers.
AI due diligence software
What AI diligence software checks, what it cannot, and how it differs from a data room.
AI due diligence software for small acquisitions
AI due diligence software suits small acquisitions because a small buyer usually has no analyst team to do the first read: the software reads the CIM, financials and tax returns, ties the figures together and lists what does not match. The buyer, their accountant and their lender still decide; the software changes what they start from.
Deal OS vs a virtual data room
A virtual data room stores a deal's documents and controls who can open them; Deal OS reads those documents and returns findings, each citing the page it came from. They solve different problems, and a buyer can use a data room to receive the files and Deal OS to get through them.
Due diligence automation tools: what they check, and what they leave out
Due diligence automation tools check what can be checked by reading documents against each other: whether the same figure agrees across them, whether two passages contradict, whether add-backs are supported and what is missing. They do not check what is not on paper, and they do not give professional opinions.
Data room completeness
What a complete data room holds, how to find the gaps before underwriting, and how to connect documents to AI safely.
Can AI flag missing pages in a data room?
Yes for some kinds of gaps and no for others. AI can flag a document the text refers to but the data room does not contain, a period the underwriting needs but the documents do not cover, and a figure with no supporting document. It cannot flag a page that was removed without leaving any trace in the documents.
Connecting a data room to an AI model: what to check first
Before you connect a data room to an AI model, find out where the documents are sent and hosted, whether they are used for training, how long they are kept and how you delete them, who can see them, and what your NDA with the seller allows. A connector is only a way of moving the documents; the risk is in the answers to those questions.
Quality of earnings for small deals
What QoE testing covers and what the SBA now requires of a buyer.
QoE testing: what reviewers check, and what a buyer can check first
QoE testing is the set of procedures a reviewer runs to see whether a seller's reported earnings are supported. AAFCPAs, summarizing the SBA guidance, lists reconciling tax and financial records, reviewing key earnings adjustments, evaluating revenue sources and analyzing cash activity. A buyer can run a first version of the document-based tests before paying for the engagement.
SBA quality of earnings requirements: what a buyer needs to know
From 1 October 2026, certain acquisitions financed with SBA-guaranteed loans need a quality of earnings analysis, under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1. AAFCPAs summarizes it as applying to deals with a purchase price of $3 million or more, excluding the value of any owner-occupied real estate, prepared by an independent financial professional engaged on behalf of the lender. Read the SOP and ask your lender before relying on any summary.
CIM review
How to read a CIM in a structured way, and how it relates to the teaser and the IOI.
A CIM review template: a checklist for buyers, with the page-level questions that matter
A CIM review template is a fixed list of questions you ask of every CIM, so that each deal is read the same way and every answer points to a page. This one has nine sections. It follows the structure of a Deal OS brief, so you can fill it by hand or compare it with what software returns.
CIM vs teaser vs IOI: what each document is and what to do with it
A teaser is a short, usually anonymous summary a seller's side sends to find interested buyers. A CIM is the longer memorandum a buyer receives, usually after signing an NDA. An IOI is the buyer's own non-binding indication of interest, written back to the seller. The first two are the seller's documents; the IOI is yours.
Search fund toolkit
Budget and timeline guides for searchers moving from LOI to close.
A search fund due diligence budget: what drives the cost, and how to stage it
Diligence cost depends on the deal's size and complexity, how it is financed, which workstreams you hire out, and how many deals you take deep before one closes. We give no dollar figure because none holds across deals; get written scopes and quotes for your own. The way to control the budget is to stage it, so the cheap checks kill weak deals first.
LOI to close: the diligence timeline for a small acquisition, phase by phase
Between a signed LOI and closing, a small acquisition moves through confirmatory diligence, lender underwriting, documentation and closing conditions, many of them in parallel. We give the order and what holds each phase up, not a number of days: duration depends on the exclusivity period you negotiate, your lender and the seller's responsiveness.
