Assuming the role of an investor or buyer in the context of a merger or acquisition or an investment deal is a lengthy process that requires an exhaustive examination of numerous documents. This can be time-consuming especially when the parties are reviewing a large amount of information across a variety of different areas of due diligence, including human capital, financial and intellectual property, asset, and tax. To avoid confusion and minimize the risk that things are missed, it is important to create a comprehensive checklist of all the materials that must be requested during review.
A thorough business due diligence checklist can assist a party to identify important information and ensure all aspects of the review are addressed. For example, the human capital element of a review will take a look at the company’s staff as well as employees, their wages, and benefits. This may include a breakdown based on the position of employees and a comparison of salaries of employees working in similar positions within their field or region. It will also investigate the company’s policies and procedures around hiring and firing, employee remuneration and incentives, vacation and sick leave as well as any contracts and segregation packages.
Many of these due diligence areas will require input of experts and external consultants. To avoid delays, confusion and duplication of work, it is important to establish a deadline for the review. Using a CRM such as DealRoom can help speed up the process by providing a central platform to manage simplifying business transactions with document management software all communications, documents and tasks that need to be streamlined.