I've sat on your side
of the table.
Buy-side and sell-side due diligence, and pre-sale modernization, for accounting and tax practices, led by a CPA who built a modern Miami firm from the ground up and sold it. I know what the buyer will find, what the seller is really giving up and what every term costs after tax, because I've been through every one of them as the seller.
I've closed one.
I recently sold the boutique Miami CPA firm I founded: tax, accounting and advisory, with clients ranging from real estate investors to companies raising capital under Regulation Crowdfunding and Regulation A+. I led the sale personally, working alongside transaction counsel, from the first conversation through the LOI, the buyer's request lists, the lien searches and lender consents, the seller note, the purchase agreement negotiations and the client transition. That experience is now the product.
I know what buyers actually ask for.
Retention analytics, referral-source analysis, work-in-progress and client-deposit detail, engagement-letter coverage. I built every one of these for my own buyer, and I build them for you the same way: straight from your practice-management and general-ledger data, anonymized for the data room.
I know where deals stall.
UCC filings and lender consents. Peer review status. Working-capital definitions that quietly move the price. Retention adjustments that don't say what everyone assumes they say. I flag these early, before they turn into a re-trade at the closing table.
I know what the terms cost after tax.
Asset versus equity. The purchase price allocation. How a seller note is taxed and what a retention holdback is really worth. I model the after-tax result of each structure, because that is the number you are actually negotiating.
Go to market with a firm a buyer can't poke holes in.
Sale-readiness assessment
A buyer's-eye review of your financials, client base, staffing, systems and compliance before anyone else sees them. You get a punch list of what to fix, what to document and what to disclose, plus a realistic view of how a buyer will value the practice and where they will push.
Quality of earnings, seller's version
Normalized owner earnings, revenue by service line, client retention and concentration, referral sources, realization and billing trends, WIP and deferred revenue. Packaged so a buyer and their lender can underwrite the firm quickly and trust what they see.
Data room and diligence management
I build the data room, anonymize client-level detail, field the buyer's request lists and keep the process moving, so you can keep running the firm while it's being sold.
Deal terms and structure
LOI and purchase agreement economics: price mechanics, working capital, client deposits and WIP, retention adjustments, escrows and seller-note terms, with the tax treatment of each. I work alongside your deal counsel, not in place of them.
Transition planning
A client-communication and staff-retention plan for the first year after closing, built around the retention terms in your agreement, so the price you negotiated is the price you keep.
Buyers pay a premium for a firm that already runs like the future.
I built my practice on a modern stack from the start: cloud practice management, automated workflows, integrated document and e-signature tools, analytics pulled straight from the ledger, and AI in the daily work of a small firm long before it was fashionable. That is a large part of why it sold. Most practices coming to market were built before any of this existed, and a buyer can see it in the first hour of diligence: manual processes, key-person dependency, data that can't be exported, margins that lag. Modernizing before you sell raises your multiple; modernizing without selling raises your income. Either way, it is the highest-return work most firms can do.
Technology stack assessment
A top-to-bottom review of practice management, tax and accounting software, document management, client portal, e-signature, payments and communications. What to keep, what to replace, what to connect, sequenced so the work never stops during the change.
Workflow and automation design
Standardized workflows, automated client requests and reminders, templated deliverables, and integrations that move data between systems without re-keying. The goal is a firm where the process, not the owner, carries the work.
Firm data and analytics
Turning the exports from your practice-management system and ledger into the numbers a buyer will ask for anyway: client retention, realization, revenue by service line, capacity and margin by engagement type. Reported continuously, so the firm is managed on data and sale-ready at any time.
Practical AI adoption
Where AI fits in a small firm today and where it doesn't: research and drafting, document intake and extraction, return and financial statement preparation, client communications, and the review steps that keep a professional's name on the work. Implemented in your tools, with policies your staff and your insurer can live with.
Owner-independence and marketability
Documented procedures, cross-trained staff, delegated client relationships and clean, exportable data. The features that shorten diligence, reduce the retention holdback and justify a higher multiple when you do decide to sell.
Know exactly what you're buying before the price is final.
Financial due diligence
Revenue tied to engagement records and bank activity, recurring versus one-time work, retention and attrition by year, client concentration, pricing and realization, receivables and collections, WIP, deferred revenue, client deposits and normalized owner compensation.
Quality and risk review
A sample of the firm's actual work across tax and accounting engagements, its peer review history, engagement-letter coverage, e-file and licensing hygiene, and any exposure from prior work. I look for what a financial review alone would miss.
Operations, people and technology
Owner dependency, staff capacity and compensation, key-person risk, the technology stack, and how realistic it is to migrate the clients, data and workflows into your firm.
Structure, tax and financing
Asset versus equity purchase, purchase price allocation, entity and state considerations, lien and UCC review, seller-note terms, and the schedules your SBA or bank lender will ask for.
Integration and client transition
A first-hundred-days plan: client outreach in the right order, staff communications, retention tracking against the purchase terms, and the early signs that a client relationship is at risk.
Sellers, buyers and the teams around them.
Owners preparing to sell
Solo practitioners to multi-partner firms, from the first thought of an exit through closing and the transition year, including the modernization work that raises the price before you list.
Firms acquiring a practice
First-time acquirers who need a full diligence partner, and serial buyers who want an independent second set of eyes on the numbers.
Deal teams
Brokers, transaction attorneys, lenders and platform acquirers who need diligence built for accounting and tax practices, delivered on a deal timeline.
Intro call
Thirty minutes on the deal, the stage you're at and the timeline. No charge, no pitch.
Scope and fee
A written proposal with defined deliverables and a fixed fee, scoped to where you are: pre-market, LOI to close, or post-close.
The work
Document requests, data analysis and conversations with the people who run the firm, with weekly check-ins so nothing sits waiting.
The answer
A written report in plain English: what the numbers support, what they don't, the adjustments in dollars, the red flags and the negotiation points that follow.
Close and transition
Support through the purchase agreement, the closing schedules and the first months after.
Vince Mongio
I founded and led Mongio & Associates, a boutique Miami CPA firm built around complex work: corporate reorganizations, QSBS planning, international compliance, cost segregation for real estate investors, audits of companies raising capital under Regulation Crowdfunding and Regulation A+, and buy-side M&A due diligence for acquirers and their counsel. Running that practice meant reviewing other firms' work constantly, and it taught me what quality looks like on paper and what it's worth.
When I sold the firm, I led the transaction personally, with deal counsel at my side, from the first conversation through closing. Accounting Practice Diligence is what came out of it: a business devoted to one thing, helping buyers and sellers of accounting and tax practices get the deal right.
When should a seller bring you in?
As early as a year before, or as late as a week before. A year out leaves time to modernize, clean up the numbers and fix what a buyer will flag, which is where the price gets made. A week out, the work is triage: the buyer's request list, the data room and the terms. I've done both, and both beat going in alone.
Do you replace my attorney or broker?
No. I handle the financial, tax and operational side and work alongside your deal counsel and, if you have one, your broker. I don't give legal advice and I don't take listings.
Are you paid on whether the deal closes?
No. Engagements are fixed-fee and I have no stake in the outcome, which is the whole point of independent diligence.
What size firms do you work with?
Sole proprietors through multi-partner firms. The mechanics of a good deal don't change much with size; the stakes do.
I'm not selling for years. Is modernization still worth it?
Yes, and that is the best time to do it. A modern firm earns more every year you own it, and when you do sell, the buyer pays for a practice that runs on systems rather than on you. The work is the same either way; starting early just means you collect the return longer.
Do you work outside Florida?
Yes. Diligence is data and conversation, and nearly all of it happens remotely. I'm based in Miami and travel when a deal calls for it.
Buying or selling an accounting or tax practice? Let's talk before the terms are set.
A thirty-minute call to hear where you are and tell you plainly whether I can help.