Accounting, tax & financial pros
Books and taxes for M&A advisory firms.
Monthly engagement retainers, a success fee that closes out a fourteen-month deal, data room subscriptions, and travel you front for a buyer meeting. Gus sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
September made $87,000. The Meridian Hardware success fee is on its own line, kept apart from your monthly retainers, since that deal took fourteen months to close and this is not a sign every month looks like this.
- Success fee, Meridian Hardware saleSuccess fees
- Monthly retainer batchEngagement retainers
- Datasite data room renewalDeal data room costs
- Contract analyst, deal supportContract labor
- Buyer meeting travel, advanceReimbursable deal costs
Why your books are different
An M&A advisory firm's own books go wrong in a few predictable spots.
You spend a year building toward a single closing that pays out all at once. Your own firm's books need to know that a huge month is not the new normal, and that a retainer collected months ago is not the same thing as the fee that finally landed.
-
1
A success fee makes one month look like the whole year
A deal that takes twelve to eighteen months of work pays its entire success fee the month it closes, which can make that single month look many times larger than a normal one, hiding the steady retainer work that carried the firm the rest of the time.
What we doFlags large success fees against how long that engagement ran, so a huge month reads as a deal closing, not a new baseline. -
2
Monthly retainers credited against the success fee get double counted
When a client's monthly engagement retainers are credited against the eventual success fee at closing, booking the full success fee as new income without accounting for retainers already collected overstates what the deal actually paid.
What we doTracks retainers already collected against a pending success fee, so the final number reflects what the deal truly added, not what was already booked. -
3
Deal expenses fronted for a client sit as a permanent cost
Travel for buyer meetings, data room setup, and other deal costs are often advanced by the firm and reimbursed later, but if they are booked only as an expense, the firm's numbers understate what a deal actually costs to run before reimbursement clears.
What we doFlags advanced deal costs separately, so once a client reimburses them, the timing between the outlay and the repayment stays clear. -
4
Data room and deal sourcing subscriptions pile up quietly
Data room software and deal sourcing databases are billed monthly regardless of how many active deals are running, so their real cost against what the firm is currently working on is easy to lose track of.
What we doKeeps data room and deal sourcing costs in their own visible line, so the firm can see what those tools cost against active deal flow. -
5
Contract analysts on a deal blend with general overhead
An analyst or associate brought in to support a specific deal's financial model is a real cost tied to that engagement, but it often lands in a general contract labor account with no link to which deal it supported.
What we doKeeps contract labor tied to the deal it supported, so the firm can see whether a given engagement was profitable after real cost.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for an M&A advisory firm.
Set up once for how your firm bills and spends. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Engagement retainersMonthly fees collected while a deal is being run.
- Success feesPaid out when a deal closes, often net of retainers already collected.
- Deal cost reimbursementsClient repayment of travel or data room costs the firm advanced.
- Referral incomeDeals sent over by wealth managers or attorneys.
Money out
- Deal data room costsDatasite, Intralinks, or similar due diligence tools.
- Contract laborAnalysts and associates brought in for a specific deal.
- Reimbursable deal costsTravel and expenses fronted for a client, pending repayment.
- Deal sourcing subscriptionsDatabases used to find buyers and sellers.
- Professional liability insuranceCoverage sized for advisory work on large transactions.
- Continuing educationDeal structuring and valuation courses.
What we watch for you
- Retainer versus success fee split
Steady monthly income against deal-dependent success fees, so a huge month is read correctly.
- Reimbursement lag
Advanced deal costs against what clients have paid back, so cash flow does not get squeezed by a slow reimbursement.
- Deal cost per engagement
Data room and contract labor costs against what a given deal actually pays.
- Active deal count
How many engagements are open at once, so retainer income can be checked against real workload.
Ask Gus
Things M&A advisors ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
No, and I flagged it against how long that engagement ran. It is one deal closing after fourteen months, not a new baseline for every month.
It is flagged as an advanced deal cost, pending reimbursement, not a straight loss. Once the client pays it back, the two will line up.
That one is above my pay grade to settle alone. I can hand the accountant those costs against your active deal count, and that conversation can start from real numbers.
The tax side
The tax side of running an M&A advisory firm.
Most of what trips up your own return is timing, the same discipline that runs through every deal you structure for a client.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- A success fee is earned at closing, not at retainer collectionA success fee is usually earned the month a deal actually closes, even if monthly retainers were collected for a year before that. Getting the timing right matters for the firm's own return, not just a client's deal.
- 1099s for contract analystsA contract analyst or associate brought in to support a deal, paid $2,000 or more in 2026 and not on payroll, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- Self-employment tax and the S corp questionIn a year with one large success fee, net profit can jump a lot, and all of it owes 15.3 percent self-employment tax up to the $184,500 Social Security wage base. Electing S corp status by March 15, ahead of a year like that, can change how much of it gets taxed that way.
- Section 179 on firm equipmentWorkstations and data room licensing bought for the firm can usually be written off in the year purchased, up to $2,560,000.
Deductions M&A advisory firms miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Deal data room subscriptions
- Deal sourcing database subscriptions
- Travel to buyer and seller meetings
- Professional liability insurance
- Continuing education courses
- Home office costs
- Contract analyst payments
- Marketing and deal sourcing costs
- Computer and workstation upgrades
- Secure document storage
- Legal document preparation costs
- Conference travel
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
An M&A advisory firm's year, kept every month.
Deals close on their own timeline, sometimes over a year long. Gus keeps your own numbers steady in the background, whatever stage your active deals are in. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
New mandates signed
New deals get signed for the year, last year's own return gets started, and a set-aside gets planned that can flex around expected closings.
- April
Filed, deal or no deal
Your own return is filed and signed, whether or not a big success fee landed that quarter.
- July
Midyear deal check
Where the firm stands, how many deals are active, and whether retainer income is covering overhead while success fees are pending.
- October
Before Q4 closings
A look at deals likely to close before December and what that means for the firm's set-aside before the year turns.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for M&A advisory firms. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions M&A advisory firm owners ask first.
Can Gus keep a big success fee from making the whole year look inflated?
Yes. Large success fees get flagged against how long the engagement ran, so a huge month reads as a deal closing, not a new baseline.
My retainers get credited against the success fee at closing. Can that get tracked?
Yes. Retainers already collected are tracked against a pending success fee, so the final number reflects what the deal truly added.
We already use a data room for due diligence. Does anything change?
No. Keep running deals the way you do. Gus works from your firm's bank statement and asks once if a charge is unclear.
I front travel costs for buyer meetings. How does that get booked?
As an advanced deal cost, flagged for reimbursement, not a straight expense, so the timing between the outlay and getting paid back is clear.
My own books have been behind since I am focused on active deals. Is that fixable?
Yes. Active deals come first, as they should. Send the firm's bank statements, and Gus will work through the gap while the accountant checks behind him.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
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What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever