Keep your spreadsheet. Run the deal in one record.
Excel is where every acquirer starts and where most of the diligence still lives. It is also where a figure gets typed twice, a DSCR gets computed on EBITDA, and an investor's question breaks three tabs at midnight.
Where the spreadsheet wins
Bespoke returns models. A structure nobody has modelled before. The thing only you understand. Keep it; the decision export's Excel workbook and the admin data export's JSON take Acquiror AI's figures back out.
The spreadsheet is the better choice in these cases, and we would rather say so than sell you a subscription you will not use:
- One person, one deal, no lender reading the file. A spreadsheet is free, and the licence is usually already paid for.
- One business in your life, on a budget under $200 a month. You will do better with the spreadsheet, or with a per-deal report: see Acquiror AI vs. per-deal QoE reports.
- A model of the combined company. Acquiror AI does not model a combined company, synergies or fund-level returns. Its returns analysis is deal-level: purchase price, equity required and the value range against the equity contribution, not a projected return.
- Your own transaction data. No transaction database ships with Acquiror AI. Comparables are the ones you enter, from the sources you trust, so a workbook of past deals stays useful.
Which one fits
A spreadsheet is free and infinitely flexible, and for one person on one deal it can be the right tool. Acquiror AI is $139 to $2,999 a month and opinionated about the order diligence happens in: the memo and the debt model wait for reviewed earnings. If you run a pipeline and report to a lender and investors, that opinion is the point.
The usual objection is "I do this in Excel." Excel does not produce an audit-trailed, investor-grade memo and a DSCR stress test on demand, and it does not survive a limited partner's second question. If you close only a couple of deals a year, you still screen ten for every one you close: the value is killing a bad deal in a day and packaging the good one before the capital moves. Monthly billing and a 14-day trial mean you can pay only in the months you are live.
How they work together
Keep your spreadsheets; export ours into them. The spreadsheet stays the place for the analysis only you run. Acquiror AI holds the record the lender and the investors read: the evidenced earnings, the valuation, the financing and the memo, each built on the figure before it.
The figures go in as documents. A seller's statements in XLSX, XLS, XLSM or XLSB upload like a PDF or a scan, among sixteen file types. Vera detects the document type and you confirm it; extraction then reads revenue, EBITDA and net income by year, with a confidence score on each figure, checked against the column it came from.
The figures come out as files. The Decision Export writes PDF, Excel (.xlsx) and JSON; the Excel and JSON files carry the comparable valuation, and the JSON carries raw amounts beside the ISO currency code, ready for a model of your own. An admin can export a ZIP of every record as JSON, with the original documents and a manifest, at any time while the subscription is active.
Where Acquiror AI wins
| Compared on | Spreadsheet | Acquiror AI |
|---|---|---|
| Earnings bridge | Add-backs in a column, evidence in a folder | Adjustments with category, evidence, GL reference, support status, reviewer lock |
| Valuation | One multiple, one cell | Three methods, triangulated, with sensitivity bands, scenarios, overrides and an audit log |
| DSCR | Usually EBITDA ÷ debt service | CADS ÷ debt service, with configurable bands, stress tests and debt-capacity solving |
| Memo | Rebuilt in Word from screenshots | Generated from the locked figures, exported with branding and an evidence appendix |
| Audit trail | Version 7_final_v2.xlsx | Who changed what, when, and why, on every valuation and decision |
| Documents | A folder and your memory | Extraction with confidence scores; Q&A with citations |
| Two people | Merge conflicts | Shared record, roles, and no silent overwrites |
| The investor's question | Find the tab | Ask the documents; click the citation |
| Order of work | Any tab, in any order | Valuation, financing and the memo wait for a locked QoE period |
| Price | Free; the licence is usually already held | $139 to $2,999 a month, published, billed monthly |
The Quality of Earnings workbench and the valuation are included on every plan; Financing and DSCR and the investment memo are included on Professional and above.
Questions
Can I get my figures back into Excel?
Yes. The Decision Export writes PDF, Excel (.xlsx) and JSON, and the Excel and JSON files carry the comparable valuation. The credit memo and the investment memo export to PDF. An admin can also export a ZIP of every record as JSON, with the original documents.
Can I upload a workbook?
Yes, as a document. XLSX, XLS, XLSM and XLSB are among the sixteen file types. You confirm the detected type, and only confirmed statements unlock the financial modules.
Why can't I open Valuation or Financing straight away?
A Quality of Earnings (QoE) period must be locked first. Valuation, Comparable Valuation, Financing and the investment memo all read the locked earnings, so no memo and no debt model is ever built on unreviewed EBITDA.
Is DSCR computed the way my spreadsheet does it?
Perhaps not. The Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) here is cash available for debt service (CADS) divided by annual debt service, where CADS is adjusted EBITDA less maintenance capex, cash taxes, the working-capital adjustment and other outflows. A model that divides EBITDA by debt service flatters the deal.
Is the valuation a certified appraisal?
No. It is a calculation of value by three methods, with an audit trail. If your lender or the purchase agreement requires a certified valuation, you still need one.
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