Frequently asked questions

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One TS role typically pays €50,000–70,000 in year one. The training costs less than two hours of a Big 4 consultant's time. Candidates who use it consistently report passing interviews they would otherwise have failed.

If the programme does not meet your expectations, contact us and we will find a solution. We stand behind the quality of the content — your satisfaction matters more than the sale.

Graduates and audit or advisory professionals preparing for a Transaction Services / Financial Due Diligence role at a Big 4, a boutique M&A firm, or an advisory practice — either for a first job or an internal transfer.

Most candidates finish the program in 3 to 5 weeks of focused evening study. The training is fully self-paced, so you can move faster or slower depending on your schedule.

Most candidates feel noticeably more confident after the first module (3–5 hours). After 2 weeks, the QoE and Net Debt mechanics start to feel natural. By the end of week 3, most are ready to tackle a real case study under timed conditions.

Basic financial statement literacy helps. The training covers everything TS-specific from the ground up — Quality of Earnings, Net Debt, Net Working Capital, EBITDA adjustments — without assuming a deal background.

Yes. New case studies and interview-style content are added every month. Once you have access, you receive every update at no extra cost.

Yes. You get access to a peer learning community of other candidates and alumni working through the same cases — useful for accountability and for mock-interview partners.

8+ full case studies with corrections, 150+ EBITDA and Net Debt adjustments explained, 4+ Excel workbooks (EBITDA, Net Debt, Working Capital), quizzes, guided exercises, datapacks, and monthly content updates.

WCR stands for Working Capital Requirement — the funds a company needs to finance its operating cycle (the gap between paying suppliers/employees and collecting from customers). In M&A and Financial Due Diligence, WCR is the operational subset of net working capital, excluding cash and financial debt.

WCR = Trade Receivables + Inventories + Other Operating Current Assets − Trade Payables − Other Operating Current Liabilities. Cash, financial debt and current tax are excluded — they are dealt with in the net debt bridge.

1) Pull the operational current assets and liabilities from the balance sheet. 2) Strip cash, financial debt, current tax and M&A-related accruals. 3) Apply the WCR formula. 4) Express the result as a percentage of revenue and in days (DSO, DPO, DIO) to benchmark.

Net Working Capital (NWC) is the accounting-textbook concept (current assets − current liabilities, including cash and debt). WCR is the M&A operational definition (only trade items). In Financial Due Diligence the two terms are often used interchangeably but the SPA always defines exactly what is included.

Because the Share Purchase Agreement typically locks in a target NWC. At completion, actual NWC is compared to the target and the price is adjusted euro-for-euro. A €1 m swing in working capital is a €1 m swing in deal proceeds — buyers and sellers spend significant time negotiating the definition.

A target NWC is the working capital level agreed in the SPA, typically based on the trailing-12-month average. The buyer expects the business to be delivered with that level of working capital. Any deviation at completion adjusts the price up or down on a euro-for-euro basis.

Analysts strip out one-off items (working capital build-up for a one-time order, supplier renegotiation), seasonal effects (build inventory ahead of peak season), and accounting reclassifications. The goal is a 12-month average that reflects the steady-state operational requirement, not a snapshot.

DSO (Days Sales Outstanding): 30–45 days for B2B services, 60–90 days for construction or project businesses. DPO (Days Payable): 20–60 days. DIO (Days Inventory): 30 days for fast-moving goods, 180+ for manufacturing or seasonal businesses. Always benchmark against sector peers.

Cash conversion cycle = DIO + DSO − DPO. It measures the number of days between the company paying cash for inputs and collecting cash from customers. A negative cycle (DPO > DIO + DSO) means suppliers finance the operation — common in retail and SaaS.

Seasonality is the predictable variation in working capital over the year (e.g. inventory build-up before Christmas in retail, receivables peak after invoicing campaigns in B2B). FDD analysts test 12-month averages rather than a single date to avoid being misled by a peak or trough.

Sell-side M&A is the work done on behalf of the seller — typically a private company's shareholders, a private equity sponsor exiting a portfolio company, or a corporate carving out a non-core division. The sell-side adviser runs a structured process to maximise the sale price.

Six to nine months from kickoff (decision to sell) to signing for a typical mid-market deal. Closing can add a further 1 to 12 months depending on regulatory approvals. Carve-outs, cross-border deals and large transactions usually run longer.

1) Preparation (IM, financial model, VDD). 2) Marketing (teaser, CIM, NDA). 3) Non-binding offers and shortlisting. 4) Buyer due diligence and data room. 5) Binding offers and SPA mark-ups. 6) Signing and closing with conditions precedent.

Sell-side advisers represent the seller — they run the process, build the IM and VDD, and negotiate price up. Buy-side advisers represent the buyer — they perform due diligence, build the buyer's financial model, and negotiate price down and SPA terms favourable to the buyer.

VDD is a due diligence report commissioned by the seller before the sale process, paid for by the seller but shared with all bidders. A good VDD short-circuits weeks of buyer due diligence, anticipates every buyer challenge, and protects deal value.

A gap clause (or leakage clause) is the SPA mechanism in a locked-box deal that prohibits the seller from transferring value out of the target company between the locked-box date and completion. Any prohibited transfer ('leakage') is refunded to the buyer euro-for-euro.

Leakage covers prohibited transfers — dividends, related-party payments, asset transfers below market value, debt waivers. Permitted leakage is a scheduled list of allowed payments: ordinary salaries, agreed interest on shareholder loans, pre-declared dividends, tax payments. The carve-out list is negotiated paragraph by paragraph.

Locked-box fixes the price at signing based on a historical balance sheet — simple and predictable, requires a gap clause. Completion accounts adjusts the price after closing based on the actual balance sheet at completion — more accurate, no leakage clause needed but introduces post-completion disputes.

When the parties want the price to reflect the actual financial position at closing rather than at a historical date. Common in deals where working capital or net debt is volatile, in cross-border deals with currency exposure, or when the period between signing and closing is long.

EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation. It is a proxy for operational cash generation that removes the effects of capital structure (interest), tax regime (taxes) and accounting policy (D&A). In M&A it is normalised before being applied to a multiple.

Normalised EBITDA is reported EBITDA adjusted for non-recurring items (one-off legal fees, restructuring costs, gains on disposals), owner-related expenses (excess management remuneration, perks), and accounting reclassifications (IFRS 16 impact). It represents the run-rate earnings a buyer should expect after acquisition.

Add-backs are positive adjustments to reported EBITDA, restoring earnings the buyer would have realised under their ownership: excess owner compensation, one-off costs (legal, restructuring), discontinued business lines, non-arm's-length related-party charges. Each add-back must be defensible — aggressive add-backs destroy credibility in negotiations.

QoE is the FDD output that tests whether reported EBITDA is sustainable and replicable. It documents every adjustment, benchmarks margins against peers, tests revenue quality (customer concentration, recurring vs one-off), and produces the normalised EBITDA used in deal pricing.

IFRS 16 capitalises operating leases, which increases reported EBITDA (rent moves below the EBITDA line as depreciation + interest). For deal comparability, analysts usually subtract the IFRS 16 effect to compute a 'pre-IFRS-16' EBITDA, or treat the lease liability as debt in the net debt bridge.

Net debt = financial debt + debt-like items − cash − cash-like items. Debt-like items typically include accrued bonuses, earn-outs, dilapidations, tax provisions and unfunded pensions. Cash-like items include surplus cash above operational requirements. The exact list is negotiated in the SPA.

Debt-like items are obligations that economically resemble debt but aren't classified as such on the balance sheet: accrued employee bonuses, earn-outs from past acquisitions, tax provisions, asset retirement obligations, factoring with recourse, customer deposits. Each is debated in the SPA — they can shift several million in price.

Cash-like items (restricted cash, surplus cash above operating requirement, escrow accounts ring-fenced for litigation) are netted against debt. Operational cash needed to run the business (typically 1–2 weeks of OPEX) is excluded from cash and stays in the target.

FDD analysts analyse a target company's historical financial performance to support an M&A decision. Their work includes EBITDA normalisation, working capital and net debt analysis, customer/supplier concentration testing, and writing a report (the QoE) that the buyer or seller uses to negotiate the deal price.

Audit verifies historical accounts against accounting standards — it is past-focused, retrospective, and produces an opinion. FDD analyses the same numbers from a buyer's economic perspective — it is forward-looking, transaction-focused, and produces adjustments to inform deal pricing. FDD analysts often start in audit and move across.

A typical mid-market FDD assignment runs 4 to 8 weeks: 1–2 weeks of data collection and management interaction, 2–4 weeks of analysis (EBITDA, NWC, net debt, KPIs), and 1–2 weeks of report drafting and Q&A. Buy-side and sell-side timelines are similar.

In Europe, a Big 4 TS analyst earns €40k–€55k in the first year, rising to €60k–€80k as senior. M&A boutique salaries are similar or 10–20% higher. Year-end bonuses range from 5% to 25% depending on firm and performance. Salaries are higher in London, Paris and Frankfurt than in regional offices.

Big 4 (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) handle the largest volume of deals across all sectors, offer structured training and clear progression. Boutique advisers (Eight Advisory, Alvarez & Marsal, FTI, Oderys, Accuracy) are smaller, more deal-focused, with higher comp at junior level and more direct partner exposure.

Most successful switches happen between 2 and 4 years of audit experience, after at least one busy season as a senior. The technical foundation (financial statements, accounting standards) is already in place — what you need to build is deal mechanics: EBITDA normalisation, net debt bridge, working capital, SPA logic.

Most common: private equity (deal team or portfolio company role), corporate development at a large group, M&A boutique, or another FDD firm at higher level. Less common but real: investment banking M&A, restructuring, or co-founding a fintech / SaaS.

No. The vast majority of TS analysts and managers have a master's in finance, accounting or business — not an MBA. An MBA helps for partner-track progression or for switching countries / industries mid-career, but it is not required to enter or progress in TS.

Big 4: 2 to 4 rounds — HR screen, technical interview with a manager, case study (60–90 min, sometimes Excel-based), final partner round. Boutiques: 2 to 3 rounds, faster, more partner-exposed. Case studies focus on QoE adjustments, working capital analysis, or a simplified net debt bridge.

A timed exercise (45–90 min) where you receive raw data — a P&L, balance sheet, sometimes a trial balance — and must build a normalised EBITDA, a working capital schedule and a net debt bridge in Excel. Common pitfalls: hard-coding cells, missing IFRS 16, omitting earn-outs from net debt.

Walk me through an EBITDA normalisation; what's the difference between net working capital and working capital requirement; explain a net debt bridge; how would you treat IFRS 16 in a deal; what is a locked-box vs completion accounts; what's a debt-like item.