How long does a business valuation take?
The short answer
A formal business valuation report takes ten to fifteen business days from the receipt of complete information. A short-form indicative assessment takes three to five. Court-directed expert reports run four to eight weeks, scheduled to the court timetable rather than to ours.
The clock starts when the information is complete
This is the part most timelines slip on. The ten to fifteen business days runs from the day we have everything, not the day you engage us. Businesses that send three years of statements, tax returns, management accounts and the asset register in one go are finished inside the window; those that send documents as they find them are not.
What happens in that time
Roughly: two to three days reading and reconciling the accounts, three to four days on normalisation and testing the add-backs, two to three days deriving the multiple and running the cross-check, and three to four days on the asset schedule and writing. Reports are written to be read by someone hostile, which takes longer than writing a number.
When a deadline is fixed, we schedule backwards
Settlement date, court date, lodgement deadline, board meeting — tell us at the outset and we will confirm before you engage us whether it is achievable and what has to arrive by when. We would rather decline than miss a date somebody is relying on.
Expedited work is possible
Where the deadline is genuinely tight, engagements can be expedited, and insolvency appointments in particular are handled on urgent timeframes with site attendance within days. What cannot be compressed is the quality of the reasoning, so expedited work is scoped honestly rather than promised optimistically.
The numbers
Turnaround by engagement type
Business days from complete information. Where a fixed external date applies, we schedule backwards from it and tell you the information deadline.
Scroll the table sideways →
| Engagement | Turnaround | What drives the timing |
|---|---|---|
| Indicative assessment | 3–5 days | A short-form view for orientation, on the information available |
| Formal valuation report | 10–15 days | Full normalisation, method, cross-check, asset schedule and report |
| Discounted cash flow or early-stage | 15–20 days | Forecast testing, discount rate build-up and sensitivities |
| Multi-entity group | 15–25 days | Each entity valued and reconciled, intercompany positions normalised |
| Court-directed expert report | 4–8 weeks | Requisitions, disclosure, conferral and the court timetable |
| Urgent insolvency appointment | Days | Site attendance and asset inspection scheduled immediately |
These are the timeframes we work to and quote against. If a date matters to you, say so on the scoping call — it changes how the engagement is sequenced, not just when it is delivered.
Caveats
What makes a valuation take longer
Every one of these is knowable at the scoping call, which is why we do one before quoting.
Who answered this
Prepared by the valuation team at Business Valuations Brisbane, the business valuation division of Asset Valuations Group. Every report we issue is signed by a Certified Practising Valuer of the Australian Valuers Institute. General information only — not advice on your specific circumstances.
- Information arriving in pieces The most common cause of delay by a wide margin. Each partial delivery restarts a review cycle that a complete pack would have avoided.
- Incomplete or reconstructed records Where management accounts do not reconcile to the statements, or the asset register has not been maintained, the reconstruction happens before the valuation can.
- Complex structures Trading companies, asset trusts, service entities, property holdings and SMSF interests each need to be valued and then reconciled without double counting.
- Litigation obligations Expert engagements involve formal requisitions, disclosure of what was not provided, conferral with an opposing expert and often a joint report. That process has its own pace.
Reviewed by a Certified Practising Valuer
Reviewed by Jarrad Khoury, Director and Head of Valuations — Registered Valuer (QLD, Not Limited), Licensed Valuer (WA, Not Limited), CPV and CBV. Published by Business Valuations Brisbane, the business valuation division of Asset Valuations Group.
Last reviewed
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