What affects the price of an assessment?

Company size and complexity (revenue lines, locations, staff count), the state of the records (clean books assess faster than shoeboxes), how many people need to be interviewed, and whether the work is remote or on-site.

Is an assessment worth it if I'm not selling soon?

Often more so. The earlier the gaps are found, the cheaper they are to fix, management depth and customer concentration take years, and an assessment three years out leaves every lever available.

What do I actually receive?

A scored report across the ten dimensions buyers test, an evidence basis for each score, every gap priced as a range with the logic stated, and a sequenced remediation plan. The report is yours regardless of whether you engage further.

Insights

How Much Does an Exit Readiness Assessment Cost in Canada? (Honest Guide)

Q: How much does an exit readiness assessment cost?

Pricing models vary widely in the market, hourly consulting, percentage-of-value retainers, or fixed fees. Provenance charges a fixed fee quoted in writing before the engagement starts, sized to company complexity, covering two weeks of work, the full ten-dimension score, priced gaps and a sequenced plan. Ask for the current rate card on a readiness call.

What drives the price of a business exit readiness assessment in Canada, the pricing models to watch for, and what a fixed-fee assessment should include.

If you've started asking what it would take to get your business ready to sell, you've probably hit the same wall every owner hits: nobody publishes prices. This is an honest guide to what drives the cost of an exit readiness assessment in Canada, the pricing models you'll encounter, and what you should demand for your money.

The three pricing models you'll meet

Hourly consulting. Open-ended, and the incentive runs the wrong way, the longer the diagnosis takes, the more it costs. Fine for narrow questions; risky for a full diagnostic. Percentage-of-value or success-fee arrangements. Common with brokers and M&A advisors, and appropriate for selling, but a diagnostic priced as a percentage of your company's value has no relationship to the work involved. Fixed fee. A defined scope, a defined price, quoted before work begins. This is what we use at Provenance and what we'd recommend you demand from anyone: a diagnostic with an open-ended price is itself a red flag about how the firm runs engagements.

What actually drives the cost

Four factors, whoever you hire: size and complexity, a $2M single-location service business assesses faster than a $15M multi-location distributor; state of the records, reconciled books and a contracts folder speed everything up, while reconstruction work adds days; people, each additional manager interviewed adds time and adds insight; location, remote-first work keeps costs down, with on-site time where it earns its place.

What a real assessment must include (checklist)

Whatever you pay, don't accept less than this: (1) evidence-based scoring, every score anchored to documents inspected and data traced, not a questionnaire you filled in yourself; (2) the buyer's-eye dimensions, owner dependence, financial cleanliness, documentation, management depth, customer concentration, recurring revenue, systems, compliance, diligence preparedness, growth story; (3) priced gaps, each finding translated to a dollar-impact range with stated logic, because "your documentation is weak" is not actionable but "this gap typically costs sellers X to Y at the table" is; (4) a sequenced plan, ordered by value-at-risk and time-to-fix; (5) the report is yours, no hostage-taking to force the next engagement.

The cheaper starting point

Before paying anyone: our Exit Readiness Score is free, takes ten minutes, and rates you across the same ten dimensions. It's self-reported, so it's a mirror rather than an audit, but it tells you whether a full assessment is worth your money this year. The full Readiness Assessment is two weeks, fixed fee, remote-friendly across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Québec, in English or French.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost? Market models vary (hourly, percentage, fixed). We quote a fixed fee in writing before starting, ask for the rate card on a call.

What affects the price? Size and complexity, state of records, interview count, remote vs on-site.

Worth it if I'm not selling soon? Usually more so, early gaps are cheap gaps.

What do I receive? Ten scored dimensions with evidence, priced gaps, a sequenced plan, yours to keep.

Provenance Advisory Group, bilingual training and fractional operations for owner-run businesses in Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick, and operations and Lean training for public-service teams and not-for-profits across Canada.

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