Buyer Guide
Congratulations. You've signed the contracts, settled the purchase, and the business is yours. The due diligence is done. The lawyers have been paid. The seller has shaken your hand and — depending on the deal — may or may not still be around. Now comes the part nobody prepared you for. The first 90 days of owning a business are when the most damage can be done and the most goodwill can be lost. It's also when the most value can be created — if you know what to focus on. The problem is that most buyers spend months on the acquisition process and approximately zero hours planning what happens the day after settlement.
Some things need to happen at or immediately after settlement. If you haven't prepared for these, the first week will be chaos.
ABN and TFN. In an asset sale, you'll need your own ABN for the acquiring entity. In a share sale, the existing company's ABN, TFN, and GST registration carry over. Our asset sale vs share sale guide explains the structural differences — confirm with your accountant which scenario applies to your deal.
GST registration. If the business turns over more than $75K annually, you must be registered for GST. In an asset sale, register your new entity before you issue your first invoice. Your BAS obligations begin from the date of registration.
PAYG withholding. If you have employees, you must register for PAYG withholding before making your first wage payment. Get it done before settlement or on Day 1 at the latest.
Bank accounts. Open business bank accounts in the name of the acquiring entity before settlement. If you're taking over the seller's trading accounts (common in share sales), arrange signatory changes with the bank at least two weeks ahead — banks are slow.
Accounting software. Set up your accounting system before Day 1. If the seller used a system you're keeping, arrange the licence transfer. If you're switching, have the new one ready to go. You do not want to be figuring out invoicing software on your first Monday as owner.
Business insurance must be in place from the moment of settlement. Not the day after. At minimum: public liability, product liability (if applicable), workers' compensation, professional indemnity (if applicable), business property/contents, and motor vehicles.
Workers' compensation is state-based and mandatory. The policy doesn't transfer with the business in an asset sale — you need your own policy with your state's scheme (WorkCover in most states, icare in NSW, WorkSafe in Victoria, ReturnToWorkSA in SA). Apply before settlement. Operating without workers' comp is a criminal offence in every Australian state and territory.
In an asset sale, most licences don't automatically transfer. Identify which licences the business holds, determine whether they transfer or need to be reapplied for, and have applications in progress before settlement. Common licences that need attention: trade licences (electrical, plumbing, building — held by individuals, not companies), food safety and health permits, liquor licences, environmental permits, and industry-specific registrations.
If a critical licence doesn't transfer and your application isn't processed by settlement, you may not be able to legally operate. Identify this risk during due diligence and build licence transfer timelines into the settlement conditions.
The single most important thing you do in the first week is not administrative. It's relational.
Your employees are nervous. They're wondering: will I keep my job? Will my conditions change? Will this person be better or worse than the last owner?
Day 1 or Day 2: hold an all-hands meeting. Keep it short. Introduce yourself. Tell them why you bought this business. Tell them what isn't changing. Tell them you'll be spending the first few weeks listening and learning, not making changes. Ask them what they'd like to know about you.
Then shut up and listen. The staff know more about how this business actually runs than anyone — including the seller. They know which customers are happy, which suppliers are reliable, and what the seller never got around to fixing. Your job in Week 1 is to absorb, not direct.
Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (sections 307–316), when a business changes hands and you employ the transferring employees, their service is treated as continuous.
Accrued entitlements transfer. Annual leave, personal leave, and long service leave balances carry over. Confirm with your accountant that the numbers reconcile with actual employee records.
Existing awards and enterprise agreements may continue to apply. The industrial instrument covering employees under the old owner typically continues under the new owner (a "transferable instrument"). Don't assume you can immediately change employment conditions.
Unfair dismissal protections apply from Day 1. Because service is continuous, transferring employees retain their full protections. You can't restructure through the first month by terminating and rehiring on new terms.
Redundancy obligations carry over. The employee's continuous service — including time with the previous owner — counts toward their redundancy entitlement if you later need to make roles redundant.
The practical implication: Get proper employment law advice before settlement. Have a clear understanding of each employee's entitlements, their industrial instrument, and your obligations. Don't make any staffing decisions in the first 90 days unless there's a genuine and urgent operational reason.
In the first week (ideally Days 2–5), the seller should introduce you personally to the business's most important customers. This is why you negotiated a transition period into the sale agreement. Face-to-face for high-value clients, phone calls for the next tier, and a joint communication from the seller for the broader customer base. The message is always the same: continuity.
Do not use this opportunity to sell, upsell, or announce changes. Listen. Learn what they value. Understand why they chose this business. That's the goodwill you paid for — protect it.
You now own a business you don't fully understand. That's normal. Resist the urge to change things. Your job for the next three weeks is to learn how the machine works before you start adjusting the dials.
This is your first financial priority. Not profit. Not revenue growth. Cash flow. Understand exactly: when does money come in? When does money go out? What's the minimum cash balance you need to cover a normal month's obligations? What's the gap between cash in and cash out — and when does that gap hit hardest?
Run the first month's actual cash flow against the projection from due diligence. If there's a gap, you need to know immediately — not at the end of the quarter when the BAS is due and the bank account is empty. Our financing guide covers working capital planning for exactly this reason.
Spend time in every part of the operation. Go out on jobs. Sit in on client meetings. Work the floor. Ask every employee the same three questions: What do you spend most of your time on? What frustrates you about how things work? What would you fix if you could fix one thing? Write everything down. Don't action anything yet. You're building a map.
Contact every significant supplier within the first two weeks. Introduce yourself. Confirm existing terms (payment periods, pricing agreements, volume commitments). Ask about any outstanding issues with the previous owner.
Check the PPSR. Search the Personal Property Securities Register for any security interests registered against the business's assets. There may be equipment under finance, retention of title arrangements on stock, or security interests you weren't aware of. This should have been cleared during due diligence, but verify post-settlement.
Not all contracts automatically transfer in an asset sale. Review every significant contract: customer contracts, supplier agreements, software licences, equipment leases, and the premises lease. Some will have change-of-control clauses requiring the other party's consent. Others may have termination rights triggered by a change of ownership. Identify and address these before anyone decides to exercise a termination right.
The premises lease is often the most important. A lease assignment requires the landlord's consent. Start this process early — landlords move slowly, and operating without a valid lease leaves you exposed.
By now you should understand the business well enough to start identifying what works, what doesn't, and what needs to change. But resist changing everything at once.
After a month of observation, you'll have a long list of improvements. Rank them. Pick three — maximum — to focus on in the next 30 days. Everything else goes on a "later" list.
Good priorities at this stage: fixing the most broken process (what the staff told you in Week 1), improving cash collection (tightening payment terms or chasing overdue invoices), building a reliable reporting rhythm.
Bad priorities at this stage: rebranding, launching a new service line, restructuring the team, overhauling the technology stack. These are all valid eventually — just not yet. You don't have enough understanding to make these decisions well, and the staff don't have enough trust in you to follow you through major change.
By Week 6, you should have a weekly dashboard in place:
Weekly dashboard
And a monthly rhythm that includes: full P&L review with your accountant, BAS preparation, payroll tax reconciliation (if applicable), superannuation payments (due within 28 days of end of quarter), and bank covenant reporting if you have acquisition debt.
Your BAS obligations start from your GST registration date. Get your bookkeeping set up correctly from Day 1 so you're not scrambling to reconstruct three months of transactions.
Q1 — Jul to Sep
Due 28 October
Q2 — Oct to Dec
Due 28 February
Q3 — Jan to Mar
Due 28 April
Q4 — Apr to Jun
Due 28 July
Miss a BAS deadline and the ATO charges interest immediately.
You've stabilised. The staff trust you (or at least they've stopped worrying). The customers haven't left. The cash flow is predictable. Now you can start building.
Hold another all-hands meeting. Tell the team what you've learned. Acknowledge what's working well — be specific, name people and processes. Share the three things you're going to focus on improving. Ask for their input. Make them part of the solution. This meeting signals that you listened during the first 60 days and that changes will be thoughtful, not reactive.
Now you can begin implementing the priorities you identified in Weeks 5–8. One change at a time. Measure the impact. Adjust. If you're introducing new technology or processes, start small — pilot with one team before rolling out broadly. Change that's imposed without context will be resisted. Change that's explained, piloted, and refined with the team's input will stick.
By Day 90, you should have a clear picture of: what the business does well (protect this), what's broken (fix this next), what's missing (build this later), and whether the business is performing to the model you built during due diligence. Write a simple 90-day plan for the next quarter: three priorities, specific targets, weekly check-ins to track progress. This becomes your operating rhythm.
Every one of these is avoidable.
Changing too much too fast. The business was profitable before you bought it. The staff, customers, and suppliers had a working rhythm. Disrupting that rhythm before you understand it destroys goodwill faster than anything else.
Ignoring the staff. Your employees are the business. If key people leave in the first 90 days, you're rebuilding from scratch. Prioritise retention. Listen. Show them the future is better, not just different.
Running out of cash. The number one killer. Buyers underestimate working capital needs, miss the timing of BAS and super payments, and discover that cash flow doesn't match projections. Build a cash buffer. Know your obligations. Don't spend on improvements until the cash position is stable.
Neglecting the seller transition. If you negotiated a transition period, use every hour of it. The seller's knowledge — of customers, operations, supplier relationships, and the hundred small things that aren't documented — is perishable. Extract it deliberately before it walks out the door.
Not getting help. A good accountant, a business coach, a mentor who's been through an acquisition — these relationships pay for themselves in the first 90 days. The cost of one mistake avoided is worth a year of advisory fees.
ThatDeal gives you the intelligence to buy with confidence — customer concentration, staffing profile, lease details, and financial analysis that makes the first 90 days easier.
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