How it works

From questionnaire to report in 10 minutes.

Three inputs, four methodologies, one defensible number. Here’s exactly what happens between clicking “Start” and the report landing in your inbox.

The process

Four steps. Zero meetings. No follow-up calls.

01

You complete the questionnaire

A structured questionnaire walks you through the inputs: 3 years of P&L summary, industry & business model, and your 8 value drivers. Takes 10–15 minutes for Standard, 12–18 for Detailed.

  • Mobile, tablet, or desktop – works on all
  • Save & resume at any point
  • Inline help and worked examples
  • Auto-formats numbers in your currency
Your time: 10–18 min
02

AI applies the methodology

Your inputs flow into a pipeline that applies each methodology in turn: revenue multiple, EBITDA multiple, asset-based, and (for Detailed) a full DCF. Each step is deterministic and auditable.

  • Industry multiples pulled from Damodaran NYU Stern
  • Size & quality adjustments applied
  • Methods blended by weighting logic
  • Scenario modelling for Detailed tier
Pipeline time: 2–5 min
03

The report is generated

The report is assembled from modular sections. Charts, benchmark tables, sensitivity grids, and the executive summary are all rendered automatically. Nothing in the report is boilerplate – every number is specific to your business.

  • PDF for reading & archiving
  • Editable Word doc for annotation
  • Scenario XLSX for Detailed tier
  • Secure shareable web link
Generation time: 1–3 min
04

Delivered to your inbox

An email arrives with all deliverables attached plus a secure dashboard link. Everything is yours to keep, share, annotate, or hand to your accountant. Shareable link is password-protected and revocable from your dashboard.

  • All files attached directly
  • Dashboard for future refreshes
  • Password-protected share link
  • 30-day secure storage
Delivery: instant

Before you start

What you’ll need to have ready

Most business owners have everything they need in their accounting software. No documents to upload. No PDFs to OCR. Just numbers typed into a form.

For Standard ($199)

  • Last 3 years of P&L. Revenue, gross profit, operating expenses, net profit. Summary totals only.
  • Industry. Pick from 50+ industry categories.
  • Business model. Product, service, retainer, subscription, or transactional.
  • Customer concentration. Top-5 customer % of revenue.
  • Valuation purpose. Why you’re doing this – selling, raising, succession, divorce, tax planning.

Additionally for Detailed ($399)

  • Balance sheet summary. Total assets, current assets, total liabilities, current liabilities, net equity.
  • 1–3 year outlook. Your view on revenue growth, margin trend, capex needs (with industry defaults if you’d rather accept those).
  • 8 value-driver questions. Multiple-choice: owner dependence, recurring revenue %, team health, monopoly control, switching costs.
  • Scenario inputs (optional). If you want to stress-test specific assumptions, provide your own ranges. Otherwise we use industry defaults.

No financial documents uploaded. We never ask for your full accounts, bank statements, tax returns, or management packs. The questionnaire takes summary numbers typed directly into the form. Your data stays minimal and stays yours.

Behind the scenes

How the AI actually applies the methodology

The “AI” in Valuion is not a large language model generating a number out of thin air. It’s a deterministic pipeline that applies recognised valuation methodology, with AI used only for specific sub-tasks like industry classification and narrative drafting.

What the pipeline does, in order:

  1. Normalises your inputs. Converts your financials to a standard 3-year P&L format. Computes EBITDA, growth rates, margin trends.
  2. Classifies your business. Maps your industry answer to a Damodaran industry code. Looks up current industry multiples, margins, WACC inputs, and long-term growth assumptions.
  3. Applies the revenue multiple. Takes industry EV/Revenue multiple, adjusts for your size band and margin quality, applies to your trailing 12 months revenue.
  4. Applies the EBITDA multiple. Same logic with EV/EBITDA. Margin-quality adjustment weights higher for sustained profitability.
  5. Computes asset-based value. Net tangible assets plus goodwill estimate, less total liabilities. Going-concern adjustments where relevant.
  6. Runs the DCF (Detailed tier only). Projects 5 years of free cash flow using your growth and margin inputs. Discounts at WACC built from industry beta and your cost-of-debt estimate. Adds terminal value via Gordon Growth.
  7. Weights the methods. Blending weights come from your business profile: a high-growth software business weights EBITDA-multiple and DCF heavily; a low-growth asset-heavy business weights asset-based higher.
  8. Scores the 8 value drivers. Each driver scored on your questionnaire answers. Detailed tier gets specific improvement recommendations per driver.
  9. Generates the narrative. A language model drafts the narrative sections (business overview, methodology reasoning, risk assessment) using the structured numeric outputs as its only input. No hallucinated numbers.
  10. Renders the report. Everything flows into a templated PDF, Word doc, and (for Detailed) an XLSX scenario model.

Every one of those steps is deterministic and audit-able. Run the same inputs twice and you get the same numbers twice. The only parts that vary are narrative phrasing – never the underlying valuation.

Timing

When you’ll have your report

Most customers receive their report within 10–15 minutes of submitting the questionnaire.

StageStandardDetailed
Questionnaire (you)10–15 min12–18 min
Pipeline processing2–3 min3–5 min
Report rendering1–2 min2–3 min
Email delivery< 1 min< 1 min
Typical total~15 min~20 min

Occasionally the pipeline queue is busy (tax year-end is our peak). In that case you’ll see a real-time progress page with your queue position. Worst case: 60 minutes. No report has ever taken longer than that.

Process questions

What owners ask before they start

Yes. Your progress is saved after every section. A magic-link email lets you resume on any device. Questionnaires remain resumable for 30 days from the initial payment.
Email support@valuion.com with your order number and the correction. For obvious input errors (typed revenue in thousands instead of actual figure, wrong industry selected, etc.) we re-run the report free of charge within 24 hours. If your business has genuinely changed and you want updated numbers, a refresh credit is the right option.
Only if you want to. The self-service flow is fully automated. If you hit something you’d rather discuss, email support@valuion.com and you’ll get a reply within 24 hours during business days. There are no forced intro calls, scheduled demos, or “book a consultation” gates.
No. The numeric outputs come from a deterministic pipeline applying published methodology. The language model drafts narrative sections using those structured numbers as input – it never generates a multiple, a discount rate, or a valuation from scratch. Run the same inputs twice and you get the same numbers twice.
Yes. Every methodology in the report shows full working: multiples used, adjustments applied, final numbers. Detailed reports include a scenario XLSX spreadsheet with every formula live and editable – your accountant can change any assumption and see how the valuation moves. See our methodology page for the published approach each method follows.
The questionnaire captures the factors that most commonly make a business unusual: high customer concentration, recurring revenue mix, owner dependence, asset intensity, cyclical exposure. Each of these adjusts the blending weights and the value-driver scoring. For genuinely atypical businesses (complex group structures, regulated financial services, businesses in distress, pre-revenue startups), the report will flag the caveats explicitly in its risk assessment, and we recommend reading those carefully before relying on the number.

Ready to see your number?

Pick a tier, answer the questionnaire, and have a defensible valuation in your inbox within 20 minutes.