A $750 institutional readiness check that names exactly the cleanup work your firm already does.
The pre-audit screen your business-owning clients keep asking for.
Distribute the operator-side ladder to your owner clients with your firm as the named preparer. The Self-Assessment surfaces a specific finding when the operator cannot articulate their core financial figures — which routes the engagement directly back to your firm.
The Self-Assessment surfaces exactly the finding that routes the client back to your office.
When the $750 Self-Assessment determines that the operator cannot articulate their core financial figures from intake — operating margin, working capital cycle, revenue concentration, debt service coverage — the memo names the finding explicitly.
The required upstream work is the cleanup engagement your firm runs already: financial preparer engagement, monthly close discipline, owner-CFO conversations, GAAP-adjacent presentation. That work takes 4 to 9 months. The Self-Assessment's credit-forward window extends from 90 days to 18 months when this finding fires — not a discount, not a marketing accommodation, but the window that matches the reality of the work the finding identifies.
This is the lead-gen primitive. The owner gets a fingerprinted memo naming a specific blocker; your firm gets a named, scoped engagement with an externally-anchored case for why the work is required and a clear re-engagement point at 12-18 months.
What your firm gets
- Your firm named as preparer on every Self-Assessment your code introduces — co-brand wrapper (logo, contact, CTA), engine-rendered memo body identical across all partners
- 10% of upgrade revenue on warm intros; 20% on qualified intros that close within 30 days of introduction
- Structural lead-gen for the cleanup work your firm already does — the Self-Assessment names the blocker, you scope the engagement
- Re-engagement signal at the 12-18 month mark when the Self-Assessment's 18-month credit-forward window approaches expiration
- Pre-audit institutional readiness check for every business-owning client at $750 — no recurring commitment for the client, no carrying cost for your firm
How it works for your client
- Your client buys the $750 Self-Assessment through your firm's referral code
- Operator-attested intake against the 10-axis institutional readiness framework
- 4-page fingerprinted memo returned with a Self-Assessed badge — forwardable to their banker, advisor, or next counterparty
- When document-articulation gaps fire, the memo names the cleanup work and routes back to your firm
- When the client is ready, $750 credits forward to the $4,500 Gap Review (90-day window) or the IRA (extended window with the carve-out finding)
What we will not do to your client relationship
- We do not value the business, broker the business, or replace your CPA/attorney role
- We do not provide tax, accounting, or audit advice — the engine refuses to grade things outside its observable measurement scope
- We do not market to your client behind your back — referrals stay attributed to your firm, and renewal/re-engagement signals route through your code
- We do not co-brand the memo body — only the wrapper. The verdict your client receives is structurally identical regardless of which partner introduced them. That portability is what makes the artifact actually credible to the next counterparty.
Four CPA-firm profiles where this fits cleanly.
Tax + advisory firms with business-owner books
Your client list is full of owner-operators of $5M-$100M businesses.
The Self-Assessment surfaces the exact cleanup work your firm scopes as a fractional-CFO or business-advisory engagement. The 18-month carve-out is the natural re-engagement window.
Audit + assurance firms preparing clients for review
You're already running the pre-audit readiness conversation.
The Self-Assessment is the structural pre-audit screen. It names the gaps your firm will be running on the engagement, surfaces them in the operator's own language, and routes the work back to your office before the audit fieldwork starts.
M&A-adjacent CPA practices
You're already brought in by bankers on sell-side prep.
The IRA is the artifact your client carries into the buyer's diligence room. Your firm gets the cleanup work upstream; the IRA is what proves the cleanup landed.
Fractional-CFO + outsourced-accounting practices
Your monthly book closes are exactly the documentary evidence the IRA grades.
Your existing month-end deliverables are the evidence the IRA reads. The artifact ladders your client up from operator-attested to evidence-confirmed without redoing the work your firm is already producing.
The structural pre-audit screen your first-audit clients keep asking for.
If your firm's book includes private companies preparing for their first audit, the Self-Assessment is a structural pre-audit screen. It uses the same observable evidence checks an audit team will run — and surfaces them in operator-readable language before fieldwork begins.
Audit-prep language the Self-Assessment maps onto:
- PBC list readiness — surfaces document conflicts before the audit fieldwork team finds them
- Footnote support — identifies the disclosure gaps in revenue, customer concentration, key-person dependency, and management responsiveness
- Internal controls walkthrough — flags governance documentation that exists in someone's head but not on paper
- Monthly close discipline — names whether the operator can articulate core financial figures from the close cycle (the 18-month carve-out finding)
Audit-prep timeline alignment: fiscal year-end + 90 days for first-year audits typically converts at a faster cadence than M&A-prep work; the Self-Assessment fits the pre-Q1-fieldwork window when your firm scopes the engagement.
Apply as a CPA channel partner.
3-business-day response window. We talk through the commitment tier, the co-brand wrapper, the 18-month carve-out lead-gen mechanic, and the referral payout.