Discuss your projectTake over the acquired company’s systems after closing, from the founder’s spreadsheets and QuickBooks to the vertical tool on an expensive contract, while the business keeps running. Investors get a consistent report from connected records, and outgrown vendors are replaced in phases, ready for the first add-on.
Illustration of a post-closing systems plan built by Baybloom for a searcher-led company: access and backups secured, spreadsheets replaced, investor reporting connected, and a legacy vertical tool retired in phases.
Searchers, independent sponsors, and newly installed CEOs who have acquired a single small or lower-middle-market business in home services, distribution, specialty services, and similar fields. After closing, the systems arrive as the founder left them: undocumented spreadsheets, QuickBooks, a legacy vertical tool on an expensive contract, and no IT team, while a group of backers expects regular reporting against the plan. The portfolio company leadership page covers fund-backed management teams; this page is for the operator running one company.
The workflow
The steps we see most often in this kind of operation.
What we build
An inventory of applications, spreadsheets, contracts, and logins, with admin access moved from personal accounts to the company and backups confirmed.
The founder’s pricing, job costing, and scheduling spreadsheets turned into documented, shared tools that keep the rules the business depends on.
A regular report for backers and lenders built from QuickBooks and operating records, with definitions agreed once and applied every period.
An outgrown or overpriced vertical tool replaced one workflow at a time, with data exported, checked, and moved ahead of the contract decision.
Quoting, scheduling, and job management rebuilt around how the company works under new leadership, and connected to accounting.
Shared customer, job, and financial records and a standard workflow, so an acquired business can report with the company and join its systems in phases.
Your first release
How the work runs
We start with the people doing the work and the systems around it, then write down the first release: what it includes, what it leaves for later, the integration decisions, and the acceptance criteria. Nothing is built until that scope is agreed.
We build in releases you can review as the work takes shape, using realistic data. Every release carries tests, a security review, and documentation. Integrations are tested against real records, with exceptions visible.
Your team receives the documentation, the runbooks, and the training to run the system, and we stay on for continued engineering when you want it.
Scope and price
Every project is priced from a written scope. These are the factors that move it most.
Undocumented spreadsheets, missing logins, and unclear contracts need more discovery before anything can be changed safely.
How the vertical tool allows exports and integration, and what its contract permits, shapes how the replacement is phased.
Agreeing on revenue, margin, and operating measures with the investor group takes work before the report can be built from connected records.
Designing shared records for future acquisitions adds upfront planning, while a scope limited to the single company stays smaller.
Searcher-led home services company
When a searcher acquires a home services company, the systems often arrive as the founder left them: pricing in a spreadsheet, QuickBooks, and a field service tool on an expensive contract. A first release inventories every system and login, moves admin access to company accounts, turns the pricing spreadsheet into a documented quoting tool, and builds the investor report from QuickBooks and the field service records. A phased plan then decides whether the field service tool is renegotiated or replaced, and the shared records are ready when the first add-on arrives.
Questions
What leaders in this industry ask us first.
Start by finding out what exists and who can reach it: every application, spreadsheet, contract, and login, including accounts tied to the founder’s personal email. Move administrative access to company accounts and confirm backups before changing anything else. Replacement decisions come once the business is stable on what it has.
Usually not all at once. First confirm what the contract allows, how the data can be exported, and which parts of the tool the team relies on. Then replace in phases, starting where the tool fits worst or costs most, and keep the rest running until the new piece is proven.
Yes. The report is built from QuickBooks and the operating system, with revenue, margin, and operating measures defined once with the investor group. The same definitions apply every period, so updates stop depending on a manual pull and follow-up questions can be answered from the records.
Each release moves into ongoing support with monitoring, backups, fixes, and small changes. Documentation, access, and responsibilities are agreed in writing, so the CEO knows what is running, who looks after it, and how to bring in an internal hire or another provider later.
The founder’s knowledge is the most perishable asset in the deal. We interview the founder and key staff early, document how pricing, scheduling, and exceptions actually work, and capture the rules hidden inside the spreadsheets before anything is rebuilt.
Shared customer, job, and financial records come first, so an add-on can report with the company before its systems are consolidated. Standardizing the core workflow before the next deal means the add-on joins a documented process instead of another founder’s habits.
The work is similar in kind but smaller and closer to the operator. There is usually one company, a CEO who is also the main reader of the reporting, and a group of backers rather than a fund operating team, so scope is set around the CEO’s plan and budget.