One diligence framework, applied from both sides of a transaction.
TransactionDiligence is the transaction practice of Layer8 Tech Group, a Georgia firm providing fractional technology leadership and transaction diligence.
The practice occupies a specific column of the diligence map. Financial diligence is well served in the lower middle market — quality of earnings providers are numerous, the methods are standardized, and any competent CPA can substantiate add-backs. Operational and technological diligence is not. Below the threshold where private equity brings its own teams, transactions on both sides are routinely underwritten on assumption rather than evidence.
That gap is what these instruments were built to close.
Layer8 Tech Group was founded on thirty years of enterprise technology practice, most of it in regulated industries where an undocumented dependency or an unverified vendor claim carries a real cost. That work included cloud engineering leadership at a national healthcare payer in a HIPAA environment where every system had to be defensible to an auditor, and senior technology leadership in mortgage and financial services.
The firm continues to serve as fractional CIO to companies in regulated industries. That practice is where the operational patterns come from — what actually breaks when a key person leaves, which systems transfer and which merely appear to, and what the first year after a change of ownership really costs.
The assessment instruments were developed against live acquisition work rather than assembled as a product. The questions they ask are the ones that had to be answered before a decision got made.
The instruments assess operations, systems, owner dependence, transferability, and revenue durability. Evidence is collected from four independent sources — documents, structured interviews, direct observation of the systems in use, and external measurement requiring no cooperation from anyone — and the disagreements between those sources are the findings.
Financial quality of earnings is not performed here. Earnings verification, add-back substantiation, and working capital analysis are a CPA's work. Legal matters — franchise agreements, transaction documents, transfer provisions — belong with counsel. Where either is needed and not already engaged, an introduction is available.
Naming the boundary is not modesty. An assessment that claims everything is worth less than one with a stated scope.
Findings carry the evidence behind them and the mechanism named. Severity is stated plainly. Where access was requested and not provided, that appears in the report along with the risk that could not be assessed — gaps are not filled by inference.
Buy-side assessments are delivered as independent work product. No remediation offer is attached to any finding, for the same reason a quality of earnings provider does not sell bookkeeping. Remediation cost is reported, because it belongs in the price; who performs the work is left where it belongs.
Where an assessment concludes a transaction should not proceed, that is what it says, as early as the evidence supports it. A fast, honest answer is worth more to a buyer under an exclusivity clock than a thorough report delivered in week three.
Layer8 Tech Group is based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Engagements are conducted by John Wallace, founder and senior partner. Work is performed remotely, with on-site time where the business requires it.
Schedule a discovery call — thirty minutes, no charge. Bring the transaction you are working on, or the question you cannot get answered.