For business brokers
Win the mandate. Carry it to settlement.
Batonford turns the vendor's ledger, BAS and lease into an appraisal the vendor can follow line by line, then the IM, the buyer room and every condition to settlement. Every figure is traced to its page. Your CRM stays exactly as it is.
- Sourcedevery figure traced to its page
- Approvednothing goes out without you
- Your CRMstays, nothing to integrate
A mandate for Harbourside Café moving from appraisal to settlement: appraised in August at an SDE of $168,400 with 12 add-backs traced to their source, the IM approved in September with every figure cited, 14 buyers matched and six NDAs signed in October and the lease assignment and finance conditions met in November, for a $405,000 sale and a $20,250 fee to the broker.
Works alongside the CRM you already use
Keep your CRM. Add the deal work.
Your CRM keeps the relationships. Batonford does the work it was never built for: the appraisal, the vendor's paperwork, the IM, the buyer room and the conditions to settlement. No integration project and no double entry.
See it on one of your deals- Upload the vendor's files and forward portal enquiries to your own address
- Ledger exports from any accounting software, read as they are
- Finished documents and CSV out, ready for whatever system you run
Sound familiar?
Most deals are lost long before settlement.
A price the books can't support, a vendor who won't send the paperwork, buyers who go cold or a lease nobody chased. Batonford is built around the moments deals actually fall over.
How it works
One deal file, appraisal to settlement.
The evidence you gather to win the mandate becomes the IM, the answers in the data room and the checklist to settlement. Nothing is typed twice.
Upload the meeting notes and the last three years of financials. Batonford drafts the appraisal: SDE or EBITDA, every add-back with its source and a value range you can defend across the vendor's kitchen table.
The vendor gets a portal that reads what they upload, asks only for what's missing and explains terms like add-back in plain English. Gaps, contradictions and risks are flagged before a buyer finds them.
A cited IM and a blind teaser in your firm's branding, drafted from the deal file. Every figure is checked against its source and the vendor signs off before anything goes out.
Ad copy for each portal, enquiries forwarded in and sorted by how serious they read, NDAs signed online and access opened in stages from teaser to IM to data room. You see who's active and who has gone quiet.
Offers compared on what the vendor actually receives. Lease assignment, finance, licences and stocktake tracked to the day, and the settlement statement apportioned for you.
The sourced appraisal
Every add-back, traced.
Walk into the listing presentation with evidence, not a rule of thumb. Batonford reads the general ledger, finds the owner's personal and one-off spending and shows where each dollar came from. Revenue is reconciled to BAS before anyone else checks it.
- Add-backs found at transaction level, each linked to its ledger lines
- P&L revenue compared with BAS and bank statements
- Anything without a source is flagged, not hidden
- A branded report the vendor can follow line by line
Appraisal · Harbourside Café
FY24 to FY26 · SDE method
SDE $168,400 · value range $390,000 to $440,000
Every morning
What's stuck, before it costs you.
Each broker starts the day with one list across every deal: documents overdue, NDAs unsigned, buyer questions waiting, conditions coming due and agencies about to end. The chasers are already drafted. Read, adjust and send.
- Built by rule from the deal file, not guessed by AI
- Chasers to vendors and buyers drafted for you, sent from your firm
- Ask the deal assistant anything about a deal and get the answer with its source
- Opt-outs honoured and codenames kept until a buyer is cleared
Your brief · Tuesday
4 things need you
AI that shows its working
Your name is on the work. So you approve it.
Batonford drafts. You decide. Nothing reaches a vendor or a buyer until you've read it and every figure can be traced back to the page it came from.
Drafts, not decisions
No message is sent, no document published and no figure changed without your approval.
Every figure sourced
Each number cites the document and page it came from. Anything unsupported is flagged.
Stored in Sydney
Your firm's records are kept in Australia and walled off from every other firm in the database itself.
Never used for training
Your clients' financials are never used to train AI models. They're your firm's, not ours.
Made for Australian sales
The details that hold up a settlement.
Built around how small businesses actually change hands here, from the vendor's BAS to the landlord's consent.
BAS and the ledger
Revenue reconciled to lodged BAS. Add-backs found in the ledger exported from Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks.
Leases and consents
Lease term remaining, assignment and franchisor consent tracked as conditions with dates.
Vendor statements
Victorian sales checked for a section 52 statement, Form 2 filled from the deal file and signed by the vendor online.
Licences and consent
Agent licences, Tranche 2 AML suggestions and Spam Act consent kept on the deal.
Selling in New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the US or Canada too? Each firm and each contact follows its own country's rules and words.
Getting started
From first call to first appraisal.
No implementation project. Start with one live mandate and see the difference on a deal you know well.
- 1Day 1
Bring a live mandate
Upload the financials you already have: P&Ls, BAS and the ledger export.
- 2Day 2
Invite the vendor
They get a private portal with a short list of what's still needed. Anything late shows up in your morning brief with a chaser drafted.
- 3Day 3
Review the appraisal
Check each add-back against its source, adjust anything you disagree with and send the report in your branding.
Onboarding founding firms.
We're working closely with a small group of brokerages and advisers in Australia. Founding firms get setup help, a direct line to the people building Batonford and a say in what comes next.
Before you ask
The questions brokers ask first.
- Do I have to replace my CRM?
- No. Batonford works alongside it, with nothing to integrate. Your CRM keeps your contacts and campaigns. Batonford does the work on each deal. If you don't have a CRM, the contacts, pipeline and buyer records in Batonford are enough to run on.
- Who's responsible for the figures?
- You are, and Batonford is built for that. Every figure shows its source, anything unsupported is flagged and nothing goes to a vendor or buyer until you approve it.
- Will vendors or buyers know AI drafted it?
- They'll see documents in your firm's branding that you've reviewed and approved. How you describe your process is up to you.
- Can the buyer's finance broker see the numbers?
- With the vendor's approval, yes. Send a pack for the buyer's lender on a lender's earnings basis, with the documents behind it stamped for each download. A finance broker on Batonford can bring it straight into their own loan deal.
- Do we need to connect to Xero or MYOB?
- No. The vendor or their accountant exports the ledger and reports from whatever software they use. Batonford reads the files and never touches their books.
- Is our data used to train AI?
- No. Your firm's and your clients' data is never used to train AI models.
- Where is our data kept?
- In Google Cloud's Sydney region. Every firm's records are walled off from every other firm's in the database itself, not just in the app.
- Where does the AI run?
- Drafting and reading are done by Anthropic's Claude, which may process documents outside Australia. Only what a task needs is sent, it's never used to train models and the results are stored with your firm's records in Sydney.
- How long does setup take?
- There's no implementation project. Invite your team, add your logo and colours and start one live mandate. There's nothing to migrate unless you want to bring contacts across from a spreadsheet.
- Does it suit M&A advisers?
- Yes. Advisers on larger mandates use the same sourced financials on an adjusted EBITDA basis, the cited IM, codenames and a buyer room with staged access and Q&A drafted from the deal file. See the page for M&A advisers.
- What does it cost?
- We're agreeing pricing with our founding firms now. Book a demo and we'll talk numbers for a firm your size.
- We sell outside Australia too.
- Batonford supports Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada. Each firm and each contact follows its own country's rules.
Bring a recent appraisal. See it sourced.
A 20-minute demo on one of your own deals. No slides.