Car wash acquisition comparison worksheet

Make the starting earnings measure consistent

Use the same twelve-month period and cash definition for each alternative. Starting operating cash is before acquisition debt and capital reserves, after continuing operating costs. It is not automatically interchangeable with SDE, EBITDA, accounting net income or property NOI. Record the work required to reconcile the actual records in your private file.

Enter incremental management and rent only where those costs are absent from the starting measure. A buyer-operated scenario can leave owner labor unpaid; it is not equivalent to a managed business with replacement wages included. The operating-role selection describes your assumption and does not add or remove a wage automatically.

The funding and cash equations

Project uses = price + cash-funded transaction costs + immediate equipment work + opening working cash. Sources = buyer cash + modeled loan principals. A positive funding gap is additional sources needed; a negative gap is excess sources to reconcile. A numerical return on an unbalanced plan is still an unresolved scenario.

Annual cash after reserve and debt = starting operating cash − additional management − additional rent − annual reserve − scheduled first-year loan payments − any first-year maturity balance. Cash-on-cash divides that figure by buyer cash and is undefined when cash is zero. The coverage proxy uses cash after management/rent but before reserve, divided by scheduled debt payments; it is not lender underwriting.

Review timing and the actual property scope

Each alternative supports two optional debt tranches using the same monthly amortization, interest-only and full-standby methods as the acquisition calculator. Zero-principal tranches are ignored. Maturity cannot exceed amortization. The first modeled balloon year is shown; individual loan details retain all maturity balances. Refinancing is not assumed.

A combined business-and-property price cannot be treated as equivalent to a leased business price without separate analysis. The worksheet flags different or unconfirmed property and operating-role selections. It does not value property, standardize owner labor, create a sale multiple or rank deals.

Worked example with different funding structures

Illustrative Wash A has a $550,000 price, $25,000 costs, $15,000 immediate work and $10,000 working cash, funded by $600,000 buyer cash. Starting annual operating cash is $120,000, with $40,000 additional management and $10,000 reserve: modeled remaining cash is $70,000 and cash-on-cash is 11.67%.

Illustrative Wash B has a $750,000 price and $37,500 costs, funded by $150,000 buyer cash and a hypothetical $637,500 loan at 8% nominal annual interest over 300 months with matching maturity. Starting cash is $150,000, additional management $50,000 and reserve $10,000: modeled annual debt payments are $59,043.94, remaining cash $30,956.06 and cash-on-cash 20.64%. These returns do not select a winner; the examples have different debt and property exposure.

Evidence status remains a separate decision

Choose unconfirmed, provided but awaiting review, or reviewed for this scenario for operating figures, property, equipment and financing. These self-reported statuses never verify a claim or establish approval. Unresolved selections are displayed alongside the computed results instead of being hidden in a score.

Use the earnings bridge, equipment reserve planner and diligence checklist builder to resolve the supporting file. Check monthly liquidity in the cash runway planner. CSV retains inputs, evidence selections and loan terms; print retains the comparison and assumptions.