How moves are chosen

The engine tests every input of your valuation, keeps the few that add the most value soonest for the least effort, and puts them in an order a buyer will credit.

4-minute readUpdated October 2026

Read itFor owners. No formulas.For a CPA or CFO. Sources and tables.For an analyst. The formula and the policy.

The question the plan answers

Of everything you could work on, which few things add the most value, soonest, for the least effort? The engine answers it with the same model that produced your value, so every move is priced in the same dollars.

A move is one input of the valuation moved from where it is today to a target, by a date. The dollar figure beside it is the engine re-run with that input at target. Nothing is scored by opinion.

Each objective is bound to exactly one engine input (a “port”). Its target is set either as an absolute value, as a point in the industry band for your kind of business (the 25th, 50th or 75th percentile), or as a change relative to today. The value of the move is the engine’s point value with the input at target, less today’s.

Step one: protect and push

The engine first places every input on a simple map. Across: where you sit in your industry’s range, from weak to strong. Up: how much value that input swings. Inputs that are weak and worth a lot are the levers to push. Inputs that are strong and worth a lot are strengths to protect: a plan that trades them away is a bad plan.

Where the sample’s inputs sitEach input, sorted into the four corners of the map

Service gross margin: 62% against an own-platform median of 68%; swings the value by $417k
Overhead: 33% of revenue against an industry median of 32%; swings it by $252k
Price per seat, drifting down 1.5% a year

How to read it. The report draws this as a map: position in the industry band across, the value each input swings up. The tabs list what falls in each corner. The swing is the value at the low end of the input’s test range against the high end.

Step two: rank by value, effort and evidence

From the levers to push, the plan keeps the few that are worth the most and can be moved within three years. Each carries an effort grade (low, medium, high) and an evidence grade: A when the target comes from your own history, B from industry data, C when it is an assumption to be tested.

Move	Today → target	In sequence
1. Raise prices a little each year instead of letting them slip Price per seat, change per year · by Oct 2027 · effort low	−1.5% a year → +1.0% a year	$620k
2. Spend less of each sales dollar on overhead Overhead (sales, general and admin), % of revenue · by Oct 2028 · effort medium	33% → 29%	$509k
3. Keep more of each sales dollar after direct costs Service gross margin · by Oct 2028 · effort medium	62% → 66%	$448k
4. Lose fewer customers each year Customer churn · by Oct 2029 · effort medium	4.7% a year → 4.0% a year	$258k
5. Win new customers faster Seat growth · by Oct 2028 · effort high	7.6% a year → 9.0% a year	$164k

The sample’s five objectives. “Alone” re-runs the engine with only that input at target; “in sequence” applies them one after another so interactions count once. All five in sequence: +$2.00M, $3.93M → $5.93M.

What each move is worthValue added in sequence, $ at sale

1. Pricingeffort low · evidence B$620k
2. Overheadeffort medium · evidence B$509k
3. Gross margineffort medium · evidence B$448k
4. Retentioneffort medium · evidence A$258k
5. Growtheffort high · evidence C$164k

How to read it. Longer bars add more value. The first move is both the largest and the easiest, which is why it leads.

Step three: put them in order

Order matters because a buyer only pays for what has already shown up in the trailing twelve months. Easy, valuable moves go first so they start counting sooner. Moves that depend on others wait for them.

DependenciesAn objective runs after any objective it depends on. In the sample, growth waits for pricing and retention.
EffortAmong the moves that are ready, low effort goes first.
ValueAmong moves of equal effort, the larger goes first.
MeasurementInside every objective, the first work is making its numbers measurable.

In the sample, the order chosen by dependencies and effort matches the order by size, so sequencing costs nothing. When they differ, the report prints both and the dollar cost of the difference.

Order. Dependencies first (an objective runs after the ones it depends on), then effort (low before medium before high), then value (larger first)
Sequential value. Targets applied one after another in the chosen order; each objective’s in-sequence value is the engine’s point value after it, less the value before it, so interactions are counted once
Comparison. The same targets applied in the plan file’s by-size order are run too, to price the order itself
Margin and cost moves. Change the trailing EBITDA a buyer sees, not only the forecast ratios, so the “after” run carries the plan’s EBITDA ($729k against $530k today) and every method moves with it

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