Here is how a mandate runs in the inverted process. Nothing heroic: every week has a deliverable, the machine carries the logistics, and you carry the decisions.
Weeks 1–2
You assemble what your firm already produces: tax returns, accounting-entry files, bank statements, VAT filings, compliance certificates. The platform chases what is missing, ticks off what arrives — and the anticipation view shows, today, what an auditor will probe, so you can extinguish it before they arrive.
Weeks 3–4
The book of facts is built, traced to the source document; what remains uncertain is weighted in the register, not smoothed over. Teaser and memorandum are generated in minutes; the acquirer longlist takes shape. The file does not tell a story: it proves one.
Weeks 5–8
NDAs are signed electronically, access opens on its own, the Q&A converges because the facts are verified. Acquirers submit offers on a comparable grid — a letter to complete, not a free-prose LOI — before the deadline set by the process calendar. The price is revealed by the market.
Weeks 9–10
Due diligence confirms a file that was already verified; any gaps are declared, quantified, and become negotiation material — not a rupture. The negotiation tables surface a point of balance per candidate; your client compares and chooses the one that fits.
Weeks 11–12
The agreement validated by both sides is transcribed into a draft deed — word for word, with its fingerprint. The lawyer drafts the final deed on that basis; only the signature remains. What used to be signed in months is signed in weeks, because nothing was discovered along the way.
Twelve weeks when the file is ready — and the first two weeks exist precisely for that. A file maintained at the rhythm of the annual accounts (the maintenance mission) starts at week 3.
A 3-month trial, one real deal — judge on the evidence.