How the valuation is calculated

1 Base range by full-time staff

Buyers size their published ranges mostly by head count. Each of our low ends sits at or below the published floor for that size, and each high end at 15–60% of the top of the published band. The anchors are on the price index, each with its source; most are buyers’ claims, not deals.

2 Years of records

A longer history gives a buyer more complete examples of how work gets done: one company’s 13 years of Slack, email and Jira were reported to have sold for “hundreds of thousands” of dollars (see the price index).

3 Systems coverage

Buyers build simulated workplaces from many tools together, so breadth matters. The multiplier is 0.7 plus 0.1 for each kind of system that holds records, up to 1.3. Code hosting is one optional kind like the others; a company with no code at all is not marked down for it.

The kinds counted: Email & calendar; Documents & drives; Chat; CRM; Accounting & billing; Projects & ticketing; Call & meeting recordings; Industry systems (ERP, TMS, CAD, property management); Code hosting (optional).

4 English share

This one is our own assumption, not a published price: we have no public price for records mostly in another language, so we discount rather than exclude.

5 Who owns the records of client work

Your own factual answer to “who owns the records of work you do for clients, under your contracts?” It moves the range more than anything else, because buyers generally look for records the company itself owns. We never advise on whether a company may license its records; the buyer and your own lawyer assess that.

6 Business age

A company under 3 years old gets ×0.75; buyers usually look for 3 or more years of operating history.

7 Rounding and the cap

Low ends round down and high ends round up, to the nearest $5k under $100k and to $25k above. The high end never exceeds $1M. Some buyers advertise ranges reaching several million dollars, but those headline figures are for the largest and most unusual datasets, not reported deals. With today’s bands the highest possible result is about $800k, so the cap is a guard.

8 Industries we don’t take on

These get no range, never qualify and are never introduced. Their records are mostly other people’s protected information or covered by client privilege. This is our own policy, not legal advice.

• Medical, dental or healthcare. Medical, dental and healthcare records are full of patient information, which is tightly regulated.
• Insurance. Insurance records are mostly policyholders’ and claimants’ personal and financial details, which are tightly regulated.
• Staffing or recruitment agency. A staffing agency’s records are mostly candidates’ and workers’ personal data.
• Title or escrow. Title and escrow files are mostly consumers’ identity and financial details, which are tightly regulated.
• Law firm or legal services. Law firm records are covered by client privilege.

Worked example

An accounting firm with 50–99 full-time staff, 10+ years of records in email, documents, chat, CRM and accounting (five kinds), mostly in English, with mixed ownership of client work: base $25k–$150k × 1.2 × 1.2 × 1 × 0.7 × 1 = ×1.008, so $25k to $175k.