M&A Templates, Trackers and Checklists

The Devensoft M&A Checklist and Management Toolkit includes several template, trackers and checklists for use by M&A teams.  They are available for free download by submitting the form at the bottom of this page.

They include the following:

Acquisition Tracker

This is a tool to track all potential and historical targets. The first tab is an executive summary tab that will be used for the M&A Opportunity Funnel- Executive Summary. The second tab is to track all active targets and the last tab is to track all targets that have been abandoned/passed on and the ones that have closed (color coded). The tracker is very important, especially when there are multiple companies being researched. Keeping the comments, last action and next steps fields up to date will really help in communicating to leadership and ensuring that there is a follow-through at each stage.

Acquisition Ranking Tool

This tool scores and ranks potential targets to provide a quantitative perspective of which ones to focus on. This is not meant to be an absolute determination of the best companies to pursue but is a quantitative view of how the prospective targets rank against each other, based on the criteria you set. The criteria and scoring should be customized from your business and its corporate strategy and vision.

M&A Opportunity Funnel

This is a template to use for periodic Executive Updates. It allows you to show each target and its stage in the process, give a one-page summary of those targets and detailed company summary slides. The last slide in the appendix gives a detailed description of what is involved at each of the 5 stages.

M&A Workstream Charter

This is a template for developing workstream charters. A charter should be written by each workstream team during or shortly after the integration planning kick-off orientation. More information about this is in the M&A Integration Methodology portion.

Integration Workplans for Core Functions

This is an integration task list for the core functions. This is meant to serve as a starting point and is not an exhaustive list. It should be thoroughly reviewed with each of the other core function leaders and customized to use as a standardized list for all deals for your company. The pertinent items will be used on the functional integration workplans and detailed out, as necessary.  Additional actions, specific to a target/deal, will also be added to the functional integration workplans.

Integration Playbook Template

This is the template that each workstream will use to develop their integration action plans. The first tab should be used for Phase 1/Day 1 items. Some workstreams will not have any actions to execute on Day 1, but many will. The second tab should be used for all other actions. The phases can be tracked by Start Date. The level of detail under each major action is up to the workstream leaders.

Workstream Cross-Functional Dependency Log

This log should be used by each workstream to track and resolve all cross-functional (cross-workstream) dependencies during integration planning and execution. 

Workstream Risks and Issues Log

This log should be used by each workstream to track and mitigate/resolve all risks and issues.

Workstream Status Report

This template should be used by each workstream for regular status reports to the Integration Leader. Reports are submitted weekly.