Purchase Price Allocation — ASC 805

Purchase price allocations
that survive the Day-1 audit.

Post-close ASC 805 allocations: intangibles identified and valued, WARA reconciled, useful lives supported, and goodwill that your auditor signs off on — without a second round of questions.

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What is a PPA?

The valuation every acquisition triggers.

Close a business combination and ASC 805 requires you to allocate the purchase price to the acquired assets and liabilities at fair value — tangibles, identifiable intangibles like customer relationships and technology, and the residual as goodwill. The allocation lands in your first post-close financial statements and gets tested in your next audit.

The math is standard. What separates a clean Day-1 audit from a painful one is the support: attrition curves, royalty rates, contributory asset charges, and the IRR–WACC–WARA triangle — each documented to source, each internally consistent.

FairValueX delivers the allocation and the reconciliations auditors test first.

You Need a PPA When:

You closed an acquisition this fiscal year
Your auditor requested the Day-1 allocation
Provisional amounts need finalizing (measurement period)
Earnouts or contingent consideration need valuing
A carve-out or asset deal needs allocation support
Pre-deal: you want the allocation modeled before signing
Methodology

The standard toolkit, applied with documentation discipline.

Method selection follows the asset — and every selection is written down, sourced, and reconciled.

MPEEM

Multi-period excess earnings for the primary income-producing intangible — typically customer relationships — net of contributory asset charges.

Relief-from-Royalty

For trade names and developed technology: the royalties avoided by owning the asset, with royalty rate selection supported by comparable license data.

With-and-Without

For non-compete agreements and similar protections: enterprise value with the agreement in place versus without it.

Cost Approach

Replacement cost for assembled workforce and internally developed assets where income methods don't apply.

WARA / IRR Reconciliation

Asset-level returns weighted and reconciled against deal IRR and WACC — the internal consistency check auditors run first.

Contingent Consideration

Earnouts and clawbacks valued with scenario or simulation methods matched to the payoff structure.

How It Works

From closing binder to audit-ready allocation.

Step 01

Deal Intake

Purchase agreement, deal model, target financials, and customer/revenue data. We map the intangible inventory against ASC 805 criteria.

Step 02

Valuation & Reconciliation

Each identified intangible valued with the appropriate method; contributory charges, useful lives, IRR/WACC/WARA reconciled and documented.

Step 03

Review & Deliver

Independent review and sensitivity analysis, then the full allocation binder — journal-entry ready, with every input traceable to source.

Ongoing

Audit Support

12 months of auditor response support on the delivered allocation — through Day-1 audit and measurement-period true-ups.

FAQ

Common PPA questions.

The ASC 805 requirement to allocate the consideration paid in a business combination to acquired tangible assets, identifiable intangibles, and liabilities at fair value — with the remainder recorded as goodwill. It appears in your first post-close financials and is tested in your next audit.

The initial allocation goes in the first financial statements after close; ASC 805 gives you a measurement period of up to one year from the acquisition date to finalize provisional amounts. Practically: start when the deal closes, not when the audit starts.

Customer relationships, developed technology, trade names, non-competes, backlog — and core deposit intangibles for financial institutions. Each must meet the contractual-legal or separability criterion; the identification memo is part of our deliverable.

MPEEM is generally reserved for the primary income-generating asset (often customer relationships); relief-from-royalty fits licensable assets like trade names and technology. The selection logic — and why the alternatives were not used — is documented in the binder. See MPEEM vs. relief from royalty for the full decision framework.

Attrition assumptions, royalty rates, contributory asset charges, PFI consistency with the deal model, useful lives, and the IRR/WACC/WARA reconciliation. Our binder pre-answers each with sensitivity analysis and sourced support — see the questions auditors ask about PPAs.

Go Deeper

PPA references from the library.

Purchase Price Allocation Guide (ASC 805)

The full allocation process — identification, valuation, reconciliation, disclosure.

The Questions Auditors Ask About PPAs

The Day-1 audit workflow — and the documentation that closes it fast.

Customer Relationships & MPEEM

Attrition, contributory charges, and the excess-earnings mechanics.

MPEEM vs. Relief from Royalty

Choosing the method per asset — and documenting the choice.

Scenario Modeling Framework

Earnouts and contingent consideration under multiple outcomes.

Evidence Trail Design

The documentation architecture behind every FairValueX allocation.

Closed the deal? Start the allocation.

Share the purchase agreement and deal model. We'll confirm the intangible inventory, scope, timeline, and a fixed fee — before work begins.

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