Buying an online business: save the listing first

When you buy an online business, the listing is often the only written claim the seller makes about sales and profit. A listing can be edited, and it can be taken down. So save it, with its date, before you pay anything.

Then match each figure in it with papers that come from outside the business.

In short: four things before you pay

Save the listing as it stands today, with its date and a link back to it.
List every figure in it with its period: sales, profit, visitors, customers.
Match each figure with papers from outside the business: bank statements, the payment platform's reports, the tax filings.
If the seller cannot back a figure up, treat that figure as unknown. Do not settle for a discount.

General information, not legal or financial advice.

Why the listing matters: a real case

An online business in New South Wales sold water coolers and filters. The sellers asked A$350,000. Their papers put sales for February to June 2012 at A$166,375.65. The sellers' own sales register, which the court accepted, showed A$58,730.03.

Our arithmetic: A$58,730.03 ÷ A$166,375.65 = 0.353. About 35 cents of every dollar claimed.

The broker warned the buyer in writing that the sellers could not back up their figures. The buyer offered A$200,000 plus stock, about 43 % below the asking price. The buyer also signed a letter saying the discount was given because the sales figures could not be backed up. The contract had a "No Reliance" clause: the buyer relied on nothing outside the contract.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales found that the claim about sales was "false, and accordingly it was misleading and deceptive" ([2016] NSWSC 61 at [132]). But it dismissed the buyer's case. The buyer had priced in the risk and signed to say so. The Court of Appeal agreed, and noted that the buyer knew "the bank statements supplied did not support the sales figures" ([2016] NSWCA 309 at [60]).

Our arithmetic: the cash offer was 57 % of the ask, before stock. The sales turned out to be 35 % of the claim. The discount was smaller than the gap, and the letter that won the discount cost the buyer the claim.

The case is told in chapter 5 of Buying a Small Business in Australia, a book by Grig Lien.

What to match each figure with

What the listing says	What to ask for	What to look for
Sales or revenue	Bank statements and the payment platform's own reports for the same months	Money that arrived in the business's account, month by month
Profit	The tax filings and the accounts for the same years	Whether the "profit" is before or after the owner's pay, advertising and stock
Visitors or customers	Read-only access to the shop's statistics	The same months as the sales, and where the visitors come from
What is for sale	A list: the website, the domain, the accounts on each platform, the stock, the supplier contracts	Whose name each one is in, and how each passes to you

Ask for the papers by month, for at least the last twelve months. A yearly total can hide a single good season.

How to save the listing

A screenshot loses the link and often the date. Our free extension for Chrome and Edge makes a PDF report from a business-for-sale listing.

"Open a business-for-sale listing and press “Download PDF”. You get a report on the 12 things a check of the business needs: what the listing says about each, and which ones it does not say."

"What the listing said, on paper. The report keeps what the listing said, with its date and a link back. If the price or the revenue changes later, you have what was written."

"Each line shows what the listing says, with amounts in the listing’s own currency." "The extension does not guess: when the page is not clear, the line says “not stated”." The revenue and profit lines each carry the period the listing gives, so you can ask for the same months in the bank statements.

"When the site’s page says a listing has been taken down, the panel tells you so before you call."

The report "reads only the listing page and no official records". Every figure in it is the seller's claim. That is the point: it is the claim you will match with the papers.

What to ask the seller, in writing

Please send the bank statements and the payment platform's reports for the last twelve months, by month.
Please send the tax filings and accounts for the last two years.
Which accounts, domains and contracts are in the sale, and whose name is each in?
The listing dated [date] gives sales of [amount] for [period]. Which papers show that figure?

Keep the answers next to the saved listing.

Your next three steps

The extension. Add to Chrome — free or Add to Edge — free. Reading on your phone? Open this page on your computer. More on our extension page.
Your account. "Saving a listing takes a My list account. In it, the listings you save from different sites sit in one place." Create my account.
The check, for the business you would put a deposit on. From our pricing page: "€550: from the public records, which debts can follow the business under the rules that apply where it is, and what decides whether the permit and lease pass to you". It needs "enough to identify the business — its legal name, its registration or tax number, or its trade name and town." Start for €550. "€950: everything in the €550 report, plus the seller's figures checked against the seller's own papers — tax returns or the accounts the company filed." Start for €950. "Your report comes in your language: any of 181, chosen on the order form." "We do not contact the seller." "You pay only if we take it on." Within 12 weeks of receiving the €550 report, pay the price difference for the €950 report: what you paid counts in full.

Get the free extension

Sources

Buying a Small Business in Australia, a book by Grig Lien, chapter 5 (Supreme Court of New South Wales, [2016] NSWSC 61; Court of Appeal, [2016] NSWCA 309) (retrieved 2 November 2026)
Provenance Diligence, Free extension (retrieved 2 November 2026)
Provenance Diligence, Pricing (retrieved 2 November 2026)

Buying an online business: save the listing before you pay