Before you call the seller: how to read our extension's PDF report
By Grig Kochedykov · . Product facts reviewed against our live extension and pricing pages on 29 October 2026.
Our free extension for Chrome and Edge makes a PDF report from a business-for-sale listing. Before you call a seller, read that report in a set order. First the count in the box on the page. Then the three lines that say who you are dealing with, the money lines with their periods, and the lines that decide what you take on. Last, the list of what the listing does not say. That list becomes one written message to the seller.
The report reads only the listing page. Every figure in it is the seller's own claim, and every "not stated" is a question.
Before you open the PDF: the count in the box
"When the extension spots a business for sale, a small box appears in the corner of the page. It tells you how many of the 12 things the listing answers — “The rest is what you ask the seller.”"
Use that count as your first sort. A listing that answers most of the 12 is ready for a close read of the PDF now. One that answers few needs answers from the seller before it gets an evening of your time: download the PDF anyway and send its list of gaps as one message, as shown below.
The box has one button, “Download PDF”. No box? "Press the extension icon, and the extension reads the page." The box and the report open "in your browser’s language when the extension has it, and in English when it does not."
The report from top to bottom
| Part of the PDF | What it holds | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| The top | "the listing’s name, a link back to it and the date" | This is the date of your copy. Compare it with what the seller says later. |
| Twelve lines | What the listing says on each of the 12 things, "with amounts in the listing’s own currency" | Read them in four groups, below. |
| "What stays unknown" | "the lines the page does not say, as one list: what to ask the seller about" | Your message to the seller. |
| A plain note | The report "reads only the listing page and no official records" | Treat every figure as the seller's claim. |
| The last line | What "our €550 check would look up, with a link to order it" | For the listing you would put a deposit on. |
| The file name | "named after the site and the date, so your reports sort themselves" | Keep the reports for one search in one folder. |
Read the twelve lines in four groups
1. Who you are dealing with. The legal name and tax number, the premises address, and who is selling, the owner or an agent. Read these first. Registers, court records and licence records are searched by name or by number. Without the legal name, most of them are hard to search.
On our extension page we show the report the extension made from a real restaurant listing in Canada. Its "What stays unknown" list has 9 of the 12 lines: seven of the nine lines from the price down, plus the legal name and the premises address. Of the three lines in this group, only "who is selling" is not on that list. Before any call about that restaurant, the first question is its legal name.
2. The money. Price, rent, revenue and profit. The revenue and profit lines each carry "for what period". A revenue figure without a period cannot be set against a yearly rent. If a figure comes without its period, ask for the period. The amounts stay in the listing's currency, so convert them yourself before you compare two listings from different countries.
3. What you take on. How long the lease runs and whether it passes to you, the licences, the staff, and "what exactly is for sale: the premises and equipment, or the company itself". These lines are about what changes hands with the business.
4. The papers behind the figures. One line says whether the listing names the papers behind its figures. If it says "not stated", the revenue and profit above it rest on the listing text alone.
In the Canada report, only 3 of the 12 lines are not on the "What stays unknown" list: who is selling, the price, and what is for sale (the premises and the equipment). The rent, the revenue, the profit, the lease, the licences, the staff and the papers are all on it.
Turn the list into one message
Send the list at the end of the PDF as one written message, not as questions spread over a call. For the Canada listing it would read:
Before we speak, could you send me the legal name of the business and its tax number, the address of the premises, the rent, how long the lease runs and whether it can pass to a buyer, the revenue and the profit with their periods, the papers behind those figures, the number of staff, and the licences the business runs on?
Then call. You can ask about the answers, or about the lines that came back empty.
If a seller later gives a figure that differs from the listing, the PDF shows what the listing said, and on which date.
On a computer, and what the extension sees
"The extension works in Chrome or Edge on a computer." Found a listing on your phone? The extension page says: "Send this page to yourself and open it there."
When you add it, your browser shows a warning that the extension can "read and change all your data on all websites". Our extension page explains what happens: "On each page, a small script looks for words that say a business is for sale." And: "We never see the pages you merely open."
What the report cannot tell you
The report shows what the seller claims and what the seller left out. It does not show who owns the business, which debts can follow it to you, or whether the lease and the permits pass to you. Public records and the rules of the place where the business is answer part of these questions: who is recorded as the owner, which debts are recorded, and which rules decide whether the lease and the permits pass. The rest, such as the terms of the lease, the landlord's consent and the seller's other contracts, is in the seller's papers or with the landlord. Our due diligence guide lists what to look at. For a table of questions line by line, see save the listing before you call the seller.
Your next three steps
- The extension. On a computer: Add to Chrome — free or Add to Edge — free. "The report needs no account."
- Your account. "Saving a listing takes a My list account. In it, the listings you save from different sites sit in one place." Press the round logo button or the extension icon; the first time, the panel asks you to link your account. "After that, press “Save to my list”." Create my account.
- The check. The last line of the PDF links to it. 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. The €950 report is "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. "Within 12 weeks of receiving the €550 report, pay the price difference for the €950 report: what you paid counts in full." "We do not contact the seller." "You pay only if we take it on."
Sources
- Provenance Diligence, Free extension (page with the saved restaurant listing and its PDF report) (retrieved 29 October 2026)
- Provenance Diligence, Pricing (retrieved 29 October 2026)