Which medical-gas services does the company actually sell?
Start with the signed work, not the label on the company. Separate installation, inspection, verification, maintenance, and design. Find out which tasks the firm performs itself, which it hires others to perform, and which belong to the customer.
ASSE's professional qualifications page lists distinct medical-gas roles in Series 6000-2024. That helps the buyer understand a credential named in a worker's file. It does not grant a business license or show that every facility accepts that person for every task.
Match the contracts, completed jobs, staff roles, and outside-provider bills. Ask who performed each part of the work and who accepted the result. A single invoice may include several duties; the buyer needs the people and costs behind each one.
The market hub helps compare buyers for this niche. A strong general plumbing operator may still need medical-gas staff, facility approval, and outside support. Test the services the buyer can keep before counting the target's full revenue in the forecast.
Which code edition applies at each facility?
Get the applicable requirements from the customer, contract, and responsible authority. Keep them tied to the actual site and task. The publication date on a standard does not establish that an existing facility has adopted that edition.
ASSE's listed 2024 medical-gas series parallels NFPA 99-2024. CMS's facility-code guidance discusses 2012 editions in its covered health-care facility program. Those sources show why a new publication and an adopted requirement are different facts.
Collect the facility's specifications, permit records, acceptance steps, and relevant exceptions. Have qualified advisers resolve a mismatch. Do not apply CMS's covered program to every office, customer, or project, or choose one checklist for all sites without a review.
Record the accepted edition and the person who confirmed it. If the buyer plans a new service or different work, ask what changes. A past approval for the seller's job does not establish that a broader service can proceed under the same terms.
Who can keep the required roles filled?
Name the person for each task, then check the credential, duty, employment or outside-provider terms, and practical availability. Find out whether the seller performs a technical role that no retained worker can fill. A roster is not enough if the named people will leave.
Use the qualifying-party definition to review licensed trade supervision where it applies. Keep that role distinct from medical-gas personnel roles. Confirm the actual credential, accepted scope, and any renewal or change needed for the proposed team.
The skilled-trades labor guide supports a staffing and backup plan. Budget the cost of keeping the required people, training replacements, and covering absences. Those costs may continue even when the seller treated a technical duty as unpaid owner time.
Where an outside verifier or other specialist is used, inspect the agreement and future availability. Have qualified advisers confirm the permitted role arrangement for the work. Do not assume one universal independence rule or treat a copy of a credential as a replacement for the person who holds it.
Does the job file show completed and accepted work?
Trace the job from agreed scope to final acceptance. Identify who installed or serviced the system, who performed any required testing or verification, and who accepted the records. An invoice marked complete may still have an open correction or report.
A medical-gas acceptance file links a specific job's scope, qualified roles, applicable requirements, reports, corrections, and acceptance status. It is a record for the business review. It is not a new credential, technical procedure, or certification of the system.
Sample completed jobs, unpaid jobs, and work still underway. Compare plans, equipment details, approved changes, reports, and correction notices with the customer's response. Have qualified staff explain the actual gap rather than filling it with a generic statement that the work passed.
Check what the buyer may receive and use under the contracts and access terms. Keep site and customer records within the agreed controls. A bulk export may leave out attachments or approvals; test the handoff against real job files before relying on it.
Will the buyer's crew have site access and task information?
Ask the facility about access, orientation, work approval, security, and scheduling for the proposed crew. Confirm what changes when the owner, employer, entity, or assigned people change. The seller's badge or personal relationship does not give the buyer the same permission.
OSHA's hazard communication overview covers chemical information, labels, safety data sheets, and worker training for applicable work. Match that context to the actual products and tasks with qualified safety advisers. It is not hospital work approval or a complete medical-gas safety program.
Inspect relevant training, equipment records, procedures, and customer coordination. Ask the future manager how staff receive current information before a job. A past attendance sheet cannot show that a new worker is ready for a changed task or unfamiliar facility.
Keep the operating response separate from the deal's financial protection. A seller's agreement to pay for a claim may matter to the contract. It cannot make an unprepared crew qualified or grant access; complete the needed preparation before dispatching that crew.
What can unpaid jobs reveal about earnings?
Read each job's payment terms alongside its acceptance status. Separate balances ready for collection from amounts still dependent on a report, correction, verification, or approval. Ask who will perform the remaining work and what it will cost.
Consider an illustrative job, with no real target data. Assume a $20,000 contract has been billed, and the customer has paid $15,000. The final $5,000 depends on the required acceptance steps. Assume $1,200 of labor and $800 of outside support remain to finish those steps.
The assumed remaining costs total $2,000 before other costs or disputes. That does not make the outstanding $5,000 immediate cash, and it does not prove $3,000 of EBITDA. The customer still needs to accept the work under the actual terms, and the buyer needs to fund the remaining tasks.
Use the working-capital peg definition to discuss receivables, deposits, bills, and unfinished jobs with the CPA. Agree how each item enters the closing terms. Do not count the same cost twice as both a recurring expense and a separate closing adjustment without explaining the treatment.
Which records should guide the closing plan?
Join the service, site, people, approval, and cash records by job number. Mark a missing fact as unresolved and assign a response. A file gap may call for a record, a qualified review, a cost change, or an approval before work continues.
| Review field | Records to inspect | Closing question |
|---|---|---|
| Service sold | Signed scope and completed tasks | Which roles does the firm perform? |
| Applicable edition | Facility requirements and authority response | What governs this job? |
| Qualified people | Credentials, duties and availability | Who can keep each role filled? |
| Acceptance | Reports, corrections and customer response | What remains before completion? |
| Site access | Current personnel and work approvals | Can the buyer's crew do the task? |
| Job cash | Bills, receipts and remaining costs | What must be funded before collection? |
- Separate the acquired installation, inspection, verification, maintenance, and design work.
- Confirm the governing facility requirements, editions, and accepted role arrangements.
- Secure the required people, outside support, equipment, and site access.
- Match unpaid and unfinished jobs to reports, corrections, payment terms, and costs.
- Test permitted file access and assign the next operating task before the seller leaves.
Have retained staff walk through one routine job and one job awaiting acceptance. Ask them to find the requirement, customer contact, report, remaining task, and payment condition. Resolve gaps while the seller and records are available.
The plumbing M&A market guide and private-equity plumbing guide help compare buyer fit. Size and funding do not prove medical-gas capability or a price premium. The supported work, qualified people, acceptance records, and costs should guide the buyer's plan.