What is a Chartered Business Valuator?

A CBV holds the designation granted by the CBV Institute, which describes it as Canada’s only designation dedicated exclusively to business valuation. Members pass the Institute’s Program of Studies and its Membership Qualification Examination. They also log 1,500 hours of valuation experience, at least 750 of them in core valuation work.

What is the difference between a calculation, estimate and comprehensive valuation report?

They differ in how much the valuator checks your figures against outside evidence. A Comprehensive report carries a high level of that corroboration and an Estimate report a moderate level. A Calculation report carries the least and relies more on what the owner tells the valuator, and the report says so.

How much does a CBV valuation cost?

Each firm quotes its own fee. The level of report drives most of the cost, and a holding structure or a court appearance adds time. The fee is fixed apart from the result, so ask two or three CBVs for a written quote at the level you need.

Do I need a CBV to sell my business to an outside buyer?

A market range usually serves a sale to an unrelated buyer, because the offers you receive set the price. A broker’s opinion of value or an advisor’s range does that job. A CBV report becomes the right document when the buyer is related to you or a court is involved.

InsightsOctober 22, 20267 min read

Who should value my business before I sell it?

A Chartered Business Valuator signs a report the CRA and the courts can rely on, and a broker or advisor gives the range an outside buyer will test. Which one you need depends on who has to accept the number.

A Chartered Business Valuator should value your business when the CRA or a court has to accept the figure, as in an estate freeze or a sale to your children. For a sale to an outside buyer, a broker’s opinion of value or an advisor’s range is enough, because competing offers set the final price.

The answer depends on who has to accept the number

Who should value your business before a sale depends on who has to accept the figure. When the reader is an outside buyer, a market range from a broker or an M&A advisor does the job, because the buyers themselves settle the final price. When the reader is the Canada Revenue Agency or a court, you need a business valuator in Canada whose report can be defended, and in practice that means a Chartered Business Valuator.

The methods behind every one of these figures are the same ones, set out in how to value a business. This piece is about the people who apply them and the documents they sign, from a free range at one end to a Comprehensive Valuation Report at the other.

What a Chartered Business Valuator signs

The CBV designation is granted by the CBV Institute, which describes it as Canada’s only designation dedicated exclusively to business valuation and reports more than 2,800 members. Its membership requirements start with a university degree, which holders of the CPA or CFA designation can have waived. Candidates then pass the Institute’s Program of Studies and its Membership Qualification Examination. They also log 1,500 hours of valuation experience, at least 750 of them in core valuation work.

Under the Institute’s standards for engagements beginning on or after January 1, 2026, every valuation report states one of three levels of conclusion. Practice Standard 100 separates them by the depth of work, and above all by how much the valuator checks your figures against outside evidence, which the standard calls independent corroboration.

The three levels, in the Institute’s terms

Comprehensive: An extensive scope of work that addresses the significant inputs and assumptions in detail, with a high level of independent corroboration.
Estimate: A substantial scope of work that sits between the other two, with a moderate level of independent corroboration.
Calculation: The least extensive scope. The valuator limits corroboration and may use simplifying assumptions for some inputs, so more of the work rests on what you tell them.

The standard in force until December 31, 2025 described the same three levels by the assurance each gives, with the Comprehensive report giving the most. Under Practice Standard 110, an Estimate or Calculation report must state that a deeper level of work might have produced a different conclusion. The valuator sets the level with you, from the purpose and the people who will rely on it, and confirms it in writing.

Every such report also states that the valuator acted independently and that the fee stands apart from any outcome of the report. A CBV with a stake in your sale, for example one working inside an advisory firm, writes an Advisory Report under a separate set of standards.

When the CRA or a court reads the figure

A formal report earns its fee when someone other than a buyer must accept the value. The CRA’s page on transfers of capital property says that when you sell to a non-arm’s length person, such as your child, for less than fair market value, your selling price is considered to be fair market value. A gift counts as a sale at that value too.

That rule is why selling a business to your children starts from an independent figure, since a family discount leaves the parent’s tax where it was. A CBV report gives the family and the CRA the same number to work from.

An estate freeze is the other common case. You exchange your common shares for preferred shares at today’s value, so growth from that day accrues to the new common shareholders, usually your children. The freeze agreement can include a price adjustment clause that resets the price if the CRA later finds a different value. The CRA’s folio on price adjustment clauses requires a real attempt to find fair market value by a fair and reasonable method. It allows that figure to come from someone other than a valuation expert, and it warns that a large gap from the true value may show the attempt fell short.

A buyout or dispute under a shareholder agreement puts one valuator’s work against another’s. The Institute’s Practice Standard 310 governs the expert reports CBVs write for shareholder matters, and in those files the opposing side tests every input.

A broker’s opinion and an advisor’s range

In a sale to an unrelated buyer, the offers themselves test the value, so the figure you need beforehand is a range to aim for. A business broker prepares an opinion of value for this, drawn from sales of similar businesses and from the buyers the broker knows. An M&A advisor builds a range from industry multiples and the buyers likely to bid, then runs a process where those buyers compete.

Both come from people paid when the business sells, and their worth lies in market knowledge. Business broker, M&A advisor, or selling it yourself compares how each one finds buyers, and the cost of selling a business sets out what each charges.

The buyer’s bank also runs a valuation of its own to decide how much it will lend. BDC notes that banks tend to use more conservative assumptions, and that a price above the bank’s figure has to be covered from other sources. A vendor note often fills that gap.

Matching the purpose to the document

What the number is for	The document that fits	Who prepares it	What stands behind it
Deciding whether to sell, and to whom	An indicative range on adjusted earnings	An online tool, InvestDeal’s included	Industry ranges applied to figures you supply, unchecked
Setting the range for an outside buyer	A broker’s opinion of value or an advisor’s range	A broker or M&A advisor, usually paid on closing	Market knowledge, then the offers buyers make
Lending to the buyer	The lender’s own valuation	The buyer’s bank	Assumptions the bank sets, often conservative
A sale to your child or another related buyer	A Valuation Report at the level agreed in writing	A CBV acting independently	Corroboration set by the level, highest in a Comprehensive report
An estate freeze	A Valuation Report that supports the price adjustment clause	A CBV acting independently	A documented method the CRA can review
A shareholder buyout or dispute	A Valuation Report or an Expert Report	A CBV for each side, or one both agree on	Inputs the opposing valuator will test one by one

The rows can combine. An owner who freezes the estate five years before selling to an outside buyer needs the CBV report for the freeze and a market range for the sale. The two figures can differ, since the first is fair market value on a set date and the second is what a particular buyer will pay.

What drives the cost of a CBV valuation

Each firm quotes its own fee, set by the hours the engagement takes. The level of conclusion drives most of the cost, because it sets how many hours the valuator spends checking your figures. The rest comes from the business itself.

A holding company above the operating company, or real estate inside the business, adds a separate step to the work.
Clean statements and a documented schedule of add backs buyers accept shorten it.
A minority stake needs a view on any discount for lack of control, which the standards treat as a significant input.
A report that may go to court carries the cost of preparing to testify.

The fee is fixed apart from the result, so you pay it whatever the report concludes. Ask two or three CBVs for a written quote at the level you need, and name the purpose in the engagement letter.

Where the free InvestDeal range belongs

InvestDeal’s own valuation sits in the first row of the table. It places your business in an industry row and applies the range buyers in Canada usually pay against adjusted earnings, which is profit with your salary and personal costs added back. A veterinary clinic or a pharmacy, for example, falls in the healthcare row at 4.0 to 7.0 times. Our engine then moves the multiple for size, down 0.5 below $500,000 of earnings and up 0.3 above $1 million.

Every result is labelled an indicative range. InvestDeal is paid five percent of the sale price on closing, so our figure comes from a party with an interest in the sale, which places it beside the broker’s opinion. How accurate online valuation calculators are explains what such a range sees and what it leaves for your statements.

For a sale to an outside buyer, that range serves well as the first document, and the offers do the rest. For a freeze or a family sale, bring the range to a CBV as a starting point and let the report set the figure. The Quick AI valuation gives the first range in a few minutes, before you give anyone your name.

Questions owners ask

What is a Chartered Business Valuator?: A CBV holds the designation granted by the CBV Institute, which describes it as Canada’s only designation dedicated exclusively to business valuation. Members pass the Institute’s Program of Studies and its Membership Qualification Examination. They also log 1,500 hours of valuation experience, at least 750 of them in core valuation work.
What is the difference between a calculation, estimate and comprehensive valuation report?: They differ in how much the valuator checks your figures against outside evidence. A Comprehensive report carries a high level of that corroboration and an Estimate report a moderate level. A Calculation report carries the least and relies more on what the owner tells the valuator, and the report says so.
How much does a CBV valuation cost?: Each firm quotes its own fee. The level of report drives most of the cost, and a holding structure or a court appearance adds time. The fee is fixed apart from the result, so ask two or three CBVs for a written quote at the level you need.
Do I need a CBV to sell my business to an outside buyer?: A market range usually serves a sale to an unrelated buyer, because the offers you receive set the price. A broker’s opinion of value or an advisor’s range does that job. A CBV report becomes the right document when the buyer is related to you or a court is involved.