Sell your accounting, consulting or staffing firm

In Ontario, public accounting carried on through a corporation requires a professional corporation holding a certificate of authorization, and every share of that corporation must be owned by members of the same profession. A buyer who is not a member therefore cannot hold shares in the practising corporation. Selling an accounting firm

No. Ontario’s Employment Standards Act provides that the licence is not transferable, and it applies only to the legal entity it was issued to. A buyer operating through its own entity requires its own licence, with a $1,500 fee and $25,000 in security, and clients may not knowingly use an unlicensed agency. Selling a staffing agency

In Ontario, a successor provider that hires the previous provider’s employees at the premises must recognize their earlier service. For staff it does not hire, it carries the termination and severance obligations as if it had ended their employment, which affects the value of each contract in a cleaning company sale. Selling a commercial cleaning business

National and regional firms acquiring practices, private equity funds building professional services platforms, internal partners and senior staff, and adjacent firms adding services or clients. Client retention after the transition is the measure each of them prices.

In Ontario, every director and officer of a professional corporation must also be a shareholder, and therefore a member of the profession. A unanimous shareholder agreement is void unless every shareholder is a member, which shapes how a partner buyout is documented.

An Ontario business offering engineering services to the public must hold a certificate of authorization, and the work must be supervised by a licence holder. The Registrar must be notified when the supervising engineer leaves or is replaced, which makes that role a closing condition.