GP sale readiness checklist: what you will need to complete the assessment

Most GP practice sales do not fail because the business is bad. They fail because the owner cannot produce the right information at the right time. Buyers and their advisers work to a checklist and when the answers are slow, incomplete, or contradictory, the deal either stalls or the price drops.

The GP sale readiness assessment is designed to flag these gaps before a buyer ever sees them. It covers the five areas that determine whether a practice can enter a sale process with confidence: financial documentation, compliance and governance, operational maturity, premises and infrastructure, and succession planning.

The quality of the assessment depends on the quality of the inputs. If you answer from memory or with rough guesses, the results will reflect that. If you take 20 minutes to pull together the documents listed below and answer from your actual position, the report will give you a clear and specific view of where you stand and where the problems are.

Financial information

• Your most recent profit and loss statements or management accounts (at least two financial years).
• Your normalised EBITDA figure or reconciliation, if your accountant has prepared one. If not, a rough estimate of annual profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will do.
• The status of your tax return lodgements: how many of the past three years have been lodged with the ATO.
• The practice's approximate total annual billings (gross, before expenses).
• Your bulk billing rate or billing model (percentage of consultations bulk billed versus privately billed).
• Total staff wages for administration and nursing combined, as a percentage of total billings. Your accountant or practice manager should have this, or it can be pulled from your payroll and billing reports.
• Whether your accountant has adjusted your EBITDA to separate the owner's clinical billings and management time from business profit.

Compliance and governance

• Your current ownership structure: entity type (company, trust, partnership), who the shareholders or partners are, and whether a partnership or shareholder agreement is in place and current.
• The status of GP service or employment agreements: whether contracts are signed, current, and cover all practising GPs.
• Whether any current or former GP in the practice has been subject to a Professional Services Review (PSR), Medicare compliance review, or AHPRA investigation in the past five years, and the outcome if so.
• Whether any GP currently practising in the business has active AHPRA conditions, undertakings, or notations on their registration.
• The status of your workplace safety policies, training records, and incident reporting. Whether these have been reviewed in the past 12 months.

Operations

• Whether you use a KPI or analytics platform (such as Cubiko, PracticeHub Analytics, or reporting built into your practice management system) to track billing performance, utilisation, and care plan activity.
• The name and version of your practice management software, and whether it is cloud-based, current, and integrated with online booking, recalls, and reporting.
• The proportion of your total billings that comes from chronic care management and health assessment items (GP management plans, team care arrangements, 75+ health assessments and similar). Your practice management system or Cubiko can generate this.
• The service fee or percentage split charged to tenant or contractor GPs (the practice's share of GP billings).

Practice premises and infrastructure

• Whether your practice is located in a metropolitan area (MMM 1 to 3) or a regional or rural area (MMM 4 to 7). If you are unsure, check the DoctorConnect website using your practice postcode.
• Your current GP workforce stability: whether all sessions are filled with permanent GPs, whether any GPs are planning to leave within 12 months, or whether the practice relies on locums or has unfilled positions.
• Your premises arrangement: whether you own the property, lease it (and if so, the remaining term and whether renewal options exist), or occupy under an informal agreement.
• Whether the practice earns income from pathology collection, imaging, allied health, or other sub-leases, and whether those agreements are current, signed, and transferable.
• How well your consulting and treatment rooms are used during core hours: whether sessions are mostly full, partly used, or significantly under-booked.
• Whether the practice has a dedicated treatment room that meets RACGP standards for infection control and emergency response, and whether nurse coverage is adequate (roughly 0.8 FTE per 4 FTE GPs or better).

Your exit and succession plans

• When you expect to sell or retire from ownership: within 12 months, 1 to 3 years, 3 to 5 years, or longer.
• Your main reason for considering a sale (retirement, relocation, partnership change, financial pressure, or other).
• Whether you have a succession or transition plan in place, and if so, whether it is documented or still informal.
• Whether at least one partner or senior GP has agreed to remain working in the practice for at least 12 months after the sale.

Ready to start?

The GP sale readiness assessment takes around 20 minutes with your documents at hand. It is free, with no valuation or obligation. You will receive a readiness score across all five domains with a clear view of where the gaps are.

If you would like to discuss your results or readiness position, Medius offers a complimentary initial consultation. Get in touch.