IPO Preparation Checklist

A public offering can provide private companies with a lot of opportunities for expansion, but it also exposes to regulations and rules they were not required to adhere to when they were private businesses. It is therefore crucial to be aware of the risks and obstacles they might face prior to making the move to public markets.

Whether your company is considering an IPO or not, creating an effective checklist is the first step in ensuring that you’re prepared for the process. An ipo preparation checklist should cover everything from due diligence to stakeholder alignment, to gathering and analyzing financial data. A thorough checklist can help you to find and fill in any gaps in your company’s current situation and determine where it should be prior to ringing that IPO bell.

If you’re planning on going public it’s recommended to consult with an experienced tax professional to ensure that you’re aware of the various forms of equity compensation that can impact your tax burden, and to plan accordingly. If you have made an 83b) decision, you could be facing a significant increase in your taxable ordinary income when you go public. If you have incentive stock options (ISOs) then you must be prepared for the possibility that you’ll be subject to an alternative minimum tax.

A checklist for preparing for an IPO should provide information on the compliance requirements of regulatory compliance that come with an IPO, including the designdataroom.com/venue-by-dfin-vdr-review Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) registration and disclosure rules. Your ipo preparation checklist should also include the required steps for preparing and filing your Draft Registration Statement / S-1, as well as the submission of both EDGAR and iXBRL instance files.