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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Subscription platforms built in Burleigh Heads and Robina, and managed IT providers on support contracts from Coomera to Coolangatta: valued on the cash the customer base will actually produce.
A software as a service business on the Gold Coast is normally valued with a discounted cash flow, because subscription revenue can be projected from how customer cohorts have behaved and growth is rarely steady enough for one capitalised year to capture it. Retention, churn and net revenue retention set the risk loading in the discount rate, and private software deal multiples are used only to check the result.
Founders working out of Burleigh Heads, Varsity Lakes, Robina, Southport and Surfers Paradise come to us ahead of a capital raise or a secondary sale, for an employee share scheme valuation under Division 83A, when co-founders part ways, for a property settlement run through the Federal Circuit and Family Court's Brisbane registry, and for the market value the ATO expects behind a restructure or an early stage innovation company self-assessment.
An unexpected approach is the other common reason. Interstate and overseas trade buyers and private capital funds both look at software built on the coast, and the first number a founder hears is often a revenue multiple with no reasoning attached. A certified valuation gives you a worked figure to hold against that number before you respond.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. Subscription revenue that recurs can be forecast from the way existing cohorts have behaved, and the growth curve is usually still moving, which a discounted cash flow handles far better than one capitalised year of profit.
The forecast is built from the customers themselves: new accounts won, revenue retained and grown within the existing base, and revenue lost to churn. Each year's cash flow is discounted to today and a terminal value is added. Applying a flat growth rate to last year's revenue is faster, but it is the first assumption an opposing expert pulls apart.
When growth has flattened and the business is mature, capitalising future maintainable earnings is simpler and fits better. A managed services provider in Molendinar or Nerang supporting local small and mid-sized businesses on three-year contracts usually belongs in that category rather than in a cohort model.
The discount rate is assembled, not picked: a risk-free rate taken from long-dated Australian Government bond yields (Source: RBA, Statistical Tables F2 Capital Market Yields), plus an equity risk premium, a size premium, an industry premium, and a company-specific loading for customer concentration, churn, reliance on a founder or lead developer, and how reliable the revenue data is.
Private transactions involving software and IT businesses of similar size, growth and retention, stated as a multiple of annual recurring revenue or of earnings. Listed company multiples serve only as a ceiling and a sense check, because a listed business is bigger, more liquid and more diversified, and those gaps matter more than a common subscription model.
It sets a floor and little else. Development spend that has been capitalised reflects an accounting choice, not what the product is worth, and the valuation does not use it as a measure of value.
Two valuations of the same software business usually diverge at normalisation, so each adjustment is explained in the body of the report rather than tucked into an appendix. These are the ones that recur in Gold Coast software and IT services businesses:
The coast's technology businesses are spread out rather than concentrated in one precinct. Product companies and start-ups gather around Burleigh Heads, Varsity Lakes and Robina, close to Bond University, and in Southport near the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct at Parklands and Griffith University's Gold Coast campus, where health and research software takes shape. Managed IT providers work from Molendinar, Arundel, Nerang and Helensvale, supporting trades, clinics, real estate offices and hospitality groups along the coast. Much of the software written here is sold to tourism and accommodation operators, property and construction firms and health providers, which shapes contract length, seasonality and customer concentration.
The adjustment that most often moves the figure is founder pay. It is reset to what it would cost to hire an equivalent engineering or commercial lead on the Gold Coast today, a market that now competes with remote roles offered by employers elsewhere, and in a small team that single change can shift maintainable earnings more than any argument about the multiple. Federal rules apply here as they do everywhere: the R&D tax incentive is removed as a one-off, and an early stage innovation company self-assessment is a tax position rather than a valuation conclusion, although it often needs one behind it.
Queensland added a net 19,244 actively trading businesses in 2025 to 2026, and across Australia the count of professional, scientific and technical services businesses, the ABS division that includes computer system design and related services, rose 3.6 per cent (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). More businesses means a deeper comparable set for the market check and more competition for the same developers, which is why the salary benchmark in the normalisation is tested against current coast hiring rather than last year's payroll.
The report sets down why it was commissioned, the standard of value, the valuation date, the information relied on and where that information falls short. It then takes each approach considered, the method chosen within it and every normalisation adjustment with its reason, and closes by reconciling the results into a range, explaining the weighting in words rather than leaving it to a formula.
An opposing expert goes to the reconciliation first. If the report cannot explain why the cohort forecast was preferred to a revenue multiple, or how the company-specific premium was set, the opinion will not hold up in the Supreme Court of Queensland, where the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) govern expert evidence, or under review by an investor's adviser. We prepare reports consistently with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services, and a credentialed certified valuer signs each one and will explain it under questioning.
Which input would another expert challenge first, and how would you defend it? Without a clear answer, the work is not done.
An Indicative valuation is a quick way to weigh an unsolicited approach or set an internal price before a secondary sale. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a capital raise, an employee share scheme valuation or a buy-out between co-founders. A Detailed report is required for a family law property settlement, a shareholder dispute in the Supreme Court of Queensland, or a tax position the ATO may look into.
Let the purpose set the depth. The more likely it is that a court, a lender, the ATO or another expert will rely on the opinion, the more reasoning the report must show.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.