Background
Steve Brunner, CPA, CVA, MAFF, CM&AA brings over 29 years of public accounting experience, with a concentration in business valuation, taxation, and M&A consulting. After years in senior roles at regional firms in Ohio and Kentucky, he founded his own practice, where Steve does 25-30 valuations per year comprising over 50% of his billable work. Steve’s valuation portfolio spans small closely held businesses to middle-market companies exceeding $35 million in revenue, with applications in estate and gift tax, marital dissolution, shareholder disputes, and transaction advisory.
Challenge
In the CPA firms where Steve worked, valuation practices were often fragmented and required a considerable amount of manual entry resulting in inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and processes that were difficult to scale or manage effectively. Even in firms that had access to valuation software, Steve observed it was consistently underutilized. Most teams treated it as little more than a glorified calculator, using only basic features while ignoring its potential as a fully integrated platform for analysis, data integration, and report generation. As a result, teams frequently exported Excel outputs into Word for manual editing—tasks typically handled by assistants.
This disjointed workflow introduced unnecessary inefficiencies, increased the risk of errors, and made managing the valuation process a challenge. Moreover, integrating proprietary models—like custom DCF schedules or forecasted balance sheets—was clunky and time-consuming.
Solution
Steve first came across ValuSource Valuation Software in 2001. “Back then, the software still came on a disk. Business valuation theory was in its infancy, with most valuators just doing multiples of some kind,” says Steve. “I really didn’t get into heavy valuation work until I went to work for VonLehman, at the time the largest private CPA and advisory firms in northern Kentucky, which has since merged to become Dean Dorton.”
With such a large client base and a much bigger workload, maximizing the use of software meant Steve could scale the valuation side of the business. This prompted Steve to do a deep dive into the platform’s full capabilities with a view to mastering them.
By participating in weekly product support calls and interacting with valuation experts to understand best practices and advanced functionality. Over time, he transformed his use of the platform from basic computation to a fully integrated analytical with a built-in reporting tool, eliminating redundancies and enhancing compliance with valuation standards including AICPA SSVS No. 1 and NACVA professional standards.
Steve’s workflow transformation resulted from these key areas of functionality:
- Smart Data Entry
“Let’s say that I get a new client and a new trial balance, and suddenly, I need to start adding accounts. If you’ve got your own Excel worksheets and you start adding accounts, you must be sure that the new accounts added throughout your workbooks,” says Steve. “Whereas with the software, you just add an account, whether you do it on the balance sheet, or in the income statement, the software automatically adds it everywhere.”
The software also enables Steve to perform a “quick and dirty” valuation using the income approach by inputting key financials and rapidly calculating the benefit stream, allowing him to deliver fast, preliminary estimates when needed.
- Industry Benchmarking and Ratio Analysis
Steve leveraged integrated access to RMA and other benchmark databases to conduct comparative ratio and common-size analysis, providing valuation conclusions grounded in empirical market data.
- Flexibility to Include Your own Worksheets
Another key advantage is the ease of moving between different areas of analysis. “Whether I’m reviewing common-size financials or analyzing industry ratios, I can quickly toggle to the adjustments section, make changes, and immediately see how those updates affect the valuation. That kind of dynamic responsiveness is incredibly valuable,” says Steve.
“Perhaps the feature I appreciate most, though, is the flexibility to integrate my own Excel worksheets. I have my own custom DCF models—concise and tailored—that I’ve developed over the years. While the built-in models are solid, I prefer to use my own, especially since I always forecast out the balance sheet as part of the DCF, which many practitioners overlook,” says Steve. “The software makes it easy to link my external model directly into the system, so everything flows seamlessly. Once it’s linked, I can drop the results right into my report—fast and clean. And of course, the report writer itself is another critical piece. It allows me to generate consistent, professional reports without redundant formatting work.”
- Dynamic Report Writer Integration
Rather than manually formatting valuation reports, Steve optimized the report writer engine to generate templates with automated linkage to narrative and tabular outputs. This improved documentation quality and alignment with valuation methodologies, reducing human error and review cycles.
Results
- Operational Efficiency: Valuation preparation times decreased significantly due to streamlined data input, linked schedules, and automation of recurring calculations.
- Compliance and Defensibility: Report outputs are aligned with USPAP, SSVS, and other professional standards, with full documentation of assumptions, methodologies, and source data.
- Enhanced Client Deliverables: Visual dashboards, scenario modeling, and tailored valuation summaries improved client understanding and engagement.
- Scalability and Training: As his firm grew to eight professionals, Steve’s systematized approach allowed junior staff to be onboarded quickly and produce valuation work under supervision, following a consistent and auditable process.
Key Takeaways for Valuation Professionals
- Go Beyond the Basics – Valuation software offers more than number-crunching. Full integration with valuation data and report writers and external models can drastically improve both efficiency and quality.
- Defensibility Through Standardization – Automating normalization, benchmarking, and report generation enhances consistency and documentation—a critical factor in IRS audits, litigation, and peer review.
- Forecast Integration Is a Differentiator – Embedding custom models, including balance sheet and working capital forecasts, allows for deeper insights and more robust DCF modeling.
- Expand Service Lines Using Core Tools – M&A advisory, fractional CFO, and Quality of Earnings for M&A services are natural extensions of valuation expertise when supported by flexible and scalable valuation software infrastructure.
- Prepare for the Future – With AI, automation, and cloud-based solutions evolving rapidly, valuation professionals who embrace technology will lead the next generation of financial consulting.
Conclusion
Steve Brunner’s approach exemplifies how professional valuators can move beyond traditional workflows to adopt an integrated, defensible, and scalable methodology using valuation software. By mastering valuation software’s advanced features, CPAs and valuation professionals can elevate their practice—producing rigorous, standards-compliant reports efficiently while expanding into new service areas such as M&A advisory and financial consulting. The future of valuation is not just technical, it is strategic, and valuation software can be a crucial enabler.
More About Steve
When Steve isn’t cranking out high quality valuations for his clients, you will find him jamming with his rock band or riding his 2022 Hayabusa. Built by Suzuki and taking its name from the Peregrine Falcon, the world’s fastest bird. It’s one of the fastest street-legal production motorcycles, with its top speed electronically limited to 186 mph (300 kph).