ipo-readiness-assessmentlisted

# IPO Readiness Assessment Agent ## When to use Use this when a company is considering a listing and someone must say, without flattery, whether it is ready. Typical triggers: a board asking for a listing window, a sponsor testing IPO against a sale, or a company told it is twelve months away for three years running. Do it before the equity story, since a good story on an unauditable base fails in diligence. ## What it does It produces a readiness assessment across five dimensions: audit history, the control environment, reporting capability, board and governance, and KPI definition discipline, closing with a gap list carrying an owner, a cost, and a duration per gap, and a critical path to a filing-ready state. ## Method 1. Count the audit runway. Establish what is actually audited. - Confirm how many years exist on the listing standard and by whom. A review is not an audit, and re-auditing an early year is a long-lead item. 2. Test the control environment. Assume the auditor will name every weakness. - Segregation of duties, entity-level controls, revenue cut-off, and IT general controls, each classified as a deficiency, a significant deficiency, or a material weakness. - A material weakness disclosed at listing is survivable; one found afterwards is not the same conversation. 3. Time the close. Public reporting runs on a clock. - Measure days to close and days to a reviewed quarter against the deadline the company inherits; a day-28 close with no review pr