ISBA LMS

Follow Paul Hyde as he describes the process a business appraiser goes through during the financial analysis process, runs through a case study discussing and describing how the financial analysis can be performed, and discusses how the analysis affects the value conclusion.   This example will also include a guided tour through the application of valuation methods.

Start Date: May 24, 2021

End Date: July 16, 2021

Format: Online (a blend of virtual synchronous and asynchronous collaboration)

Hours: 32 Hours (includes 3 hours for readings and discussions and 1 hour of class time each week)

The Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) certification program provides a hands-on learning experience to help candidates prepare for and obtain the Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) designation. The path to obtaining the BCA designation involves completing two self-study courses—Valuation Essentials and Advanced Valuation Techniques—passing the proctored BCA exam, and submitting a written demonstration report for peer review. 

The Valuation Essentials course is designed to introduce business valuation concepts and methodologies. Topics covered are geared toward 100% ownership interests in closely held businesses (under $5 million). The Advanced Valuation Techniques course covers in-depth issues relating to minority interest valuation assignments in family-owned businesses (over $5 million). Upon completing this program, you will be able to:

• Identify and apply business valuation terminology, concepts, and methodologies
• Read and interpret financial statements
• Normalize financial information
• Identify earning streams
• Develop rates of return
• Calculate and apply ratios
• Apply discounts and premiums
• Understand the market approach to value and reconciliation

Live classes are held on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. EST. The cost of your exam is included with your registration. 

You will have one year of access to the course materials.

Start Date: October 11, 2021

End Date: December 2, 2021

Format: Online (a blend of virtual synchronous and asynchronous collaboration)

Hours: 32 Hours (includes 3 hours for readings and discussions and 1 hour of class time each week)

The Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) certification program provides a hands-on learning experience to help candidates prepare for and obtain the Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) designation. The path to obtaining the BCA designation involves completing two self-study courses—Valuation Essentials and Advanced Valuation Techniques—passing the proctored BCA exam, and submitting a written demonstration report for peer review. 

The Valuation Essentials course is designed to introduce business valuation concepts and methodologies. Topics covered are geared toward 100% ownership interests in closely held businesses (under $5 million). The Advanced Valuation Techniques course covers in-depth issues relating to minority interest valuation assignments in family-owned businesses (over $5 million). Upon completing this program, you will be able to:

• Identify and apply business valuation terminology, concepts, and methodologies
• Read and interpret financial statements
• Normalize financial information
• Identify earning streams
• Develop rates of return
• Calculate and apply ratios
• Apply discounts and premiums
• Understand the market approach to value and reconciliation

Live classes are held on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. EST. The cost of your exam is included with your registration.

You will have one year of access to the course materials.

Start Date: March 13, 2022

End Date: May 7, 2022

Format: Online (a blend of virtual synchronous and asynchronous collaboration)

Hours: 32 Hours (includes 3 hours for readings and discussions and 1 hour of class time each week)

The Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) certification program provides a hands-on learning experience to help candidates prepare for and obtain the Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) designation. The path to obtaining the BCA designation involves completing two self-study courses—Valuation Essentials and Advanced Valuation Techniques—passing the proctored BCA exam, and submitting a written demonstration report for peer review. 

The Valuation Essentials course is designed to introduce business valuation concepts and methodologies. Topics covered are geared toward 100% ownership interests in closely held businesses (under $5 million). The Advanced Valuation Techniques course covers in-depth issues relating to minority interest valuation assignments in family-owned businesses (over $5 million). Upon completing this program, you will be able to:

• Identify and apply business valuation terminology, concepts, and methodologies
• Read and interpret financial statements
• Normalize financial information
• Identify earning streams
• Develop rates of return
• Calculate and apply ratios
• Apply discounts and premiums
• Understand the market approach to value and reconciliation

Live classes are held on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. EST. The cost of your exam is included with your registration. 

You will have one year of access to the course materials.

Start Date: January 20, 2025

End Date: March 17, 2025

Format: Online (a blend of virtual synchronous and asynchronous collaboration)

Hours: 32 Hours (includes 3 hours for readings and discussions and 1 hour of class time each week)

The Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) certification program provides a hands-on learning experience to help candidates prepare for and obtain the Business Certified Appraiser (BCA) designation. The path to obtaining the BCA designation involves completing two self-study courses—Valuation Essentials and Advanced Valuation Techniques—passing the proctored BCA exam, and submitting a written demonstration report for peer review. 

The Valuation Essentials course is designed to introduce business valuation concepts and methodologies. Topics covered are geared toward 100% ownership interests in closely held businesses (under $5 million). The Advanced Valuation Techniques course covers in-depth issues relating to minority interest valuation assignments in family-owned businesses (over $5 million). Upon completing this program, you will be able to:

• Identify and apply business valuation terminology, concepts, and methodologies
• Read and interpret financial statements
• Normalize financial information
• Identify earning streams
• Develop rates of return
• Calculate and apply ratios
• Apply discounts and premiums
• Understand the market approach to value and reconciliation

Live classes are held on Mondays at 1:00 p.m. EST. The cost of your exam is included with your registration. 

You will have one year of access to the course materials.

The BCA-R (Business Certified Appraiser in Review) is ISBA's credential signifying outstanding achievement in Business Appraisal Review. Only certified* business appraisers with two or more full years of experience developing and reporting on the valuation of businesses are eligible to qualify for the BCA-R.

The course syllabus will be available a week before the program.

BCA-R Requirements:

1. Complete pre-reading assignment in two texts supplied as part of your course
2. Attend the five-day ISBA course in business appraisal review
3. Pass the BCA-R exam
4. Pass the BCA-R demonstration business appraisal review report assignment
5. Be (and remain) a member of the ISBA in good standing

* Must hold a BCA, ASA, ABV, CBA, CVA, CFA or MAFF credential. Exceptions may be requested.

Course Outline:

Day 1

• Introduction to business appraisal review
• Translating business appraisal knowledge to business appraisal review
• Standards and Ethics

Day 2

• Credibility
• Appraisal review checklists
• The review report
• Homework: A homework (overnight) assignment will be given, and debriefed during Day 3

Day 3

• Homework presentations and discussion
• Review and discussion of two reports
• Sample BCA-R report

Day 4

• Business practices in appraisal review
• Review for examination
• Assignment of demonstration report case study
• Examination

Day 5

• On Day 5, participants will write their demonstration. Review reports thereby concluding the requirements for the course and the credential.

The BCA-R (Business Certified Appraiser in Review) is ISBA's credential signifying outstanding achievement in Business Appraisal Review. Only certified* business appraisers with two or more full years of experience developing and reporting on the valuation of businesses are eligible to qualify for the BCA-R.

The course syllabus will be available a week before the program.

BCA-R Requirements:

1. Complete pre-reading assignment in two texts supplied as part of your course
2. Attend the five-day ISBA course in business appraisal review
3. Pass the BCA-R exam
4. Pass the BCA-R demonstration business appraisal review report assignment
5. Be (and remain) a member of the ISBA in good standing

* Must hold a BCA, ASA, ABV, CBA, CVA, CFA or MAFF credential. Exceptions may be requested.

Course Outline:

Day 1

• Introduction to business appraisal review
• Translating business appraisal knowledge to business appraisal review
• Standards and Ethics

Day 2

• Credibility
• Appraisal review checklists
• The review report
• Homework: A homework (overnight) assignment will be given, and debriefed during Day 3

Day 3

• Homework presentations and discussion
• Review and discussion of two reports
• Sample BCA-R report

Day 4

• Business practices in appraisal review
• Review for examination
• Assignment of demonstration report case study
• Examination

Day 5

• On Day 5, participants will write their demonstration. Review reports thereby concluding the requirements for the course and the credential.

The BCA-R (Business Certified Appraiser in Review) is ISBA's credential signifying outstanding achievement in Business Appraisal Review. Only certified* business appraisers with two or more full years of experience developing and reporting on the valuation of businesses are eligible to qualify for the BCA-R.

The course syllabus will be available a week before the program.

BCA-R Requirements:

1. Complete pre-reading assignment in two texts supplied as part of your course
2. Attend the five-day ISBA course in business appraisal review
3. Pass the BCA-R exam
4. Pass the BCA-R demonstration business appraisal review report assignment
5. Be (and remain) a member of the ISBA in good standing

* Must hold a BCA, ASA, ABV, CBA, CVA, CFA or MAFF credential. Exceptions may be requested.

Course Outline:

Day 1

• Introduction to business appraisal review
• Translating business appraisal knowledge to business appraisal review
• Standards and Ethics

Day 2

• Credibility
• Appraisal review checklists
• The review report
• Homework: A homework (overnight) assignment will be given, and debriefed during Day 3

Day 3

• Homework presentations and discussion
• Review and discussion of two reports
• Sample BCA-R report

Day 4

• Business practices in appraisal review
• Review for examination
• Assignment of demonstration report case study
• Examination

Day 5

• On Day 5, participants will write their demonstration. Review reports thereby concluding the requirements for the course and the credential.

In the process of completing your demonstration report? Discover what gets flagged, and what does not. Shawn Hyde, Executive Director of ISBA, showcases a submitted demonstration report along with a comprehensive review. 

Looking back on the history of “traditional” BVFLS work, we’ve enjoyed the long-time luxury of complacency. And basically, we’ve gotten by, even flourished, by providing services that are primarily:

• Completed one-to-one (we can’t resell a report to another client);
• Performed once-and-done (we have few repeat clients); and
• Offered all-or-nothing (we only promote/sell a BVFLS service).

If the Covid crisis has revealed one thing, it’s the importance of having long-standing and ongoing client and referral source relationships—and more than one service to offer them! And as the country begins to open up, leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources will remember those practitioners who said they were working from home and that their firms were operational. But what they will remember more is if you were able to help them get through the crisis. And it likely wasn’t your “emergency” valuation they needed (or could afford). It could have been your minimum viable service that kept them operational…if you had one.

What is an MVS? It is selling the life raft, not the yacht. Something that if a prospect or client or referral source called you and said, “I need help solving X problem,” you’d say, “Of course I can do that.” Even though it’s not listed as something you do on your website or LI profile. Because you never thought to list it…until now. An MVS also gives prospects and clients and referral sources an interesting option. An option that can change their mindsets from, “Do I want to work with you?” to “How do I want to work with you?” Makes sense, right?!

Balance Sheet analysis is one of the most overlooked Approaches in business valuation.  The Asset Approach is what the valuator should tackle FIRST in order to realize that the Net Adjusted Assets will yield a normalized EQUITY value.  This is the starting point in determining a conclusion of value.

We look at the importance of fixed asset analysis, including machinery and equipment appraisal, in the business valuation process.

Some of the areas to be explored include:

• How to utilize the Balance Sheet so that it becomes an integral and critical component of the valuation engagement process 
• To identify when the fixed asset section of the Balance Sheet requires special value consideration 
• How to determine which fixed assets require a special “external” appraisal 
• To understand that each account on the Balance Sheet must be given consideration when determining their fair market value 
• To understand the built-in gain (“BIG”) tax and how to account for this deduction 
• To provide the business valuator with Word and Excel tools and additional analyses to improve and support your conclusion of value

Explore the possibilities of using the power of Excel for appraising! Part 1 will explore developing a database for comparable sale for improved analysis and drawing appropriate conclusions from data sets. Both sessions are appropriate for all skill sets with Excel! “Let Excel do the heavy lifting.”

If Cyber Security dominates the headlines, why aren’t companies investing more in security and what is the fallout from not securing valuable data? This presentation will continue the discussion on cyber security and impact on valuation.

Learn how to use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and other Large Language Model (LLM) AI solutions to get the most accurate and useful results. Discover the simple model that results in effective prompts giving useful results for your analysis, reporting, and discovery needs. Find out how the best-of-the-best AI users can get the tools to work right and how they determine when they haven't. After this session, you will be prepared for the AI systems of today and tomorrow and you will understand their strengths, weaknesses, and true usefulness in business analysis.

In a world flooded with generic messaging, appraisers don’t need more noise — they need smarter strategies. This session shows how AI can improve your marketing by focusing on better, not just more. Learn how to generate compelling variations, test ideas quickly, and use real-time data to sharpen your outreach. You’ll walk away with practical ways to attract qualified leads, stand out in a crowded market, and scale trust — without scaling your workload.

The Producer Price Index (PPI), is a key economic indicator that measures the average change over time in selling prices by domestic producers. It's a measure of producer inflation, tracking price changes from the perspective of sellers as they move from raw materials to finished goods. The PPI is a key economic indicator, often seen as a leading indicator of consumer price inflation.

Current practice of discounting non-controlling private company shares based upon public market characterizations misses the mark because the analysis is not based on cash flows to the investor / security, but on cash flows to the company. Present value analysis offered here employs a security's cash flow as the main value determinant.
 
Because all investor benefits and costs are in the future, a cash projection with a return of capital and appreciation is the necessary valuation model. With cash flow of the security, an appraiser can get a reliable result tied directly to a security's character. This rubric applies to common stock, membership interests, preferred stock, promissory notes, warrants and options.
 
To solve the appraisal problem, appraisers must select an exit date and event scenario, then project the cash to be received by the security, and apply an investor discount rate. When ownership entitlements are strictly applied at the company level as components of company equity value, the investor discount rate is seen to be driven by the risk-free rate and a company’s tendency to take additional cash from its investors, reinvest cash into the company, or distribute cash to its investors.