First time running a DD process as a PE associate. Any tips/suggestions?

I’ve been staffed on two add-on acquisition deals as a PE associate and although I’ve done DD as a sell-side analyst I am getting a bit nervous on doing it from over this side of the table. I am looking for some tips/advice from more experienced people on how to manage the process, things I should pay attention to on the financials/tax and legal side as well as best practices you can throw at my way.

Would appreciate anything really

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Did they do any acquisitions for the portco before you joined? When I was first trying to figure out wtf to do on the job, I found it was really helpful to back through old materials on the drive (readouts from advisors, workplans, internal presentations). Even if there aren't any for your portco specifically, poke around on your firm's drive and you'll almost certainly find something for a similar company that will be helpful.

Do you have 3rd party advisors helping you on finance / tax / legal? If you do, I'd let them take a first pass through available materials and any good advisor will highlight what the big issues are. 

 

No neither of them had any in the near past (own do them had a few but they all happened 2-3 years ago and there wasn’t much material to leverage I am afraid)

We do have third party advisors yes, and I plan to rely on them more than I would like to admit but are there any best practices that comes to mind in terms of project management/possible red flag areas to be careful about in core dd areas/approach to advisor work (should I check for everything, should I read everything etc)

 

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