Last week at the AICPA National BV Conference Linda Trugman (Trugman Valuation Associates) shared the fact that “we used to use the term ‘comps’ but there are so many intangibles with guidelines companies that the term really isn’t accurate.”  She urged audience members to read the management notes associated with the financial documents and to look for anything abnormal, like such as non-recurring expenses.  She described several sources practitioners can use to find guideline companies, many of which are free – but certainly the most robust of which are paid.  She specifically emphasized the difficulty of finding historical data (it is worth noting that the Pitchbook/BVR Public Company Comps Tool does include delisted companies, certainly a differentiating feature) and walked attendees through her list of 24 criteria for similarity.  Trugman also shared her GPCM methodology in which she compares key ratios for guidelines companies year by year and simply circles those most like her subject company.