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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
From product companies started by University of Newcastle graduates to managed service providers keeping Hunter mines, clinics and councils online, a software business is worth the cash its customers will keep paying, not the multiple a buyer opens with.
In Newcastle, a software or SaaS company is usually valued on a discounted cash flow built from its own customer data: how many accounts it wins, how much revenue it keeps and grows, and how much churns away. Contract length, customer concentration and key engineers set the risk premium, and private software sales test the result.
The Hunter's technology base is regional and spread out: product companies built by University of Newcastle graduates, remote-first teams selling well beyond the region, and managed service providers that keep local mines, hospitals, councils and manufacturers running. Founders come to us before a capital raise or a secondary sale, when an employee share scheme needs a market value under Division 83A, or when co-founders go separate ways.
Personal and tax events account for much of the rest. A separation may need the shares valued at a fixed date for the Newcastle registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and a restructure or an early stage innovation company self-assessment needs a market value the ATO will accept.
Then there is the unsolicited approach. A buyer from outside the region opens with a revenue multiple and no working, and a certified valuation gives you a reasoned figure to hold against it before you reply.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. A subscription business can be forecast from the way its existing customers have behaved, and while growth is still changing shape a discounted cash flow captures it far better than one year of earnings capitalised.
We build the forecast from the customer ledger: new accounts by period, expansion revenue within existing accounts, and revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades. Each year's free cash flow is brought back to present value, with a terminal value added once growth settles. A blanket growth rate laid over last year's revenue is quicker, but it is the first thing a reviewing expert takes apart.
A mature managed service provider is a different case. A Charlestown or Mayfield IT firm on rolling support agreements with local small and mid-sized businesses usually suits capitalised future maintainable earnings better, because its revenue is steady and a detailed forecast adds little.
The discount rate is built in layers. Its base is the long-dated Australian Government bond yield (Source: RBA, Statistical Tables F2 Capital Market Yields); above that sit an equity risk premium, size and industry premiums, and a company-specific premium for what a buyer would worry about here: a few dominant customers, volatile churn, reliance on one founder or lead developer, or revenue records that do not reconcile.
We compare the result with private sales of software and IT businesses of similar scale, growth and retention, priced against recurring revenue or earnings. Listed technology multiples act only as an upper bound: a listed company is bigger, easier to trade and more diversified, and those gaps outweigh any shared subscription model.
Rarely more than a floor. Capitalised development costs reflect an accounting choice, not what the code will earn, so they are not used as a measure of value.
Most disagreement over a software value starts in the adjustments, which is why each one is set out in the body of the report with its reasoning rather than left in an appendix. For Hunter software and managed IT firms the usual list is:
Hunter software tends to grow out of the region's other industries. Mining services and engineering firms across the Upper Hunter coal region and around the Port of Newcastle buy maintenance, safety and logistics systems; health and medical research around John Hunter Hospital at New Lambton Heights and the Hunter Medical Research Institute creates demand for clinical and research tools; and the defence precinct at Williamtown, including the Astra Aerolab beside RAAF Base Williamtown, draws in engineering and systems firms.
Customer mix drives the risk. Revenue tied to coal producers is exposed to the region's energy transition, defence work tends to arrive in large, slow, renewable contracts, and health customers buy through long procurement cycles. Even so, the adjustment that usually moves the number most is founder pay, benchmarked against what a Hunter employer would pay for the same engineering or commercial lead today rather than what the founder chose to draw.
The City of Newcastle council area had 16,296 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2025 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, July 2021 to June 2025). Across Australia, professional, scientific and technical services businesses, the ABS division that includes computer system design, grew 3.6 per cent in 2025 to 2026, and information media and telecommunications grew 4.0 per cent (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). More firms mean more private deals to compare and more competition for the same developers, so salary benchmarks are tested against what Hunter employers are offering now.
Before any number appears, the report pins down the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the data relied on, and says plainly where that data was thin. The body then takes each approach in turn, records the method used and every normalisation change with its justification, and the reconciliation explains in sentences, not just a formula, why the final range looks the way it does.
That reconciliation is where a reviewing expert starts. A shareholder or oppression dispute over a Hunter software company is usually run in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which sits in Sydney, where the court's expert evidence rules and the Expert Witness Code of Conduct put the expert's duty to the court first; an investor's adviser will test the same reasoning in due diligence. Our reports are prepared consistently with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and signed by a credentialed certified valuer who will defend the opinion if it is challenged.
Which assumption would an opposing expert attack first, and how would you answer them? If the valuer has to stop and think, the analysis is unfinished.
An Indicative valuation is enough when you are deciding whether a buyer's approach deserves a serious reply, or setting expectations among founders before a funding round. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report fits an employee share scheme, a capital raise or a co-founder exit. A Detailed report fits a family law settlement, an oppression claim in the Supreme Court of New South Wales or a tax position the ATO may review.
A useful rule: picture the person most likely to disagree with the number. If that is an investor's adviser, the ATO or an expert in court, choose the depth that answers them in writing.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.