Private Equity Playbook:

The Problem

Your portfolio company hits 100 employees and HR falls apart. Payroll errors start happening. Someone asks for turnover data and it takes three days to pull together. The person who knows how all the spreadsheets work gives notice.

Then you’re 18 months from exit and buyers want documentation you don’t have. Clean org charts. Compliance audit trails. Multi-year retention trends. Suddenly you’re building infrastructure on a deadline.

Here’s what costs you: 50% of SMBs still run on spreadsheets, 42% of implementations fail, and buyers discount hard when they see it. Meanwhile, companies waste 10+ hours per week on manual HR work that platforms automate.

What You’ll Learn

This playbook answers three questions:

• When should you upgrade? Clear thresholds by employee count with a 5-question diagnostic you can run this week.
• What does it actually cost? Real PEO vs. HCM numbers for companies at 50, 100, 250, and 500 employees, plus decision frameworks.
• How do you implement it? Phased roadmaps for different scenarios including buy-and-build integration.

What’s Inside

• Section 1: Why This Matters
  How HR systems affect hiring speed, compliance risk, and exit multiples.
• Section 2: When to Upgrade
  5-question scorecard, decision tree by employee count, hidden costs framework, requirements matrix for 50-500 FTE.
• Section 3: PEO vs. HCM Cost Analysis
  Full financial models: PEO at $100-200 PEPM vs. HCM + internal HR across growth stages. Break-even analysis. Decision matrix.
• Section 4: Exit Preparation
  What buyers look for during diligence. How retention signals operational quality (96% benchmark). 18-month exit prep timeline.
• Section 5: Implementation Roadmaps
  90-day post-close checklist. Scaling 50→150 FTE. Scaling 150→500 FTE. Buy-and-build integration. Pre-exit optimization.
• Section 6: Exit-Ready Assessment
  24-point scorecard covering technology, operations, compliance, and retention. Red flags vs. green lights.