Ask for records describing the portion you are buying: customer or contract lists, revenue and expense detail, payroll, lease and equipment schedules, tax filings, and any liabilities that follow the assets. Consolidated statements for the whole company rarely show whether the acquired operation is viable on its own.
Insist on segment-level numbers, not company totals
Sellers often produce a single set of statements covering activities you are not acquiring. Request a schedule allocating revenue, cost of goods, wages and overhead to the specific customers, product line or location transferring to you. Where allocations are estimates, say so and keep the working papers. Missing items can generally be supplemented later, but early gaps make it harder to explain the investment amount and the operation's capacity.
Ask for U.S. federal and state tax filings, bank statements, merchant or point-of-sale reports, payroll registers, supplier invoices, accounts receivable ageing, the lease, and any licences or permits. The new evidence is the business’s actual record: tax returns, payroll showing employees, financial statements, the current lease and the ownership register. Equipment titles and the lease show what is actually being bought and support the valuation. The signed purchase agreement and the release conditions often resolve more than a broad business plan.