The Carve-Out Day 1 Readiness Checklist
A working checklist across HR, IT, Finance, Legal, Procurement, Facilities and TSA — with the readiness test that separates a completed task from an actually unblocked one.
PDF · 6 pages · free
Most carve-out checklists answer one question: has this task been done? That question matters, but it is not the one that determines whether Day 1 actually works. A task can be finished by the team that owns it and still leave the business unable to operate, if the thing it was supposed to unblock for someone else has not landed.
This checklist is built around four questions for every material item rather than one. Complete: has the work itself been performed? Evidenced: is there objective proof it works, not just an assertion? Unblocked: are the prerequisites genuinely resolved, not just scheduled? Ready: can the downstream outcome now actually happen?
The working tables cover five functions, and each item carries the evidence that would prove it — a reconciliation report with variance within tolerance rather than "payroll tested", a real test transaction rather than "bank accounts opened", role-based access control validated rather than access enabled. The closing section deals with sequencing: entity formation, regulatory approvals, permits and statutory consultation periods contain waiting periods that no amount of extra resource shortens, and they set the actual floor on the timeline regardless of how well-resourced everything else is.
It requires no software. It is built to be useful with a spreadsheet and a disciplined owner.
The numbers it works from
- 51%
- of divesting companies saw a profitability drop greater than 3.3pp in year one post-divestiture (Deloitte)
- 1–5% of revenue
- one-off separation costs, typical range across 50+ divestitures (BCG)
- 10%+ of revenue
- one-off separation costs for complex or large carve-outs (BCG)
What's inside
- Before you start: completion is not the same as readiness
- The four-question test — complete, evidenced, unblocked, ready — applied to every material item.
- HR & People
- Transferring population sign-off, countersigned contracts, payroll parallel run, employee consultation, benefits, manager toolkits.
- IT & Systems
- Application UAT, access provisioning, identity and SSO migration, cutover and rollback approval, data migration validation.
- Finance
- Bank accounts, opening balance sheet, standalone AP/AR, carve-out financial statements, retention and audit trail.
- Legal & Procurement
- NewCo entities per jurisdiction, permits and licences, contract classification, change-of-control consents.
- Facilities, TSA & Operations
- Site access and badging, the full TSA service catalogue, the seller-side stranded-cost action plan, rehearsed Day 1 processes.
- Sequencing: start with what you can't compress
- What should already be underway well before close, in the final months, in the final weeks, and on Day 1 itself.
Sources cited in the guide: Deloitte, “Day One Readiness”; Umbrex, “Checklist: HR-Related Actions for Day 1 Readiness”; PwC, TSA exit value analysis; BCG, separation cost research across 50+ divestitures; McKinsey, “Solving the carve-out conundrum.”
Get the guide
Enter your email and the PDF is yours immediately — no confirmation step. You'll also get occasional updates from MeridianCogent, with a one-click unsubscribe in every email.