EBITDA & SDE Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Enter trailing-twelve-month figures, not projections — buyers price the trailing year.
2. COGS should be fully landed: product cost plus freight, duties, and inbound shipping.
3. Operating expenses include everything else on the P&L — payroll (including your salary), marketing, software, rent — but enter depreciation, amortization, and interest in their own boxes.
4. Owner salary & perks is your total compensation: salary plus health insurance, vehicle, travel, and anything personal running through the business.
5. One-time costs are genuinely non-recurring: a lawsuit, a rebrand, a major site rebuild. If it happens most years, it's not one-time.

EBITDA vs. SDE — which number is yours?

If your business earns under roughly $1M a year and an owner-operator runs it, buyers will speak SDE — earnings including your compensation, because the buyer steps into your seat. Larger or managed businesses are priced on EBITDA, which assumes a market-rate manager stays on payroll. The same P&L can differ by $50–100K+ between the two definitions, which at a 3–4x multiple means a six-figure valuation swing. We wrote a full explainer with a worked add-back example.

What counts as a legitimate add-back?

Documented owner compensation, true personal expenses, genuine one-offs, and non-cash charges. Every add-back needs a receipt — undocumented add-backs don't just get rejected, they discount the credibility of your whole schedule. Once you have your SDE, the next question is the multiple: see our 2026 multiples guide or jump straight to the valuation estimator.