Accountability chart

Definition

A one-page map of every seat in a company and the numbers each seat owns.

Why It Matters

Buyers meet this in the first month, because so many small companies run on the operating system that named it, and the chart is where a seller's real structure shows. Two names in one seat, or one name in four, is the finding: it tells you which jobs walk out with the owner and which the team already carries without them. Draw it for the business you are bought into, before you promise anybody a title. The distance between that drawing and the one you would like in a year is your hiring plan, and it is cheaper to see it in week one than to discover it when the seller's transition period ends.