Analyzer upgrades, legal-currency updates, feature launches, and trust improvements from the recent ship history.
Answers typed into a PDF's form fields, and text typed into text boxes added as comments, are now part of your review. Before, a filled-in form could be read as if its fields were blank.
When a page of an uploaded PDF cannot be read, your report now names it instead of counting it as read. A page that comes back empty no longer counts as read. A very large scan that runs out of time names the pages it did not reach.
Vs. Sector benchmark rows in Premium FDD reports are now checked so they show only figures quoted from the filing and figures from our benchmark data. A row is labeled above, at or below market only when it compares against the filing's own sector, all franchise filings in our records, or a national figure. A comparison against a single brand or an unrelated sector is shown as context.
When a Premium report corrects a quote that is slightly off so it matches the contract word for word, it now keeps signs, currency marks and brackets. A figure's meaning can no longer flip, for example from a payment to you into a payment by you.
Images inside a Word file, such as a scanned schedule pasted into the document, are now read as part of your review. Small images like logos and signature marks are skipped. Pictures in headers, footers and drawing shapes are not read; your report says when it found them. When an image cannot be read, your report names it instead of leaving it out silently.
A PDF page that has a short typed header above a scanned schedule or table is now read in full. Before, a page with enough typed text was treated as fully read and the scanned part was missed.
When a later review step adds, raises or removes a finding, your verdict and summary now say so and name it. Your risk score and recommendation are raised when the final findings call for it. Negotiation Points built from our checklist follow that checklist item's final risk. A missing protection that cannot be confirmed stays in the report for you to check. The PDF memo lists every remaining concern and missing protection.
Inkvex now uses the document's own title, when it has one, to decide whether to run its lease checks or its purchase agreement checks. A lease that mentions a purchase agreement keeps its lease checks, and an 'Exhibit to ...' heading is no longer taken as the document's title.
Footnotes and endnotes in an uploaded Word file are now kept in your review, in a labeled notes section. A quote that leaves out a note marker still matches the contract.
Asset purchase agreement reviews no longer replace your report's red flags with a fixed library list. Red flags that quote the contract now stay next to the library checks. On SBA-financed deals, seller earn-outs, quality of earnings and the seller-note cap are now kept as red flags, not only mentioned in the summary.
Outdated competitor prices, plans and status on our comparison and pricing pages were corrected after a check of competitors' sites on October 5, 2026. Earnout figures in our guides now cite their source. Figures, dead links and unsupported claims found in a full read of our guides were corrected.
Reports and guides now apply SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, which covers loans given an SBA loan number on or after October 1, 2026. A buyer injects at least 10% equity of total project costs. Seller debt counts toward that equity only when it is subordinated to the lender and on full standby for the loan term, and seller debt together with other standby debt or minority equity can make up no more than half of it. Flags for requirements the new SOP no longer contains were removed.
Long commercial leases on Premium no longer skip the final check of every finding against the lease text because of their length. If that check cannot finish in time, your report says so. The checklist of commonly missed provisions now counts a provision as covered only when a finding quotes the same lease text, not when a heading looks similar.
Standard analyses, Lex, contract chat and the negotiation simulator now run on an upgraded version of the underlying analysis engine, with no change to how you request or receive your report.
A finding whose clause crosses a page break, including pages printed with browser headers and footers, now stays in your report. One unverifiable item in a review step no longer discards the others checked alongside it.
Scanned PDFs no longer fail with a misleading password-protected error. Rent tables whose amounts and periods were split apart in a PDF's text are now re-read from the page image, so a legible table is no longer reported as unreadable.
Commercial lease reviews now check fixtures and alterations kept by the landlord, bans on withholding or offsetting rent, lock-outs without legal process, compliance obligations that include capital work, assignment without release, and termination after casualty or condemnation, including its effect on your options. Leases governed by California law now flag pre-dispute jury waivers, which California courts treat as unenforceable.
Reports now determine whether a document is a draft, a signed agreement still in force, or one whose term has ended, before giving a verdict. A new Verify First verdict appears when a contract is already signed and past its term, its status is unclear, or missing material blocks a decision. Reports no longer advise signing or renegotiating an agreement that is already in effect.
Premium analyses on every paid plan (Single Document Review, Searcher Sub and Deal Pack) now run on an upgraded version of the underlying analysis engine, with no change to how you request or receive your report.
Exporting a redacted copy of a longer document no longer times out partway through. The export now runs in the background and the page checks in until it is ready, so you still get your redacted file even when preparing it takes longer.
A flawed cost estimate was causing some standard commercial leases with exhibits to be rejected before analysis could even start. Leases of typical size now proceed to review as expected.
Commercial lease reports now verify findings against your uploaded document before final delivery, and keep negotiation points and buyer action items tied to the source clauses that support them instead of dropping them during review.
If your first paid purchase is a credit purchase under the revised checkout terms, request a refund within 14 days: full if unused, proportional to unused credits otherwise. Successfully used credits are excluded from standard refunds; service failures receive separate review. Earlier purchases keep their original refund terms. Searcher Sub refund terms are unchanged. See Terms for eligibility and details.
Your M&A review now includes checks based on six 2026 Delaware and North Carolina rulings, covering forum selection, arbitration delegation, restrictive covenant scope, preliminary agreements, and stockholder consideration. Where your contract involves personal data, privacy checks now include processor contract requirements under Indiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and New Jersey law.
You can review a commercial lease or FDD with the $49 Single Document Review credit. The separate Commercial Lease Review and FDD Scan packs are no longer sold. If you bought one of those packs under the previous terms, your existing credits and access window are unchanged.
When an analysis identifies material it could not assess, your web report now shows a Limits of this review notice describing the gaps. The same gaps appear in the diligence memorandum's Scope & Methodology section. The web-report notice is available on free and paid reports.
Pricing and upload screens now show the approximate document capacity for your plan: 140 pages for Free Trial, 300 for Single Document Review, 750 for Searcher Sub, and 800 for Deal Pack. These figures distinguish your plan's capacity from the PDF upload limit. Credits are based on extracted input size, so a dense document can need more than one credit even below 300 pages.
For the same $499 one-time price, Deal Pack now gives you 15 credits over 12 months for one live acquisition. If you purchased under the previous terms, your existing credits and access window are unchanged.
The pricing page now makes clear that your paid report includes the Executive Deal Verdict and Cross-Reference Map. These sections were already part of every paid analysis; they are now named on each paid plan so you can see what is included before buying.
The report is now organised the way a memorandum is: the executive verdict and risk score sit at the top, and the evidence supporting them sits underneath in numbered sections you can move between. Red flags carry the quoted clause, why it matters, and a suggested fix in one place instead of three. The findings, the benchmarks, and the citations are unchanged. What changed is how quickly you can get to the part your attorney asked about.
Two earnout figures in the Negotiation Points benchmark data, whether an earnout accelerates on a change of control and whether a buyer can offset indemnity against it, now reflect the current year of the underlying study instead of an earlier year that had been misread from the same multi-year chart. If you are negotiating an earnout, your benchmark now matches current market data.
The sample report now renders the same Vs. Sector benchmark table that ships in premium FDD reports, so you can see the comparison before you buy. Every benchmark row is real and read verbatim from registered FDD filings, and any metric without a benchmark in the corpus is left out rather than estimated. The document being analyzed in the sample is a fictional franchise.
Every Premium tier analysis now runs on a newer generation of our analysis engine. Pricing is unchanged, and the Standard tier is unaffected.
A new Franchise Costs section publishes the FDD Item 7 total initial investment for 55 franchise brands, each with its FDD year, alongside the initial franchise fee and real-estate treatment. A hub page compares startup cost ranges across brands, and each brand page shows whether an exact filing locator is published. Free to browse.
Premium FDD Scan reports now include Vs. Sector benchmarks for pet services and med-spa and wellness franchises. Buyers in those categories can compare a document's fees, initial investment, revenue disclosures, and outlet churn against primary-source sector data read from filed FDDs, metric by metric. Every row cites its source filing, and metrics without a real benchmark are omitted rather than estimated.
Every Commercial Lease Review now runs the full premium pipeline: an Executive Deal Verdict, a Cross-Reference Map, and Negotiation Points grounded in a 69-row benchmark corpus of SEC-filed lease terms and industry survey data, plus the premium memo with a comparables exhibit. Same price, materially deeper review.
Every FDD Scan now delivers the full premium report: an Executive Deal Verdict, a Cross-Reference Map of how findings interact across Items, Negotiation Points with market benchmarks, and the premium memo with a comparables exhibit. Franchise buyers get the complete diligence read on a single one-time purchase.
Premium FDD analyses now compare your document's fees, initial investment, revenue disclosures, and outlet churn against primary-source sector data read from filed FDDs, metric by metric. Every row cites its source filing, and metrics without a real benchmark are omitted rather than estimated.
If you hold both an active document-type pack and general credits, an upload of that document type now consumes the matching pack first, starting with the soonest to expire. Your general credits stay available for other documents, and a charge is never doubled.
A new buyer guide breaks down indemnification cap and basket ranges using medians from the 2025 ABA Private Target M&A Deal Points Study, so you can tell whether the cap and basket terms in your purchase agreement sit at market or need a counter before you negotiate.
A new guide walks business buyers through what a quality of earnings report covers and how to weigh its findings alongside your purchase agreement during diligence, so the financial review and the legal review work as one pass instead of two silos.
If you ran a free analysis as a guest, you can now claim that report by creating an account, so your first review is not lost once you sign up. Claiming requires verifying your email.
Lease analyses now correctly flag casualty and demolition termination provisions, so a lease that lets the landlord end your term after damage or a planned redevelopment surfaces as a red flag instead of being missed.
Ask Inkvex and contract chat no longer return an empty or failed reply on complex questions. Long, multi-part questions now generate complete answers reliably.
The analysis engine behind every review was upgraded for sharper reasoning on dense, multi-part deal documents. The upgrade was verified against the prior engine in a scored A/B evaluation before it went live, so your reports hold up on complicated purchase agreements, leases, and franchise disclosure documents.
The new Diligence Benchmarks hub collects deal benchmarks in one place. Check FDD Item 7 total-investment ranges for franchise brands, each with its FDD year and source-custody status, indemnification cap and basket medians from the 2025 ABA Private Target M&A Deal Points Study, and more, so you can tell whether a term in your deal is market or an outlier before you counter. Each benchmark names its source or says when an exact filing locator is not published.
Every analysis now opens into a full-page rehearsal room where you practice the negotiation against an AI counterparty that holds its own leverage and pushes back on price. Each session ends with a debrief that scores you across six craft axes plus an overall score, so you walk in knowing which clauses to push, which to concede, and where you gave ground too early. Available on every completed analysis.
Every red flag is now reconciled to the specific operative clause and its referenced exhibits, matched to the right verdict, and any quote the analyzer cannot verify against your document is dropped before it reaches your report. Risk ratings no longer downgrade genuinely risky lease clauses, so the flags you see map directly to language in your contract.
Oversize and multi-part documents are no longer rejected at the size ceiling, and analysis completes without aborting partway on a long run. Your report finishes even on long, dense contracts and full document packages.
The analyzer now grounds M&A clauses, including indemnification, earnouts, reps and warranties, and related deal terms, with verified red flags and negotiation context, backed by an expanded clause library. When a purchase agreement includes these clauses, the analysis flags them with grounded findings rather than generic guidance.
The commercial-lease clause library now detects and grounds more tenant-side risk areas, including personal-guaranty exposure, assignment and transfer traps, CAM and operating-cost controls, load-factor and gross-up, deposit terms, and measurement true-ups. When a lease includes these clauses, the analysis flags them with verified red flags, landlord traps, and negotiation positions rather than generic guidance.
Every completed analysis on the one-time tiers now downloads as the Diligence Memorandum PDF: cover page, preparer attestation, risk table, flagged clauses with exact quotes, and a citation appendix. Searcher Sub and Deal Pack memoranda continue to add market benchmarks, the executive verdict, and negotiation counters on top of the same document.
One name everywhere for asking questions about your analyses. Included allowances are unchanged: 10 messages on one-time reviews, unlimited Ask Inkvex on Searcher Sub and Deal Pack.
Deal Pack includes 12 analysis credits over a 90-day deal window, and Searcher Sub includes 5 credits each month. Mid-deal and need one more analysis? A $49 top-up adds a credit without changing your plan, available from the dashboard and pricing page.
The dashboard is redesigned around your active deals: analyses, documents, deadlines, and deal lanes in one console, wired to live data. The sidebar now also links the sample report, templates, glossary, and clause library so reference material is one click from your work.
The premium analysis engine has been upgraded for deeper reads on complex documents, and Deal Pack now accepts substantially larger document packages in a single analysis: full Franchise Disclosure Documents with exhibits, purchase agreements with schedules attached.
When your question needs context beyond the document itself, Ask Inkvex can ground its answer in verified external sources, shown with a sources badge after the answer. Available on paid analyses.
Commercial lease analysis now draws on a dedicated lease clause library before the report is written, with customer-facing lease findings kept to cleared entries and lease-specific negotiation points shown where the buyer's tier includes them. Lease benchmark rows also now include source-year transparency across rent, tenant improvement allowance, free rent, vacancy, concessions, and operating-expense references, so the Diligence Memorandum and redline comments cite the same market-standard layer.
Searcher Sub and Deal Pack analyses now include a per-analysis redline Word download alongside the Diligence Memorandum. The redline route now uses the same benchmark presentation layer as the memo, so labels, units, sample-size wording, and source framing stay consistent between the PDF, Word export, and redline comments.
The analysis result screen now uses a report-preview layout across live analysis and saved dashboard views. Deal Grade, risk score, clause evidence, key dates, jurisdiction, search, section navigation, and premium locked cards are organized as a review surface built for repeat use, not a long scroll. Ask Inkvex now opens from the report, including flag-specific prompts, with a more obvious Close control and click-away dismissal.
Three new guides translate the ABA 2025 Private Target Deal Points Study and the SRS Acquiom 2026 M&A Deal Terms Study into buyer-side reference points: where indemnification caps and baskets typically land, how survival periods are structured, and how earnouts split across deal types. Each is written for a searcher or operator reading one live deal, not a generalist audience. Alongside them, the AI contract review comparison guide was rebuilt around live-deal diligence, mapping each tool to the document type and buyer decision in front of you (APA, LOI, FDD, lease, vendor agreement, NDA) instead of reading as a generic tools list.
The analyzer now shows staged progress while it works, so long reviews no longer feel like a frozen screen. Large Franchise Disclosure Documents and document-heavy purchase agreements can complete from one upload and return one structured report, with a clear failure message if a review stalls or exceeds the supported size. PDF text extraction now uses a faster local text-layer path when available, with fallback for scanned files.
Every red flag in your analysis now pulls a citation grounded in the verbatim wording of your contract, so you and the attorney you hand the report to can cross-check every quote against the document. When two or more separate concerns hit the same clause, the analyzer now merges them under one flag and surfaces the additional concerns with a small badge and a side-bar appendix, so a single problematic clause reads as one entry with all of its issues attached instead of duplicate cards competing for attention.
Every Searcher Sub and Deal Pack analysis now ships as a Diligence Memorandum, a multi-section PDF built for the attorney handoff. It opens with a cover sheet, transmittal letter, scope and methodology statement, and a signed preparer attestation, then moves through a 4-column issues table that doubles as a risk register, a dollar exposure summary, a benchmark appendix drawn from the ABA 2025 and SRS Acquiom 2026 studies, counter-proposal redline language, a negotiation leverage index, an industry overlay, and a 30-, 60-, and 100-day post-close playbook. Self-bookmarked PDF outline navigation, white-paper layout, confidentiality footer. A redacted sample is available on the homepage, the pricing page, and at /sample-memorandum so you can read the deliverable before you buy.
The analysis page has been redesigned around a tabbed layout. The Executive Verdict, the issues table, the dollar exposure summary, the benchmarks, the negotiation points, and the underlying clause-by-clause walk now each get their own tab so the report reads as a structured deliverable instead of a long scroll. A sticky nav and a More dropdown keep every section one click away on long contracts.
The Negotiation Points section on every Searcher Sub and Deal Pack analysis now names the primary sources behind each benchmark: the ABA 2025 Private Target Deal Points Study for indemnification caps, baskets, survival periods, fraud carve-outs, escrow, and sandbagging posture, and the SRS Acquiom 2026 M&A Deal Terms Study for working-capital direction, earnout type mix, and representations-and-warranties-insurance prevalence. FDD reviews now ground franchise comparables against the Minnesota Commerce Department's public franchise registration corpus, identifying each comparable by registered filing and cover year so you can pull the underlying FDD from the public registry and verify the comparable yourself.
Searcher Sub subscribers can now create a Workspace for each deal and upload multiple documents under it: the purchase agreement, the disclosure schedules, the commercial lease, the employment agreements, the FDD where it applies. Each document gets its own analysis, and all of them stay grouped under the deal so you and your attorney work from one organized package instead of scattered uploads. One deal, one workspace, every document.
The California non-compete guide has been retargeted from worker-mobility framing to the sale-of-business framing that matters for ETA acquirers. The guide walks through the Business and Professions Code 16601 sale-of-business exception, the four-prong enforceability test of goodwill, geography, duration, and scope, the specific purchase-agreement drafting language to request, common drafting traps in California deals, and 2024 context including SB 699, AB 1076, and the Samuelian decision.
Analysis now handles substantially longer documents via automatic chunking. Buyers reviewing extensive Franchise Disclosure Documents, master purchase agreements, and document-heavy diligence packages get a single complete review instead of having to split a contract across multiple uploads.
Ask Inkvex is now part of Searcher Sub and Deal Pack, joining Executive Deal Verdict, Cross-Reference Map, and Negotiation Points as the deeper analysis layer that ships exclusively to these two tiers. Built for buyers under active LOI or APA pressure, Ask Inkvex lets buyers and the attorneys they hand reports to ask precise follow-up questions on specific clauses, dollar exposures, indemnification chains, and cross-referenced schedules without rereading a long contract. Free Trial, FDD Scan, and Lease Review buyers receive a one-time message allowance to test the feature on their own analysis before deciding to upgrade.
Analysis of asset purchase agreements in California now correctly applies the seller carve-outs under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code sections 16601, 16602, and 16602.5 instead of treating every non-compete as void under section 16600. ETA buyers reviewing CA acquisitions get accurate goodwill non-compete guidance.
Analysis no longer cites the FTC Non-Compete Rule as active. After Ryan LLC v. FTC (N.D. Tex. Aug 20, 2024) vacated the rule and the FTC formally removed it from the CFR effective February 12, 2026, the analyzer now reflects current Section 5 enforcement, including the Rollins consent order from April 15, 2026, and state-by-state enforceability.
Self-funded searcher reviews now reflect the SBA seller-note rules effective June 1, 2025: full standby for the entire life of the loan when the seller note counts toward the buyer's required equity injection, with a 50% cap. The pre-2025 'first 24 months' guidance is gone.
Buyers reviewing acquisitions in Washington and Florida now get state-correct non-compete analysis. Washington's ESHB 1155 (effective June 30, 2027 for proceedings commenced on or after) and Florida's CHOICE Act (4-year non-competes for $120K+ employees) are both reflected, alongside the NLRB GC 23-08 rescission posture.
Commercial tenant lease analysis now applies SB 1103's two-tier notice rule (30 days for under-10% rent increases, 90 days for 10%+) and correctly scopes the treble-damages penalty stack to Civ. Code section 1950.9 operating-cost violations only, not to rent-notice or translation-only violations, which carry their own statutory remedies.
Buyers reviewing asset purchase agreements of larger targets now see federal WARN, state mini-WARN coverage (California SB 617, NY AI overlay, Washington RCW 50.04.165, Maryland, Ohio, NJ, Illinois), CCPA/CPRA Sept 2025 amendments, AB 1824 buy-side opt-out for M&A, and Texas/Colorado AI law applicability.
Twelve terms central to ETA, franchise, and commercial-lease diligence now have full structured entries: working-capital adjustment, quality of earnings, FDD Item 7, FDD Item 20, disclosure schedules, discovery day, estoppel certificate, holdover tenancy, letter of intent, non-recourse loan, successor liability, term sheet, and tenant improvement allowance.
Nine diligence templates (APA, NDA, commercial lease, sublease, master services, partnership, consulting, retained employment, non-compete) now ship to your business email along with a clause-by-clause walkthrough. Built for the attorney handoff, not the inbox dump.
Every analysis report now exports as an editable Word document in addition to PDF. Attorneys can mark up your report directly, accept changes, and hand it back. Full and redacted variants both supported.
The /demo page now showcases a real public-domain Franchise Disclosure Document with Executive Verdict, Cross-Reference Map, and Negotiation Points before prospective buyers upload their own contract.
Introduced a 14-day money-back guarantee for paid plans. The September 10, 2026 revision changes new credit purchases to unused-value refunds; purchases made under the earlier terms retain them. See the current Terms for eligibility.
Searcher Sub and Deal Pack analyses now include three new sections: an Executive Deal Verdict at the top of every report, a Cross-Reference Map showing how clauses interact across sections of the contract, and Negotiation Points benchmarked against the ABA 2025 Private Target Deal Points Study and SRS Acquiom 2026 deal data, with recommended asks ranked by leverage.
Contract text is no longer persisted after analysis. Every upload is processed in memory and discarded when the analysis completes. Ask Inkvex is now session-scoped: it runs against the full document while you are on the analysis page, and against the stored summary afterward. Re-upload any time to resume a full-text conversation.
The clause library is now live with clear guides for indemnification, limitation of liability, force majeure, arbitration, non-compete language, IP assignment, payment terms, and other contract clauses operators need to understand before they commit.
The analysis page now shows role-specific pills based on contract type (Receiving Party and Disclosing Party for NDAs, Tenant and Landlord for leases, and so on). Switching perspectives rewrites the summary and red flag explanations from the other party's point of view.
Collapsed red flag cards now show the complete explanation instead of truncated legal clause text. No more cutoffs. You can understand every red flag without expanding the card.
On mobile, you can add Inkvex to your home screen for app-like access. The footer now shows platform-specific install instructions for iPhone and Android.
Inkvex now supports both Google sign-in and passwordless Magic Link authentication, making account creation faster and lighter-friction.
The public-site chatbot Lex now helps visitors understand how Inkvex works, what contract review covers, and where to start.
Each contract review now opens with a 1-10 risk score and a visual gauge so operators can read severity at a glance.
Users can now take a photo of a printed contract and have it converted to text via OCR for the same contract review flow as PDFs and Word docs.
Completed reviews can now be downloaded as a professional PDF report for sharing, saving, and offline reference.
Inkvex now detects governing law and cites state-specific statutes so users can see the legal authority behind flagged clauses.
Key dates extracted from contracts can now trigger 90-day, 60-day, and 30-day reminder emails before renewals, notice periods, or other deadlines hit.
Searcher Sub, Deal Pack, FDD Scan, and Lease Review buyers can now ask follow-up questions about their analysis and drill into specific clauses without leaving the report.