Goodwill Calculator

About this calculator

Goodwill in accounting is the premium a buyer pays over a target company's net identifiable asset value in an acquisition, calculated as purchase price minus net assets (total assets minus liabilities, at fair value). It represents intangible value the accounting books can't otherwise capture — brand reputation, customer relationships, proprietary know-how, and expected synergies from the deal.

Corporate finance teams, M&A advisors, and accountants calculate goodwill to record it correctly on the acquirer's balance sheet under GAAP or IFRS, where it then sits as an indefinite-lived intangible asset subject to annual impairment testing rather than regular amortization. A large goodwill figure relative to the deal size can be a red flag for overpayment, which is why analysts watch impairment charges as a signal that an earlier acquisition didn't perform as expected.

This calculator takes the purchase price and net asset value and returns the resulting goodwill.