Due diligence is the stretch after signing when the buyer checks what the seller has said: the books, the customer and supplier contracts, the lease, the licenses and, on land, the title, the survey and the environmental condition. The purchase contract sets how long the period runs and what the buyer may do when it ends: go ahead, ask for a change or, where the contract allows it, terminate.
Most of that checking waits on other people. The seller delivers documents, and the buyer's accountant reads the tax returns and the books against them. A landlord decides whether to consent to a lease assignment. A lender orders an appraisal, and on land a title company issues its commitment. Each of those arrives on its own schedule, and a late one cuts into the days the buyer has left to decide before the period closes.
In the Delaware merger told in full in the deadline register guide, the buyer let a notice deadline set for one minute before midnight go by without sending the notice. The company being bought terminated the deal early the next morning, and the court let the termination stand.
The deadline register guide shows how a contract's days are counted, including the federal holidays of 2026, and how each date gets one owner and a weekly check. The deadline register template prints with blank rows and a worked example, labeled as made up, that runs from a signing on Monday, October 5, 2026 to a closing on Friday, December 4.
Findings that change the deal are the subject of the negotiation pages. The closing pages cover the last days before the money moves, including the callback on the wire instructions.
Reading path
- How to build a deadline register for a purchase contract
A table of a purchase contract's dates, built on the day of signing and checked every week until the closing money moves.
Worksheets for this guide
- Deadline register template for a purchase contract
A printable register with a worked example and blank rows, plus the weekly check that keeps each date owned.