Sell-side preparation
Selling a business
Preparing the data room before buyer outreach?
- Sell-side data room preparation
- Prepare a sale data room
- M&A due diligence checklist
- M&A vs investor data room
From IRL collection to investor-ready data rooms
Make diligence onboarding feel premium.
Today, turn messy Excel indexes into clean data-room structures. Next, replace spreadsheet IRLs and email chasing with a client onboarding portal that collects requests, tracks status, and builds the data room as files arrive.
Live: index-to-folder builderComing next: IRL onboarding
Live preview
IRL index → data room
Ready to export
Excel index
Level 1Level 2Level 3
01 CorporateArticlesBoard minutes
02 FinancialsManagement accountsFY25 model
03 CommercialCustomersPipeline
Folder tree
1 Corporate
1.1 Articles
1.2 Board minutes
2 Financials
2.1 Management accounts
2.2 FY25 model
3 Commercial
3.1 Customers
Today
Excel / CSV builder
Next
Client IRL portal
Later
AI diligence agent
Built around real transaction workflows
Designed for teams who want client onboarding to feel controlled and professional — from the first IRL request through to a clean, diligence-ready room.
M&A advisers
FDD teams
Legal diligence
Clients and CFOs
Purpose-built for deal teams
Data rooms are the output. Client onboarding is the workflow.
Start with the live Excel-to-folder builder, then move upstream into IRL collection, client uploads, review tracking, and eventually AI-powered diligence navigation.
Excel-to-folder automation
Map Level 1–5 columns into a diligence-ready hierarchy without creating folders one by one.
Visual hierarchy preview
See the full tree before export so duplicate names, missing levels, and awkward sections are easy to catch.
Drag, rename, and clean up
Adjust the folder structure in the browser before downloading the final ZIP.
Reusable IRL template
Start from a structured request list today, then standardise future onboarding around one consistent diligence format.
Client onboarding portal — coming next
Replace Excel trackers with a guided client checklist for owners, deadlines, uploads, comments, and review status.
AI diligence assistant — roadmap
Once documents are uploaded and indexed, ask questions and jump to the exact file, page, table, or clause behind the answer.
Trust, stated plainly
Built for confidential work — without the badge theatre.
In-browser processing
Your index is parsed and zipped locally — it is not uploaded to our servers.
No documents required
The builder only ever needs folder names, never confidential deal files.
Gated workspaces
Portal and admin routes are access-gated and kept out of search engines.
BYO-cloud direction
The VDR layer connects to storage you control instead of another vendor silo.
How it works
From IRL request to diligence-ready room.
The current product removes the manual folder-building work. The roadmap turns the same workflow into a professional client onboarding and diligence collection system.
01
Live now: build from an index
Upload an Excel/CSV request list or folder index with Level 1–5 columns and convert it into a clean data-room structure.
02
Coming next: onboard the client
Issue IRLs through a branded portal so clients see tasks, owners, due dates, comments, and upload status instead of another spreadsheet.
03
Roadmap: diligence intelligence
As files arrive, the room becomes searchable and AI-ready — with answers tied back to the exact source documents and references.
Product walkthrough
Live builder today. Client onboarding next.
90-second workflow
Upcoming workflow layer
Replace Excel IRLs and email chasing with a portal clients can actually follow.
The next product layer moves upstream: advisers create the information request list, clients get a guided workspace, reviewers track completeness, and the data room builds from approved submissions.
Advisor creates IRL
Start from an M&A, FDD, legal, debt, or sector request list.
Client portal opens
Clients see a guided checklist instead of a raw spreadsheet.
Files land against requests
Uploads, owners, due dates, and gaps stay tied to each IRL line.
Review loop is captured
Comments, status, and accepted / rejected items stay visible.
Room auto-builds
Approved files shape the data-room folder skeleton and export path.
Product path
Honest roadmap
1
AvailableLive now
Index-to-folder ZIP builder
Excel/CSV in. Clean hierarchy preview, browser edits, ZIP skeleton out.
2
Workflow layerComing next
Client onboarding + IRL portal
Advisor issues the request list; client submits files against tasks with status and review.
3
PlannedRoadmap
BYO-cloud VDR + AI diligence agent
Connect the live room, ask diligence questions, and cite exact source files, pages, tables, and clauses.
Professional client experience
A controlled submission flow instead of ad hoc email attachments.
Faster diligence readiness
Spot missing owners, overdue requests, and review bottlenecks earlier.
Cleaner rooms by default
Every accepted file already knows which section it belongs in.
Templates module
Banker-grade structures before the room exists.
Use downloadable sample structures today to standardise the first cut of a data room. The template marketplace and managed IRL workflows are planned product layers, not claimed as live marketplace functionality.
Sample library
Transaction templates
Sell-side M&A
CIM support, corporate, financials, tax, commercial, legal, HR
Buy-side diligence
Q&A intake, management sessions, findings log, workstream folders
Fundraising
Investor materials, KPI packs, governance, subscription docs
Debt financing
Credit pack, security docs, covenant model, bank Q&A
Legal diligence
Corporate records, material contracts, disputes, regulatory
FDD / QoE
Trial balance, revenue bridge, EBITDA adjustments, NWC
Real estate
Title, leases, rent roll, capex, environmental, insurance
SaaS metrics
ARR bridge, cohorts, churn, CAC, pipeline, product usage
Healthcare
Licensing, payor mix, physician contracts, compliance
Manufacturing / Industrials
Plants, inventory, suppliers, EHS, capex, quality
Free data room guides
Need help creating the folder structure? Start with the guide that matches your process.
Original templates for data room folder structures, M&A due diligence checklists, investor data rooms, sell-side preparation and numbered folder indexes.
Data room folder structure
Create a clean data room folder structure with a practical numbered template for M&A, fundraising, investor diligence and sell-side preparation.
M&A due diligence checklist
A complete M&A due diligence checklist listing the 47 documents buyers request across corporate, financial, tax, legal, commercial, HR, IP and operations workstreams.
Investor data room checklist
What an investor data room is and how to build one, with a practical fundraising checklist covering pitch materials, financial model, cap table, legal, product, customers and KPIs.
Data room index template
A free data room index template with a numbered folder example. Learn how to build an index in Excel that is easy to scan, expand and convert into folders for due diligence.
Folder structure vs VDR software
Understand the difference between a data room folder structure, a VDR platform and a folder-index generator before choosing your deal workflow.
Sell-side data room preparation
Prepare a sell-side data room before launching a sale process with a practical checklist for sellers, founders and advisers.
High-intent templates
Targeted resources for searches like “create a data room folder structure”, “M&A due diligence checklist”, “data room index template”, “fundraising data room template” and “secure virtual data room setup”.
Start from your transaction type
Pick the playbook that matches the deal you are running.
Each lane links to the guides, the matching downloadable template and the relevant data room glossary terms, so the room structure can be agreed before files start arriving.
Investor data room
Raising a fundraising round
Building an investor data room for a fundraise?
- Investor data room checklist
- Data room folder structure
- M&A vs investor data room
- SME data room structure
Advisor workflow
Running diligence as an adviser
Coordinating buy-side or sell-side diligence workstreams?
- Advisor diligence files
- Financial diligence checklist
- Legal due diligence checklist
- HR, commercial and tax structures
Comparing formats or tools?
Decision guides for the data room calls teams make most often.
Side-by-side guides covering M&A vs investor rooms, folder structure vs VDR software and Excel-first vs VDR-first index workflows.
Comparison guide
Folder structure vs VDR software
Understand the difference between a data room folder structure, a VDR platform and a folder-index generator before choosing your deal workflow.
ComparingData room folder structureVirtual data room software
Read the comparisonComparison guide
M&A vs investor data room
Decide between an M&A folder structure and an investor data room based on deal type, audience, sensitivity and the documents diligence reviewers actually open first.
ComparingM&A data roomInvestor data room
Read the comparisonComparison guide
Excel index vs VDR index
Compare maintaining the data room index in Excel or CSV against building and tracking the index inside a virtual data room platform.
ComparingExcel data room indexVDR index management
Read the comparisonComparison guide
Data room checklist vs request list
Compare a data room checklist (the seller's prepared document list) with a buyer's diligence request list (IRL), and how to use both to run a faster sale, fundraise or lender review.
ComparingData room checklistBuyer request list (IRL)
Read the comparisonLooking up a term?
Plain-English definitions for the data room and due diligence vocabulary.
The glossary explains how each term is used in practice, links to the guides that use it and points to matching downloadable templates so the term is never just a definition.
Open the data room glossary- Virtual data room (VDR)A controlled online workspace for sharing diligence documents with buyers, investors and advisers.Read the definition
- Data room indexThe table of contents that lists every folder and subfolder in a data room before documents arrive.Read the definition
- Request listThe buyer's list of documents and information they need to review during diligence.Read the definition
- Quality of earnings (QoE)An adjusted view of historical earnings that removes one-off and non-recurring items.Read the definition
- Permission groupsNamed groups inside a VDR that decide which folders and files each user can see.Read the definition
- Disclosure scheduleThe structured list of facts the seller discloses against warranties in the sale agreement.Read the definition
Upcoming workflow layer
Replace Excel IRLs and email chasing with a portal clients can actually follow.
The next product layer moves upstream: advisers create the information request list, clients get a guided workspace, reviewers track completeness, and the data room builds from approved submissions.
Advisor creates IRL
Start from an M&A, FDD, legal, debt, or sector request list.
Client portal opens
Clients see a guided checklist instead of a raw spreadsheet.
Files land against requests
Uploads, owners, due dates, and gaps stay tied to each IRL line.
Review loop is captured
Comments, status, and accepted / rejected items stay visible.
Room auto-builds
Approved files shape the data-room folder skeleton and export path.
Product path
Honest roadmap
1
AvailableLive now
Index-to-folder ZIP builder
Excel/CSV in. Clean hierarchy preview, browser edits, ZIP skeleton out.
2
Workflow layerComing next
Client onboarding + IRL portal
Advisor issues the request list; client submits files against tasks with status and review.
3
PlannedRoadmap
BYO-cloud VDR + AI diligence agent
Connect the live room, ask diligence questions, and cite exact source files, pages, tables, and clauses.
Professional client experience
A controlled submission flow instead of ad hoc email attachments.
Faster diligence readiness
Spot missing owners, overdue requests, and review bottlenecks earlier.
Cleaner rooms by default
Every accepted file already knows which section it belongs in.
How it works
From IRL request to diligence-ready room.
The current product removes the manual folder-building work. The roadmap turns the same workflow into a professional client onboarding and diligence collection system.
01
Live now: build from an index
Upload an Excel/CSV request list or folder index with Level 1–5 columns and convert it into a clean data-room structure.
02
Coming next: onboard the client
Issue IRLs through a branded portal so clients see tasks, owners, due dates, comments, and upload status instead of another spreadsheet.
03
Roadmap: diligence intelligence
As files arrive, the room becomes searchable and AI-ready — with answers tied back to the exact source documents and references.
Product walkthrough
Live builder today. Client onboarding next.
90-second workflow
Data room questions, answered
What people ask before they build a data room.
Practical answers about folder structures, virtual data rooms, M&A diligence, fundraising and using Data Room Builder. Each answer links to the relevant guide if you want more depth.
What is a virtual data room and why do M&A and fundraising deals use one?
A data room is a structured, controlled set of folders used to share corporate, financial, legal and commercial documents with buyers, investors or lenders during diligence. A well-organised structure makes the review faster, reduces repeat questions and helps the deal team track which workstreams still have open items.
Is Data Room Builder a virtual data room (VDR)?
No. Data Room Builder generates the folder structure and exports a clean ZIP skeleton you can upload into any VDR, cloud drive or file share. It removes the manual folder-clicking step. The VDR is still where access controls, audit logs and live buyer Q&A live.
What format does my Excel or CSV index need to be in?
Use a sheet with Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 columns (and optional Notes) so each row maps to one folder path. Two-digit prefixes such as 01, 02, 01.01 keep folders sortable. The same column layout works for diligence request lists, investor data rooms and sell-side preparation.
How long does it take to create a folder structure with Data Room Builder?
Most users go from spreadsheet to exported ZIP skeleton in a few minutes. Upload an Excel or CSV index, review the generated hierarchy in the browser, rename or remove rows where needed and download the ZIP. The slow step is preparing the request list, not the folder generation.
What does Data Room Builder export?
A ZIP file containing an empty folder skeleton that mirrors the levels in your index. Upload the ZIP into a VDR, cloud drive or local share and start collecting documents into the prepared structure. Empty folders make collection gaps visible so the deal team can chase open items earlier.
Can I use it for M&A, fundraising or sell-side preparation?
Yes. The templates and guides cover sell-side M&A, buy-side diligence, fundraising, debt financing, SaaS, healthcare and real estate. Each transaction type has a matching guide that explains the folder logic so the structure can be tailored to the deal rather than reused blindly.
Do I need a paid account to use Data Room Builder?
The folder-structure builder, sample templates and guides are free to use today. Future product layers such as a client IRL onboarding portal and document-aware diligence are on the roadmap; we are not claiming them as live functionality.
Where do I host the data room after exporting the folder structure?
Upload the ZIP skeleton into a virtual data room, cloud workspace such as Google Drive or SharePoint, or a local share. The folder structure is portable, so the same structure can move between a draft Excel index, an internal review workspace and the final VDR used with buyers or investors.
Testimonials
What customers say