This article explains how to respond to a project in DiligenceVault, from opening a new request through to submitting your completed responses. Along the way, it covers the tools that help you answer faster, keep a shared project organized, and review how your responses have changed over time.
Before You Begin
Please ensure that your DiligenceVault account has been activated. If you have not completed the activation process, please use the link provided in the activation email to activate your account.
To locate the email, search your inbox or spam for an email from notification@diligencevault.com with the subject line:
“[Your Name], You are invited to join DiligenceVault by [Requestor Firm Name]”.
Accessing Your Project
Once you have created or received a new project, you can open it in one of two ways. Both options take you to the same project.
- Log in to your DV account, then click the link in your invitation email.
- Or, log in to DiligenceVault and go to Diligence > Projects. Search for your project, or look for projects with an Invited status.
- Open the project and begin answering the questions in the questionnaire.
Answering Questions Efficiently
DiligenceVault includes several tools on the Project page that help you respond faster and stay coordinated when more than one person is involved, including Auto-Fill, the Suggested Response Engine, and Q&A Center search.
Suggested Response Engine
The Suggested Response Engine reads the question text and surfaces closely matched answers from your existing content, so you can reuse prior work instead of writing from scratch.
- Click the lightning bolt in the upper right of a question to see suggested responses.
- Use the + icon to insert a suggested response, or use the built-in search bar to find responses by keyword.
- Suggested responses are currently available on text-based response questions only.
Q&A Center Search
Q&A Center search lets you find and reuse responses from your Q&A bank while you work through a project.
- Open Q&A Search using the speech bubble icon on the right of the screen.
- Search using filters, or match an exact phrase by wrapping it in quotes.
- Click the expand icon to view the full Q&A details, then copy the text with Copy response, or use the copy icon directly in the search panel.
- Use the approval history shown alongside each result to confirm a response has been reviewed and approved before you add it to the current project.
Assigning Questions or Sections
Assigning work is especially useful when several people respond to the same project. When each section or question is assigned to a specific user, contributors are less likely to overwrite what someone else has already added.
Click the person icon to assign a section or a question, either to the right of the Category name or in the upper right of an individual question.
Saving Your Work
As you enter responses, the system prompts you to either Save or Save as Draft. Both options save your work, so nothing is lost. The difference is how the question is tracked.
- Save. Records the question as completed.
- Save as Draft. Leaves the question marked as not yet complete and lists it under the To-Dos / Drafts filter, so you can easily see what still needs to be finished before submitting to the investor.
Finishing and Submitting
Once you have completed the questionnaire, mark the project as done by clicking Finish or Submit to Investor.
Reviewing Response Changes: Revision Mode and Audit Mode
The Revisions & History tab lets you track how responses change over the life of a project. It answers two different questions: what changed in the responses, and what happened to a response across its full lifecycle. To serve both needs, the tab provides two purpose-built modes. Revision Mode is built for quickly scanning changes, while Audit Mode is built for full lifecycle traceability. You switch between them using the toggle at the top left of the tab.
Revision Mode
Revision Mode is selected by default when you open the tab. It helps you scan what changed without wading through routine lifecycle activity. Each revised response is shown with its previous and current values inline, so you can read the change directly.
- Shows real edits only. Every revision made to a response appears, with the previous and current values shown side by side.
- Filters out lifecycle noise. Audit-only events, such as auto-fills that did not involve an edit and status-only changes, are left out of this view.
- Suppresses false positives. Entries where a value did not actually change are not shown, so the list reflects genuine changes and nothing else.
Audit Mode
Audit Mode gives you the complete history of each response for full traceability. It preserves the existing audit behavior, so anything you rely on today remains available.
- Shows the full lifecycle. Auto-fills, revisions, deletes, syncs, follow-ups, and draft or final status changes are all included.
- Displays response statuses. You can see the current status on each response as it moves through the review process.
- Preserves existing behavior. Nothing that customers depend on in the current audit view is removed.
Viewing Response History
By default, each question shows only its latest update, which keeps the view compact. When you want to see how a specific response evolved, you can expand its full history.
- Show History. Click Show History on a response to expand its full timeline. Each earlier version is listed in order, with the author who made the change and the date and time it was made.
- Hide History. Click Hide History to collapse the timeline again and return to the latest update only.
Collapsed view, showing only the latest update:
Expanded view for the same question after clicking Show History:
Exporting the History
Use Export at the top right of the tab to download a record of the responses. The Word export always reflects the full audit history, the same information shown in Audit Mode, regardless of which mode is active on screen when you export. This keeps exported records complete.
Example. A reviewer opens the Revisions & History tab to check what the asset manager updated before an internal sign-off. In Revision Mode, they quickly scan the edited responses with previous and current values shown inline. For one response with a contested figure, they click Show History to see each earlier version and who changed it. To confirm when the response was approved and by whom, they switch to Audit Mode, then use Export to capture the complete record for their files.