How to Assign Reviewers to Project for Requestors

Overview

Once a responder submits a project, the requestor's team can route the submitted responses through a structured review process before creating a review report. Reviewers can approve or reject individual responses, leave internal comments, and hand off responses through multiple review steps if the firm's process requires layered sign off.

Why use it: To ensure every response received from a responder is checked by the right internal stakeholders before it is relied upon, and to maintain a clear audit trail of who reviewed what and when.

Key benefits:

• Assign one or multiple reviewers to a single DDQ, either in parallel or in a sequential hierarchy
• Track review status, due dates, and outcomes at the question and category level
• Keep review discussion internal, since review comments and decisions are never shared with the responder

Starting Evaluation Mode

Once a responder submits a project, follow the steps below to start the review.

Navigation Path

Diligence > Projects > In-Progress tab > select a project > Questionnaire tab

• Open the project's Questionnaire tab
• Click More in the top right corner and select "Enable Evaluation Mode" (if evaluation mode is already enabled by default for your firm, this step can be skipped)

More menu, with Enable Evaluation Mode highlighted

• Click "Start Evaluation" once evaluation mode is enabled

Start Evaluation button, shown once evaluation mode is enabled

Starting evaluation opens the Assign Reviewer(s) window, where a reviewer setup can be created from scratch, copied from a previous project, or selected from a saved definition.

• New Review: Create a new review definition from scratch
• Copy Reviewers: Copy a review definition from any project where reviewers are already assigned
• Review Definitions: Select a previously saved review definition from the list

Saving A Reusable Review Definition (Admin / Business Admin)

Admin and Business Admin users can create and save a review definition for future use.

• Click on your name in the top right corner of the screen
• Go to "Firm Settings" and select "Review Definitions"
• Click the "+" icon on the right to create a new review
• Give the definition a name and select the type of questions the reviewers should be assigned to

Setting Up A New Review

• Apply to: Choose whether reviewers should be assigned to all responses, only mandatory responses, flagged responses, unassigned responses, Manually added responses, All auto-filled responses, Autofilled from projects, AI Generated (High Confidence), AI Generated (Limited Confidence) or Revised Autofulled responses.

Step 1: selecting reviewers and the categories/questions to assign

In Step 1, single or multiple reviewers can be added depending on the firm's process.

• Parallel review: If multiple users need to evaluate the same project at the same time, add all reviewers within Step 1. A single due date can be set for all reviewers, or individual due dates can be set for each reviewer by enabling "Set individual due dates and optional reviewer(s)"

Step 1 with individual due dates set for each reviewer

• Sequential review: If the firm's process follows a review hierarchy, add the first reviewer in Step 1, then click "Add Step 2" to add the next reviewer in the chain, and continue adding steps as needed

Step 2 added for a sequential review

A review setup can be saved as a definition under "Save Definition" for reuse on future project reviews.

Once a reviewer is assigned, they receive an email notification and can begin their review. Reviewers in Step 2 or later are notified by email once the preceding step is completed.

To add reviewers to additional categories or subcategories later, select More and then "Assign Reviewers" to reopen the Assign Reviewer(s) window.

Starting A Review

Once a reviewer begins reviewing assignments, they can approve or reject each response from the responder, at the subcategory or question level.

• Approving a response: Click the approve icon to approve the responder's response. The decision can still be reversed within 15 seconds of approving
• Rejecting a response: Click the reject icon to reject the response. A pop-up will prompt for a reason for the rejection
• Adding review comments: Comments can be added to discuss a response internally with colleagues. These comments are never visible to the responder

Question-level Approve and Reject actions during evaluation

Approved and rejected responses shown with their review status

Review Audit

The audit history for each question can be viewed by clicking "Review Status." This opens a panel showing all assigned reviewers, their current review status, and the due date and time for each review step.

Review Status panel showing Step 1 reviewer status

Review Status panel showing Step 2 reviewers in queue

Reviewers can be updated if a person is out of office or has left the firm. Open the question, click "Review Status," and use "Update Reviewer(s)" at the bottom of the panel to assign someone different.

Viewing All Reviewers

All reviewers assigned to a project, along with their current review status, can be viewed under Assignments > Review Assignments.

Assignments tab, Review Assignments view, showing reviewer progress and status

Example Use Case

A requestor firm requires two internal reviewers to sign off on all mandatory responses before a DDQ is finalized, followed by a final sign-off from a senior compliance reviewer. The team sets up a sequential review: Step 1 includes the two internal reviewers working in parallel, and Step 2 includes the compliance reviewer. Once both Step 1 reviewers approve their assigned responses, the compliance reviewer is notified automatically and completes the final review in Step 2. Review status and due dates are tracked throughout under Review Status and Review Assignments.

Need Help?

For questions about the Review Flow feature, please contact ask@diligencevault.com.