How to Assign SME and Reviewer? (For Responders)

Overview

Most due diligence questionnaires are not completed by a single person. Compliance answers one section, operations answers another, and a senior team member checks the responses before they go back to the requestor. DiligenceVault supports this way of working through two internal roles:

• Subject Matter Expert (SME): the internal team member responsible for answering a specific question, sub-category or category.
• Reviewer: the internal team member who checks the responses submitted by the SMEs before the questionnaire is returned to the requestor.

Both roles are assigned from the same modal. This means the questionnaire can be distributed to the right experts and its review path defined in a single pass, instead of setting up the two stages separately.

Why Responders Use This

• Shared workload: long questionnaires are split across the people who actually own the information.
• Clear ownership: every question shows who is responsible for drafting it and who will review it.
• Built in timelines: each SME and reviewer gets their own due date, tracked against the project due date.
• Less repeated effort: reviewers can be lined up in advance, including on questions that have not been answered yet.

Three Ways To Use The Assignment Modal

The same modal handles three different situations, so you can use it at any point in the response cycle.

Before You Begin

• You must have access to the project questionnaire as a responder.
• SMEs and reviewers can be selected as individual users or as user roles. Roles are added and managed in Firm Settings > User Roles.
• SMEs cannot be added or edited once the review process has started for the selected questions.

Where To Start The Assignment

Assignments can be made for the whole project or for a single sub-category, depending on how much of the questionnaire you want to distribute at once.

Project Level Assignment

Navigation path: Open the project questionnaire, then go to More > Assign SME(s) & Reviewer(s)

The Assign SME(s) & Reviewer(s) option under the More menu

Sub-Category Level Assignment

To assign only one section, click the assignment icon shown next to the sub-category name in the questionnaire header, as seen alongside Firm Overview in the screenshot above. The modal opens with that sub-category already in context.

Assigning SMEs

The Assign SME(s) tab opens first. Work through it from right to left: choose the questions, then decide who answers them and by when.

1. Select the questions. In the Select Categories / Sub-categories panel, tick a full category, a sub-category or individual questions. Use the Search here box to find a specific question quickly. The count of selected questions is shown at the bottom left of the modal.
2. Narrow the selection using Applied To. This field controls which of the selected questions the assignment actually applies to. The available options are All Questions, Mandatory Questions, Unassigned Questions and Unanswered Questions.
3. Choose the SMEs. In Select SME/Team Member or User Role, pick one or more users, or select a user role so the assignment follows the role rather than a named individual.
4. Set the turnaround time. Enter a value in Time to Complete and choose Day(s) or Week(s). The resulting due date is shown below the field as Due on, next to the Project Due Date for reference.
5. Complete the assignment. Use the action button that matches what you want to do next.

The Assign SME(s) tab with the question panel on the right

Note: Making changes will override the current SME(s) on the selected questions, so the previous assignment is replaced rather than added to.

Choosing The Right Action Button

Assigning Reviewers

The Assign Reviewer(s) tab can be reached in two ways: by selecting Next from the SME tab, or by opening the tab directly when only reviewers need to be assigned. The review process begins once the SMEs submit the final response for review.

1. Select the questions. As with SMEs, choose the categories, sub-categories or individual questions the review should cover.
2. Choose how the review is built. Use the dropdown at the top of the tab to start a New Review, copy reviewers from another project, or apply a review definition already saved in Firm Settings.
3. Select the reviewer for Step 1. In Select Reviewer, choose a user or a user role. Tick Set individual due dates and optional reviewer(s) if the step needs more granular control.
4. Set the turnaround time. Enter a value in Time to Complete and choose Day(s) or Week(s). The project due date is displayed above the field so the review still lands within the overall deadline.
5. Add further review steps if needed. Select Add Step 2 to build a multi step review, for example a team lead followed by a compliance sign off. Each step has its own reviewer and its own turnaround time.
6. Save the assignment. Select Assign Reviewer(s) when you are assigning reviewers only, or Save & Assign when SMEs and reviewers are being assigned together. Assign & Add More saves the current step and keeps the modal open for the next set of reviewers, and Previous returns to the Assign SME(s) tab.

The Assign Reviewer(s) tab, reached through Next during a simultaneous assignment

How The Assignment Moves Into Review

Assigning both roles at the same time does not start the review early. The review stage stays dormant until the SME work is submitted, which is what allows reviewers to be lined up in advance.

Notes And Best Practices

• Assign roles instead of individuals where possible. Role based assignments stay valid when team members change, and roles are managed centrally in Firm Settings > User Roles.
• Use Applied To to avoid duplicate work. Selecting Unassigned Questions is a quick way to allocate only what is still without an owner, and Mandatory Questions helps prioritise what must be answered.
• Assign reviewers early. Because reviewers can be added to unanswered questions, the full response and review path can be defined at project kick off.
• Plan around the project due date. Time to Complete is counted from the moment of assignment, so check the calculated Due on date against the project due date before saving.
• Assign in batches. Assign & Add More is the fastest way to allocate different sub-categories to different experts without reopening the modal each time.
• Set up SMEs before the review starts. SMEs cannot be added or edited once the review process has begun for those questions.
• Reassignments replace, not accumulate. Running the assignment again on the same questions overrides the existing SMEs.

Example Use Case

A responder receives a 52 question due diligence request with a project due date of 21 March. The firm history and headcount questions sit with the operations team, the AUM and track record sections sit with the performance team, and everything must be checked by a senior reviewer before submission.

• From the project, the responder opens More > Assign SME(s) & Reviewer(s).
• The Basic Information sub-category is selected, the operations user role is chosen as SME, and Time to Complete is set to 1 Week. The responder selects Assign & Add More.
• The AUM and Track Record sub-categories are selected next, assigned to the performance team, and the responder selects Next.
• On the Assign Reviewer(s) tab, a New Review is created with the senior reviewer as the Step 1 reviewer and a turnaround of 3 days.
• The responder selects Save & Assign. Each expert now sees only their own questions with their own deadline, and the review is queued to start automatically once those responses are submitted.

Need Further Assistance

If you need any additional assistance around this functionality, contact us at ask@diligencevault.com.