In today’s due diligence environment, requesters often need to centralize information, maintain historical records, and complete internal workflows efficiently. Not every project requires sending questionnaires externally. In many cases, firms already have the required information in spreadsheets, Word files, emails, or previous submissions.
To support these workflows, DiligenceVault offers Internal Projects, allowing requesters to create projects within the platform and complete responses themselves without involving external parties. Combined with the Autofill feature, Internal Projects become an efficient way to populate recurring questionnaires using historical data already stored in DiligenceVault.
What Are Internal Projects?
Internal Projects function like standard projects in DiligenceVault, with one important distinction: they are not sent externally for completion. Instead, requesters create the project and enter responses internally.
This is especially valuable when information needs to be captured and stored in DiligenceVault, but no external response workflow is required.
When to Use Internal Projects
Backloading Historical Projects
If you are a new DiligenceVault client and want to upload previously completed projects into the platform, Internal Projects provide an ideal solution. Historical responses previously received through Word or Excel can be recreated in DiligenceVault without sending notifications externally.
External Responses Received Offline
Sometimes information may be shared outside the platform in spreadsheets, documents, or email. Internal Projects allow requesters to enter that data into DiligenceVault so all records remain centralized.
Internal Recordkeeping and Ongoing Monitoring
Organizations may also use Internal Projects to maintain internal diligence records, periodic reviews, or monitoring updates that do not require outside participation.
Key Benefits of Internal Projects
- No External Notifications Sent : Projects remain internal to your organization.
- Centralized Data Management : Store historical and current diligence responses in one platform.
- Improved Visibility : Keep all project information searchable and accessible.
- Collaborative Access : Add subscribers so internal stakeholders can view projects and receive updates.
- Consistent Reporting : Historical and active project data can live in one ecosystem.
How to Create an Internal Project
- Go to New Request
- Choose a project type: Pre-Investment, Ongoing Monitoring, or Ad Hoc
- Select the relevant firm name and contacts
- Set the due date, as-of date, and questionnaire template
- In the Review tab, select the Internal Project checkbox
- Click Send Request
Once created, the project appears in your account without sending any external notifications. Your internal team can then complete the responses and mark the project complete.
Autofill for Internal Projects
To make Internal Projects even more efficient, requesters can use Autofill to reuse responses from prior projects already stored in DiligenceVault.
If a similar questionnaire was completed previously, Autofill can automatically retrieve historical answers and append them to the new Internal Project, reducing repetitive manual entry and accelerating project completion.
How to Use Autofill
- Navigate to Diligence > Projects > In-progress
- Select the Internal Project
- Open the Questionnaire tab
- Click Auto-fill
Users can choose to populate responses from:
• Most Recent Submission
• From a Diligence Project
Responses can be applied to:
• Specific Categories
• Specific Sub-Categories
• All Categories & Sub-Categories
Select the project from which you would like to populate responses. You can narrow down the list of available projects by applying filters such as entity and date range, and then select the relevant project.
Source Details for Autofilled Responses
For each autofilled question, source details can be viewed in the Revisions & History tab of the project. This gives users visibility into where the response originated and helps support transparency and auditability.
The source details may include:
- Associated Entity Name : Linked source entity.
- Project name : Name of the project from where the response was taken
- Updated By : User who last updated the source response.
- Updated When : Timestamp of last update.
- Source Question : Original question used for Autofill.
- Project Name : Related historical project, or Restricted if unavailable.
Why This Matters for Requesters
These capabilities help requesters:
- Complete Internal Projects faster.
- Reuse trusted historical data.
- Improve consistency across questionnaires.
- Maintain clear audit trails.
- Reduce manual re-entry effort.
- Centralize all diligence records in one platform.
Smarter Internal Workflows in DiligenceVault
Internal Projects and Autofill together provide a powerful workflow for requester teams managing historical data, recurring questionnaires, and internal diligence processes. By combining flexibility, efficiency, and transparency, DiligenceVault helps organizations keep their data organized while reducing the operational burden of repetitive project work.
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 is where you go to answer two different questions: what changed in the responses, and what happened to a response across its full lifecycle. To serve both needs clearly, 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 is designed to help 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 and easy to read. 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.