If you have already answered a similar request on DiligenceVault, the Auto-fill tool lets you reuse those responses instead of typing them out again. It searches your past submissions for matching or similar questions and copies the answers straight into your current project.
Responders typically use Auto-fill to:
- Save time on questions that repeat across DDQs, RFPs, and annual reviews
- Reuse a well written answer instead of drafting the same response from scratch
- Pull responses from one specific past project, or search across the entire response library
- Keep answers consistent across multiple requests going to different investors
The Auto-Fill button on the Questionnaire tab of a project
Opening Auto-fill
Navigation path
From the left navigation panel, go to Diligence > Projects > In-Progress, select the relevant project, open it, then go to the Questionnaire tab and click Auto-Fill in the top right corner.
Steps
- Go to Diligence > Projects > In-Progress.
- Select the project you want to fill out from the list.
- Open the project and click the Questionnaire tab.
- Click Auto-Fill at the top right of the page. The Auto-fill window opens.
If you have run Auto-fill on this project before, the window shows a summary of that run near the top, including how many responses were filled, the source used, who ran it, and when. Click Delete next to it if you want to clear that history and start over.
Choosing Where Auto-fill Searches
The Auto-fill window opens on the Standard tab by default. AI Mode and Advanced are also available at the top of the window for other ways of matching responses.
Within Standard, choose one of two sources:
- Q/A Center: searches your firm's full response library, which includes responses submitted across all past projects. By default it prioritizes your most recently submitted answers.
- From a Diligence Project: searches only the responses submitted to one specific past project that you select.
Standard tab showing the Q/A Center and From a Diligence Project source options
Limiting Auto-fill to Specific Categories
By default, Auto-fill applies to every question in the project. Use the Auto-Fill dropdown if you only want it to run against part of the questionnaire.
Auto-Fill dropdown set to All Categories & Sub-Categories
- Leave the dropdown set to All Categories & Sub-Categories to run Auto-fill across the entire project.
- Change it to Select Categories & Sub-Categories to open a checklist of the project's categories.
- Tick the categories or individual sub-categories you want Auto-fill to apply to, and leave the rest unticked.
Categories checklist with individual category and sub-category checkboxes
Content Settings
Content Settings control which past responses Auto-fill is allowed to consider.
Content Settings toggles
- Include project responses: includes responses already submitted within the current project as a source, alongside the library or the selected past project.
- Prioritize the most recent responses: when this is on and both the library and project responses are being searched, the most recently submitted matching response is used.
- Only include responses submitted to [Investor Name]: restricts matches to responses that were previously submitted to that specific investor.
- Only include responses associated to [My Firm]: restricts matches to responses tied to your own firm record, rather than any linked entity.
Match Settings
The % Similarity Match slider controls how closely a past answer has to match the current question before Auto-fill will use it, from 0% up to 95%.
- A lower percentage returns more matches, including questions that are only loosely related to the current one.
- A higher percentage returns fewer matches, but each one is closer in wording and intent to the question being answered.
Previewing and Running Auto-fill
- Preview: shows how many exact matches your current settings will produce before you commit to running Auto-fill.
- Auto-fill as Drafts: populates matched responses as drafts, so you can review each one before it counts as a final answer.
- Auto-Fill: populates matched responses directly into the questionnaire.
- History: opens a log of previous Auto-fill runs on this project.
Tips and Things to Know
- Review every auto-filled response before submitting the project, particularly ones brought in through similarity matching rather than an exact match, since wording or figures may need updating for the current request.
- Use Auto-fill as Drafts when you want a review step before responses are treated as final.
- Narrow the scope to specific categories when you only need to fill part of a long questionnaire, rather than running Auto-fill across the whole thing.
- Combine the Content Settings toggles, for example restricting to your own firm's responses, to keep matches relevant to the request you are working on.
- Raise the % Similarity Match if Auto-fill is bringing in responses that do not fit the question being asked.
Example Use Case
An analyst at an asset management firm is completing a DDQ for a prospective investor and notices that many of the Strategy and Investment Process questions were already answered in a request submitted a few months earlier. Instead of retyping the answers, the analyst opens the Questionnaire tab and clicks Auto-Fill, stays on the Standard tab, and selects Q/A Center as the source. They restrict Content Settings to responses associated to their own firm, set the % Similarity Match to 95%, and click Auto-fill as Drafts.
The matching questions populate with the closest previous answers as drafts. The analyst reviews each one, updates a few figures that have since changed, and finalizes the responses before continuing with the rest of the questionnaire.