Service Provider Diligence gives you a single place to track, manage, and engage with the service providers connected to your investment entities. Service providers such as administrators, custodians, prime brokers, and auditors play a key role in fund operations, and this feature brings all of that data and the related workflows into DiligenceVault instead of leaving it in spreadsheets or separate systems.
Use Service Provider Diligence to:
- Get a centralized view of the service providers connected to every entity you track
- Reduce reliance on spreadsheets or other tracking systems kept outside the platform
- Send due diligence projects directly to a service provider, not only to the fund or firm
- Improve transparency, auditability, and data quality around service provider relationships
What Is a Service Provider
A service provider is an external firm that supports a fund or entity in one or more operational roles, such as administrator, custodian, prime broker, or auditor. A single service provider can hold more than one role, for example acting as both an administrator and a custodian for the same entity. Every service provider record is linked to a specific entity, so its details stay tied to the correct operational context.
Who Can Create Service Providers
Service provider records can be created by Responders and by Premium Requestors.
Viewing and Managing Service Providers
Service provider information is available from two places in DiligenceVault, depending on whether you want a firm wide view or a view scoped to one entity.
Manage > Service Providers
Navigation path: From the left navigation panel, go to Manage > Service Providers.
Manage menu, with Service Providers highlighted
This opens a centralized grid of every service provider across your entities. From here you can:
- View both active and inactive service providers
- Send bulk requests asking responders for service provider details
- Track the status of requests you have already sent, from the Requests Sent tab
Monitor Service Providers grid
Entity > Associated Entities > Service Providers
Navigation path: Open the firm, product, strategy, or vehicle you want, then go to Associated Entities > Service Providers.
This view shows only the service providers tied to that one entity. From here you can:
- Review service provider details in the context of that specific entity
- Request or validate service provider information for that entity alone
- Open the audit trail for that entity's service providers
Associated Entities > Service Providers tab for a firm
Adding a New Service Provider
You can add a service provider from three places in DiligenceVault.
Ways to Start
- From the left navigation panel, go to New > Service Provider.
- From the left navigation panel, go to Manage > Service Providers, then click + New Service Provider.
- Open a firm or product, go to Associated Entities > Service Providers, then click + New Service Provider.
New menu, with Service Provider highlighted
New Service Provider button on the Associated Entities tab
Steps
- Service Provider Name: the name of the service provider, for example DiligenceVault.
- Alias (optional): an internal short name your team uses to refer to the provider, for example DV.
- Service Provider Domain: the provider's website.
- Service Provider Type: select one or more types from the list.
- Internal Key (optional): your own identifier for matching the provider to internal records.
- Owners: the internal users who will be assigned to this provider.
Create Service Provider form
- On the Add Associated Entities tab, assign the service provider to one or more entities for each provider type.
- Click Create Service Provider.
Add Associated Entities tab
The new service provider now appears in Manage > Service Providers.
Updating a Service Provider
Editing Service Provider Details
- Go to Manage > Service Providers and open the service provider you want to update.
- Click the edit icon on the Profile Summary, or click the three dot menu at the top of the page and select Edit Service Provider.
Edit Service Provider option in the three dot menu
Editing Associated Entities
- From the same three dot menu, select Edit Associated Entity Details.
Edit Associated Entity Details option
- Select the entities you want to update, then click Update Details to bulk add or update the Onboarded Date, Last Reviewed Date, and associated service provider contacts across multiple records at once.
Bulk Update Details screen
Adding Service Provider Contacts
- From the left navigation panel, go to New > Contact > Service Provider.
- Fill in the required fields: Name, Email, and Service Provider.
- Click Create Contact.
New > Contact > Service Provider
A service provider contact can also be added from Manage > Contacts > + New Contact > Service Provider. Contacts can be added by Responders and Premium Requestors.
Requesting Service Provider Details from Responders
As a requestor, you can ask responders to add service providers for an entity, or to validate and update details for service providers already associated with an entity. Requests can be sent in bulk across several entities, or for a single entity at a time.
Bulk Request
Use this when you need service provider details for multiple entities at once.
- Go to Manage > Service Providers.
- Click Request Service Provider Details.
Request Service Provider Details button
- Select the relevant firms and products, then submit.
Request Service Provider Details window
For entities that already have service providers on file, this request is treated as a validation or update request. For entities without any service providers yet, it is treated as a request for new service provider details.
Single Entity Request
Use this when you need details for just one entity.
- Open the entity, go to Associated Entities > Service Providers.
- Click Request Service Provider Details and submit.
Request Service Provider Details at the product level
If a service provider is already associated with the entity, the button instead reads Validate Service Provider Details, since the request confirms existing information rather than asking for something new.
Validate Service Provider Details on an entity with existing providers
Tracking Your Requests
All outgoing requests can be tracked from the Requests Sent tab within the Service Provider grid.
Requests Sent tab
- Requests remain visible on this tab until the responder completes the action.
- Once details are added or updated, the request is automatically removed from the list.
- Use Send Reminder next to a request to follow up with the responder.
Sending Project Requests to Service Providers
Beyond requesting service provider details, you can send a full due diligence project directly to a service provider, the same way you would send one to a fund or firm.
Navigation path
From the left navigation panel, go to New > Request. In the request creation flow, a Service Providers tab sits alongside the standard Firms, Strategies, Products, and Vehicles tabs.
Service Providers tab in the request creation flow
- Select the Service Providers tab.
- Service providers are grouped by their associated entity, so choose the specific Service Provider, Type, and Entity combination you want to engage.
- Complete the rest of the request as you normally would.
Once submitted, the request is routed to the service provider for completion, based on the authorization settings the responder firm has configured.
Understanding Authorization for Service Provider Projects
Responder firms can configure how authorization works before a service provider project reaches them. As a requestor, it helps to know how this affects the requests you send, since a project you submit may not start immediately.
A responder firm's authorization setting will be one of the following:
- No Authorization Required (the default): the project goes directly to the service provider and is automatically marked as authorized. No action is needed from the responder before the project starts.
- Authorization Required for Every New Service Provider: the responder must authorize each new service provider before a request can reach them. This check applies at the requestor level, so a request sent to a service provider the responder has not yet authorized is held pending their approval.
- Authorization Required for Each Service Provider Confirmation: every individual service provider project request must be separately authorized by the responder before it proceeds.
[Screenshot needed: Service Provider Authorization Details settings on the responder side]
Admin or Business Admin users on the responder side assign authorizers from Firm Settings > Preferences > Firm Preferences > Service Provider Authorization > Assign Authorizers. Added users authorize all service provider requests, and specific authorizers can also be set for a particular service provider or entity. For projects that are auto authorized, these users are copied on the notification instead.
Tracking Pending Authorizations
- From the left navigation panel, go to New > Request > Pending Manager Authorizations.
- This dashboard shows every request pending authorization, along with any that have been declined.
- Use Send Reminder to nudge the responder, or Withdraw to pull back the request.
[Screenshot needed: Pending Manager Authorizations dashboard]
How Service Provider Projects Work
Once a service provider project is authorized and underway, it behaves much like any other project from your side. After the service provider submits its responses, you can review the submission, rate it, raise follow-ups, and use the same functions available in any standard project. The service provider handles the response side directly, including submitting answers, raising follow-ups, and attaching documents. The associated responder firm keeps view-only access to the project, though it can still export it.
Tracking Data from Service Provider Projects
Data collected through a service provider project is stored against the responder's entity the project was created for, not against the service provider that responded. This keeps all data organized within the correct entity context.
To help you tell this data apart from standard responder project data, DiligenceVault automatically applies a Service Provider tag to everything received through a service provider project.
Projects grid, with the Service Provider tag shown in the Type column
Service Provider Information Visibility
Who can see a change to service provider data depends on who made it.
- If a responder creates a service provider for an entity, it is visible to every investor tracking that entity's data.
- If a responder edits service provider details, the changes are visible to every investor tracking that data.
- If a requestor creates a service provider for an entity, it is visible to every investor tracking that entity's data.
- If a requestor edits service provider details, the changes are visible only to that requestor's own firm, not to the responder or to other requestors.
Deactivating Service Providers
When a service provider no longer applies, mark it inactive rather than deleting it, so your active views stay clean while the historical record is preserved.
Steps
- Go to the entity's Associated Entities > Service Providers tab.
- Select the option to mark the service provider inactive.
Mark as Inactive action on a service provider row
- Enter a Relationship End Date and a Reason for Inactivating.
Mark as Inactive window with Relationship End Date and Reason for Inactivating
A few points affect how far this reaches:
- If a responder marks a service provider association inactive, it becomes inactive for every requestor tracking that entity.
- If a responder bulk inactivates a service provider, all of its entity associations are inactivated at once.
- If a requestor marks a service provider association inactive, it is deactivated only for that requestor.
- If an entity itself is inactivated, its associated service providers are inactivated along with it.
- Inactivating one association for a service provider does not affect that same service provider's other associations.
Audit Trail and Change History
DiligenceVault keeps a full audit trail of service provider activity to support governance and transparency.
Navigation path
Go to the entity's Associated Entities > Service Providers tab and click the audit trail icon in the Actions column. The audit trail shows every change made for the selected entity and service provider role over time.
Audit Trail action on a service provider row
Recommendations, Workflows, and Documents
- Add recommendations to a service provider from Manage > Service Providers > Recommendations tab.
Recommendations tab on a service provider
- Start a workflow process directly at the service provider level, from Create New > Start Workflow Process on the service provider's Monitor page.
Start Workflow Process option in the Create New menu
- Associate received documents directly with a service provider from its Documents tab.
Documents tab on a service provider
Public API and Bulk Upload
Service providers can also be created and updated in bulk using the Public API or the bulk upload functionality, which cuts down significantly on the time needed compared to updating records manually within the platform.
Currently, only the pre-defined bulk upload template is supported for the Service Provider module.
Quick Access from the Projects and My Work Grids
A Standard Data Layer dropdown sits in the sub-toolbar of the Projects grid and the My Work grid, giving you a shortcut to Service Providers and Blaze Live Profile without leaving the page you are on.
The dropdown label shows a combined count of your existing Blaze Live Profile and Service Providers requests. Click it to expand two destinations:
- Service Providers: takes you to the Service Providers tab under Manage > Service Providers.
- Blaze Live Profile: takes you to the Blaze Live Profile tab under Diligence > Blaze Live Profile.
Standard Data Layer dropdown expanded, showing Blaze Live Profile and Service Providers counts
An info icon next to the dropdown shows a tooltip summarizing what each data layer covers. This dropdown is available wherever you access the Projects grid or the My Work grid, and it is a shortcut only. The same information is also reachable directly through Manage > Service Providers and Diligence > Blaze Live Profile.