Overview
Requestors can directly edit or improve responses submitted by responders within the same project, removing the need for follow-up cycles or duplicate internal projects.
When a responder submits a response that is incomplete, vague, or refers to external documents without providing usable data, the downstream impact affects comparisons, benchmarking, scoring, reporting, exports, and AI Autofill. Rather than waiting for the responder to revise, or creating a separate internal project to manually clean up responses, requestors can now make targeted edits in place.
This keeps a single, accurate response within the project while preserving the original response through a full audit trail.
Availability
This feature is only available upon request. Because it allows requestors to modify responder-submitted data, it must be formally requested by the firm’s compliance team and enabled at the firm level by the DiligenceVault Customer Success (CS) team on the back end. Once enabled, the editing capability applies to all projects across the firm.
To enable this feature, reach out to your CSM or email us at ask@diligencevault.com.
Any user with access to a project (except view-only users) can use the editing toggle once the feature is active.
Enabling Editing Mode
From within a completed project on the requestor side, navigate to the Questionnaire tab. At the top of the tab, you will see the Enable Editing Mode toggle on the right.
- Turn on the Enable Editing Mode toggle to begin editing. A banner confirms editing mode is active, and any response can then be clicked to edit it.
- Turn the toggle off at any time to return to the standard view.
- While the toggle is enabled, follow-up requests to responders are disabled.
How to Edit a Response
Once editing mode is enabled, you can directly revise any supported response within the project.
- Locate the question with the response you want to edit
- Click into the response field to make your changes
- After editing, click Save as Final to apply the update
- The edited response immediately becomes the active, default response for both requestor and responder sides
Tip You can also add responses to questions that were left blank by the responder.
Edits cannot be saved as drafts. Every change is saved as a finalized response to prevent confusion from parallel incomplete states between parties.
Supported Response Types
The following diagram shows which response types can and cannot be edited:
AUM and Track Record are considered critical financial data points used directly for reporting, analytics, and investment evaluation. Due to their sensitivity and regulatory implications, these values remain strictly responder-owned and cannot be edited by requestors.
Attachments
Requestors cannot delete or remove attachments submitted by responders. However, requestors can upload their own internal attachments to any question. These internally uploaded files are visible only to the requestor side and are not shown to the responder. Internally uploaded attachments are labeled with the uploading user’s name for easy identification.
Impact on Rules and Flags
If a response originally triggered a rule-based flag and the requestor edits that response so it no longer meets the rule’s condition, the flag is automatically removed. In such cases, the response will need to be re-evaluated and re-flagged or re-scored as appropriate. This ensures that flags always reflect the current active response rather than outdated data.
Follow-Ups During Editing Mode
While the Enable Editing Mode toggle is turned on, requestors cannot send follow-up requests to responders. To send a follow-up, simply disable the editing mode toggle first.
Responders, however, can still send follow-ups to requestors at any time. This is particularly useful if a responder disagrees with an edit or wants to provide additional context. Requestors can view and respond to these follow-ups after disabling editing mode.
Filters for Edited Responses
Both sides of the platform include dedicated filters to quickly identify edited responses.
Requestor side: Apply the Internally Edited Responses filter in the questionnaire tab to view every response that has been modified by the requestor team.
Responder side: Apply the Edited by Requestor filter to see which responses were changed by the requestor.
These filters are especially useful for compliance review, quality checks, and tracking what has been modified across a project.
Audit Trail and Response History
Every edit is fully tracked. The original responder response is never overwritten or lost.
Response History appears on each edited question. Clicking it opens a panel showing who edited the response and when, with a side-by-side comparison of the original and edited text.
The Revisions & History tab provides a full project-level view of all edited responses, including the original text, the edited text, the timestamp of each change, and the name of the user who made the edit.
Notifications to Responders
When a requestor edits one or more responses, all project subscribers and responders receive a notification. This notification is included as part of the platform’s combined 15-minute email update. There are no separate on-platform notifications for individual edits at this time.
Exports
When responses are exported from a project, only the currently active (edited) response is included in the export file. The original responder response is not shown in exports but remains accessible through the response history and revision history within the platform.
Important Things to Know
- Firm-level control: The feature is enabled for the entire firm, not per project. Once compliance approves and CS enables it, it applies to all projects.
- No deletion of responses: Requestors cannot delete a responder’s response. Edits can only modify or add to existing content.
- No draft saving: Every edit must be saved as final. Partial or in-progress drafts are not supported, ensuring both parties always see a finalized state.
- Downstream impact: Once saved, the edited response flows into all platform workflows, including comparisons, benchmarking, scoring, reporting, AI Autofill, and exports.
- Responder visibility: Responders can see the edited response on their side and can use the Revision History to view the original. If a responder disagrees with an edit, they can send a follow-up to the requestor.
When to Use This Feature
This feature is most useful when a requestor already has the correct information from a source outside the platform and needs to update the project record to reflect it. Common scenarios include:
- A responder provided clarification via email, but has not updated the platform response
- A discussion during a meeting or call produced updated details that the responder has not yet entered
- A response references an attachment without summarizing the relevant content inline
- A response was left blank or marked N/A, but the information is available from other channels
Rather than creating a duplicate internal project or waiting through additional follow-up cycles, the requestor can make the correction directly and continue with downstream analysis.