Before the advent of virtual data rooms, M&A teams had to physically construct physical spaces filled with filing cabinets containing confidential documents and other information. They were costly and difficult to navigate. And, god forbid that a sleep-deprived M&A analysts accidentally sets a decade’s worth financial statements on fire!
Begin by identifying information that are essential to the due diligence process of your deal. Then, you can prioritize which documents are essential to include or exclude. Avoid including irrelevant information because it could distract you from crucial issues that affect the future performance of your business.
Decide how you want to organize your data in folders and subfolders to create a hierarchy that is easy to comprehend. Indexing is another option to mark files with keywords or metadata. This will help you locate files based on content. All files should have descriptive names that accurately reflect the content. If needed, include dates and versions so that you can track revisions to the document.
You can then upload all your files to the data room so that anyone invited to the project can easily access. Many providers let you give users specific permissions to allow them to be permitted to download or view certain file types without affecting the data access of everyone else.
Once you’ve uploaded all your files, the intelligent Breaking Down Virtual Data Room Costs: Key Factors and Pricing Models search function allows you to quickly find them and then view them. You don’t even have to leave the data room. Some data rooms even have an inbuilt document viewer to provide a quick and convenient viewing experience.
