Data rooms when buying a business: access, documents and AI help

The data room is where the seller places the documentation for the business: accounts, statements from the bank or payment provider, traffic reports, the lease, supplier and customer agreements and the like. It is the basis for your due diligence — your review of the business before you commit. The documents are always private; others cannot see that they exist. This guide shows the data room from the buyer’s side. The seller’s preparation is covered in due diligence when selling.

Who has access to the data room?

• The seller.
• Buyers with an approved NDA.
• Buyers with an accepted offer or a deal in progress.

The seller can let access expire after 30, 60 or 90 days or on a specific date — or let it run without an expiry — and can withdraw or reopen access. You are told about the deadline and can always see it. Once the listing is sold or removed, the data room closes for everyone except the buyer in the deal. You see all your access and its deadlines under NDAs and data rooms, including data rooms you have access to through an offer or a deal.

How the data room is organised

• Folders: Finance, Traffic and marketing, Technical, Legal, Operations and suppliers, Customers and Other.
• View and download: you can open documents in the browser or download them. The seller can mark a document as the accounts, so it appears as «Download accounts».
• Watermark: PDFs and images you open or download are stamped with your name, email and the date. The original is not changed.
• Access log: the seller can see which documents each buyer has opened or downloaded.

Ask the data room with AI

With Ask the data room you can get a summary of each document and ask questions about the content, such as «What was the gross margin last year?» or «When can the lease be terminated?». The answers are based only on the text in the documents and refer to the document and page, so you can check them yourself. Your questions are private and not seen by the seller, and there is a daily limit. In a discreet sale, names, CVR numbers and web addresses are hidden in the answers until the seller has revealed the business’s identity.

Which documents should you find in the data room?

If something is missing, ask for it in the conversation — and note it in your checklist. Use Sitavo’s free due diligence checklist, or buy the DD checklist tailored to the listing (DKK 195), where you mark each item as OK, problem or not relevant and send questions straight to the seller. Read the checklist before you buy for a more thorough review.

File types and sizes

If the seller has more files than the data room can hold, the rest can be sent as files in your conversation — they are also visible only to the two of you. A good way to work is to start with the finances: reconcile the revenue in the annual report with the statement from the bank or payment provider for the same months. Then move on to the agreements, and finally to technical matters and operations. For each document, note what it confirms and what questions it raises, so you have one complete list when you discuss the price with the seller.