Q&A for buyers/participants | VDRPro

The dashboard shows the number of questions that your group has proposed or submitted, the number of questions that have been answered and closed, and, if a question limit has been set for your group, the remaining number of questions that your group is allowed to submit.

1. Display the Q&A dashboard by clicking the Q&A tab.
2. Use the quick filters at the top of the dashboard to view questions according to their status:
   • HIgh Priority questions are those that have been marked by members of your group as high priority. All high priority questions, regardless of their status, appear in this list.
   • Proposed questions have been proposed by members of your group and are waiting to be submitted to the Q&A coordinator by a question submitter in your organization.
   • Answered questions have been answered and sent back to These questions have a status of either Answered or Closed.
   • Unanswered questions have been submitted by your group and are awaiting a response from the Q&A coordinator or an expert.

If Q&A is enabled on your exchange, anyone in your buyer/participant group can propose questions and comment on them. Note that only the question submitters in your group can approve proposed questions and submit them to the Q&A coordinator for an answer. Only members of your buyer/participant group can see the questions your team has proposed.

The maximum number of questions that can be submitted at a given time is based on how the question limit has been configured. The limit types are:

• All time - After the maximum number of questions have been asked, your group cannot ask additional questions.
• Daily - The question limit applies between midnight and 11:59 GMT
• Weekly - The question limit applies Monday through Sunday GMT.
• Monthly - The question limit applies from the first day of the month to the last day of the month GMT.
• No limit - Your group can ask an unlimited number of questions.

The type of limit that applies to your buyer/participant group and the number of questions remaining is displayed when you submit a question.

1. From the Q&A view, click Ask a Question at the top of the screen.
2. In the Category field, select the category that applies to this question.
3. If your data room is using clean teams and you are a clean team member, in the Question Visibility field select one of the following options:
   • Clean Team Only - The question will only be visible to other clean team members from your buyer group. This includes all follow up question, comments and answers that belong to the question.

     If you try to change the visibility to Entire Buyer Group after the question has been added, a message is displayed reminding you that if the question or answer contains sensitive information that should not be available to the entire buyer group, the visibility should remain Clean Team Only.

   • Entire Buyer Group - The question will be visible to all members of your buyer group.
4. In the Title field, enter a title for the question.
5. In the Your Question field, enter the question along with any supporting details that may be needed to answer the question.
6. (Optional.) If this is a particularly important question and you want to call the Q&A coordinator's attention to it, click Mark Question as High Priority.
7. (Optional.) If you have permission to add and permission documents, you can link to documents on the exchange or upload documents from your computer or network to the question. If you do not have permission to add and permission documents, you can link or attach additional documents from the exchange or your computer or network to the question.
   • If the document is located on the exchange, click Link Document, highlight the document, and click Link Document.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you have permission to add and permission documents, click Upload Document. Select the folder to add the uploaded document to or create a new folder, optionally set permissions and send alerts, and click Upload.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you do not have permission to add and permission documents, click Attach Document, and select up to five documents to attach.
8. Click Add as Proposed. (Or, If you are a question submitter, you can click Submit instead.)

The question appears in the Proposed quick filter for all the members of your buyer/participant group, and an email alert will be sent to the question submitter(s) for your group, letting them know that a question has been proposed. The question is assigned an ID, which can be used to track it through its lifecycle.

If you are a question submitter, you will receive an email when a reply is made.

You can add multiple questions at the same time using the Import Questions wizard. The questions are checked for errors during the import process, and you can correct any errors that are found before continuing the import. The questions will be imported with a status of Proposed.

Before importing questions, you must create a spreadsheet that contains the questions. Intralinks VDRPro provides a template that contains the required columns that you can download and use to create your spreadsheet.

If your data room is using clean teams and you are a clean team member, all of your questions will be added with Clean Team Only visibility.

To download the template and create a spreadsheet

1. In the Q&A view, click Import at the top of the screen to start the Import Questions wizard.
2. Click the Download Import Template link to download a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
3. Open the spreadsheet template. The template has three columns. In each row, enter the questions you want to propose:
   • Title — Enter a title for each Entries in this column must be 265 characters or less.
   • Question — Enter the full content of the Each question can be up to 4,000 characters in length.
   • Category— Enter the category you want to assign each question Be sure to enter category names exactly as they appear on your exchange.
   • Priority — For high priority questions, enter High in this (You do not need to make an entry for questions with a normal priority.)

   Keep the following guidelines in mind:

   • Do not leave any cells in the spreadsheet blank. Rows that do not include a title or question will be ignored.
   • If you do not include a category, or if your entry is misspelled, you will be asked to fix the error.
   • Do not import more questions than your buyer/participant group is allowed to ask.
   • If you enter anything other than High in the Priority column, your entry is ignored and the question is imported with a normal priority.
4. Save the completed import file and make a note of its name and location.

To import questions from a spreadsheet

1. In the Q&A view, click Import at the top of the screen to start the Import Questions wizard.
2. Click the Browse link, then select your import file and click Open.
3. Click Next.
4. Review the entries on the screen. If the import file did not include a category for a question, select the category in the red box.
5. When you are ready to start the import, click Import.

The questions are uploaded with a status of Proposed, and are added to the top of the questions list in the Q&A view. Each question is assigned an ID, which can be used to track the question through its life cycle.

You can propose questions while viewing documents in your Documents List. You can link to additional documents and, depending upon the rights assigned to you, upload or attach files from your hard drive to the question. (Uploaded files can be shared with other people on the exchange; this action usually is reserved for Q&A coordinators. Attached files cannot be viewed by anyone other than the members of your team and the people who answer your question.)

1. From the Documents view, highlight the document that you have a question about.
2. Click Ask a Question.
3. In the Category field, select the category that applies to this question.
4. If your data room is using clean teams and you are a clean team member, in the Question Visibility field select one of the following options:
   • Clean Team Only - The question will only be visible to other clean team members from your buyer group. This includes all follow up question, comments and answers that belong to the question.

     If you try to change the visibility to Entire Buyer Group after the question has been added, a message is displayed reminding you that if the question or answer contains sensitive information that should not be available to the entire buyer group, the visibility should remain Clean Team Only.

   • Entire Buyer Group - The question will be visible to all members of your buyer group.
5. In the Title field, enter a title for the question.
6. In the Your Question field, enter the question along with any supporting details that may be needed to answer the question.
7. (Optional.) If this is a particularly important question and you want to call the Q&A coordinator's attention to it, click Mark Question as High Priority.
8. (Optional.) If you have permission to add and permission documents, you can link to documents on the exchange or upload documents from your computer or network to the question. If you do not have permission to add and permission documents, you can link or attach additional documents from the exchange or your computer or network to the question.
   • If the document is located on the exchange, click Link Document, highlight the document, and click Link Document.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you have permission to add and permission documents, click Upload Document. Select the folder to add the uploaded document to or create a new folder, optionally set permissions and send alerts, and click Upload.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you do not have permission to add and permission documents, click Attach Document, and select up to five documents to attach.

   To select multiple documents, press the CTRL or SHIFT key while clicking on the documents.

9. Click Add as Proposed.

The question appears in the Proposed quick filter for all the members of your buyer/participant group. The selected document appears as an attachment to the question. The question is assigned an ID, which can be used to track it through its lifecycle.

You can send an email to members of your team informing them that you have proposed a new question. Email alerts can be sent at any time until the question is submitted to the Q&A coordinator.

1. From the Q&A view, click the Proposed quick filter to display the list of proposed questions.
2. Click to expand the question you want to send an alert about, then select Send Alert from the More menu.
3. Review the subject and note, and make any necessary changes.
4. Mark the box next to your group’s name, then click Send.

   An alert with your note and a link to the proposed question is sent to the members of your buyer/participant group.

You can add comments to proposed questions, add links to documents in the exchange, and attach documents from your computer or network to your comment.

1. From the Q&A view, click the Proposed quick filter to display the list of proposed questions.
2. Click to expand the question you want to comment on, and click the Add Comment button.
3. Enter your comments in the Add a Comment... box.
4. (Optional.) If you have permission to add and permission documents, you can link to documents on the exchange or upload documents from your computer or network to the comment. If you do not have permission to add and permission documents, you can link or attach additional documents from the exchange or your computer or network to the comment.
   • If the document is located on the exchange, click Link Document, highlight the document, and click Link Document.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you have permission to add and permission documents, click Upload Document. Select the folder to add the uploaded document to or create a new folder, optionally set permissions and send alerts, and click Upload.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you do not have permission to add and permission documents, click Attach Document, and select up to five documents to attach.

   To select multiple documents, press the CTRL or SHIFT key while clicking on the documents.

5. Click Comment to submit your comment.

If you are a question submitter, you can review and submit the questions proposed by members of your group. You also can create and submit your own questions. 

1. From the Q&A view, click the Proposed quick filter to display the list of proposed questions.
2. Submit one or more questions:
   • To submit a single question, click to expand the question you want to submit, and click the Submit button.
   • To select and submit multiple questions at once, mark the boxes next to the question titles, and then select Submit from the Action menu.
3. In the Submit Question panel, confirm your
4. Click Submit Question(s).

   The Q&A coordinator will be alerted by email. When a reply is made, you also will be alerted by email.

If you are a question submitter, you can submit multiple questions at the same time using the Import Questions wizard. The questions are checked for errors during the import process, and you can correct any errors that are found before continuing the import. The questions will be imported with a status of Proposed.

Before importing questions, you must create a spreadsheet that contains the questions. Intralinks VDRPro provides a template that contains the required columns that you can download and use to create your spreadsheet.

To download the template and create a spreadsheet

1. In the Q&A view, click at the top of the screen to start the Import Questions wizard.
2. Click the Download Import Template link to download a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
3. Open the spreadsheet template. The template has three columns. In each row, enter the questions you want to propose:
   • Title — Enter a title for each Entries in this column must be 265 characters or less.
   • Question — Enter the full content of the Each question can be up to 4,000 characters in length.
   • Category— Enter the category you want to assign each question Be sure to enter category names exactly as they appear on your exchange.
   • Priority — For high priority questions, enter High in this (You do not need to make an entry for questions with a normal priority.)

   Keep the following guidelines in mind:

   • Do not leave any cells in the spreadsheet blank. Rows that do not include a title or question will be ignored.
   • If you do not include a category, or if your entry is misspelled, you will be asked to fix the error.
   • Do not import more questions than your buyer/participant group is allowed to ask.
   • If you enter anything other than High in the Priority column, your entry is ignored and the question is imported with a normal priority.
4. Save the completed import file and make a note of its name and location.

To import questions from a spreadsheet

1. In the Q&A view, click at the top of the screen to start the Import Questions wizard.
2. Click the Browse link, then select your import file and click Open.
3. Click Next.
4. Review the entries on the screen. If the import file did not include a category for a question, select the category in the red box.
5. When you are ready to start the import, click Add as Proposed.

The questions are uploaded with a status of Proposed, and are added to the top of the questions list in the Q&A view. Each question is assigned an ID, which can be used to track the question through its life cycle.

If necessary, you can change a question’s priority at any time before it is closed or withdrawn.

1. Using the Q&A tab, locate the (If the question has been marked as high priority, click on the Priority filter to display only high-priority questions.)
2. Click on the question to view
3. Click the More button, then select the option you want:
   • If the question is currently marked as high priority, select Change to Standard Priority.
   • If the question currently is standard priority, select Change to High Priority.

When a question is answered, you will receive an email alert containing a link to the answer. In the email alert you received, click the link to view the answer. You also can view answers by clicking the Answered quick filter when the Q&A view is displayed.

Asking a followup question

If you are a question submitter and you still have questions after the exchange manager responds to your original question, you can follow up. You can follow up as many times as you need to get the information you require. Even if a limit has been set for the number of questions that your buyer/participant group is allowed to ask, follow-ups do not count as questions and do not affect the number of questions asked.

Note: Once the Q&A coordinator has closed a question, you can no longer follow up on it.

1. In the Q&A view, click the Answered quick filter to display the list of answered questions.
2. Click to expand the question you want to follow up The answer is displayed, as well as any attached or linked documents.
3. Click Follow Up and type your followup question in the Write a follow up question box.
4. (Optional.) If you want to reference documents that are already linked or attached to the original answer, click the Reference Document quick link, select the documents you want to reference, and click Link Document.
5. (Optional.) If you have permission to add and permission documents, you can link to documents on the exchange or upload documents from your computer or network to the question. If you do not have permission to add and permission documents, you can link or attach additional documents from the exchange or your computer or network to the question.
   • If the document is located on the exchange, click Link Document, highlight the document, and click Link Document.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you have permission to add and permission documents, click Upload Document. Select the folder to add the uploaded document to or create a new folder, optionally set permissions and send alerts, and click Upload.
   • If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you do not have permission to add and permission documents, click Attach Document, and select up to five documents to attach.

   To select multiple documents, press the CTRL or SHIFT key while clicking on the documents.

6. Click Send Follow Up. Your follow up question is sent to the Q&A coordinator. It appears at the top of the Unanswered quick filter with a status of Followup.

You can withdraw an unanswered question if it is no longer relevant or if your buyer/participant group has been allowed a limited number of questions and you want to replace a question that you have already asked with one that is more urgent.

Once a question has been answered, it can no longer be withdrawn.

1. From the Q&A view, click the Unanswered quick filter to display the list of submitted unanswered questions.
2. You can withdraw a single question or multiple questions:
   • To withdraw one question, click to expand the question that you want to withdraw, and click the Withdraw Question button.
   • To withdraw multiple questions at once, mark the boxes next to the question titles, and then select Withdraw from the Action menu.
3. Confirm your decision by clicking Withdraw Question(s).

FAQs — frequently asked questions — are an easy way for exchange managers to share information with all the members of your exchange. For example, the Q&A coordinator might use an FAQ to communicate key dates that are relevant to all exchange users.

Some FAQs may be based on questions submitted by your buyer/participant group. If this is the case, any identifying information about your group is removed before the FAQ is created to ensure your group’s anonymity.

1. From the Q&A view, click the FAQs quick filter to display the list of FAQs.
2. Click any FAQ’s title to expand and view the FAQ.