Answer buyer questions
Pick up questions from external groups, draft an answer with sources, have it reviewed, and publish it to the group that asked.
Questions from external users arrive on the project's Q&A page. Each one is assigned to an owner, answered, reviewed and then published back to the group that asked. Other groups never see it.
Before you start
- The data room is published and at least one external group is active, with Q&A enabled for that group (it is, unless someone turned it off).
- You are a member of the project. Anyone with project access can be assigned and draft; only an editor or owner can publish, reassign or send an answer back to draft. Assigning a question to someone does not give them access to the project; they need that already.
Steps
- Open Q&A. The queue lists every question with its status, author, priority and category. Needs action shows what is waiting for someone; Assigned shows your own.
Filter by external group, category, assignee, priority or date.1.Needs action2.The question - Open the question and select Assign to me or Assign to someone…. A question needs an owner before an answer can be drafted.
- Write under Your answer, or start from Draft with AI and edit. The AI drafts with the access of the seller it works for, so it can read internal Workspace documents too, but it keeps the answer to facts from documents the buyer can open. Anything useful the buyer cannot see is listed under AI evidence, which is never shown to the buyer, sometimes with a suggestion to disclose it. Under Sources for external users, Attach source cites a data room document the group can open; it is shown next to the answer. Select Save draft to keep working later or Submit for review when it is ready.
- In review, the answer can still be changed with Revise with AI or sent Back to draft. When it is final, select Publish to external users and confirm with Publish. Publishing is refused with Can't publish — cites sources the external user can't see when a cited document is outside the group's access; grant the folder or replace the citation first.
- Buyers can reply with a follow-up, which appears as a new question linked to the first, and they can attach one file to a question. When two buyers in the same group ask the same thing, Mark as duplicate on the later question closes it and points to the original; this cannot be undone.
The external user will be able to see this answer once published.
Decide who can ask, and how much
Q&A is on for every external group by default. Two settings on the group control it, under Teams, the group, Settings tab, Q&A:
- The Enabled / Disabled toggle turns Q&A on or off for that group. Turning it off keeps existing questions and answers readable; the group can no longer submit new ones. You can switch it on before the group's External access is activated.
- Monthly question limit caps how many questions the group can submit in a calendar month, from 1 to 10,000; select Save to apply it. The allowance is shared by the whole group and resets at the start of each month. A bar shows of {limit} questions used and the reset date. Remove limit makes Q&A unlimited again.
Setting a limit below what the group already asked this month blocks new questions as soon as you save it. Buyers see how many questions are left next to Ask a question.
Check the result
The question's status reads Answered in the queue, and the answer appears under the question with its sources. In the Deal Portal the group sees the question move from In Progress to Answered.
Status Answered; the answer and its timestamp sit below the question.
If something goes wrong
Open the group's Settings tab. Either Q&A is disabled, and buyers see Q&A is not available for your team, or the group has used its Monthly question limit, and buyers see Your team has used all of its questions for this month. Enable Q&A, raise or remove the limit, or wait for the monthly reset.
Place the document in the Dataroom first, then attach it as a source. A published answer can only cite documents the group can open.
Assignment does not grant access. Give them a role on the project, or at least on the cited folders, and the question appears in their Assigned list.
Publishing needs the Editor or Owner role on the project. Submit for review and ask an editor to publish, or ask an owner for the role.
Answer each separately. Answers are private to the group that asked; there is no shared FAQ across groups, so a fact both should know goes into a document in the room instead.