How an engagement works

A mandate is a set of questions about companies, together with rules for what counts as an answer. Docket turns that brief into repeatable research. You can operate the platform directly or have a dedicated analyst manage the work and review the criteria with you each week.

01 / Scope the mandate

Begin with an enquiry describing sectors, geography, size preferences, and timing. The scoping conversation separates acquisition requirements from diligence hypotheses. It also identifies what public information can reasonably establish and which questions will remain for a direct conversation or later diligence.

The first ten targets are researched free. Their purpose is to let your team assess the evidence standard and the fit of the questions before expanding the mandate. A useful review may change the criteria as much as the shortlist.

02 / Turn criteria into questions

The criteria workshop defines typed questions, fixed answer lists, disqualifying conditions, and scoring preferences. An illustrative question might ask whether a company publicly describes maintenance contracts, with answers that distinguish explicit support from no evidence found. It should not turn a reference to repeat customers into a claim about contracted revenue.

We agree what a supporting source must say and where uncertainty belongs. Your team owns the commercial meaning of the criteria. The agents apply those questions consistently. The screening criteria guide explains why exclusions and evidence rules should be defined before scoring.

03 / Bring a list, or have one built

Import your existing targets or ask Docket to build the starting list around the mandate. Both approaches need clear boundaries: operating activities, geographic coverage, and how to treat subsidiaries or similar names. An imported row is a candidate for research, not proof that the company meets the criteria.

04 / Run three separate passes

Triage: establish the subject

Triage resolves identity before research is paid for, removes duplicates and wrong-site records, and checks disqualifying questions first. This prevents detailed work being spent on a namesake or a company already outside the mandate. Identity uncertainty stays visible when it cannot be resolved.

Scout: collect the answers

Scout researches the agreed questions and records typed values from the fixed answer lists. Each accepted finding quotes a retained page verbatim. The record connects the answer to its source and date, so your team can assess both support and freshness.

Audit: judge the retained evidence

Audit re-reads with every fetch tool denied. It settles contradictions in the collected material, strikes findings that cannot be supported by quotations, and leaves gaps visibly open. A completed pass does not imply every question has an answer; it means the record makes the remaining uncertainty inspectable.

05 / Review and refine

In self-serve, your team manages questions, runs, and results directly. Managed delivery adds a dedicated analyst, daily written reporting, and weekly criteria review. Enterprise arrangements coordinate multiple mandates with separate workspaces and access requirements agreed for the engagement. The plan descriptions below set out the current options.

Review the underlying answers before treating a score as a priority. Scores express your screening rules; they do not estimate investment returns. New questions and revised criteria may require further research. An evidence gap should become a defined next action rather than an unexplained penalty.

06 / Approve contact and hand over conversations

Email, LinkedIn, and phone outreach are optional on every plan. Your team approves messaging and each target before contact. Exclusion lists and existing relationships are reviewed alongside the research. The outreach compliance guide explains the jurisdiction and channel questions that belong in this step.

When outreach produces a qualified conversation, the handover includes a brief connecting the company to the mandate and identifying open questions. Your deal team takes the relationship forward. Docket is not a broker-dealer or M&A adviser and does not represent either side of a transaction.

Responsibilities, made explicit

What you receive

Company records

A docket of targets with typed answers and scores against your criteria.

Evidence

Supporting quotations, retained source pages, dates, review outcomes, and open questions.

Control

A separate database for your docket; client ownership of data.

Portability

CSV and Excel export at any time, including before offboarding.

At offboarding, export the records your team needs and discuss deletion on request at termination. Agree any retention requirements as part of that process. Read trust and data handling for the handling posture, or inspect the live demo before starting.