What is deal tracking software?

Software that keeps the status of a transaction current: which stage it is in, what is still open, what was decided, what happens next, and the material behind each of those. The point is that the status is a by-product of the work, not a report someone writes up afterwards.

Why not track deals in a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet records what someone remembered to type. It drifts the moment a call happens, and it carries no link back to the document that settled a question. It works for a pipeline count, not for the state of a live transaction.

What should be tracked on each deal?

Stage, open issues, decisions taken and their reasoning, the actions those decisions created and who owns them, and the evidence each one rests on.

Is deal tracking the same as pipeline reporting?

No. Pipeline reporting aggregates across deals to show expected value. Deal tracking is per transaction: it answers where this deal stands and why.

Business brokers, boutique M&A advisors and independent professionals running lower middle market transactions.

What does Dealinit cost?

The Pro tier is $199 per month.

Guide

Deal tracking software for M&A advisors

Tracking a deal is easy to describe and hard to sustain. The stage column is quick to type; keeping it honest through diligence, when a dozen items are open and half of them were settled on a call, is the actual problem. This page covers what is worth tracking at each stage, why trackers drift, and what a tracker has to hold to stay true.

What to track at each stage

A stage name on its own tells you very little. What makes a stage useful is the set of open items that belong to it, the things that must resolve before the deal moves.

1. Preparation: What the seller still owes you before the business can go to market.
2. Market: Who has been approached, who responded, and what they asked for.
3. NDA: Who is under NDA and what they have been given access to.
4. IOI: Indications received, their assumptions, and where they diverge.
5. LOI: Agreed terms, open points, and the exclusivity clock.
6. Diligence: Every open request, who owns it, and the evidence that closes it.
7. Closing: Remaining conditions and what each one is waiting on.

Why deal trackers drift

The status is written, not derived

When a stage column is typed by hand, it is only as current as the last person who remembered to update it. A tracker that derives status from the open items on the deal cannot fall behind in the same way.

Decisions live off the record

Most of a transaction is decided on calls. If those conclusions are not captured against the issue that forced them, the same question comes back weeks later with no record of how it was settled.

Tasks outlive their reason

A checklist detached from the decision that created it goes stale quietly. Nobody can tell whether an item still matters, so it stays open, or gets closed for the wrong reason.

Numbers lose their source

An adjusted EBITDA figure in a tracker with no link to the workbook behind it is a number you have to derive again under diligence pressure.

Everyone keeps a private copy

Once the shared view is untrustworthy, each party rebuilds their own. From then on the disagreement is about whose version is right rather than about the deal.

What a tracker has to hold

Every failure above has the same shape: the status is stored apart from the reasoning behind it. Keeping four things connected on the deal removes that gap.

Issue: Something unresolved that affects the deal: an add back, a customer concentration, a lease.
Decision: What was concluded about that issue, and on what basis.
Action: The work that decision creates, and who owns it.
Evidence: The document, model or message each of the above rests on.

For the wider picture, how tracking fits alongside the rest of running a transaction, see the guide to M&A deal management software, and for the relationship side of the work, the guide to M&A CRM software. For what a buyer asks for once they are engaged, see the due diligence checklist for selling a business.

How Dealinit approaches it

Dealinit holds one deal state across sources. Open issues sit on the deal, decisions and the actions they produce are recorded against them, and every figure traces back to the material it came from. Access is scoped per person and changes leave an audit trail; data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Pro is $199 per month.

Common questions

What is deal tracking software?: Software that keeps the status of a transaction current: which stage it is in, what is still open, what was decided, what happens next, and the material behind each of those. The point is that the status is a by-product of the work, not a report someone writes up afterwards.
Why not track deals in a spreadsheet?: A spreadsheet records what someone remembered to type. It drifts the moment a call happens, and it carries no link back to the document that settled a question. It works for a pipeline count, not for the state of a live transaction.
What should be tracked on each deal?: Stage, open issues, decisions taken and their reasoning, the actions those decisions created and who owns them, and the evidence each one rests on.
Is deal tracking the same as pipeline reporting?: No. Pipeline reporting aggregates across deals to show expected value. Deal tracking is per transaction: it answers where this deal stands and why.
Who is Dealinit for?: Business brokers, boutique M&A advisors and independent professionals running lower middle market transactions.
What does Dealinit cost?: The Pro tier is $199 per month.