M&A data room index builder.
The standard 8-category UK M&A structure. 50+ documents. Tick as you upload - track completion to 100%.
Download the CSV index template
Open in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. 50+ documents pre-listed.
Full M&A data room walkthrough.
For the practical version - what each category contains, the order buyer's counsel reads in, and the £30K mistake first-time UK sellers make - read the full guide.
M&A Data Room: A Practical Guide for UK Founders →UK M&A data room structure questions
What folders should an M&A data room have?
UK M&A typically uses 8 categories: 1) Corporate, 2) Financial, 3) Commercial, 4) Customer & Sales, 5) Employees, 6) IP & Technology, 7) Legal & Compliance, 8) Property & Assets. Buyer's counsel reads in this order. The Index Builder above auto-numbers them.
How long does building an M&A data room take?
For a UK SMB: 1-2 weeks of focused work. The bottleneck is collecting documents from advisors (accountant, solicitor, HR), not uploading them. Start at least 6 weeks before going to market.
What documents are mandatory in a UK M&A data room?
Statutory accounts (3 years), management accounts (current year), Cap table and shareholder agreement, Employment contracts (key personnel), Material commercial contracts (top 10), Property leases, IP register, Litigation list, Tax returns.
Should I include all customer contracts in the data room?
No. Top 10 by revenue plus any with change-of-control clauses is usually sufficient at first-stage diligence. Full customer list moves to a clean room for late-stage diligence under restricted access.
How do I redact sensitive information from M&A documents?
Two paths. Manual: open in Adobe Acrobat Pro, use the Redact tool, export as redacted PDF, upload the redacted version. AI-assisted: enterprise tools (Datasite, iDeals) offer AI redaction for PII patterns; modern tools typically do not include this yet.