Talent Atscale
Our expertisesWhat is a due diligence questionnaire?
9 Juillet 2026
A due diligence questionnaire is a standardized set of questions used to collect structured information about a company, fund, or partner, and to assess its risks. The questions are organized by theme: company structure, finances, compliance, data, business activity, and so on.
Its purpose is to establish a complete, transparent, and comparable basis for decision-making. When well designed, the commercial due diligence questionnaire makes risks measurable and saves considerable time by avoiding messy back-and-forth over email.
When to use a due diligence questionnaire?
The due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) comes into play whenever a decision commits two parties over the long term: mergers and acquisitions, investment decisions, supplier selection, joint ventures, or regulatory compliance checks.
Behind this DDQ there are actually three distinct questionnaires:
| Type of questionnaire | Who assesses whom | Objective |
|---|---|---|
|
M&A DDQ
Acquisition
|
The acquirer assesses the target | Prepare the acquisition and assess the risks. |
|
Investor DDQ (fund)
Allocation
|
An LP assesses a fund manager | Decide whether to allocate capital to a fund. |
|
Supplier / Compliance DDQ
Compliance
|
A company assesses a third party | Secure a relationship and ensure compliance. |
The types of due diligence questionnaires
Depending on the objective and context, a DDQ draws on one or more components. The main types of due diligence questionnaires are as follows.
What does a Due Diligence Questionnaire contain?
Beyond the types, a well-structured DDQ covers a range of due diligence questionnaire areas that give a 360° view of the target:
- Legal and shareholding structure,
- Financial strength,
- Regulatory compliance,
- Human resources,
- Key dependencies,
- Data security,
- Business continuity,
- ESG issues,
- Commercial performance.
In practice, the financial and legal sections are often the most developed. The commercial component frequently remains the poor relation of the questionnaire, yet that is where much of the future value is at stake!
A closer look at the commercial component of the DDQ
A generic DDQ verifies that the accounts are reliable and that the contracts are in order. But an acquirer (or investor) is paying for the future. So the real question is whether the target’s revenue will hold and grow.
That is the purpose of the commercial component, the heart of commercial due diligence. The questions that truly matter concern revenue recurrence, customer retention and concentration, pipeline health and repeatability, and dependence on a few accounts or on a single leader. These are what distinguish replicable growth from a good one-off result.
At Atscale, this is our specialty! Our commercial audit structures these questions around 8 Building Blocks, so that the commercial component of your DDQ is as rigorous as the financial and legal sections.
Turn sales assumptions into predictable revenue growth
Whether you are a CEO preparing for your next growth phase or an investor assessing a deal, get absolute clarity on the true state of your Go-To-Market organization in just 1 to 2 weeks.
Best practices for a due diligence questionnaire
A DDQ is only valuable if it generates reliable, comparable answers. A few best practices make the difference.
- Clear, unambiguous questions, to limit interpretation.
- Closed questions (yes/no, multiple choice) supplemented by a justification field.
- A balance between quantitative data and qualitative questions.
- Prioritization by risk level, to address critical points first.
- A modular structure, adaptable to the type of transaction and the sector.
- Regular updates and full traceability of responses.
Download your due diligence questionnaire template
To get started without beginning from a blank page, we have prepared a downloadable due diligence questionnaire template, organized by area and including a detailed commercial section — the one most templates overlook.
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