What to Put in Your Data Room Before You Pitch (The Checklist Investors Actually Check)

Your data room is your operational resume.

Quick answer: A data room is a shared, secure folder with 15-25 documents that prove your company’s legality and health. Due diligence documents include cap table, incorporation papers, board minutes, IP assignment, employment agreements, financial statements, and customer contracts. Most due diligence fails because documents are wrong or missing, not because business is broken. Fix paperwork before pitching Series A.

It’s the first thing an investor reads after your pitch deck. It’s what they review during their initial interest phase, before they decide whether to dig deeper. And it’s the document set that either accelerates your funding timeline or creates friction at every step.

I’ve lived on both sides of this equation. As a founder, I’ve watched investors spend 10 minutes in a disorganized data room, decide it wasn’t worth their time, and move to the next deal. As an investor, I’ve seen founders with pristine data rooms close rounds 4-6 weeks faster than founders with the same product and traction but messy documentation.

The difference isn’t magic. It’s preparation.

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The Psychology of the Data Room

When an investor clicks into your data room, they’re not just looking for documents. They’re forming a judgment about your operational maturity.

A well-organized data room signals:

• You understand due diligence. You’ve thought about what questions investors will ask and answered them proactively.
• You’re organized. If your financial folder is sorted by date and labeled clearly, an investor infers you’re organized everywhere else.
• You’re respectful of their time. You’ve anticipated their needs, which means they don’t have to email you asking for the 12th missing document.
• You’ve done this before. Even if you’re a first-time founder, a professional data room makes you look like you’ve been through a fundraise before.

Conversely, a chaotic data room signals:

• You’re disorganized. If you can’t organize digital files, how are you organizing your company?
• You’re hiding something. Why else would key documents be hard to find?
• You don’t respect investor time. Which means they’ll spend twice as long looking for documents they should never have to ask for.
• You’re a beginner. This is fine, but it means investors will dig harder looking for gotchas.

I’ve closed rounds with 30-person companies that had better data rooms than 100-person companies. The difference was founder discipline.

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The Minimum Viable Data Room

When you first pitch an investor, you don’t need a complete data room. You need a credible one.

For related context, see cap table documentation, documents investors request, and equity documentation.

A minimum viable data room should contain:

1. Cap table (current as of last month)
2. Three months of financials (P&L and cash flow)
3. Product demo link (or walkthrough video)
4. Team bios (LinkedIn profiles, one-pagers)
5. Pitch deck (same one you’re using to present)

That’s it. You can build this in one week.

Folder structure:

Your Company Data Room (Google Drive or Dropbox)
├── 01 - Company Overview
│   ├── Pitch Deck v3.pdf
│   ├── Team Bios (One-Pagers)
│   └── Product Demo Link (in description)
├── 02 - Financial Summary
│   ├── Monthly P&L (Jan-Mar 2026).xlsx
│   ├── Cash Flow Forecast.xlsx
│   └── Unit Economics.xlsx
├── 03 - Cap Table
│   └── Current Cap Table 2026-Q1.xlsx
└── 04 - Additional Info
    └── [To be populated]

This takes 5-10 hours to compile and shows investors you’re prepared for initial conversations. The folder structure matters. Investors shouldn’t have to hunt for your pitch deck.

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The Complete Data Room

Once an investor signals genuine interest (usually after 1-2 meetings), you upgrade to a complete data room.

A complete data room should contain everything in the minimum room, plus:

1. 12 months of financials (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
2. Customer contracts (redacted if needed, but show the structure)
3. Employee agreements (offer letters, equity agreements, one standard template)
4. Insurance documents (general liability, D&O, key person)
5. Regulatory documents (licenses, compliance certifications)
6. Legal documents (corporate bylaws, shareholder agreements)

Build this in 2-3 weeks. It expands your data room from ~10 documents to ~30-40 documents.

Updated folder structure:

Your Company Data Room (Google Drive or Dropbox)
├── 01 - Company Overview
│   ├── Pitch Deck v3.pdf
│   ├── Team Bios (One-Pagers)
│   ├── Company Description (1-pager)
│   └── Product Demo Link
├── 02 - Financial Summary
│   ├── P&L (12 months).xlsx
│   ├── Balance Sheet (12 months).xlsx
│   ├── Cash Flow Forecast.xlsx
│   ├── Unit Economics.xlsx
│   └── Key Metrics Dashboard.xlsx
├── 03 - Cap Table
│   ├── Current Cap Table 2026-Q1.xlsx
│   ├── Fully Diluted Cap Table.xlsx
│   └── Dilution Scenarios.xlsx
├── 04 - Legal & Corporate
│   ├── Certificate of Incorporation
│   ├── Bylaws
│   ├── Shareholder Agreement
│   └── Board Minutes (Recent)
├── 05 - Team & HR
│   ├── Org Chart.pdf
│   ├── Employee Offer Letter Template
│   ├── Option Agreement Template
│   ├── Key Employee Summary (names, titles, start dates)
│   └── [Individual bios, redacted as needed]
├── 06 - Customer & Revenue
│   ├── Customer Contracts (Redacted)
│   ├── Revenue by Customer (list, top 10)
│   ├── Churn Analysis (monthly, 12 months)
│   └── Customer Acquisition Summary
├── 07 - Insurance & Compliance
│   ├── General Liability Insurance
│   ├── Directors & Officers Insurance
│   ├── Key Person Insurance
│   └── Regulatory Licenses (if applicable)
└── 08 - Additional Info
    └── [To be populated as needed]

At this stage, investors can conduct meaningful due diligence without constantly emailing you for documents. You’re no longer a bottleneck.

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The Forensic Data Room

Once you’ve received a term sheet or are in heavy due diligence (Series A), you need a complete forensic data room. This is deployed after the LOI is signed, not before.

A forensic data room contains everything above, plus:

1. All legal audit trail (every version of major docs, amendments, email threads explaining decisions)
2. Prior fundraising documents (all SAFEs, convertible notes, investor agreements, old board minutes)
3. Technical stack documentation (architecture, tech debt register, infrastructure)
4. Raw customer metrics (detailed cohort analysis, NPS scores, feature usage)
5. Board materials (all board decks, meeting minutes, action items)
6. Market research (TAM analysis, competitive analysis, third-party reports)

Build this in 3-6 weeks, and only after you have a term sheet in hand.

Your Company Data Room (Forensic - Post-LOI)
[Above structure continues with additions]
├── 09 - Legal Audit Trail
│   ├── SAFE Documents (all versions)
│   ├── Convertible Notes (all versions)
│   ├── Prior Investor Agreements
│   ├── Cap Table Amendments
│   └── Decision Memos (explaining major changes)
├── 10 - Technical Documentation
│   ├── Architecture Diagram
│   ├── Tech Stack List
│   ├── Tech Debt Register
│   ├── Infrastructure Overview
│   └── Security & Compliance
├── 11 - Board Materials
│   ├── Board Meeting Minutes (last 12 months)
│   ├── Board Decks (last 4 meetings)
│   └── Action Items & Follow-ups
├── 12 - Market Research
│   ├── TAM Analysis
│   ├── Competitive Market
│   ├── Third-Party Research
│   └── Customer Feedback Summary
└── 13 - Raw Metrics
    ├── Detailed P&L (monthly, 24 months)
    ├── Cohort Analysis
    ├── Customer Acquisition Costs
    ├── Lifetime Value Calculations
    └── Churn Trends

This is the complete picture. Most deals don’t require forensic-level detail, but if they do, you’re ready. Understanding due diligence expectations at the Series A level helps you prioritize what to prepare first.

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Section-by-Section Breakdown

Here’s what investors check in each section, and what red flags they’re looking for:

Cap Table & Equity Documents

What to include:

• Current cap table (spreadsheet, as of last month)
• All SAFE documents (with valuations caps, discount terms)
• All convertible note documents (with interest rates, maturity dates)
• All vesting schedules (for founders and key employees)
• Advisor agreements (if equity holders)
• Option pool documentation

What investors check:

• Is the cap table internally consistent? (Do the percentages add up to 100%?)
• Are there any unusual equity structures (high advisor counts, vesting mismatches)?
• What’s your current fully diluted ownership?
• How much dilution will happen when your outstanding SAFEs/notes convert?
• Are all documents signed?

Red flags that kill deals:

• Missing documentation (verbal equity agreements, unsigned SAFEs)
• Founder vesting mismatches (one founder vested, one not)
• 20+ advisors with equity (suggests you can’t say no)
• SAFE terms that vary wildly across rounds (suggests desperation)
• Cap table that doesn’t match your pitch deck ownership claims

Example of what NOT to do:

• Cap table named “Cap table latest.xlsx” with no date
• Conflicting versions of your cap table in different folders
• SAFEs that are “in email” but not formally documented

Financials

What to include:

• Monthly P&L (income statement) for at least 12 months
• Monthly balance sheet for at least 12 months
• Monthly cash flow forecast for next 12 months
• Unit economics breakdown (CAC, LTV, payback period)
• Revenue breakdown by customer type or segment

What investors check:

• Is your business growing? (Look for month-over-month growth rate)
• Are you burning cash or profitable?
• How much runway do you have? (Cash balance / monthly burn rate)
• What’s your unit economics? (Is CAC 3x LTV? That’s healthy. 1x? You’re not growing sustainably.)
• Is there a trend toward profitability?

Red flags that kill deals:

• Financials that don’t reconcile (P&L shows €10K profit, but cash flow shows -€10K)
• Revenue numbers that don’t match your pitch deck
• Dramatic unexplained fluctuations (€5K revenue in January, €50K in February, €2K in March)
• No path to profitability (burn rate that never decreases)
• Unit economics that don’t work (CAC higher than LTV)

Example of what NOT to do:

• P&L that shows “Other Revenue” as 20% of total with no explanation
• Financials that end three months ago (update monthly)
• Projected financials presented as “actuals”

Customer & Revenue

What to include:

• List of your top 10 customers (with revenue contribution)
• Customer contracts (redacted for confidentiality if needed)
• Monthly churn rate analysis (how many customers leave each month?)
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) by channel
• Average customer lifetime value (LTV)
• Breakdown of revenue by customer type

What investors check:

• How concentrated is your revenue? (If top 3 customers = 50% of revenue, that’s concentration risk)
• What’s your customer retention? (20% monthly churn is a problem)
• How are you acquiring customers? (Is your CAC dropping over time, or is it constant?)
• Are customers happy? (Look for NPS, retention curves, expansion revenue)

Red flags that kill deals:

• Top customer is >30% of revenue (you’re too dependent on one customer)
• Monthly churn >10% (your customers are leaving)
• CAC increasing over time (you’re getting worse at selling)
• No customer contracts (what are you selling exactly?)
• Customer list that’s all friends and family (not real market validation)

Example of what NOT to do:

• “Customer contracts” folder with contracts so heavily redacted they show nothing
• Churn analysis that doesn’t go back 12+ months
• Revenue breakdown that includes “other” as a category without explanation

Legal Documents

What to include:

• Certificate of incorporation
• Bylaws
• Shareholder agreement
• Recent board meeting minutes (last 3-4 meetings)
• IP assignment agreements (proving you own your intellectual property)
• Employment agreements
• Terms of service and privacy policy
• Any regulatory licenses or certifications

What investors check:

• Do you own your own intellectual property? (If not, you don’t really own your company)
• Is your corporate structure clean? (Standard Delaware C-corp, or something exotic?)
• Are there any liens, claims, or encumbrances on your company?
• Who controls the board? (Do you maintain founder control?)
• Are there any restrictive covenants or obligations that would affect a future acquisition?

Red flags that kill deals:

• IP assignment gaps (Did you sign an IP assignment when you hired your first engineer? If not, they might own your code)
• Unusual corporate structure (LLC, partnership, or non-US incorporation creates tax complexity)
• No shareholder agreement (What happens if a co-founder leaves?)
• Board controlled by investors (You’ve already lost control)
• Restrictive covenants that limit your future options (Non-compete agreements that prevent pivots)

Example of what NOT to do:

• Bylaws that are from a template and don’t reflect your actual governance
• No IP assignment agreements from early employees
• Board minutes that are one sentence (“Board approved the budget”)

Product & Technical

What to include:

• Product roadmap (what you’re building next, 6-12 month view)
• Technical architecture overview
• Tech stack list (what tools and languages you use)
• Technical debt register (known problems you haven’t fixed)
• Infrastructure overview (where does your code run?)
• Security and compliance summary

What investors check:

• Is your product defensible? (Can someone else build this in three months?)
• Do you have technical debt that will slow you down? (Every company has some; transparency is important)
• Is your infrastructure scalable? (Can you 10x your users without your system collapsing?)
• Who are your technical founders/leads? (Do you have real technical depth?)
• What’s your security posture? (Are you thinking about this?)

Red flags that kill deals:

• No product roadmap (suggests you’re not planning for the future)
• Massive technical debt that isn’t documented (You’re maintaining a legacy codebase with band-aids)
• Monolithic architecture that can’t scale (You’re hitting a ceiling)
• No security practices (You store passwords in plaintext? You’re a lawsuit waiting to happen)
• Infrastructure run by one person (Key person risk)

Example of what NOT to do:

• Roadmap that’s just “build more features”
• Technical documentation that requires a PhD to understand
• No mention of security, scalability, or infrastructure

Team

What to include:

• Organizational chart (who reports to whom?)
• Founder bios (background, relevant experience, why you’re the right team for this)
• Key employee summary (names, titles, start dates, key responsibility)
• Employee headcount over time (how you’ve grown)
• Advisor list with their backgrounds
• Key person insurance documentation

What investors check:

• Do you have the right team to execute? (Technical founder? Sales background? Management experience?)
• Have you built something before? (First-time founders need stronger ideas)
• Is there key person risk? (If your one engineer leaves, does the company die?)
• What’s your company culture? (Do people stay? Or do you have high turnover?)
• Are your advisors credible? (Do they actually add value, or are they just names?)

Red flags that kill deals:

• Founder team without relevant experience (First-time founders in a domain requiring expertise)
• No co-founder (Solo founder without significant capital and network)
• High turnover (People leaving the company suggests problems)
• No technical founder (You’re hiring developers to build your vision, but you don’t understand technology)
• Advisor team that’s all your friends (Credibility matters)

Example of what NOT to do:

• Founder bios that are one sentence (“John is the CEO”)
• No mention of why your team is uniquely positioned to win
• Key employee turnover that’s unexplained

Regulatory & Compliance

What to include:

• Industry licenses (if applicable: fintech, healthcare, crypto, insurance)
• GDPR compliance documentation (if you process EU customer data)
• Privacy policy and terms of service
• Insurance coverage summary
• Regulatory audit results (if you’ve been audited)

What investors check:

• Are you operating legally? (Do you have the right licenses?)
• Are you exposing yourself (and your investors) to legal risk?
• What’s your insurance coverage? (Do you have D&O insurance? General liability?)
• How do you handle customer data? (GDPR compliance is non-negotiable for EU operations)

Red flags that kill deals:

• Operating without required licenses (You’re breaking the law)
• No privacy policy or terms of service (Legal liability)
• No insurance coverage (You’re personally liable for customer harm)
• GDPR violations (If you handle EU data and aren’t compliant, you’re exposed to €20M+ fines)
• Regulatory violations (You were fined by a regulator and didn’t disclose it)

Example of what NOT to do:

• Privacy policy that’s copied from another company without modification
• No insurance documentation
• Compliance checklist that says “TBD”

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The Document Naming Convention That Doesn’t Scream Amateur

You can instantly tell the difference between a founder who’s done this before and a first-timer by looking at their file names.

Good naming convention:

[Priority]_[Category]_[Date]_[Version].xlsx

Examples:
01_Cap-Table_2026-Q1_v2.xlsx
02_P&L-12-Months_2026-04_v1.xlsx
03_Employee-Agreements_Template_2026-01_v1.pdf
04_Board-Minutes_2026-03_v1.pdf

Bad naming convention:

Cap table latest.xlsx
financials.xlsx
contracts - FINAL - final v2.xlsx
2026 stuff.xlsx

Rules that matter:

1. Priority number (01, 02, 03…): Determines folder order. Cap table first (01), then financials (02), then contracts (03). This creates a natural reading order.

2. Category (descriptive): Use the same category name consistently. If one file is “P&L” and another is “Income Statement,” investors get confused.

3. Date (YYYY-MM format): Always include the date. Investors need to know: is this Q1 2026 data or Q1 2025 data?

4. Version (v1, v2, v3): If you’re updating a document, increment the version. Don’t overwrite the old one.

The goal: an investor should be able to understand what each document is in 1.5 seconds, and find what they need without asking you.

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What Kills Deals in Diligence

I’ve watched these things derail term sheets:

1. Missing Cap Table Documents

An investor requested all SAFE documents to model the cap table. The founder sent five SAFEs but forgot one from an angel investment a year earlier. During legal due diligence, the lawyer found the forgotten SAFE, which had very different terms. The deal nearly died because the team couldn’t certify the cap table was complete.

Fix: Maintain a master list of all SAFEs and convertible instruments with signing dates and amounts. Cross-check during due diligence preparation.

2. IP Assignment Gaps

An engineer hired in month two never signed an IP assignment. She quit three years later, but technically still owned equity in the code she’d written. Any investor conducting forensic due diligence would have discovered this and either required the engineer to sign retroactively (awkward, expensive) or walked away.

Fix: Have every new hire sign an IP assignment agreement on day one. If you’ve already hired people without this, get them to sign retroactively (better now than in due diligence).

3. Customer Concentration Risk

A SaaS company had €200K in monthly revenue. Top customer: €80K (40%). When the investor asked about customer concentration, the founder said “Oh, we just signed a new customer for €60K, so we’re more diversified now.” But the new customer was a subsidiary of the top customer. Concentration was still 43%, disguised.

Fix: Know your real customer concentration. If it’s >30%, disclose it and explain your strategy to diversify.

4. Undisclosed Litigation

A founder didn’t mention a trademark dispute with a bigger company. When the investor’s lawyer did a regulatory search, they found the lawsuit. The founder downplayed it (“Oh, that’s minor”), but it killed the deal because he’d hidden it.

Fix: Disclose every legal proceeding, IP dispute, or regulatory notice, even if you think it’s minor. Lawyers hate surprises.

5. Board Control Issues

A founder raised €2M on a convertible note with board observer rights for the investor. Three months later, when trying to raise Series A, new investors didn’t want to deal with the observer’s influence over board decisions. The founder was stuck.

Fix: Understand board control implications before you accept new investors. Board observer rights are fine, but board seats change company governance.

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Timeline: Building Your Data Room While Fundraising

You don’t need to build a complete data room before you start pitching. Here’s the realistic timeline:

Month 1: MVP Data Room (Start This Week)

• Cap table (current)
• 3 months financials
• Pitch deck
• Team bios
• Product demo
• Time investment: 10-20 hours

Month 2: Complete Data Room (After First Meetings)

• Add 12 months financials
• Add customer contracts (redacted)
• Add legal documents
• Add employee agreements
• Add board minutes
• Additional time investment: 20-40 hours

Month 3: Forensic Data Room (Post-LOI)

• Add prior fundraising documents
• Add technical documentation
• Add detailed board history
• Add legal audit trail
• Add raw metrics
• Additional time investment: 30-50 hours

The key: don’t over-prepare upfront. Build the MVP, start pitching, upgrade as you get real interest. This way you’re not sitting on a complete data room that no one looks at.

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Case Study: When iTaxi’s Data Room Saved the Deal

When we were raising Series A for iTaxi, we’d done our homework on data room organization. We had:

• Consistent naming conventions
• Organized folder structure
• 12 months of clean financials
• Complete cap table with dilution scenarios
• All legal documents in order
• Board minutes from every meeting

Our Series A investors told us later that they’d conducted due diligence on three companies simultaneously. Our data room was so well-organized that they could do complete diligence in one week. The other two companies’ chaotic data rooms meant the due diligence process dragged on for three weeks.

We closed our round four weeks faster than we otherwise would have.

The cost of creating that data room? Maybe €2,000 in our CFO’s time plus help from our corporate counsel. The value? We saved €100K+ in legal fees and closed the round 4 weeks faster, which meant we could deploy capital sooner.

That’s an insane ROI.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When should I start preparing a data room?

Start at Series A pitch meetings. You don’t need a formal data room at pre-seed. You need: incorporation papers, cap table, IP assignment letters, and a brief financial summary. At Series A, formalize it. Investors expect clean document flow 2-3 weeks into conversations. If your data room is messy, close slows or stalls.

Q: Which documents are actually critical vs. nice-to-have?

Critical: cap table, incorporation docs, IP assignment, board minutes, financial statements, investor agreements, customer contracts (top 3-5). Nice-to-have: org chart, employee handbook, insurance policies, real estate leases. If you’re missing critical docs, fix before pitching. Nice-to-have gaps are acceptable — investors understand startups.

Q: What happens if I don’t have proper IP assignment from co-founders?

Investors will demand it before closing. Get retroactive IP assignments signed immediately. If co-founder won’t sign, that’s a red flag that kills Series A. IP assignment is non-negotiable. Do it today.

Q: How organized does a data room need to be?

Organized enough that an investor can handle it in 15 minutes. Use folders: Company Setup, Cap Table, Financials, Contracts, IP, Board Materials. Google Drive works fine. Fancy platforms (Datasite, eSpeed) are overkill unless you’re doing Series B or later. Investors care about content, not presentation.

Q: Should I prepare data room before or after LOI (letter of intent)?

After LOI. Before LOI, you’re pitching. After LOI, you’re in legal diligence and need clean documents. Preparing a full data room 6 weeks before Series A conversations is wasted time. Prepare a 5-document summary. Full data room happens after LOI.

Your Data Room Is Your Operational Resume

An investor’s first impression of your company comes from your data room, not from you.

A pristine data room signals that you’re:

• Organized
• Disciplined
• Respectful of their time
• Prepared for the process

A chaotic data room signals that you’re:

• Disorganized
• Maybe hiding something
• Not respectful of their time
• Unprepared

You can have the best product and strongest team, but a messy data room creates friction that slows funding. Build an MVP data room this week. Upgrade it as you get real investor interest. By the time you have a term sheet in hand, you should have a complete forensic data room.

Investors will notice. And they’ll close faster.

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Data Room Folder Template (Copy & Use)

Here’s a folder structure you can copy directly into Google Drive or Dropbox:

Your Company Data Room
├── 01 - Company Overview
│   ├── Pitch Deck v3.pdf
│   ├── Company Description (1-pager).pdf
│   ├── Team Bios (One-Pagers).pdf
│   └── Product Demo Link [include URL in folder description]
├── 02 - Financial Summary
│   ├── 01_P&L-12-Months_2026-04_v1.xlsx
│   ├── 02_Balance-Sheet_2026-04_v1.xlsx
│   ├── 03_Cash-Flow-Forecast_2026-04_v1.xlsx
│   └── 04_Unit-Economics_2026-04_v1.xlsx
├── 03 - Cap Table
│   ├── 01_Current-Cap-Table_2026-Q1_v2.xlsx
│   ├── 02_Fully-Diluted_2026-Q1_v2.xlsx
│   └── 03_Dilution-Scenarios_2026-Q1_v1.xlsx
├── 04 - Legal & Corporate
│   ├── 01_Certificate-of-Incorporation.pdf
│   ├── 02_Bylaws_2025.pdf
│   ├── 03_Shareholder-Agreement_2025.pdf
│   └── 04_Board-Minutes-Recent_2026-03.pdf
├── 05 - Team & HR
│   ├── 01_Org-Chart_2026-04.pdf
│   ├── 02_Employee-Offer-Letter_Template.pdf
│   ├── 03_Option-Agreement_Template.pdf
│   └── 04_Key-Employees_Summary_2026-04.xlsx
├── 06 - Customer & Revenue
│   ├── 01_Customer-Contracts_Redacted_2026-04.pdf
│   ├── 02_Top-10-Customers_2026-04.xlsx
│   ├── 03_Monthly-Churn_12-Months_2026-04.xlsx
│   └── 04_Customer-Acquisition-Analysis_2026-04.xlsx
├── 07 - Insurance & Compliance
│   ├── 01_General-Liability-Insurance_2026.pdf
│   ├── 02_Directors-Officers-Insurance_2026.pdf
│   └── 03_Regulatory-Licenses_2026.pdf
└── 08 - Additional (To Be Populated)

Use this. Customize it. And start building your data room today.

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About the author:

Lech Kaniuk is a Polish-Swedish entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of multiple ventures including the successful iTaxi exit. He’s reviewed hundreds of data rooms as both founder and investor, conducted extensive venture capital due diligence, and raised/deployed over €150 million across his career. He’s the author of “Anioł w Piekle” (Angel in Hell) and currently builds AskMeEvo and Grasperly.

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Due Diligence: The legal investigation investors conduct to verify company health before closing. Due diligence document list is driven by investor complexity (institutional funds are thorough; angels are casual). Missing documents slow closes. False documents kill deals.