Tool

How long a DDQ actually takes you.

Answering a questionnaire feels like a week of admin until it is counted. This counts it, against the window an LP now gives you.

One questionnaire, at this team size

You need 4 days. You have 5.

Inside the window

Effort per questionnaire39 hours

Effort across 3 LPs118 hours

Elapsed days if they all land at once10 days

Cost across the pipeline$17,640At $150 an hour, $5,880 per questionnaire.

The model

280 questions per questionnaire, the current average.
12, 6 or 2 minutes per question, depending on how much is already written down.
A 1.4× multiplier for rework, since each LP varies the standard questionnaire.
6 productive hours per person per day. Deliberately not eight.
A 5-day response window.

The model is stated rather than hidden because the number is only worth anything if you can disagree with the assumptions behind it.

{{TODO: CLIENT INPUT}} Confirm the default blended loaded hourly rate. Currently CAD 150 as a stated, editable assumption.

The window to respond to a due diligence questionnaire has narrowed from 14 days to five. Altss, 2026

A typical DDQ now runs to 23 sections and more than 280 questions. Altss, 2026

The arithmetic is the whole argument. A firm with nothing written down cannot answer 280 questions in five days with two people, and no amount of working late changes that. What changes it is having the answers before the questionnaire arrives.

See which answers you are missing.

The readiness scan maps the same ground in seven minutes and returns a gap register you can act on.

Start the readiness scan The readiness practice