Records
Counterparty Suggestions
Counterparty suggestions help you build a list of companies for a record, such as the buyers or investors to approach on a deal. Press one button and ORCA reads what your team has already recorded, then suggests companies to add, ranked, with the reasons beside each name.
No AI is involved. Suggestions come from a fixed set of rules that run inside ORCA, on your account's own records. The same records always give the same suggestions, and nothing leaves ORCA.
Company Lists on Records
Some sections keep a list of companies on each record, each with a status, a date and notes. On a deal, for example, the list might hold every buyer approached, with a status for how far each one got: approached, NDA signed, offer made, and so on.
An admin sets these lists up in Settings > Section Relationships: each one has a title (it becomes the tab's name on the record), the section it belongs to, and the picklist that supplies its statuses. Suggestions are an optional extra on any of these lists.
Using Suggestions
- Open a record and go to the company list tab.
- Press Suggest counterparties. The button only appears once an admin has switched suggestions on for that list.
- Read the suggestions. Each one shows the company name, how well it fits (Strong fit, Good fit or Possible), and the reasons. Click open to look at the company in a new tab.
- Tick the companies you want. Tick all and None help with long lists.
- Choose a status from Add at, then press Add ticked to the list.
The ticked companies join the list at that status, exactly as if you had added them one by one. Nothing is sent and nobody is contacted. Suggestions you leave unticked are not saved anywhere; press the button again any time for a fresh list.
Where Suggestions Come From
ORCA looks in four places. The first three can put a company on the list. The fourth only changes the order.
- The company's own criteria. Fields on each company's template, such as the sectors, regions and ticket sizes an investor covers, compared with the same things on this record.
- Your firm's history. How far each company got on this same list for earlier records that were like this one. A company that signed an NDA on a similar deal last year is a strong lead, and no database you can buy knows that.
- Comparable deals. If your account keeps a section that logs market transactions, companies named as the buyer on similar deals.
- Warmth. The company's relationship strength, and when anyone in your account was last in touch through communications or meetings.
A company that only scores on warmth is never suggested. A good relationship with a fund that has never shown interest in this kind of deal is not a reason to call them about it.
Reading the Reasons
Every reason shown is the exact rule that put the company there. The colour tells you which kind of reason it is.
| Colour | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Green | The company's own recorded criteria match this record | Software, United Kingdom |
| Purple | The company engaged on an earlier record like this one | NDA Signed on Project Wren |
| Blue | The company bought on a similar deal in your comparable deals | Bought Workline (Software, United Kingdom) |
| Grey | A criterion that does not match. Shown so you can judge for yourself | Outside on stake |
| Plain | Approached before without engaging, relationship strength, and when your team was last in touch | Declined on Project Linnet, Good relationship, Last in touch 3 weeks ago |
At the top of the panel, ORCA shows which of this record's values it matched on, so you can check it read the record the way you meant. If the record has none of the compared fields filled in, the panel says so and suggestions come from earlier processes and comparable deals only.
How the Ranking Works
Each company gets a score. The score decides the order and the label. Up to 40 suggestions are shown.
| Signal | Points |
|---|---|
| Each criterion that matches | Its weight: 1, 2 or 3 |
| Each criterion that clearly does not match | Three quarters of its weight taken off |
| A Must criterion that clearly does not match | The company is left out altogether |
| Engaged on one earlier similar record | 2 |
| Each further earlier similar record engaged on | 0.5 more, up to 3 in total |
| Approached on an earlier record but never engaged | 0.25 |
| Bought on a comparable deal | 1.5 per deal, up to 3 in total |
| Relationship strength | Up to 1.5 for the strongest option, scaling down to 0 for the weakest |
| In touch in the last 90 days | 1 |
| In touch in the last year | 0.4 |
A score of 5 or more is a Strong fit, 3 or more a Good fit, and anything above 0 is Possible.
A company with nothing recorded for a criterion is not penalised for it. Only a value that plainly disagrees counts against a company.
What counts as a similar earlier record. Engagement only counts in a company's favour on records like this one: an NBO on a software sale says nothing about a healthcare sale. Earlier records are judged on the Must criteria: an earlier record counts only if it has that field filled in and agrees on it. If there are no Must criteria, every compared field this record has filled in is used instead, and an earlier record needs at least one of them with nothing that disagrees. Engagement on an earlier record with the Must field left empty shows as a plain reason but earns almost nothing, so filling in that field on past records makes history count.
What counts as a comparable deal. A logged deal is comparable when every pair you set up agrees, wherever both sides have a value: the same technology and the same country, not one or the other.
How Values Are Compared
- Values compares text and picklist options, ignoring case and punctuation. One side's words must all appear in the other, so "Solar PV" meets "Solar" and "Healthcare services" meets "Healthcare", but "Growth equity" does not meet "Private equity". Plurals and run-together words are treated as the same ("Datacentres" meets "Data Centre"), as are a few common abbreviations: "BESS", "Battery storage" and "Battery"; "WTE", "EfW" and "Waste to energy".
- Geography understands countries and the regions that contain them. "Netherlands" meets "Benelux", "Scotland" meets "UK", "India" meets "Asia", and "Global" or "International" meets everywhere. Two countries do not meet just because they share a region: "France" does not meet "Germany". Regions it knows: Europe, Western, Southern and Eastern Europe, Nordics, Scandinavia, Baltics, CEE, DACH, Benelux, Iberia, UK and Ireland, North America, South America, Latin America, Asia, South East Asia, APAC, Middle East, Australasia and Africa.
- Band checks a number on the record against range options on the company, such as "0 to 25", "£25m to £50m", "100 +" or "Up to £10m". Both sides must use the same unit. If the bands are in millions, the record's figure must be in millions too: 35, not 35,000,000.
Why a Company Might Not Appear
- It is already on the list. Suggestions only show companies you have not added yet.
- It is part of the record. Companies the record itself links to, such as the client or the company being sold, are left out.
- It clearly disagrees on a Must criterion. A company with nothing recorded for that field is not ruled out.
- It is on the restricted list. See below.
- Nothing connects it to this kind of record. No matching criteria, no engagement on similar earlier records, and no comparable deals. Recording a company's criteria is the quickest way to change this.
- It is past number 40. Only the top 40 are shown. Add the ones you want and press the button again: those added drop off, and the next ones move up.
The Restricted List
If your account keeps a restricted list (companies your firm must not approach, often because of a conflict), your admin can point suggestions at it. A restricted company that would otherwise fit is held back: it appears in a separate Held back section behind a padlock, with its reasons, and cannot be added from the suggestions panel.
This means nobody adds a restricted company by accident, and nobody is left wondering why an obvious name is missing.
Status Counts
Above the button, a row of counts shows how many companies are on the list in total and how many are at each status, in the picklist's order. Statuses that count as engaged are outlined. It is a quick way to see where a process stands without reading the whole list.
Setting Up Suggestions (Admins)
You need permission to manage Section Relationships. Go to Settings > Section Relationships, edit the relationship, and find the Counterparty suggestions card at the bottom of the page. Nothing changes for your users until you tick the switch and save, and you can untick it again at any time.
Before you start
Have these to hand. Each one is optional, but the more there are, the better the suggestions.
- Criteria fields on the company template, such as sectors, regions and ticket size, ideally as picklists.
- The same things on the record, such as the deal's technology, country and ticket.
- A list with history: earlier records whose company lists carry statuses.
- A section of logged deals with a company field for the buyer, if you keep one.
- A restricted list section with a company field, if you keep one.
The settings, in order
Switch suggestions on for this relationship. Turns the feature on or off for this list only.
What to compare. Press Add a comparison for each pair. The record's fields are listed as Section · Field; the company's fields as Field (company: Template).
- Label: the name shown on reasons, such as "Technology".
- On the record and On the company: the two fields to compare.
- Match: Values, Geography or Band, as described above.
- Weight: 1 or 2 set how much a match counts. Must means a clear mismatch rules the company out, and decides which earlier records count as similar. One Must is usually right, normally sector or technology.
Comparable deals. Choose the Buyer field: the company field in your deals section that names the buyer. Then press Add a pair for each thing that makes a deal comparable, such as the deals section's technology against the record's technology (Values) and its country against the record's country (Geography).
Restricted list. The company field in the section that lists restricted names.
Relationship strength. A picklist on the company. ORCA reads the option at the top of the picklist as the strongest and the one at the bottom as the weakest, so check the order in Settings > Picklists first. If the options run weakest first, reorder them or leave this as Not used.
Statuses that count as engaged. Tick the statuses that show real interest, such as Confirmed Interest, NDA Signed and every status after it. Leave out statuses like Contacted, No Response and Declined: those count only as "approached before".
New rows start at. The status picked by default when adding suggestions, usually the first one in the process.
Check it
Save, then open a record your team knows well and press Suggest counterparties. Read the line at the top first: it should show the record's values you expect. Then look at the reasons on the first few names. If they make sense, it's set up.
When Something Looks Wrong
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No Suggest counterparties button | Suggestions are off for this list. Admins see "Counterparty suggestions are off for this list" in its place | Follow the Switch them on link, tick the switch on the settings card and save |
| "Nothing in the firm's records points at anyone new" | The record's compared fields are empty, or no company has criteria recorded | Fill in the record's fields; record criteria on a few companies |
| "This record has none of the matched fields filled in" | The record has no values in any compared field | Fill them in; until then, only history and comparable deals are used |
| An obvious name is missing | It is on the list already, linked to the record, restricted, past number 40, or clearly disagrees on a Must field | Check the Held back section; check the company's criteria |
| A company appears that shouldn't | Its recorded criteria are out of date, or the Must field is set on the wrong pair | Update the company's criteria; check which pair is marked Must |
| Ticket sizes never match | The record and the bands use different units | Put both in the same unit, for example millions |
| Poor relationships rank above good ones | The relationship picklist runs weakest first | Reorder the picklist, strongest first, or set it to Not used |
| No purple reasons at all | No statuses are ticked as engaged, or no earlier record has the Must field filled in and agreeing | Tick the engaged statuses; fill in the Must field on past records |
| No blue reasons at all | No buyer field chosen, no pairs added, or the deals section's values never agree with the record's | Choose the buyer field and add at least one pair |
Getting Better Suggestions
- Record criteria on companies. Sector, region, size and stake on each company's template are what the green reasons are built from.
- Keep statuses moving on each list. Every company that reaches an engaged status becomes history for the next similar record.
- Log deals you hear about. Buyers on comparable deals are strong leads.
- Use Must sparingly. One must-match field, usually sector, keeps the list on topic. Too many and good names drop out.
Does This Use AI?
No. Counterparty suggestions make no calls to any AI service. Each suggestion is worked out by fixed rules that compare your own records, inside ORCA, and the same records always produce the same result.
ORCA's AI features, such as ORCA AI and AI Summary Fields, are separate, and are covered in AI and Data Privacy.
Related
- Creating Templates : adding criteria fields to the company template
- Creating Picklists : setting up statuses and relationship strength
- Working with Records : record fundamentals
- Demo Accounts : the Ardlow & Penn demo shows suggestions working on its Mandates. Open a demo mandate and press Suggest counterparties