DeelugeDocs
Sign in

Your buy box

Back to the guide

Settings → Scoring rules

The buy box is your investment criteria written down as data. It is what every deal is measured against, and it is the only place the scoring can be changed.

Everyone can read it. Only owners and admins can save changes; for analysts and viewers the fields are visible but disabled.

What it contains

Hard filters — the rules that are absolute. A deal failing any one of these scores zero and is banded pass, with the reason shown on the deal.

  • Earnings basis: adjusted EBITDA, or seller's discretionary earnings
  • Minimum and maximum earnings, and the sweet spot within that range
  • Minimum and maximum revenue
  • Customer concentration ceiling
  • Excluded industries
  • Excluded states
  • Deal-breaker terms

Preferences and weights — how much each factor counts toward the score out of 100. The editor shows the running total as you change them.

Saving a change

  1. Edit the fields you want to change.
  2. Write a one-line note describing what changed. This is required.
  3. Save.

Saving creates a new version and makes it active. It does not overwrite the previous one.

That is the important part. Every score ever produced is stamped with the version that produced it, so changing the rules today does not rewrite what you decided last quarter. A deal you passed on in March still shows the rules you were applying in March.

The note is required for the same reason. Six months later, "raised the earnings floor after too many sub-scale manufacturers" explains a version in a way that a date and a diff never will.

Version history

The last twelve versions are listed with their number, note, date, and which is active.

Scoring old deals against new rules

Changing the buy box does not rescore anything. To measure an existing deal against the current rules, open it and select Re-evaluate.

What you cannot do

  • Delete or roll back a version. Old versions must survive so past scores stay reproducible. To undo a change, save a new version that reverses it.
  • Change a deal's score from here.
  • Save as an analyst or viewer.

Getting it right

Two habits are worth having.

Start loose. A buy box that is too tight bands everything pass, and you learn nothing because nothing is ever ranked. Better to have more in review than to filter out the things you would have wanted to see.

Change it from evidence. The Score was too generous and Score was too harsh verdicts exist to tell you which way your scoring is drifting. Let those accumulate and the changes become obvious, rather than being argued from memory.

Next