StowbillA virtual data room that sits inside your deal workflow
Most advisory firms rent a virtual data room per deal, then run the mandate itself on email and spreadsheets. Stowbill puts the data room, the mandate stages and the document controls in one place, priced per user rather than per page. This page explains what the data room does today, what it does not do yet, and who it suits.
What a data room needs to do
A data room is a controlled place to store and share the documents behind a transaction. It has to answer three questions at any time: who can see this file, which version is current, and who has opened or downloaded it. Stowbill's Files module is built around those three questions.
Folders and permissions
- Nested folders that follow your index, for example 1. Corporate, 2. Financial, 3. Legal.
- Share a folder or file with named people or with groups.
- Six cumulative permission levels: view, download, upload, edit, delete and share. Each level includes the ones before it.
- Permissions are inherited down the folder tree, so you set access once at the top.
- Expiry dates on shares, so access ends when a phase ends.
- Need-to-know access on each engagement, and a read-only team role for people who should look but not change anything.
Versions, recycle bin and audit trail
- Full version history on every file, with restore.
- Check-out and check-in, so two people do not edit the same document at once.
- Sign-offs tied to the exact version that was reviewed, and partner release before anything goes out.
- A 30-day recycle bin for deleted items.
- An append-only activity log of every view, download and share, exportable to Excel.
What is available today, and what is not built yet
We would rather you know exactly what you are buying. Outside buyers, investors, lenders and advisers can now sign in to a data room with an emailed one-time link. A partner must open each room before anyone outside the firm sees it. The viewer deters copying but cannot stop a screenshot, which is why every PDF page carries the guest's name. Excel, Word and CSV files open in the same protected view; PowerPoint and older .xls and .doc files should be uploaded as PDF.
| Available today | Not built yet |
|---|---|
| Data room accounts for outside parties, grouped into parties, with emailed one-time sign-in links (no password) | Single sign-on (SSO) |
| Rooms start as drafts until a partner opens them; optional closing date; removing a guest ends access at once | Preview of PowerPoint and older .xls and .doc files (upload these as PDF) |
| NDA click-through: guests tick and type their name; time and network address recorded | Page-level time-on-page analytics |
| View-only PDF viewer with no download or print button; downloads allowed per room or per party | Automatic search-and-redact (redaction is drawn by hand today) |
| Dynamic watermark on every PDF page: guest name, email, party and time (UTC) | SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification |
| Private Q&A per party: assign, draft, partner approval, Excel import and export | Accounting integrations such as Xero or QuickBooks |
| Reports per party and per document, plus a hash-chained, append-only log with Excel export | Choice of hosting region |
| Internal folders with six permission levels, share expiry, version history and upload checks that block programs and scripts | AI features and a mobile app |
| A numbered index (1, 1.1, 1.1.1) with the same numbers for the firm and every party; Excel export of the index, per party | Arabic interface |
| Whole-folder uploads that keep their structure, files up to 250 MB each, every file checked before it is stored | Email and calendar integrations |
| A buyer and investor tracker linked to the deal: NDA, information memorandum, bids and preferred bidder | A general CRM with email and calendar sync |
| Redaction of PDFs: black boxes burnt into the page, with the original kept by the firm | |
| Excel, Word and CSV files shown view-only under a watermark, without sending the file to the guest | |
| A buyer interest score (Hot, Warm, Cold) from data room activity, and buyer history across deals | |
| Your firm's logo and colour on the data room | |
| Upload checks on every file; antivirus scanning as an add-on on the Firm plan |
Connected to the mandate, not separate from it
Every data room in Stowbill belongs to a deal mandate. The mandate moves through five partner-gated phases, from pitch and mandate to closed, with a 31-item checklist. A partner must approve the release of the teaser and information memorandum and the opening of the data room. The buyer tracker records which parties signed the NDA, received the IM and bid. Timesheets, the success fee and invoicing sit on the same mandate.
Security basics
- Files are encrypted at rest in Amazon S3 with AES-256.
- Each firm's data is isolated at the database level using row-level security.
- Two-step login (MFA) for your team.
- Every upload is checked before anyone can open it, and programs and scripts are blocked. Antivirus scanning can be added on the Firm plan.
- An append-only activity log records each view, download and share. Each entry carries a hash of the one before, so an edit or deletion shows up when the chain is re-checked. You can export it to Excel.
- Each user can see their signed-in devices and sign out the others remotely.
Pricing without per-page fees
Stowbill is priced per internal user per month, billed annually: Starter $25, Advisory $39, Firm $49. A standalone data room is $149 a month. There are no per-page or per-document charges, so you can upload the full diligence set without watching a meter. See the pricing guide for how this compares with per-page and per-project models.
Questions
Can buyers log in to the data room today?
Yes. You add outside parties such as buyers, investors, lenders and advisers, and each guest signs in with an emailed one-time link. The link works once and expires after 30 minutes; a session lasts 8 hours. A partner must open the room first.
Does Stowbill watermark documents?
Yes, for PDFs. Every PDF page is watermarked with the guest's name, email, party and the time (UTC), on viewing and on download. Images show a watermark overlay. Excel, Word and CSV files open in a protected, watermarked view.
Do you charge per page or per GB?
No. You pay per internal user, and each plan includes a firm storage quota. A standalone data room is $149 a month.
Can I see who downloaded a file?
Yes. The activity log records every view, download and share with the person and time. It is append-only and can be exported to Excel.
What happens if someone deletes a folder by mistake?
Deleted items go to a recycle bin for 30 days and can be restored. Earlier versions of a file can also be restored from its version history.
Is Stowbill SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified?
No, we do not hold those certifications. We encrypt files at rest with AES-256, isolate each firm's data at the database level, offer two-step login that a firm can require, and check every upload before it is stored. See the security page for details.
Last reviewed 10 November 2026. General information, not professional or legal advice.
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