Create a deal
1
Open Deals
In the left sidebar, expand the Records group and select Deals. Click New Deal in the top right. (You can also use the + on the Records group and choose Add Deal.)
2
Select the target company
A deal must be linked to a company. In the Create New Deal dialog, choose the target company under Company (required). If it doesn’t exist yet, create it first from Companies — see Working with companies.
3
Fill in the details and create
Give the deal a Deal Name (for example, Acme Corp – Platform). Optionally set Status, Stage, Deal Size, Owners, and other fields. Click Create Deal.
New deals default to the Active status and the first stage. Your firm’s status and stage labels are configured by an admin — see Taxonomy.
Set the acquisition type
Every deal has an Acquisition Type of either Platform or Add on. Use it to mark whether the target is a standalone platform investment or an add-on to an existing portfolio company.
The field appears directly below the deal name in the Create New Deal and Edit Deal dialogs, and as Acquisition Type on the Deal Details widget where you can change it inline. Switching to Add on reveals a company picker — choose the portfolio company that the deal is an add-on to. Switching back to Platform clears the parent.
The type itself is derived from whether a platform parent is set, so the API returns it as the read-only field
acquisitionType on the deal.
When a deal is synced from your CRM with writeback enabled, Acquisition Type is locked everywhere it appears. The platform parent is managed by your CRM field mapping, and edits in Metal would be ignored. See CRM integration.
Assign or change a deal’s company
A deal’s target Company can be assigned or changed after creation, without leaving the view you’re in. Both entry points use the same company picker and save through the deal’s usual update flow.1
From the Deal Details card
Open the deal and find the Company row in the Deal Details card. Click the inline company picker to select a different company, or to add one if the deal has no company linked yet.
2
From the deals grid
On the Deals page, hover the Company cell for a deal and click the pencil to change it. For deals with no company linked, the cell shows an Add company button — click it to pick one.
On add-on deals, the acquiring (platform) company is hidden from the picker — a deal’s target company can’t be the same as its platform company.
Deals sourced from a CRM
For deals that sync from a connected CRM (writeback-enabled orgs), you can set or change the company inline from either place; the change is written back to your CRM when the CRM field is mapped. Clearing the company on a CRM-sourced deal is not supported and will be rejected.Track deals on the Active Pipeline
The Active Pipeline (in the sidebar) is where you see deals in motion.1
Open Active Pipeline
Select Active Pipeline in the sidebar. The Overview tab shows pipeline dashboards; the Active Deals tab lists the deals themselves.
2
Switch to the board view
On the Active Deals tab, use the view toggle to switch to the Kanban board view. Each column is a deal stage.
3
Move a deal between stages
Drag a deal card from one stage column to another to advance it. A confirmation appears once the deal moves. (Drag requires edit permission on the deal.)
The Active Deals list is backed by a Metal list. Saved views on that list are shared with everyone who has access, while your last selected view in the embedded Active Deals list is remembered for you only. See Save and use views.
Stage vs. status
Metal tracks two separate things about every deal:
Both use your firm’s own labels, configured by an admin in Taxonomy.
View similar deals
Open a deal and look for the Similar Deals table on the deal overview. Metal uses your firm’s deal history and structured deal data to show prior deals that look similar to the current one. The Similarities column explains why a deal matched. Each row can show chips such as Subsector, Sector, Revenue scale, EBITDA scale, Outcome, or Vintage. If there are several reasons, Metal shows the strongest reason first and collapses the rest behind a +N chip. Hover over +N to see the remaining reasons.Similarity chips only appear on the Similar Deals table. They do not appear on every deal table or list view. If you do not see the table, the Similarities column, or any chips, your firm may not have enough matching deal data yet, or the similar-deals widget may not be configured for that deal view.
Assign owners
Owners are the people responsible for a deal.1
Open the deal
Click the deal from the Deals table or the pipeline board.
2
Edit the deal
Open the deal’s actions menu and choose Edit to open the Edit Deal dialog.
3
Add owners
In the Owners field, add teammates (you can select individual Users or whole Teams). Save your changes.
Attach documents
Documents live on a deal’s Documents tab and are shared with the deal’s linked company.1
Open the deal's Documents tab
Open the deal and select the Documents tab. The deal must have a linked company; if it doesn’t, link one first.
2
Add files
Click Add File, or drag files onto the table (you’ll see a Drop files to upload overlay). Uploaded files are processed and become searchable.
Related
Working with companies
Manage the target companies your deals link to.
Taxonomy
How admins configure deal stages and statuses.