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FAQ

Questions deal teams ask.

About the product, the fit, security and getting started.

The product

What is Provenance?

Provenance is the verification layer for deal teams. It checks financial models, CIMs and decks against their sources: it saves every version, shows what changed and what it moved, and ties each figure to the page it came from. It never generates a number.

How does it work with Excel and PowerPoint?

An add-in opens a task pane beside the workbook or the deck. From it you save a version with its reason, see what changed since the last one, and check figures against their sources, without leaving the file. Each person installs it from the Add-ins button in Excel or PowerPoint. Where a firm's IT blocks the Office Store, the same review runs in the web app.

Do we have to move our files?

No. Connect SharePoint, OneDrive, Box, Dropbox or Google Drive and point Provenance at the folders the deal already lives in, or upload files and folders.

Does Provenance change our models?

No. It reads your files and records what changed. A suggested change is written into a model only when a person accepts it in the add-in.

How is this different from Copilot or other AI tools in Excel?

Those tools make edits. They do not check the edits against a source, and they do not keep a record of what changed and why. Provenance works with or without them. Every AI tool a firm rolls out adds changes someone has to review.

Can I trust an AI to check my numbers?

It does not replace your judgment. It routes it. Every figure gets a source and a state, and you read the ones that are flagged. Provenance never generates a number, so there is nothing of ours to second-guess.

Can our AI assistant use Provenance?

Yes, through an MCP connector. An approved assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT can read your deals, workbooks and data room, and save a new version of a workbook, under the same permissions as the person using it. Access runs through OAuth, a grant lasts at most 30 days, and it can be revoked at any time.

The fit

Who is it for?

Deal teams where someone signs off on work they did not build: investment banks, private equity, private credit and corporate development, usually five to thirty people with a review chain from analyst to MD.

Is it worth it for a small team?

Below about five people, where the person who builds the model is the person who reviews it, probably not, and we will tell you so. The fit starts when someone signs off on work they did not build.

Will it replace analysts?

No, and we do not build in that direction. It does not pull comps or generate models. The analyst does the work, and the reviewer signs off with the evidence in front of them.

Security

Is our data secure?

Deal data is treated as material non-public information. Access is granted per deal and enforced with database row-level security. Data is hosted in the United States, encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are in progress, monitored continuously through Vanta. The current status is in the Trust Center.

Is our data used to train AI models?

No. AI features run with zero retention, never train any model, and only see data the signed-in user is already allowed to see.

Where is our data hosted?

In the United States.

What happens to our data if we leave?

It is purged from active systems within 30 days and from backups within 90.

Getting started

Can we try it first?

Yes. Run it on your next live deal for thirty days. We agree two success metrics and the conversion terms in writing before day one, and you are live within one business day.

What does it cost?

Pricing is per seat. We set it with you in writing before a pilot starts, so nothing changes at conversion. Ask on the walkthrough.

Still have a question?

Write to support@provenancexl.com, or see it on a model like yours.