MODEL DESIGN
How to Build a Bulk Deal Screening Workbook
Overview
ARTICLE IN PROGRESS
We're writing a deep engineering essay on AN-004. How we built it, the design choices behind it, and how to use it. The model itself is live and available today.
AN-004 is a horizontal screening grid. One row per deal, one column per metric, one sheet for the whole pipeline. It exists because triaging twenty teasers in parallel on per-deal tabs is how analysts introduce copy-paste errors and lose track of which sponsor said what. The workbook puts every deal in the same coordinate system so a portfolio manager can rank, filter, and discard without leaving the page.
Planned Sections
When the full piece is published, it will cover:
- The horizontal grid problem. Scoring twenty deals against the same criteria without copy-paste errors.
- Why a single horizontal sheet beats per-deal tabs for screening volume.
- Design choice: ranking columns vs absolute return columns.
- Design choice: input minimums per row before a verdict is shown.
- What the workbook can't do, and when to graduate a row into a full pocket model.
- How to use the workbook in a Monday morning deal-flow meeting.
For an example of the engineering-essay format this article will follow, see how we engineered AQ-141, the Multifamily Opportunistic Pro Forma Model.
About the Model
AN-004 is a Pocket-tier, cross-asset screening workbook. It supports core, value-add, and development strategies side by side on one grid. Built for brokers and REPE pipeline managers who need to rank a weekly batch of opportunities without spinning up a full model per deal.