Completing an RFx or Security Questionnaire in Iris

Last updated: October 15, 2026

This is the core Iris workflow: upload a questionnaire, let Iris draft every answer from your knowledge base, review and approve the answers with your team, then export the finished file in the format the customer sent. First time through takes about ten minutes to reach the first answers.

Before you start

A questionnaire file. Excel, Word, PDF, CSV, text or Markdown, up to 100 MB. See Is my RFx or Security Questionnaire Ready for Iris? for a two-minute prep checklist. No file handy? Use the sample security questionnaire.
A Knowledge Map with something in it. Iris answers from your uploaded documents and approved answers. See Building Your Knowledge Map.
The basics: a name, a due date and a deal owner.
Permission to create project folders. If New Project Folder is missing from your Projects page, ask your Iris administrator.

Step 1: Create a project folder

A project folder holds everything for one opportunity: the questionnaire files, supporting documents, and the deal details. Each questionnaire inside it becomes a project.

Click Projects in the sidebar, then New Project Folder.
Fill in Name, Due Date (defaults to two weeks out) and Deal Owner (defaults to you). Project Participants, Customer Name, Deal Size and Description are optional. The description is for your team and does not affect answers. If your organization uses approval workflows, pick one under Approval Workflow.
Drag your files into Files or click Browse files. Mark each file Response (a questionnaire Iris should answer) or Context (reference material for this deal, such as an appendix or statement of work; Iris reads it but does not answer it).
For a Word or PDF file written as prose rather than a list of questions, tick Narrative RFP. Iris will restructure the requirements into answerable questions.
Click Create Project Folder.

Iris creates one project per Response file and takes you to the staging area.

Project folders group the questionnaires and files for one opportunity.

Project Folder Details.

Each file is a Response or Context file.

Step 2: Set the project reviewer and tags

The Project Content Details dialog opens the first time you reach the staging area.

Optionally pick a Project Preset to fill the fields below from a saved configuration. See Project Presets.
Choose the Project Reviewer. This person is assigned to the project and to every question by default. Add anyone else who should be assigned to every question.
Choose Tags. Tags decide which parts of your Knowledge Map Iris reads for this project, so pick the product, region or document set that applies. See Tags.
Optionally add Project Context (what Iris should know about this deal) and a custom instruction (how answers should be written). See Understanding Project Context and Custom Instructions.
Click Next.

Project Content Details. A reviewer and at least one tag are required.

Step 3: Confirm the questions

Iris needs to know which cells or lines are questions and where the answers go. You confirm this once per file.

Excel files open in the staging area with the spreadsheet on screen. Iris scans each sheet and marks questions, answer cells and dropdowns for you, and lists anything it is unsure about in the Issues panel. Check each tab. Fix anything it missed with the Mark as Question, Mark as Answer and Mark as Dropdown buttons, click Annotate to let Iris try a sheet again, or tell Iris what to change in the chat on the right. Then click Start Project. Sheets with no questions, such as instructions or scoring sheets, are marked Skipped. For multi-column questionnaires, manual marking and re-opening a finished project to add questions, see Staging Area and Question Mapping.

Excel staging. Iris marks the sheets and lists open issues; you confirm and start.

Word and PDF files open as Review Project Questions: the original document on the left and the questions Iris found on the right, in order and word for word. Add, edit, delete or drag questions and sections, then click Submit for Processing.

Step 4: While Iris writes

The project moves through these statuses: Project Created, Project Setup (Excel) or Finding Questions and Questions Ready (Word and PDF), Generating Answers, Ready to Review, and finally Complete. While answers generate, the project header shows progress and some actions are read-only. You can leave; the reviewer and the person who uploaded the file are notified when the project is ready to review.

A project in Ready to Review.

Step 5: Review and approve answers

This is where your team spends most of its time. Reviewers and assignees work through the questions; the project reviewer keeps an eye on the whole project.

The question card

Each question shows its status (Needs Approval, Tentatively Approved, Approved, Missing Info), a confidence score (see Confidence Scores) and the answer in an editor that saves as you type.

Sources lists the documents and approved answers Iris cited. Click one to read the passage.
Approve marks the answer done. Press ⌘+Enter (Mac) or Ctrl+Enter (Windows) in the editor to save and approve in one go.
Regenerate asks Iris again with different Tags, excluded Citations, new Project context or a different Custom instruction. It is disabled on approved answers.
Comments (use @ to mention a teammate), Evidence (attach supporting files, see Attach Evidence) and History (every edit, status change and regeneration).
Reviewers in the card sidebar: assign the question to a user or group when the answer is in someone else's domain.

Questions with more than one answer column show a switcher above the editor. See Multi-Column Answer Support in Iris Projects.

A question card with the answer editor, sources and actions.

Regenerate Answer lets you change tags, sources, context and instructions.

Filters and search

The bar above the questions filters by Status, Sheet (Excel), Section, Confidence and assignee, with a search box for question and answer text. Combine them to build a short list, for example every Needs Approval question in the Security section assigned to you.

Filter to the questions you need to work on.

Bulk actions

Tick the checkbox on any question to open the bulk bar. Select Visible or Select All (with filters on, Select All picks only the filtered questions), then Approve, Unapprove, Assign, Reassign, Regenerate or Delete. A bulk approval runs in the background and a banner shows when it is done. See Bulk Actions.

The bulk bar appears when questions are selected.

Focus Mode

More Actions then Focus Mode shows one question at a time with keyboard shortcuts: A or Enter to approve, E to edit, N next, P previous, Esc to exit. Use it to clear a long list of assigned questions quickly.

Focus Mode.

Chasing outstanding questions

More Actions then Notify Unapproved sends every assignee with open questions a reminder with links to their questions.

Step 6: Complete the project

When every question is approved, a banner reads "All questions are approved. You can complete this project."

Click Complete Project.
Confirm with Confirm Complete. Completing locks the answers; comments, evidence and history stay readable.

Every approved answer is now in your Approved Answers Library, tagged with the project's tags, ready for Iris to cite in the next questionnaire. The project reviewer finds projects waiting for this step under Assignments, in the Projects to be Finalized tab.

The banner appears once every question is approved.

Completing locks the answers.

Step 7: Export

You can export at any time after answers finish generating, before or after completing.

Click More Actions, then Export Project.
Pick a format. XLSX writes the answers back into your original workbook, including dropdown selections. DOCX gives you a preview to edit and place answers, or uses one of your Templates. CSV is a plain list of questions and answers.
Optionally include comments, Include Cited Files or Include Attachments. Exports with cited files or attachments, and projects with more than 600 questions, are emailed to you as a download link within about 15 minutes.
Click Export, or Preview & Edit for a Word project. The file is named with the project name followed by "Export".

The History tab in the same dialog lists earlier exports by anyone on the project.

Export Project.

After the deal closes

Record the outcome so Reports and Insights can learn from it. Before the project is complete, open Edit Project, go to Customer Details and set Deal Status to Closed Won or Closed Lost. After completion, set it from Reports then Win/Loss. See Win/Loss Analysis and Deal Stages.

Deal Status lives in the project's Customer Details.

If something goes wrong

Answers are not appearing. Refresh the page. Questions are not answered in order. If a large project never starts, select all questions and Regenerate (see Bulk Actions).
The file is rejected before upload. Check the file type and size, and remove trailing spaces or special characters from the file name and sheet names. The full list is in Is my RFx or Security Questionnaire Ready for Iris?.
New questions arrived after you finished. Re-open an Excel or Word project with More Actions then Re-stage Project and mark only the new questions. Approved answers stay locked. See Staging Area and Question Mapping.
Still stuck? Email support@heyiris.ai.