Help: Best practices for building a screener

Overview

Creating a screener is one of the best ways to find what you’re looking for in our expansive database. Screeners are designed to help you narrow your results in as helpful a way as possible. This article breaks down some best practices to remember to take advantage of their features.

For more details about creating a screener, check out Learn the basics of creating a screener. You can also learn more about how to create basic searches using the General Search bar.

Getting started

Decide which screener to use

With so many screeners, deciding where to search for information might seem difficult. But they’re all created with this rule of thumb in mind: Pick a screener according to the entity type you’re looking for.

• Companies & Deals: Private and public companies, transactions
• Public Companies: Detailed public company financials
• Investors & Funds: Investment firms and fund data
• Limited Partners: LP commitments and allocations
• People: Executives and investors
• Debt & Lenders: Debt financing and lenders
• Service Providers: Legal, consulting, banking services, and other service providers

Monitor your results count

The green number at the top of your screener shows how many results your search returns. Use it to decide whether to add more criteria or broaden your search.

Use “Search HQ Only”

Keep Search HQ Only selected in the Location fields to find entities headquartered in your target location (not just subsidiary offices).

Expand criteria with + buttons

Drill down into more specific criteria options by clicking any + button. For example, search for companies in the state of New Jersey by opening up the United States and the Mid-Atlantic region options.

Add a date range

Ensure your results are relevant by specifying a date range. You can find most date fields on the Key Fields tab of most screeners.

Industries versus Verticals

Filtering by industry or vertical is a great way to narrow your results by a company’s business area and/or investment focus. You can explore these options in the Industry tab of applicable screeners.

• Industries: PitchBook’s categorization for industries (every company has one primary industry).
• Verticals: PitchBook’s categorization for investment focus areas that span multiple industries.

Take a look at How to search using industries, verticals, and keywords to learn more about optimizing your results.

Companies & Deals Screener

Quick criteria search

Use the search bar at the top to find specific criteria fields. It shows where each field is located and highlights it when clicked. For example, typing “Backing Status” shows you relevant criteria and the areas within the screener it appears under.

Note: This criteria search bar is currently only available within the Companies & Deals Screener, Investors & Funds Screener, and Debt & Lenders Screener.

Search primary industry only

Check the Search primary industry only checkbox when curating your industry criteria to return only companies/deals primarily in your selected industry.

Check out How to search using industries, verticals, and keywords to learn more about how industry search methodology works.

Select Deal criteria

For best search results, when in the Deal Criteria tab:

a. Select the Only search the most recent transaction checkbox to see the latest deal for the company or investor.
b. Select the Completed checkbox to ensure your results only show the status of completed deals.

Exit criteria versus Deal criteria

In the Companies & Deals Screener, mixing up Exit criteria and Deal criteria is common. However, if you combine filters from both tabs, they can conflict.

For best results:

• Use the Deal Criteria tab when choosing criteria for any transaction type (including exits).
• Use the Exit / Liquidity tab when choosing criteria for exit transactions only.

Public Companies Screener

Preferred currency display

In public company search results, most currencies display in thousands. However, if you have selected yuan or yen as your preferred currency, these show in millions. Click on any blue number to view its calculation.

Peer Group versus Equity Research tab
Choose your tab based on whether you need company-level or share-class data.

• The Peer Group tab displays data broken down by public companies.
• The Equity Research tab displays data broken down by company share class. As a result, some filters you apply in your Public Companies Screener don’t apply to the Equity Research tab.

Investors & Funds Screener

Search by primary investor type

On the Investor Types tab, select your Investor Type(s) and check Search for primary investor type only to filter for their primary investment activity.

Deals tab filters in search results
One thing to be aware of when creating an Investors & Funds Screener is that if you navigate to the Deals tab and filter by investment type, the results in the Investors and Funds tabs may change.

For example, the Deals tab is defaulted to display All Investments. If you change the filter to Active Investments Only, your results change across the other tabs of your screener.

Limited Partners Screener

Search primary LP type only

On the LP Types tab, select your Limited Partner Type(s) and check Search for primary LP type only to narrow your search to limited partners whose primary business falls within your selected types.

Limited Partner Location versus Commitment Fund Location

After clicking on the Key Fields tab, double-check whether you’re using the Limited Partner Location or the Commitment Fund Locations drop-down menus. Otherwise, you might confuse the two.

People Screener

Search Primary Position only

Enter a position in the Position Title field, then check Primary Position only to filter for people whose main role matches your search.

Debt & Lenders Screener

Select Deal criteria

For best results, when in the Deal Criteria tab:

a. Select the Completed checkbox to ensure your results only show the status of completed deals.
b. Select the Exclude deals without a deal size checkbox to ensure your results only include transactions with a confirmed size, as verified by our Data Operations team.

Search Primary Lender Type Only

On the Lender Criteria tab, select your lender type(s) and check Primary lender Type Only to filter by lenders whose main focus is the lender activity you selected.

Service Providers Screener

Search Primary Type only

Select your service provider type(s) and check Search Primary Type only to filter for service providers whose primary roles reflect the types you selected.

Exclude deals without a deal size

On the Deal Size field, check the Exclude deals without a deal size checkbox to ensure your results only include transactions with a confirmed size, as verified by our Data Operations team.