Help: Best practices for building a screener

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.

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. If you’re looking for a service provider, use the Service Provider screener. For debt and lenders, use the Debt & Lenders screener. Companies and deals are best found using the Companies & Deals screener. If you’re interested in seeing detailed public company financials, use the Public Companies screener.

You may notice our Companies & Deals screener shows you both private and public companies. If you’d like to view specific public company financials for the public companies from this screener. Click View Data in Public Company Search from the drop-down menu on the Companies or Deals tab. Next, click the Go box. You will be directed to the Public Companies screener.

Number of results

On every screener, you will see a green number and the word “results” at the top of the page. The number refers to how many results you will get if you click the Search box. The number will change every time you add a new criteria to your search. This feature helps you decide whether to narrow your search by adding additional criteria.

Search HQ Only

Leave the Search HQ Only bubble selected within the Location or Location Type field. Doing this ensures that the entities in your results are headquartered in the location you’re looking for. If this bubble is not selected, your results might be filled with entities with only a subsidiary office in the place(s) selected.

See more specific criteria

One thing to note when going through our drop-down menus is that you can use the "+" buttons to help narrow your results. For example, pretend you’re looking for companies located in New Jersey. Go to the Key Fields tab on the Companies & Deals screener. Open the Locations drop-down menu. Rather than just clicking the United States checkbox and hoping to find New Jersey companies in your results, click the “+" button next to the United States checkbox. This will open the Primary US Regions menu. Within that menu, click the “+” button next to the Mid Atlantic checkbox. This will bring up the options to further refine your search within that region. Click the New Jersey checkbox to limit your results to New Jersey companies successfully.

Once you click the "+" button to expand your search options, it will transform into a "-" button. Press the “-” button to collapse the expanded part of the drop-down menu.

Add a date range

Adding a date range is a great way to narrow your results and ensure they are relevant. You can find most date fields on the Key Fields tab of most screeners. For example, pretend you’re looking for deals that took place in 2020 or later. First, go to the Key Fields tab of the Companies & Deals screener. Next, go to the Deal Date field. Type “2020" in the From box. When you run your search, your results will only include deals made in the last few years.

Industries vs. Verticals

Filtering by industry or vertical is a great way to narrow your results. But it’s essential to know the difference between the two. Industries are assigned to each company based on PitchBook’s proprietary industry categorization. Every company is assigned a primary industry and is only assigned additional industries on a case-by-case basis. Verticals represent a specific investment area of focus that cannot be accurately depicted by industry groups alone. Verticals commonly span across industries. Companies tagged to a vertical may belong to a variety of different industries. Check out How to search using industries, verticals, and keywords to learn more.

Search Primary Industry Only

If you’re trying to search for companies or deals by industry, it helps to check the Search primary industry only box. Checking the box ensures that your results will only be populated with companies or deals primarily involved in your selected industry. Read How to search using industries, verticals, and keywords to learn how companies and deals get tagged to industries.

Deal Criteria

When searching for deals, it’s helpful to consider two key checkboxes under the Deal Criteria tab if they are relevant to your search:

a. If you’re searching for deals, you can narrow your results by clicking the Only search the most recent transaction checkbox. This ensures that you won’t have to wonder if the entities you’re looking at have had any additional deals since the ones listed in your results.

b. If you’re searching for deals, click the Completed checkbox to ensure your results only show the status of completed deals.

Exit criteria vs. Deal criteria

In the Companies & Deals screener, mixing up Exit criteria and Deal criteria is common.

If your goal is to identify or otherwise search for any deals (which can include exits), deal type and other deal-related criteria would be better to use within the Deal criteria tab as shown above. However, if you want to search specifically for exits and no other types of transactions, the Exit / Liquidity tab with exit-specific criteria is more suitable.

The Exit / Liquidity tab displayed below contains additional criteria options not found on the Deal criteria tab. These options are tailored specifically to exits (for example, the checkboxes for VC-backed exits or PE-backed exits under Other Filters). Note that although exits are types of deals, and some criteria may be interchangeable, Deal criteria and Exit / Liquidity criteria can conflict. Therefore, you should not combine the filters when creating your search.

Preferred currency display

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

Peer Group vs. Equity Research tab

You may wonder about the difference between the Peer Group and Equity Research tabs in the Public Company screener results. 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 applied in your Public Companies screener won’t apply to the Equity Research tab.

Search primary investor type only

If you want to ensure the investors you are searching for are a certain type of investor, go to the Investor Types tab. After selecting your preferred type, click the Search for primary investor type only checkbox to search for investors that primarily participate in that investor activity.

Be aware of Deals subtabs in search results

One thing to be aware of when creating an Investors & Funds screener is that if you select a subtab from the Deals tab, the order of the results in the Investors and Funds tabs may change when you next select them.

For example, let’s pretend you have built a search. Notice that there are 525 investors in your search results. In this view of the Investors tab, investors are sorted by the Investments column and the highest number is 24.

Then, you click on the Deals tab and choose the Active Investments Only subtab from the dropdown.

You then navigate back to the Investors tab. Note that there are still 595 investors in your search results. Investors are still sorted by the Investments column, but the highest number is now seven. You have the same list of investors, but the Deals subtab that you previously selected is applying additional filtering to the display. If you wish to remove this filtering, return to the Deals tab and choose All Investments.

However, if you click on the blue numbers in the Investments column, you will still see the full list of investments that match your original search, rather than only the ones that match the filter from the Deals subtab. In the example shown here, clicking on the blue six shows you 10 investment deals.

Search primary LP type only

If you want to ensure the limited partners you’re searching for are a specific type, go to the LP Types tab. After selecting your preferred type(s), click the Search for primary LP type only checkbox.

Limited Partner Location vs. 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.

Search Primary Position only

When searching for people using the People screener, narrow down your results by typing a position in the Position Title field. Next, click the Primary Position only checkbox. This ensures that the results you’re looking at are those with the title you entered as their primary position.

Select deal criteria

When looking for transactions with equity and debt in the Debt & Lenders screener, specifying your deal criteria can help narrow down your results.

a. When looking for transactions with equity and debt in the Debt & Lenders screener, selecting a deal status can help narrow your results. For example, you may want to focus only on completed deals. To do this, first click the Deals tab. Then, go to the Deal Status field and click the Completed checkbox. This will ensure that your search results only contain completed transactions.

b. To exclude deals without a size, go to the Deals tab and click the Exclude deals without a size checkbox. This ensures your results will only include transactions with a confirmed size, as verified by our Data Operations team.

Search Primary Lender Type Only

If you want to make sure the lenders in your results are a specific type, first go to the Lender Criteria tab. Select your preferred lender type from the Lender Type drop-down menu. Finally, click the Primary lender Type Only checkbox. When you run your search, your results will only contain lenders whose primary role is that of your selected lender type.

Search Primary Type Only

If you want to ensure the service providers in your results are a specific type, select your preferred lender type from the Service Provider Types drop-down menu. Finally, click the Search Primary Type only checkbox. When you run your search, your results will only contain service providers whose primary role is that of your selected service provider type.

Exclude Deals Without a Size

To exclude deals without a size in the Service Providers screener, first, go to the Deal Size field. Next, click the Exclude deals without a size checkbox. This ensures that your results only include transactions with a size confirmed by our Data Operations team.